Joel Reynolds

The proposal to build one of the world's largest gold and copper mines at the head of the Bristol Bay watershed -- the massive Pebble Mine -- has generated a lot of press for the risks it would pose to the health of Alaska's incomparable wild salmon fishery and the...

You may have heard that, after 15 months of study, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week released in draft for public comment its Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment, characterizing the natural resources in the region and documenting the potential impacts on those resources of large-scale mining, like the...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took a major step forward today in its review of petitions to intervene in the intensifying battle over the proposed Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska. After 15 months of study, the agency released in draft form for public comment

Someone sent me a blog post this morning titled "Don't call me an environmentalist," arguing that "we need to look beyond the divisions and understand that most of us are on the same side, regardless of the labels we place on ourselves." Wouldn't it be great if that were all...

Last Thursday in London, in support of the communities of Bristol Bay opposed to the massive Pebble Mine, NRDC delivered another 400,000 opposition petitions to the management of Anglo American and Rio Tinto, the two mining giants backing the mine. Full page ads appeared in the

The two mining giants behind the proposed Pebble Mine -- Anglo American and Rio Tinto -- are holding their annual shareholder meetings this year on Thursday, April 19, in London. As in past years, we will be there to testify in support of the residents of the Bristol Bay region...

The battle against the massive Pebble Mine is intensifying.

Later this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to release for public comment a draft assessment of the potential impacts of the Pebble Mine on streams, rivers, and other natural resources of the Bristol Bay region that feed...

The opposition continues to grow.

According to a poll released November 22nd of over 2,000 shareholders of the Bristol Bay Native Corporation -- the regional Native corporation and largest private landholder in southwest Alaska -- 81 percent of the company's shareholders now oppose the proposed Pebble Mine,...

October 17, 2011, the votes were counted in Bristol Bay, and, in a historic result against enormous odds, the Save Our Salmon initiative has prevailed.

In the Lake and Peninsula Borough, where the massive Pebble Mine is proposed to be sited by a consortium of foreign mining companies,...

Governor Jerry Brown's veto of SB 833, just minutes before the midnight deadline Sunday night, is inexplicable in rational terms.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Juan Vargas from San Diego, would have prohibited siting of a garbage dump on the banks of the San Luis...

In Vernon, the state's first large-scale commercial toxic waste incinerator spews deadly dioxins and furans near schools, churches, and the residential communities of East Los Angeles. In Richmond, a commercial center is constructed on the Breuner Marsh, filling wetlands and severing the San Francisco Bay Trail. In Santa Monica, Occidental...

Tuesday October 4, 2011 -- was a big day in southwest Alaska. It marked the conclusion of voting on the Save Our Salmon ("SOS") initiative being considered by the residents of the Lake and Peninsula Borough, where the massive Pebble Mine is proposed to be built. If approved,...

Oil is at the center of our daily lives; it fuels our cars, powers our airplanes and is embedded in the plastics and other products we use day in and out. Its excavation is the stuff of tall tales, with "gushers" and boomtowns shaping our imagination. But many residents probably...

There are two things on which most Southern Californians enthusiastically agree: Vin Scully should announce Dodger baseball forever, and something needs to be done about the traffic.

Sadly, there's nothing we can do to make Scully immortal. But we can definitely do something about the traffic.

First, we can stop...

While Robert Glenn Ketchum's name recognition can be debated, his impact on the world cannot. According to American Photo Magazine, he is "the most influential photographer you've never heard of."

In fact, among conservationists, he is renowned for his 35-year history of photographic...

Bristol Bay is synonymous with wild salmon. Each year tens of millions of salmon return to the pristine rivers and streams of southwest Alaska, fueling one of the most productive commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries in the world -- sustaining the people, communities, and wildlife of Bristol Bay for thousands...

Last week in London, I attended the shareholder meeting for Rio Tinto, one of the backers of a massive proposed copper and gold mine above Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Representatives of communities from around the world gathered at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center near Westminster Abbey to...

The specter of nuclear disaster in Japan has prompted nuclear industry representatives in the United States to offer reassurances that no such thing could happen here. Our plants are better designed, they say, our system of government oversight is stricter, and a quake of that magnitude is highly unlikely.

A U.S. response, with teeth, is needed to stop Iceland's violations of international treaties.

Weighing up to 80 tons and almost twice the length of a school bus, the massive fin whale -- known as the greyhound of the sea for its swimming speed -- was the victim of decades...

The Obama administration and the International Whaling Commission want to allow legal hunting again. It's misguided policy.

No one was surprised when conservation organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council challenged the anti-environmental policies of President George W. Bush. But it's a shock to many when we part company...