JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state’s natural resources department will have to justify its rationale for how it designated land use in the Bristol Bay region nearly a decade ago, a process that could have ramifications for the proposed Pebble Mine.
A court settlement has been reached in a case brought by tribes, a conservation group and fishermen over a 2005 land use plan. A plaintiffs’ attorney says the plan, drafted as interest in the gold and copper prospect was heating up, eliminated 93 percent of prior habitat classifications in the region, with a tilt toward mining.
The plan used marine criteria to determine if inland areas qualified as fish and wildlife habitat.
The settlement calls on the state to revise criteria it used to identify sensitive habitats, which will go to public comment.
