Have you heard the good news from the Chilkat Valley in Southeast Alaska? DOWA, a Japanese smelter company and major funder of the proposed Palmer Mine, has pulled out of the project!

The currently known Palmer Project is a proposed mixed metals mine that would be set at the headwaters of the Chilkat Watershed. The mine has been opposed by the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan and conservationists and partners in the community of Haines for years, plus countless supporters who did not want to see Jilkáat Aani, or the Chilkat Valley, irreparably harmed.

And the opposition has worked! Read this statement from the Great Bear Foundation. To learn more about the fight for the watershed, read Audubon’s story “Mining Could Pollute Alaska’s Chilkat Valley. A Tribe and Local Groups Defend their Way of Life.” To learn more about DOWA divestment from the project, read the CBC story, “Main backer of proposed mineral exploration project near Haines, Alaska, pulls out.” 

Within the Chilkat Valley sits the 49,000-acre Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve Important Bird Area (IBA). It’s home to the world’s largest congregation of Bald Eagles, the annual Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, and the Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Center and Bald Eagle Preserve Observatory. The National Audubon Society Science Division also released a recent analysis proving the Chilkat Valley to be a major migration passage for many bird species, including 18% of the total North American population for Surf Scoters during spring migration. 

But the Chilkat area is also one of the most biodiverse places in Alaska. To learn more about the region’s importance to birds and other wildlife, read Audubon’s story, “The Importance of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve IBA to Migratory Birds.”

This is good news for the irreplaceable Chilkat Valley and Alaska birds in general and it’s thanks in part to you. Your advocacy is producing results. We couldn’t do this work without you. Thank you for your continued support.