In August of 2011, I was fortunate to be invited to participate in the Artist in Residency program at Bristol Bay Lodge in Alaska, thanks to artist extraordinaire, guide and all round great guy Bob White, and Steve Laurent, the manager of BBL, a spectacular photographer and badass bush pilot. This fall, when I get a chance to dive into some larger work resulting from the experience, I'll tell you more about the trip. But I'd like to share a bit of the preliminary work I've done, and ask for your help.
Bristol Bay, Alaska, is home to the most productive salmon fishery on earth. Nearly 40 million sockeye salmon return to its rivers every year, and there is a good chance that if you eat wild caught salmon, it has come from a Bristol Bay fishery.
Foreign mining companies want to develop North America's largest open pit gold, copper and molybdenum mine near the headwaters of these rivers. Open pit mining is the most destructive form of mining, and the toxic waste from the operation will be stored indefinitely behind earthen damns in an area of extremely high seismic activity-ie earthquakes. No one believes there won't be accidents and failures.
If you eat wild salmon, and recognize it for the precious resource that it is, please go to http://www.savebristolbay.org/takeaction and sign in support of protecting the Bristol Bay region.
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