New Poll: Americans and Bears Once Again Oppose Pebble Mine

A Bristol Bay cub shares some good polling news. Photo courtesy of Larry Burke
Last month, a voter’s initiative in Bristol Bay signalled that locals opposed placing what might be the largest gold and copper  mine in North America in the headwaters of the streams and rivers supporting the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.  

Now the opposition has gone nationwide.  A new nationwide poll released by the Renewable Resources Coalition (which is National Wildlife Federation’s Alaska Affiliate), Nunamta Aulukestai, and NRDC shows extremely strong opposition across the board to the proposed Pebble Mine, slated to be built in the headwaters of the Bristol Bay region of Alaska.  77% of Americans in the “lower 48” think the mine is a bad idea, while 68% of Alaskans think the same.  Those are huge numbers, particularly in a state like Alaska where resource development is a tradition and mining projects get an immense amount of benefit of the doubt.

Our job now is to translate that national, statewide and local opposition into stopping the mine and that takes boots on the ground.  Please click here to put your money directly into NWF’s Pebble Mine work–it is a great holiday gift to the world.  Visit us here for more information about the campaign.