SEATTLE, WA—The Environmental Protection Agency just added a public hearing for tomorrow (Thursday, May 31) on its watershed assessment of Bristol Bay. If you’re in the Seattle area, rally the brass-knuckled troops and stand up for one of the planet’s best remaining salmon strongholds. Why? Because the “brains” behind Pebble Mine need to be served notice.
Key findings in EPA’s draft assessment include:
· All five species of North American Pacific salmon are found in Bristol Bay. The Bristol Bay watershed supports the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world. The Kvichak River produces more sockeye salmon than any other river in the world. The Nushagak River is the fourth largest producer of Chinook salmon in North America.
· Bristol Bay’s wild salmon fishery and other ecological resources provide at least 14,000 full and part-time jobs and is valued at about $480 million annually.
· The average annual run of sockeye salmon is about 37.5 million fish.
· Bristol Bay provides habitat for numerous animal species, including 35 fish species, more than 190 bird species and 40 animal species.
Seattle: Thursday, May 31
2 p.m., Jackson Federal Building 915 2nd Avenue
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.