Local Fishing Businesses, Others Opposing Proposed Mine Around Lake Clark NP

Alaska’s pristine beauty and abundant national resources have been vital talking points in pushback to mining operations, including Pebble Mine opposition and the threat to transboundary rivers along the Alaska-British Columbia borders between the U.S. and Canada. Now, according to Alaska Public News, several fishing-related businesses are among those speaking out against another mining project around Lake Clark National Park. Here are some details:

The owners of the proposed Johnson Tract metal mine in Lake Clark National Park said the project continues to gather momentum as they prepare to conduct more site work this year. But a group of businesses that call the pristine wilderness home is mobilizing against the mine, with the goal of keeping the coast wild.

Dorien Coray’s family has owned a bear photography and fishing operation on the west side of Cook Inlet since the mid-1980s. The business is at the mouth of the Johnson River, about 12 miles away from the river’s headwaters near the proposed Johnson Tract mine.

“There’s not a lot of businesses there,” she said. “I’m not going to pretend that this is, you know, a massive subsistence village that’s under threat, but it’s all lots of multi-generational businesses for fishermen, lodges.”

As the story reports, a Facebook page known as No Johnson Tract Mine has been set up.