{"id":11867,"date":"2026-09-25T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/?p=11867"},"modified":"2026-09-17T14:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T13:30:15","slug":"advocacy-people-alannah-acaq-hurley-protecting-alaskan-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/09\/25\/advocacy-people-alannah-acaq-hurley-protecting-alaskan-forests\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocacy & People. Alannah Acaq Hurley. Protecting Alaskan forests."},"content":{"rendered":"

Acting on behalf of 15 tribal nations, Yup\u2019ik leader Alannah Acaq Hurley led a campaign that stopped the proposed Pebble Mine megaproject in Alaska\u2019s Bristol Bay region. <\/em><\/p>\n

Located off the southwestern coast of Alaska, Bristol Bay and its watershed contain 25 million acres of pristine forests, wild rivers, lush wetlands, tundra, and biodiverse ecosystems stewarded by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial.<\/p>\n

The area, only accessible by plane, is habitat for nearly 200 bird species and scores of mammal species, like moose, lynx, wolverines, and grizzly bears. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has labelled the region \u201can unparalleled ecological and economic resource of global significance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bristol Bay is also home to the most productive salmon ecosystem in North America, including the largest sockeye salmon run in the world – with some 50 million fish spawning there each year. Salmon are a keystone species that play a vital role in the functioning of the larger ecosystem, and are a primary food source for bald eagles, bears, and whales.<\/p>\n

They are also a major source of food, livelihood, and cultural sustenance for local Indigenous communities, which are some of the last intact salmon-based cultures in the world. Additionally, the region produces approximately half of the world\u2019s wild sockeye catch, with an annual revenue of $2.2 billion and 15,000 employed in the industry.<\/p>\n

Bristol Bay\u2019s watershed is also home to vast, untapped mineral and ore reserves. In 2001, Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty Minerals obtained mineral leases to significant copper and gold deposits located at the headwaters of the bay.<\/p>\n

The company proposed an enormous project focused around the construction of the largest open-pit mine in North America, if fully developed. The proposed \u201cPebble Mine\u201d would feature a 2.5-mile-wide and 600-feet-deep mining pit, with new construction of 100 miles of road, the world\u2019s largest earthen dam for waste containment, an on-site powerplant, and a nearly 200-mile natural gas pipeline.<\/p>\n

The environmental impacts of the development would be devastating to Bristol Bay and the life that it supports, including the perpetual storage of 10 billion tons of mining waste over the mine\u2019s lifetime, the annual removal of 35 billion gallons of freshwater from salmon spawning rivers, and the destruction of nearly 100 miles of streams and 2,100 acres of wetlands.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s toxic runoff would cause the acidification of streams near the mine, mass salmon die-offs, and the eventual degradation of thousands of acres of wetlands and forests.<\/p>\n

Alannah Acaq Hurley, 40, grew up in Saguyaq (Clark\u2019s Point) in Bristol Bay. Her grandmother, Mancuaq, instilled in her traditional teachings rooted in a spiritual connection to the bay. Growing up, Alannah understood that her Indigenous culture was intrinsically connected to her people\u2019s sacred lands and waters, and the threat of mining and other forms of development was a constant, looming presence. Today, she continues to practice the Yup\u2019ik traditions of hunting, fishing, and gathering in her ancestral homelands.<\/p>\n

In the early 2000s, local communities along Bristol Bay began to organize in opposition to the newly-proposed Pebble Mine project. While in college, Alannah volunteered and worked with local groups during her summer breaks, spreading awareness about the proposed mine in towns and rural communities, many of which were only accessible by boat or bush plane. These early organizing efforts yielded multiple requests for the government to engage in the issue and ultimately led the EPA to begin an environmental assessment of the mine\u2019s impacts in 2011.<\/p>\n

Following college, Alannah returned to Bristol Bay to play a larger role in organizing efforts. In 2013, local tribal leaders selected her to serve as executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB), a new consortium of federally recognized tribal nations.<\/p>\n

