Historic Bering River Coal Field Protection Could Finish Under Biden or Trump
White Bear Lake, MN – President Biden and incoming President Trump could end America’s longest running, and most complicated conservation battle by purchasing the Bering River Coal Field in Alaska’s remarkable Copper River Delta. Both administrations have advanced Bering River Coal Field conservation to the edge of victory.
“The Biden USDA Forest Service has put an eight million dollar offer on the table to Korea Alaska Development Company (KADCO),” said Pat Conzemius, President & CEO of Wildlife Forever. “The two sides are close, but if that fails under Biden’s watch, the incoming Trump Administration is set up to complete a historic win for conservation in 2025.”
Under Trump’s first administration, Representative Jeff Duncan from South Carolina helped convince the Exxon Valdez Trustee Council to expand the eastern oil spill zone boundary to include the Copper River Delta. Duncan’s support also gained trustee approval for an appraisal of the property and received Congressman Don Young’s blessing of the project. Duncan is a former Chair of the Congressional Sportsman’s Caucus.
“I truly believe that keeping the Bering River coal underground and this cherished landscape wild and intact for fish, wildlife and future generations is possible now, or under the next Trump Administration,” said Representative Duncan. “This project has presidential legacy’ written all over it and we should bring it across the finish line.”
Positioned amidst the Copper River Delta’s world-renowned salmon watersheds and the Pacific flyway’s largest wetland, collateral impacts from open pit strip mining will devastate fish stocks and a wilderness ecosystem not found anywhere else. The 44-million-tons of coal owned by KADCO lies along Cunningham Ridge between the Bering River and Martin River watersheds inside wilderness areas of the Chugach National Forest.
Dune Lankard, President and Founder of the Native Conservancy said, “The Native Conservancy was fortunate to meet U.S. Congressman Jeff Duncan during a wilderness trip to Alaska, and he swung behind the project getting the Trump Administration to help expand the Exxon Valdez restoration boundary to include the entire Copper River Delta. We then won the vote the same day to use federal criminal funds to see that a federal appraisal was done for the Bering River Coal Field.”
Lankard has led a more than thirty-year campaign to prevent mountaintop removal mining in the heart of the Copper River Delta which is the homeland of his Eyak Tribe and has personally rallied dozens of leading global conservation organizations, Dr. Jane Goodall, Theodore Roosevelt IV, and Gifford Pinchot’s great-grandsons to support permanent conservation of the Bering River Coal Field.
Wildlife Forever and 44 other members of the American Wildlife Conservation Partners, representing millions of sportsmen and women conservationists, encourage the purchase and permanent retirement of the Bering River Coal Field.
“It’s time to get creative and get this deal done. KADCO’s leadership deserves credit for staying at the table and being flexible about offers of condemnation, cash and/or other asset payout,” said Tim Richardson, Wildlife Forever Alaska Director.
For more information on the Bering River Coal Field Project, see below resources.
Duncan house floor remarks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=M4DAjfqU5Ko
https://thefishingwire.com/wildlife-forever-celebrates-one-ecosystem-victory-in-alaska/
For more information contact:
Tim Richardson, Wildlife Forever Alaska Division Director
Trpr51@gmail.com : 202-352-1269