Hawkish about Conservation

Conservation Hawks is an organization of hunters and anglers who are focused on the single biggest threat to our sport: climate change.

They've just released their latest video, Convergence, which will be the best 12 minutes of your day.

In conjunction with the video, they're running a prize giveway. You don't have to donate anything to get in on this, but you do have to put on your thinking cap and twitch your typing fingers a bit. Watch the film. Identify your favorite quote. Share the film on social media. Choose a prize. All the details are on their site. You have to get all this done by June 17th.

Of course, they're also trying to raise some money for future efforts. Friend of the blog, Bob White, runs a Musky Madness trip every year. It attracts all manner of people including the likes of John Gierach. You can get a chance to win for $25. You can get more chances if you give a more.

Fair warning: I'm entering the giveaway and I've got my eyes on... well, I'm not going to tell you what prize I want, but it's a good one. I also got my tickets for the Musky Madness raffle. May the best luckiest angler win.

The salmon are not safe

Who would have thought we'd be posting about this again.

On November 8th, 2016, it was easy to predict that this moment would come. No matter your political affiliation, Making America Great Again would include pandering to mining interests and Pebble Mine is one big-ass mining interest.

On Friday, May 12th, the Trump administration crossed the Rubicon.  News broke that the EPA, under Scott Pruitt's palsy hand, paved the way for the Pebble Limited Partnership to restart its quest to dig North America’s largest open-pit copper mine - directly in the headwaters of Bristol Bay’s vast wild salmon runs.

Now I've pontificated on this madness before: here, here, and here and here and here. And when the Obama administration all but killed the thing, I did the happy dance and started dreaming of my next trip to there north. Sadly, the victory is slipping from our hands.

The EPA and Pebble's settlement agreement was a backroom deal brokered between EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Pebble. The EPA's own peer-reviewed science was not taken into consideration, nor the requests from Bristol Bay’s Native Communities, fishermen, and hunters and anglers to uphold the EPA’s Proposed Determination.

Bristol Bay provides 14,000 American jobs and $1.5 billion to the American economy with the 30 - 60 million wild sockeye salmon that return there each summer. But that doesn't matter to those with a short-term view of things.

It's time for us to get our shit together and act.

Please take action and call EPAS Administrator, Scott Pruitt to tell him compromising an irreplaceable ecosystem, a fully sustainable food supply and some of the greatest sport fishing on earth is unacceptable.

The Office of EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt: 202.564.4700

A free Bonus just for you!

For a dive into what’s at stake in Bristol Bay, the producers of The Breach, an award-winning documentary, have made their feature film available for the next five days for free through this link here: THE BREACH

To take further action and to stay informed visit: SAVE BRISTOL BAY