Alaska Petitions Secretary of Commerce to Investigate BC Mine Impact on Salmon Treaties
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SitNews] September 29, 2017
Groups say threats to Pacific salmon and steelhead undermine U.S. conservation treaties.
Ketchikan, Alaska - Alaska Native and conservation groups on Tuesday formally invoked Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’s duties under a federal law to investigate six hard-rock mines in British Columbia, and their expected impacts on transboundary watersheds shared by the United States and Canada. The groups petition Secretary Ross to join the Department of the Interior and other federal agencies in bringing the controversy over these mines to the International Joint Commission, the governing body of the Boundary Waters Treaty between the two countries.
The Taku, Stikine, and Unuk rivers flow across the Canada-United States border, from headwaters in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia through Southeast Alaska to the sea. Their watersheds are rich with wildlife; and their salmon sustain local communities. Native peoples have relied on salmon and caribou...
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