North Shore Morning

On April 26, 2013, more than 300 leading scientists sent a letter to the White House expressing “deep concerns” about the prospect of large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed of Southwest Alaska, home to the world’s largest wild salmon runs. The action comes as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) releases for public comment a revised draft assessment on watershed impacts of what could be North America’s largest mine.  

(Click on audio mp3 above to hear more about the proposed mine in an interview with Dr. David Chambers, a geophysicist with the Center for Science in Public Participation.)

The open-pit gold and copper operation, known as Pebble Mine, would likely cover an area larger than Manhattan, according to EPA. The proposal is backed by the world’s second-largest mining corporation, London-based Anglo American, and Canada’s Northern Dynasty Minerals. The project has drawn sharp criticism from the Bristol Bay Native Corp., nine regional tribes, the commercial fishing industry, sportsmen, and environmentalists who fear the massive mine could cause irreversible damage to the watershed. The state of Alaska and the mining industry have objected to EPA’s action to assesses the mine’s potential impact.

In 2009, Bristol Bay Native Corp. and nine tribes called on EPA to use its authority under the Clean Water Act to declare the watershed off-limits for mine waste disposal. EPA responded with a draft Bristol Bay watershed assessment in May 2012, concluding that “mining at this scale would cause the loss of spawning and rearing habitat for multiple species of anadromous and resident fish.” On April 26, 2013, EPA released a revised draft for a 30-day public comment period. The new version is designed to address peer-review comments on the agency’s May 2012 draft.

 “This is the wise course of action for EPA to take,” said Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, who holds the biodiversity chair at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment and is professor of environmental science and policy at George Mason University. “Any development to this highly sensitive area should be comprehensively evaluated.” In addition to Dr. Lovejoy, Dr. Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia, National Medal of Science recipient Dr. Peter Raven, former U.S. Forest Service Chief Dr. Michael Dombeck, and 301 other scientists signed the April 26 letter, stating their consensus view that EPA is taking appropriate steps to safeguard Bristol Bay. 

“Bristol Bay and its watershed are an unparalleled natural treasure,” said Jane Danowitz of The Pew Charitable Trusts, which worked with the scientists to organize the letter. “It is EPA’s obligation to ensure that the region’s bounty, including world-class salmon runs, is protected.” 

Industry and EPA data indicate that the proposed Pebble Mine would cover 32 square miles and likely include an open pit seven times deeper than the Washington Monument. It would include structures as high as the Hoover Dam to contain an estimated 7 billion to 10 billion tons of contaminated tailings permanently. It would require 86 miles of roads, slurry pipelines, and heavy-duty truck traffic, as well as power plants and a deepwater port in one of the world’s most ecologically sensitive areas. 

EPA’s latest Toxic Release Inventory shows that the metal mining industry was responsible for 41 percent of toxic releases for all U.S. industries reporting in 2010. The metal mining industry has ranked No. 1 in release of toxic material since it was required to report them in 1997.

(April 26, 2013 press release from the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining)

There's a lot going on at Sawtooth Elementary School. In this edition of Sawtooth Mountain Elementary School News, Principal Gwen Carman brings us the latest elementary news.

Deane Morrison is a science writer at the University of Minnesota, where she authors the Minnesota Starwatch column.

During mid-May, the main attractions are Jupiter and Saturn. In this edition of Northern Sky, Deane explains the best time to see these fascinating planets, as well as some of the other eye-catching sights to see astronomy-wise in the next few weeks.

Read this month's Starwatch column.

In Cook County Middle School, 7th grade students are exposed to a quarter-long Spanish language class. In this edition of School News, Spanish teacher Kristin Carlsgaard shares more about it.

“Will the ice be out for the opening of fishing?” seems to be the question on everyone’s mind these days.  Predicting the ice-out date is notoriously difficult, but I’m going out on a limb to predict that, here in the West End, the ice will not be gone by May 11. I always predict ice-out for my birthday, May 5. In 57 years, I’ve only been right once and this year will not be my second successful guess.  I’m thinking a more realistic guess would be around May 15. Hope springs eternal, but it’s a telling fact that the skis are still on the porch.
 
It was fun to hear all the reminiscing about the early history of our beloved radio station, WTIP, during the 15^th anniversary celebrations last week.  Maybe this was mentioned and I missed it, but I wanted to give a shout-out to my friend Paul Damberg, who was the development director at KUMD during the time that WTIP was starting up.  Paul really worked hard raising the money to get WTIP built and on the air. 
 
In the early days, WTIP used a lot of KUMD’s programming and the two stations had a tight relationship. Paul spent hundreds of hours going from business to business in Cook County, doing the hard work of raising money for something that didn’t even exist, except in some people’s imagination.  He was remarkably effective and wasn’t at all discouraged by numerous naysayers that he encountered.  Paul wasn’t motivated by self-interest.  He genuinely believed that WTIP would become a valuable community asset for Cook County, and boy, was he ever right.
 
Paul isn’t with KUMD anymore, but he still works in Cook County as the foundation director for the Human Development Center, which offers mental health services in Cook County.  So, I’d like to add Paul Damberg to the long list of people who were responsible for creating what has become, in my opinion, one of the best radio stations in the world.
 
Construction has begun on the new ski lift at Lutsen Mountains.  This is a brand new, state-of-the-art, high-speed lift that will whisk six people on each chair to the top of Moose Mountain.  It replaces the Caribou lift, for those that are familiar with the Lutsen ski runs. 
 
The old Caribou ski lift is being dismantled right now by Lutsen Mountains staff.  Soon, the construction crew from the Leitner Poma Company, the manufacturer of the new lift, will arrive to start their work.  Not a single part of the old lift will be used in the new construction.  Leitner Poma, one of only two ski lift manufacturers in the world, will provide turnkey construction to Lutsen Mountains, so we’ll all be able to enjoy additional runs on the mountain next winter.
 
I noticed an interesting nature phenomenon just outside my office window last week.  Just a few feet from where I sit, there is a bush where the chickadees sit in between trips to the bird feeder.  Their constant motion has become such a routine part of my peripheral vision that I immediately noticed when the motion stopped.  The chickadees were still in the bush, but they were sitting stock still for hours at a time.  Those were the days when the weather first warmed up, which must have triggered the behavior, but I wonder why they were suddenly so lethargic.  Were they just full of sunflower seeds now that they didn’t have to work so hard to stay warm? Or, was it the females slowed down by their developing eggs?  My best guess is that they were suffering, like me, from a bad case of spring fever.
 
(Photo by Carah Thomas)

Michael and Doran  share the latest from the Bear Cubs, Fawns, Woves, Lynx, and Otters.

Ready to move it with your neighbors all the way down to New Orleans?  WTIP volunteer Tracy Benson spoke with Kristin Wharton and Hartley Newell-Acero on Wednesday’s AM Community Calendar.

Talk about snow on the Gunflint Trail! One small resident is fed up with it. In this commentary, our favorite canine correspondent, Nosey Rosey, brings us another report from Hungry Jack.

Charles Christianson has been teaching swimming lessons to Sawtooth Mountain elementary students for 20 years. In this edition of School News, teachers Betsy Jorgenson and Dena Schliep tell us more about this endeavor.

For anyone born in 1980 or later, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources requires hunters to have Firearm Safety instruction. In this edition of School News, instructors Paul Eiler and Ann Sullivan tell us more about the program.