Dear Editor and Fellow Calista Shareholders;
In February of 2019 over 300 Calista women shareholders signed a letter to Calista CEO Andrew Guy and Calista Board of Directors concerned about the development of the proposed Donlin Mine. We asked to put it to the shareholders for a vote. Many of our men and non shareholders signed it too. There was no response.
This week I found a welcome surprise in my mailbox. Shareholders for Economic Prosperity sent me a letter with a postcard inside to petition the Calista Board to hold a vote of shareholders.
The vote would be to decide on whether or not Donlin Gold should be built. I know how I feel about the mine and I think a lot of other people in our region feel the same way as I do. We don’t want to have to stop eating fish because it has too much mercury in it. We don’t want to have to miss eating smelts because too much barge traffic makes their eggs wash away. We don’t want our connection to the water and tundra to be broken because we can’t eat from it anymore. If our food is too polluted by mine waste to eat, there won’t be much reason to live here anymore and then what will happen to us?
You don’t have to think the same way as me, but I believe that the people of this land deserve to be involved in deciding if this project should move forward with a vote. That is why I signed my postcard as soon as I opened my mail and sent it back right away. I sure hope you do too so that we will have a chance to vote and you will have a chance to win the $500 raffle. Even if you win it instead of me.
Quyana. Respectfully,
Beverly A Hoffman, Calista Shareholder
Bethel, AK
State forestry seeks public’s help naming new fire prevention moose
Every Alaskan has a stake in smart wildland fire prevention and management, so the Division of Forestry is holding a contest to give every Alaskan the chance to name its new “Take Time to LEARN Before You Burn” moose.
What is the “Take Time to Learn Before You Burn” program and who is the moose? They were created to help the division enhance public awareness, information and education regarding human-caused fires and the impacts of House Bill 355.
The Alaska Legislature passed HB 355 in 2018 to update the penalties for burning offenses committed on state, municipal, and privately-owned land in Alaska. The resulting wildland fire statues and regulations took effect in June 2019. DOF developed the “Take Time to LEARN Before You Burn” campaign to consolidate and target the division’s prevention programs on reducing human-caused fires by 10 percent annually.
The contest encourages Alaska residents to submit potential names for the moose featured in our “Take Time to Learn Before You Burn” logo. The division is hoping for a unique name capturing the spirit of Alaska, the moose, and the campaign.
Individuals, groups, and youth may email suggested names, along with their own names and contact information, to [email protected] before the September 1 deadline. The division will post the top five entries on its Facebook page and solicit votes from September 15 – 30. Votes can also be submitted at www.akfireinfo.com. The winner will be announced October 1, 2020.
Alaska Division of Forestry
Anchorage, AK
Pebble Performance Dividend statement by BBNC
Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) President and CEO Jason Metrokin issued the following statement regarding the “Pebble Performance Dividend” that the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) announced earlier today (June 16th,2020):
The Pebble Performance Dividend is the latest attempt by PLP to try to win support from the people of Bristol Bay for the proposed Pebble mine. PLP’s past efforts have failed and we expect this effort to fail as well.
The Pebble Performance Dividend is the most recent example in a long history of deception and broken promises from PLP. PLP is promising a dividend ‘once construction begins’ which, according to its own timeline (an unrealistically rosy one at best), is still at least 3-4 years away. Why would PLP open a 75-day application period now for a potential dividend that is multiple years away? This is just another PLP tactic to try to sway public opinion on this vastly unpopular project.
BBNC’s opposition to the proposed Pebble mine is rooted in our shareholders’ culture and subsistence way of life and is strengthened by the good science that concludes that the proposed mine would cause unacceptable and irreparable adverse impacts to the Bristol Bay region. We will not trade salmon for gold, and we will not be swayed by promises of cash payments from a proposed mine that cannot and should not be built.
PLP has never earned our trust. From telling investors one story and Alaskans another about the size and scope of the mine, to promising yet never delivering an economic feasibility study, to refusing to address the numerous data gaps and technical deficiencies in the Draft EIS and Preliminary Final EIS, it is impossible to distinguish fact from PLP’s fiction.
PLP should spend its time and resources addressing the many concerns raised by the EIS process rather than on a pay-off program premised on a mining project that has no future in Bristol Bay.
Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC)
Anchorage, AK
