The fight over the Pebble Mine project near Alaska’s Bristol Bay is back on. Leading the fight against the plans for one of the biggest gold and copper mines in the world is a alliance of local fisherman, conservationists, and the Natural Resources Cefense Council. Here’s what they are fighting to prevent.

The proposed Pebble Mine site would create a two-mile wide open pit mine, thousands of feet deep, directly next to Lake Iliamna, which feeds a 40,000-square mile watershed and Bristol Bay.

As much as 9.1 billion tons of toxic mining discharge would be produced and stored in constructed ponds, covering at least 10 square miles.

Three of the tallest dams in the world would be constructed to hold waste from the mine, including cyanide, sulfuric acid, arsenic, selenium, and other toxic substances.

Here’s what the alliance is seeking to protect.

Both the Kvichak and Nushagak rivers and the salmon industry they support could be affected by the proposed Pebble Mine operations. These two Bay tributaries host the world’s largest sockeye and king salmon runs.

Salmon is one of southwestern Alaska’s most valuable renewable resources, supporting one of only two freshwater harbor seal populations in the world, generating tens of thousands of jobs and over $300 million in revenue each year.

The salmon also support a vast ecosystem, feeding grizzly bears, eagles, wolves, beluga whales, and killer whales.

Bristol Bay is an ecosystem surrounded by tundra, crisscrossed by rivers, and dotted with national and state parks, wildlife refuges and the largest freshwater lake in Alaska.

There are not too many examples in human history of conservation and foresight winning out over short-term greed and destruction, especially when it comes to gold. In this case the stakes are pretty clear; a huge open-pit mine and potentially dams full of toxic waste versus one of the most pristine wildernesses left on the planet and the local economy that depends on the existence of that wilderness. Hope may be on the side of those opposed to the mine, but they better be ready to fight long and hard, because human history and greed are stacked against them.

When the Minnesota Zoo first opened the star attraction was a pair of beluga whales. One of the whales eventually got sick and they were both transferred to a new home in San Diego. Still, it’s hard to forget those big, white, friendly looking animals. That also makes it a little extra disturbing to read that wild belugas are having problems in their home waters of Cook Inlet, Alaska.

In 1994 there were 653 belugas in Cook Inlet.

Ten years later there were 366.

This year, there are 321– down 54 from last year.

“We don’t have an answer as to why it continues to decline. We do know that the population of the belugas were hunted and that was regulated in ‘99,” said Barbara Mahoney of NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service).

Belugas were declared depleted in the year 2000, but they did not recover as predicted and last year the whales were listed under the endangered species act.

The suspected culprit is noise from two construction projects currently taking place around the inlet. It could be that the whales have simply moved away, but it could also be that the construction noise has disrupted their lives enough to cause a decline in population. If that’s the case, it’s yet another indication as to how our own tendency to make loud noises can have a harmful effect on marine mammals. The construction companies involved have actually taken steps to cut down on noise when whales are spotted near-by, let’s hope that’s enough to give the belugas the peace and quiet they need to survive.

Even with the climate changing, I wouldn’t have thought that an Alaskan winter had become warm enough to cause this big a change in behavior.

As the climate warms, Arctic-nesting geese called Pacific brant are choosing to winter in Alaska instead of migrating to Mexico as they used to do, finds a study led by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS.
Until recently, 90 percent of Pacific brant wintered in Mexico, but now as many as to 30 percent are opting to spend their winters in Alaska instead, the research shows.

“This increase in wintering numbers of brant in Alaska coincides with a general warming of temperatures in the North Pacific and Bering Sea,” said David Ward, the lead author of the study and a USGS researcher at the Alaska Science Center. “This suggests that environmental conditions have changed for one of the northernmost-wintering populations of geese.”

Of course, it could be that the recession is causing more geese than usual to cut back on their travel, but that seems unlikely as they save so much on airfare. whatever the reason, Alaskans are going to have to get used to more Pacific Brants hanging around through the winter.

And it’s not because they’re looking for a good place to get a tan.

For only the second time in memory — the first was two years ago — thousands of walruses are coming ashore on Alaska’s Arctic coast. Chukchi Sea ice has retreated far to the north, beyond the productive waters of the continental shelf where the animals usually forage for food. Experts fear the walruses are expending much more energy foraging from shore — traveling farther than they would if they could haul out on sea ice over food beds. On Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved Pacific walruses one step forward in the process of endangered-species listing.

The problem for walruses is that they are not able to swim indefinitely,m they need a place to rest between hunts. That place has historically been on the Arctic ice, but with the ice melting they’ve had to move to shore, where they’re more susceptible to predators and the effects of over-crowding. Add in the increased swimming distance to fishing grounds, and life is getting tougher for walruses in Alaska.

It’s generally considered a good business move to diversify your interests, but this may be taking things a step too far.

The largest coal strip mine in Alaska history proposed by the owner of the Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort in Utah has aroused the concern of conservationists and skiiers groups concerned about the mine’s contribution to global warming.

Richard Bass, who owns the Utah resort, has partnered with William H. Hunt to form PacRim Coal LLC, which has submitted permit applications to build a giant coal mine that the groups say would not only raise the planet’s temperature but also destroy 11 miles of prime salmon streams feeding the Cook Inlet.

And for those whom argue that we need to mine coal in order to free ourselves from dependence on foreign energy supplies, consider this:

Nearly all the coal excavated from the mine, would be exported to coal markets in China and other Pacific Rim countries. When burned, Chuitna River coal would emit more than 27 million tons of carbon dioxide.

