A National Park Service announcement today could allow for future industrial mining development within Lake Clark National Park.
A National Park Service announcement today could allow for future industrial mining development within Lake Clark National Park. The Park Service granted two land easements in an area called the Johnson Tract, allowing initial development and future actions towards permitting mining.
The Park Service conducted minimal public outreach on this proposal, including canceling a planned public engagement period last fall.
The easements allow the Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI) to construct helicopter landing pads and conduct geotechnical drilling in the bear and wildlife-rich coastal region. Additional permitting and environmental review would be required before a larger mining district and development could proceed.
Alaskan business owners and advocates rejected the Park Service action.
“It took four decades of careful stewardship of the resources along Lake Clark National Park’s coast for the area to develop into a sustainable and predictable site for world class photography and bear viewing experiences,” said David and Joanne Coray, Owners of Silver Salmon Creek Lodge in Lake Clark National Park. “The Johnson River drainage is monumental with its abundance of salmon that supports a robust brown bear population and the prospect of a mine at its headwaters would spell only disaster for the sensitive ecosystem of coastal Lake Clark National Park.”
“The Park Service’s lack of transparency and involvement around this decision is nearly as concerning as the threats a future mine poses to this region,“ said Jennifer Woolworth, Alaska Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. "In denying public participation, the Park Service essentially blocked people from speaking up for Lake Clark National Park and the Cook Inlet beluga whales, Johnson River brown bears, and rich natural and cultural history of the region.
"The National Park’s recent disinterest in seeking public comment on a project that is both ecologically and economically dangerous is an appalling gesture which has effectively silenced the most important stakeholders of national parks: the American people,” said Silver Salmon Creek Lodge Bear Guide Arthur Lefo. “As a guide working every summer on the banks of the Johnson River itself, I am a first hand witness to the innumerable threats presented both to the biological diversity and economic longevity of this treasured coast as a prolonged resource for tourism, education, as well as endangering the careers of wilderness guides in one of the last pristine ecosystems on Earth.”
“It’s deeply disappointing to see the Department of Interior succumb to corporate pressure and fast-track these easements without providing the opportunity for public comment. Gold is a fully recyclable and non-critical mineral, yet we are on the verge of greenlighting its extraction and sacrificing invaluable wildlife habitats for the short-term gain of private interests,” said Satchel Pondolfino, Clean Water Lead at Cook Inletkeeper. “Cook Inletkeeper stands firm in opposing the Johnson Tract Mine and we will continue our work to uplift the many local voices who share our sentiments. Alaskans understand that maintaining sustainable tourism and subsistence opportunities provided by intact ecosystems on the west side of Cook Inlet is a better future than the toxic and boom-bust legacy of an industrial gold mine.”
“NPCA and our partners are committed to protecting Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, America’s Bear Coast and the wildlife that call it home from this gold mine,“ continued Woolworth. "Today’s action strengthens our resolve to fight back against this harmful proposal and bring more daylight to its tremendous associated environmental and economic threats.”
