Just got this this morning after I signed the Pebble Mine petition earlier this week. I don't know how she interceded, but it's funny on the timing of this newsletter. It's a bit scary to think she'd be running this ship were old iron sides to keel over....

From Sportsman's Alliance for Alaska Newsletter:

NEWS RELEASE

Renewable Resources Coalition
Resolved to Continue the fight to save Bristol Bay

Anchorage, AK (August 27) - The RRC would like to acknowledge the tens of thousands of Alaskans who supported Proposition 4 as we did and the hundreds of volunteers who worked so diligently on this issue. The fight to save Bristol Bay’s wild salmon is hardly over, and the results of this election simply show how much work we still have ahead of us. The residents of Bristol Bay are acutely aware of the possible ramifications of the Pebble mine and the risks it poses to their very way of life. The vote in the region was overwhelmingly in favor of the initiative and polling shows a majority of Alaskan’s do not support the Pebble mine and have grave concerns over the damage it may inflict on one of our greatest treasures. This vote does not change the fact that putting a massive, acid-generating mine at the headwaters of the world’s largest wild sockeye fishery is a bad idea. Pebble is still the wrong mine in the wrong place.

Unfortunately foreign mining companies and their allies spent millions upon millions of dollars to muddy the issue with a variety of false statements, scaring and confusing voters with wild claims that the proposition would shut down all mines, and that it might even affect gold panners and people who use outboard engines. All of which is simply not true. It is also regrettable that the state and Governor Palin took it upon themselves to intercede in the public initiative process which we view as totally improper.

The clean water ballot measure, had it passed, would have protected existing mines while also protecting wild salmon and clean water from dangerous toxins produced by new large-scale acid-generating mines, such as Pebble. Our priority continues to be protecting all of Alaska’s renewable resources, our hunting and fishing heritage, whether commercial, sport or subsistence, so that future generations will have the same opportunities to enjoy the wild Alaska we all know and love. “This was only the first battle in what appears to be a very long war,” says Richard Jameson, president of the Renewable Resource Coalition. “We would ask those who wish to protect Alaska’s wild salmon to remain resolute, as will the RRC and its members.”

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