Alaska raises concerns over possible mine activity in Canada

A provincial map showing the planned or potential mining activity in British Columbia is so pocked that Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott says it looks like it has the measles. It's the cluster of dots in northwest British Columbia — including a prospect billed as one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world — that has many residents across the border in southeast Alaska on edge.

LINK (via:The Idaho Statesman)

Learn more about the threats to the British Columbia-Alaska transboundary region at Rivers Without Borders.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2015/08/16/3941140/alaska-raises-concerns-over-possible.html#storylink=cpy

Will a Century-Old Treaty Protect Alaska's Salmon Rivers from B.C.'s Mining Boom?

Image: Salmon Beyond Borders

Southeast Alaskans, anxious about B.C.'s mining boom along the Alaskan border, are pinning their hopes for stronger mine management on a treaty that dates back more than a century.

The International Joint Commission (IJC), operating under the Boundary Waters Treaty since 1909, is a body with six appointed members —three from Canada and three from the U.S. — used to resolve water or air conflicts between the two countries.

However, although the commission appears to be tailor-made to deal with the concern over B.C. mines in the headwaters of Southeast Alaska’s most important salmon rivers, politicians on both side of the border appear reluctant to hand over responsibility to a commission whose recommendations remain entirely independent of either party.

LINK (via:DESMOGCANADA)

Off the Map, Off the Grid to Explore B.C.’s Threatened Unuk River

Travis Rummel chronicles a first descent of the threatened Unuk River in BC.

Last summer, Ryan Peterson talked me and Gordon Klco into a first descent of the Unuk River from its source to sea. He made it sound like no big deal: Just hop in our Alpacka packrafts and casually float 100 miles downstream from the mountainous B.C. headwaters to the river mouth in Misty Fjords National Monument in southeast Alaska. We would shoot film along the way to help bring awareness to B.C.’s rampant development of large-scale mines on Transboundary Rivers in the region, in particular a proposed $5.3-billion mine on one of the Unuk’s tributaries, the Kerr-Suplhurets-Mitchell mine (KSM).

The expedition ended up being one of the hardest of my life.

LINK (via: Adventure Journal)

Tribes, fishermen warn about Canadian mines

LINK (via: King 5)

Defending Alaska & British Columbia salmon rivers from open-pit mining

An excerpt and action alert from an interview Ryan Peterson and Travis Rummel did with Trout Unlimited Alaska after a 100-mile transect of the Unuk River watershed.

LINK (via: The Cleanest Line)

Xboundary

An open-pit mining boom is underway in northern British Columbia, Canada. The massive size and location of the mines--at the headwaters of major salmon rivers that flow across the border into Alaska--has Alaskans concerned over pollution risks posed to their multi-billion dollar fishing and tourism industries. These concerns were heightened with the Aug 4, 2014 catastrophic tailings dam failure at nearby Mt. Polley Mine in BC's Fraser River watershed.

Take action to help protect our rivers, jobs, and way of life, at salmonbeyondborders.org.