So what’s being planned here is a huge strip mine that would not only ravage and pollute the landscape, but also very likely destroy one of the prime salmon fishing and breeding rivers in the state. Then, we sell the coal other countries where it will be burned, allowing the pollution from it to drift back over us, making a significant contribution to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and probably increasing global warming in the process. Sounds like a losing proposition for everyone involved, with the exception of the businesses invested in mining the coal.

Which means it will probably happen, because, as we all know, nothing is more important than a business’s profit, no matter what it costs everyone else.

The king salmon in Alaska are declining in numbers, and no one’s sure exactly why.

King salmon populations have been mysteriously declining and have resulted once more in emergency fishing closures. Federal and state fisheries biologists have observed that feeble numbers of fish returned to spawn to Alaska’s rivers this summer, further devastating local village economies.

According to biologists, Pacific Ocean current shifts have probably caused the shortage. Other possible causes are lower food availability, varying river conditions and predator-prey relationships, the Associated Press reports.

But people residing along the Yukon River blame the pollock fishery, the largest in the US. About 1 million tonnes of pollock are caught annually in the eastern Bering Sea, with a wholesale value of almost USD 1 billion.

When king salmon appear in the rivers to spawn they are already mature, having spent most of their livelihood in the Bering Sea. But they do not make it back if they become stuck in the massive pollock trawl nets, at which point most of the salmon die before being tossed back into the water.

It’s going to be very easy for people to blame rival fishermen for the salmon’s problems. If the real cause isn’t found and dealt with soon, this is the kind of situation that could get out of hand.

National forests and national parks seem to be on everyone’s minds today. First comes this dispatch from the NPCA regarding proposed mining operatons near Alaska’s Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks:

One million acres of prime wolf, bear, and salmon habitat adjacent to Lake Clark and Katmai National Parks could be opened to new federal mining claims with the stroke of a pen. Closed to mining since 1971, these wild Alaska lands are integral to Bristol Bay’s salmon-rich ecosystem that is anchored by these two grand national parks. A recommendation from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to lift this mineral closure and expand a modern day gold rush was issued in the last days of the Bush Administration and we need your help to send this bad idea back to the drawing board.

BLM recommended opening more lands to mining, but their faulty analysis failed to conduct sufficient scientific research on the impacts that these new mining claims would have on the region’s fish and wildlife. Plus, BLM’s decision ignored the overwhelming opposition of local residents and indigenous tribes! A new report issued by NPCA’s Center for State of the Parks clearly identifies this proposed mining district immediately adjacent to Lake Clark as the single biggest threat to one of America’s most pristine and wild national parks.

Next comes news that while the Obama Administration isn’t foollowing the Bush Administration’s lead as far as logging in the Pacific Northwest, it’s a different story in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

In a roadless area of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service has awarded the first timber sale under the new so-called Vilsack policy. Due to a series of lawsuits and conflicting court orders on the Roadless Rule, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced in May that he would personally review and approve timber sales in roadless areas across the nation.

The Orion North timber sale awarded Monday to Pacific Log and Lumber of Ketchikan will produce some 3.8 million board feet of timber from 381 acres in Thorne Arm on Revillagigedo Island near Ketchikan.

Roughly two miles of roads will be constructed to facilitate the harvest of timber for the sale, which is adjacent to Misty Fjords National Monument.

If the Tongass is cut up for timber, it will mean the end of the largest roadless forest left in North America. Alaskan timber interests may be happy about it, but for everyone else it’s the end of an era.

If you haven’t visited any of our fabulous national parks and monuments yet this Summer, this weekend is a good time to head out, because for most of the parks admission is free. It’s one of three free admission weekends over the Summer, the first was Father’s Day weekend in June, and there’s one more coming up August 15 - 16. Make it a date to get outdoors and enjoy one of the greatest gifts our country has ever given to itself.

Speaking of national parks, we tend to think of it as a finished system, after all, how much wilderness is left out there to make parks out of? The answer, it turns out, is quite a bit. RLMiller at Daily Kos has an informative post up on proposals for new national parks from Maine to Alaska.

Want real evidence that our current political and justice system overwhelmingly favors corporate interests over the outdoors and environmental concerns? Look no furhter than the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a U.S. government permit to dump rock waste from a gold mine in Alaska into a nearby lake, even though all its fish would be killed.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices said a federal appeals court wrongly blocked the permit on environmental grounds.

The Supreme Court is, of course, the ultimate precedent setter. So, the next time a coal mining company or iron mining company or anyone else wants to dump their garbage in to a lake near you, and people object, all they’re going to have to do is point to this decision and say “Hey, the Supreme Court said it was OK in Alaska, so we can do it here.”

The only thing that can stop it is an act of Congress, and we all know how independent of corporate influence and how attentive to the concerns of regular people they are.

The usual story with an invasive species is the new species moves in, the natives are pushed out, people try to fight back but eventually settle for just trying to contain the problem, at best.

Every once in a while, though, the invaders are successfully driven out.

Alaska’s Rat Island is finally rat-free, 229 years after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote Aleutian island, decimating the local bird population.

After dropping poison onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half last autumn, there are no signs of living rats and some birds have returned, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rats have ruled the island since 1780, when they jumped off a sinking Japanese ship and terrorized all but the largest birds on the island. The incident introduced the non-native Norway rat — also known as the brown rat — to Alaska.

The $2.5 million Rat Island eradication project, a joint effort between the U.S. federal government, the Nature Conservancy and Island Conservation, is one of the world’s most ambitious attempts to remove destructive alien species from an island.

And they didn’t even have to call in the Pied Piper.