The bird dove towards my head at 60 miles per hour, screaming its head off. At the last second she swerved away from me and flew off. Before she could circle around for another pass I beat a hasty retreat to the boat. From the river I could hear my clients laughing.

On the Kvichak River arctic terns mean business! You learn quickly not to approach their nests unless you want to be driven off by a 3-4 ounce bird. Unfortunately, in June all of the best fishing is around the gravel bars and islands where the terns breed. Every day my clients and I were amused and not a little intimidated by these birds aerial bombardment. You quickly warm to their unabashed bravado and impressive flying skills. Artic terns really are amazing birds.

Every year arctic terns migrate from the South Pole to the North. They live in perpetual summer, passing through the tropics during the spring and fall, living in the Polar Regions only during the warm summer months. Their yearly journey is approximately 40,000 km (25,000 miles) which is the longest migration of any bird in the world.

Like salmon, arctic terns nest in the same place they were born, often in the exact same colonies. Nests are built on gravel bars in the open and if approached, adults will aggressively dive bomb trespassers. During the breeding season these terns live mainly on small fish and, in the area of Alaska where I work, those fish are almost entirely salmon smolt.

In June hundreds of millions of sockeye salmon smolt, possibly as many as three quarters of a billion fish, swim out of Lake Iliamna into the Kvichak river. Here, on the gravel bars near the mouth the river, thousands of arctic terns nest. Exact numbers of terns are not well known. Indeed, there is very limited data on arctic tern populations throughout their breeding range, but some populations are in decline.

So what does this have to do with conservation? Like most of the species in the Lake Iliamna/Kvichak River area, these birds are threatened by the proposed Pebble Mine. The breeding colonies along the Kvichak River require huge amounts of food to rear their young. Without the salmon, the colony cannot survive, and the salmon are threatened. Salmon require pristine tributaries for spawning grounds and a healthy ecosystem in which to grow in until they are ready to swim for the ocean. Any disruption to the environment, even temporary, could be catastrophic for arctic terns.

The people behind Pebble Mine claim that for every fish killed by the mine, they will replace it. But for that short period while the smolt are gone, what will happen to the terns? Without their primary source of food during the breeding season, they will die.

We in the fly fishing community need to help. We need to get involved with conservation.

How can we do that? By sharing the experiences that made us as fly fishermen realize we need to conserve. Every week I had new clients, and a new opportunity to educate them about the wonders of the environment, including arctic terns. By explaining the complex web between salmon, terns and a healthy ecosystem, and then facilitating a positive experience in that ecosystem, my clients came to understand why the ecosystem is worth protecting, and why Pebble Mine cannot be allowed to exist.

For conservation issues everywhere fly fishermen hold a powerful education tool. Take someone fishing and share the experience of your favorite piece of water. Let the environment speak for itself and conservation practically becomes a natural reflex regardless of race, religion or political orientation. We can all do our part. Take someone fishing. Get involved in experiential conservation.

Awesome: Awe inspiring. In a word Alaska is awesome. I have just finished up a four month season guiding in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska and even after four years fishing the same watersheds, after countless flights into small streams, hundreds of bears, salmon, eagles, pike, and those famous rainbows, I am still inspired.

It’s the type of country that you can’t ignore. It pervades every aspect of your senses. Overwhelms the mind, stops you in your tracks and all you can do is stare. In the morning, driving up a river through the mist and sun sometimes all I could do is laugh and laugh.

If you haven’t been there you need to go. You need to see it for yourself, see the rivers running red with sockeye. Watch the fight, the life and death struggle for survival. For those four short months before the country is once again gripped by snow and ice every plant and animal tries to get what it needs to survive. Feel the wind whip lake Iliamna into a pounding ocean. Feel the dew collected on your boat in the morning. Shove feet into frozen wading boots after the first frost. Laugh at friends, faces stained purple, for greedily eating blueberries handfuls at a time. Watch the seasons change.

In June bushes start to bud out and you’ll see the Arctic Tern arrive fresh from Antarctica. They raise their chicks on gravel bars and small islands; feed on millions of salmon smolt heading for the ocean, and then, a month and a half later, leave for Antarctica. In July you stand amazed watching many millions of bright silver Sockeye push up the Kvichak, the Alagnack, the Neknek, the Nushagak; they are headed for the exact same stretch of gravel bottom they were born in. From the air the fish are a dark band as far up and down the river as you can see. August brings the spawn and every anglers rainbow filled dreams come true. You will see what happens when so many salmon are spawning eggs visibly roll down the river, and bears are too fat from salmon to take interest in those strange upright animals waving sticks at the river. September brings death and decay. The spawning salmon complete their life cycle and die. Yet even in death there is life here. Young bears, too inexperienced to catch salmon on their own, now feast on the dead and rotting carcasses. Trout, after gorging on eggs, sit in slow water and around weed beds eating salmon flesh rolling along the bottom. This is what you will see and it is awesome.

Alaska is special, unique, irreplaceable. Alaska is a natural treasure worth more than any amount of precious metals. Yet this area of Alaska is threatened. Pebble mine, a proposed project to dig a hole miles across and thousands of feet deep all in the quest for gold, sits at the head of two pristine watersheds. News of the mineral finds have attracted greed and new claims have sprung up on nearby streams like the Kaskanak, a tributary to the Kvichak river.

For our children to have the chance to stand in awe of natures awesome power these mines must not be allowed to continue. Some environments are too precious and too fragile for such invasive consumption. Once these mines are built the Bristol Bay area will never be the same.

After spending time in Alaska enjoying the beauty, the unspoiled wilderness, pristine waters, thundering storms and tranquil sunrises I can think of no better superlative to encompass what Alaska is than awesome. And sometimes what is awesome needs a little protection from us.

For more information check out these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_Mine#Possible_mining_plan

www.redgoldfilm.com

http://www.stoppebblemine.com/

www.renewableresourcescoalition.org/pebble_mine.htm