Video spotlight: Save Bristol Bay

Orvis has teamed up the TU's Alaska Program to craft a very simple, very powerful short film about the need to protect Bristol Bay and its headwater rivers and streams from the potentially disastrous Pebble Mine. 

No matter how you feel about mining, there ought to be one constant question when a project the size and scope of Pebble is considered: Is it worth it?

Is it worth the long-term (as in forever) need to hold back mine waste in one of the more seismically active regions on earth? Is it worth the potential loss of the world's largest sockeye salmon run for short-term gain that will line the pockets of foreign mine investors? Is it worth losing a uniquely Alaskan way of life that has persisted for milennia for a couple of decades of mining wealth, and then the permanent expense of dealing with what's left? 

The simple answer is no. Pebble is the wrong mine in the wrong place. The gold mine already exists in the form of the long-term, sustainable and renewable fishing economy. More than 14,000 American jobs depend on Bristol Bay's salmon, and the $1.5 billion annual economy needs those fish, too. 

So thanks to Orvis for stepping up. We at TU appreciate it.

— Chris Hunt