Dear Friend,

The proposed Pebble Mine may be the worst corporate assault on America's natural heritage that no one's ever heard of.

I need your help to change that–and fast.

Global mining giants-including the Anglo American and Rio Tinto corporations-would gouge one of the world's largest open-pit mines out of Alaska's incomparable Bristol Bay wilderness

My friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council call it the worst proiect they've ever seen and they've seen hundreds of them. That's because this colossal mine would be built at the very headwaters of our planet's greatest wild salmon river systems: the Kvichak and the Nushagak.

Tens of millions of salmon course through this unspoiled Eden, feeding not just an abundance of bears, whales, seals and eagles but also the Alaskan Native communities that have thrived here for thousands of years.

Nothinq like this place exists anywhere else on Earth. It is a remnant of American wilderness as it used to be, the kind of mythic landscape that Norman MacLean had in mind when he famously wrote:

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it "

And it is right here-in the heart of this American Eden -that foreign mining giants want to excavate their 2,000-foot-deep Pebble Mine. This monstrosity will spew some 10 billion tons of mininq waste, laced with toxic chemicals, that must be held back forever by massive earthen dams up to 50 stories tal-all in an active earthquake zone.

The Pebble Mine is an environmental disaster waiting to happen. If it pollutes the Kvichak and the Nushagak River systems, it will take down not only the world's greatest sockeye salmon fishery but also the awe-inspiring ecosystem that depends on it

America has sacrificed too many rivers and wildlands to the mining industry, which has consistently left them and despoiled and unrecognizable-before sticking us with the astronomical cleanup costs

There is still time to save Bristol Bay from a similar fate.

That's why I'm askinq You to ioin me in siqninq the enclosed Petitions of Protest to Anqlo American and Rio Tinto. Tell them you won't stand for multinational corporations destroying one of America's greatest natural treasures in order to line their own pockets. [ Please Click Here for PDF ]

I am convinced we can stop the Pebble Mine by alerting one million Americans to what's at stake. Building this kind of outcry needs to happen one person at a time, starting with you

And please read the enclosed letter from NRDC President Frances Beinecke, who paints a harrowing picture of what this colossal mine could do to the wildlife and people of Bristol Bay. [ Read Online ]  [ Please Click Here for PDF ]

Once You read her letter, I hope you'll choose to join me,as a Member of NRDC by lendinq your financial support to this urgent campaiqn aqainst the qlobal mininq giants.

I've been on NRDC's Board of Trustees for more than 35 years. I can tell you that, with 1.3 million Members and online activists–and a staff of more than 400 environ- mental professionals-NRDC is respected, by friend and foe alike, as America's toughest environmental advocate

As our newest Member, you'll be supportinq a worldwide effort to mobilize overwhelminq opposition to the Pebble. NRDC will even take this fight to court, if that becomes necessary.

Please join with us–and thousands of Alaskan Natives, fishermen and conservationists–in saving one of our last great wild places from destruction.

I look forward to welcoming you as the newest Member of NRDC, and working together to stop the Pebble Mine.

Sincerely,

Robert Redford
NRDC Board of Trustees