The fight to halt a mining project in the Alaskan Tundra, which would destroy the largest existing natural sockeye salmon habitat, has likely come to an end. According to this Nov. 25 New York Times piece, the mining project, which sought to extract large copper and gold ore deposits, has been dealt a likely “death blow.” This issue came onto SDFF’s radar when The Wild (Mark Titus, 2019) became an official SDFF 2020 selection, which streamed as part of Docs Make House Calls. Read more on this ongoing issue on our News page or watch an SDFF exclusive interview with filmmaker Mark Titus.
Tragically, Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve Opened to Oil Drilling by Trump Admin
Unfortunately, this same luck did not hold for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as plans to open this rare Alaskan habitat to oil development are proceeding on Weds. Jan. 6 when the Bureau of Land Management will be auctioning off drilling rights. The drilling will proceed as part of the BLM’s plans for the National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A), a 23 million-acre tract of land, 80% of which will be open for oil development.