Nothing is over until we decide it is!

[Chris W. enters the Delta Tau Chi TU Chapter meeting. Chapter members are laying about. Bobbins swing slowly under vises, half finished Vladi Worms clamped in their jaws. Bamboo rods are stacked in the corner. Jonny absentmindedly snaps a Tenkara rod open and closed.]

Chris W: Hey! What's this lying around shit?

Steve Z: Well, what the hell we s'posed to do, you moron?

Jonny: War's over, man. Pebble Mine Limited Partnership dropped the big one.

Chris W: Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Jonny: Germans?

T.J.: Forget it, he's rolling.

Chris W: And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... [pauses to remember the rest of the phrase] ...the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go! [runs out, alone; then returns]

Chris W: What the eff happened to the anglers I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest fight of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst! "Ooh, Alaska is way over there, Chris, and they're a big powerful company with dirtball politicians backing them." Well, just kiss my butt from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this! Hedge fund financiers, dead men! Lazy regulators, dead! Pebble Limited Partnership—

Jonny: Dead! Chris' right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires we write politicians, that we fund organizations like Save Bristol Bay and that we join organizations like Trout Unlimited. And, if necessary, we do a really futile and stupid gesture on somebody's part.

Chris W: And we're just the guys to do it.

Jonny: Let's do it.

Chris W: LET'S DO IT!!

Eat me Pebble Mine

I've fished the Kvichak River. I've roamed the tundra near where Pebble Mine will be dug. This land is stunningly beautiful in it's wildness. Tens of thousands of square miles of tundra dotted with countless ponds. Sagebrush. Willow. Ptarmigan. Moose. Elk. Bear. Rainbow Trout. Grayling. Pike. Humans.

And everything is tied to the biomass brought into this environment each year by the legendary Salmon runs. During the height of the run 600,000 Sockeye Salmon enter the watershed each day. And that's only the Kvichak River's contribution. And those Sockeye need the tiny tributaries for spawning.

Pebble Mine will dig a pit two miles wide and several thousand feet deep smack in the middle of those spawning grounds.

On this map you can see where the pictures below
were taken.

This is not a place where a big hole in the ground belongs much less all the poisons that such an industrial enterprise will create.

It must be stopped.

Go to Save Bristol Bay's website and learn more. Help organizations such as them and Trout Unlimited by advocating on behalf of this fishery, its people and its wildlife.

Clearing Storm on the Kvichak River. This is about 30
miles from where the mine will be.

Tony expressing the joy and wonder of being up on the tundra

A quick video of some Salmon I saw (and caught) this past September. If Pebble Mine screws up, these are the fish and fisheries that die. Forever.

Thanks to the Outdoor Blogger Network for suggesting this topic and to Kirk for inspiring me to break my strike and chime in. Now I'm back on strike. See y'all after the fishing.