Welcome to the latest installment of the Wednesday Wake-Up Call, a weekly roundup of the most pressing conservation issues important to anglers. Working with our friends at Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, The Everglades Foundation, Captains for Clean Water, Bullsugar.org, and Conservation Hawks (among others), we’ll make sure you’ve got the information you need to understand the issues and form solid opinions.
If you know of an important issue–whether it’s national or local–that anglers should be paying attention to, comment below, and we’ll check it out!
1. Pebble Mine Updates
of Trout Unlimited Alaska; Tucker Kimball, Orvis Public Relations and Social Media Manager; Rocky Harrison of Grizzly Skins of Alaska, and Taj Shoemaker of Island Air.
● TU-Led Delegation Goes to Washington
Last week, Orvis Public Relations and Social Media Manager Tucker Kimball joined a delegation of Alaska lodge owners, residents, and sporting-industry representatives on a three-day swing through the halls of Washington DC to spread the #nopebblemine message. They met with many influential Congresspeople and Senators, as well as senior staff members. The Pebble Partnership has been sending a stream of lobbyists through the same offices for years, so it was important that the anti-Pebble could be delivered by actual stakeholders.
This trip was even more vital, given the news that Pebble has hired one of the most influential lobbying firms in Washington, led by Brian Ballard, whom Politico calls “The Most Powerful Lobbyist in Trump’s Washington.”
But don’t let all this firepower stop you from playing a part in the grassroots movement to stop Pebble. Click here to make your voice heard in this fight!
● Orvis CEO Perk Perkins and Costa’s Dave Bulthuis Op-Ed in the Juneau Empire
Aside from the obvious environmental concerns, there’s a strong case to made that Pebble Mine doesn’t make sense from a business standpoint. Perkins and Balthuis, both leaders in the outdoor industry, understand how valuable Bristol Bay is in its pristine state:
Even though the Pebble proposal would create about 2,000 jobs for the first 20 years, these are boom-and-bust jobs that can rip apart the social fabric of longstanding communities. They’re also only a fraction of the 14,000 jobs that Bristol Bay currently supports and has supported for decades. These jobs are long-term, time-tested and integral to the Bristol community.
Click here to read the whole op-ed.
● New York Times Op-Ed by Famous Author/Anglers
On Monday, the New York Times published an anti-Pebble op-ed by Paul Greenberg, Mark Kurlansky, Carl Safina, and John Waldman–all of whom have published important books on conservation. It starts with the claim that “Every creature deserves a chance to spawn,” and goes on to make strong arguments for caution. Click here to read the full article.
2. Florida Sportsman Video Addresses Hypersalinity of Florida Bay
3. A Conservation Success Story, Pennsylvania’s Donegal Creek Suffers Massive Fish Kill
Donegal Creek, which contains Lancaster County’s first stretch of fly-fishing-only water (in 1967), has been down before, and local anglers vow it will come back again. The story of the stream’s rises and falls are detailed in a great article by Ad Crable on Lancaster Online. Click here to read the full story.
Unfortunately could not read the article on Donegal Creek since one needs to
subscribe to Lancaster Online prior to opening the article. Not paying $2.00 month. Sorry.