Under Alannah\u2019s leadership, UTBB organized Indigenous opposition to the project and coordinated their work with national environmental groups, commercial fishing associations, and others, recognizing that a broad, nonpartisan coalition was essential to the campaign\u2019s success. As Alannah states, \u201cWhat united us was an existential threat that, if we didn\u2019t work together, we wouldn\u2019t have anything left. This unity was absolutely critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

After more than decade of advocacy, the effort saw progress when the EPA published its assessment of the project, finding that the Pebble Mine would \u201cjeopardize the long-term health and sustainability of the salmon ecosystem,\u201d and proposed permanent protections for the bay. Alannah and her team shared the EPA\u2019s findings throughout local communities, tying the survival of Indigenous cultures to the protection of Bristol Bay. In response, Northern Dynasty Minerals (NDM) filed a lawsuit that significantly delayed government action against the project.<\/p>\n

In 2017, during the first Trump administration, NDM also filed an application with the US Army Corps of Engineers for a major federal permit for the project – a critical step in the approval process. In response, UTBB\u2019s work went into overdrive – the team organized heavily in the Bristol Bay area, conducting dozens of community meetings during the two-year permitting process.<\/p>\n

When the US Army Corps released the draft environmental impact statement, UTBB mobilized along with the coalition of allies and national NGOs, submitting nearly 700,000 comments in opposition to the project.<\/p>\n

Alannah became a well-recognized spokesperson for the local tribes, lobbying elected officials, creating alliances with national Indigenous groups, and engaging state and federal agencies in consultation with UTBB\u2019s tribal leaders.<\/p>\n

By the time she testified before Congress in late 2019, she and UTBB had successfully solidified widespread bipartisan opposition to the Pebble Mine. The work paid off in November 2020, when the US Army Corps denied the project\u2019s water permit, citing \u201cunavoidable adverse impacts\u201d to the local waterways and wildlife.<\/p>\n

Seeing an opportunity to conclusively terminate the mine project under new EPA leadership within the Biden administration, UTBB redoubled its efforts. In 2021, following successful litigation, the EPA continued consideration of protections to the bay that would stop the Pebble Mine permanently. This required restarting the review process that had been conducted 10 years earlier.<\/p>\n

The process required two years of community consultations, virtual town hall meetings, and another round of public comments. Alannah\u2019s leadership helped ensure that local opposition did not waver – over the course of the EPA\u2019s work in Bristol Bay, more than one million comments were sent to the agency supporting protections for the region.<\/p>\n

After completing its updated environmental assessment, in January 2023, the EPA used its veto authority to cancel the Pebble Mine project, thus protecting Bristol Bay\u2019s ecosystem – as a \u201cglobally significant ecological and cultural resource\u201d – from billions of tons of toxic mining waste. The EPA\u2019s veto – only the 14th in its history – prevents construction of one of the world\u2019s largest-ever mining projects at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.<\/p>\n

The historic decision safeguards millions of acres of Alaskan forest, tundra, and wetlands that support one of the world\u2019s last salmon ecosystems; and it protect an Indigenous people\u2019s way of life that is sustained by the pristine lands and waters of Bristol Bay.<\/p>\n

Today, as UTBB combats other proposed industrial encroachments into the Bristol Bay area and defends the EPA veto in court, Alannah and the coalition are working to codify protections of Bristol Bay into law through state and federal legislation. She, like her ancestors, remains dedicated to a sustainable, thriving Bristol Bay for generations to come.<\/p>\n

In April, Alannah Acaq Hurley received the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the \u201cGreen Nobel Prize.” (The Goldman Environment Report \u2013 Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acting on behalf of 15 tribal nations, Yup\u2019ik leader Alannah Acaq Hurley led a campaign that stopped the proposed Pebble Mine megaproject in Alaska\u2019s Bristol Bay region. Located off the southwestern coast of Alaska, Bristol Bay and its watershed contain 25 million acres of pristine forests, wild rivers, lush wetlands, tundra, and biodiverse ecosystems stewarded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11869,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11867\/revisions\/11869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}