New Seasons Market

June 12, 2008 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Tim Bristol, Trout Unlimited Alaska Director, 907-321-3291
Helen Neville, New Seasons Market Marketing Director, 503-459-4802, helenn@newseasonsmarket.com
Ben Blakey, fisherman, Bristol Bay, Alaska, 907-246-3073

PORTLAND CONSUMERS URGED TO “VOTE WITH THEIR FORKS”
TO HELP PROTECT WORLD’S LARGEST WILD SOCKEYE FISHERY

Trout Unlimited partners with New Seasons Market to save Alaska’s wild Bristol Bay salmon, under threat by proposed massive gold and copper mine

Portland, Ore. – With plans looming to build North America’s largest open-pit copper and gold mine in Alaska’s pristine Bristol Bay, Trout Unlimited and locally owned and operated New Seasons Market will host a two-day salmon tasting event to help Portlanders learn about the many environmental threats facing the Bristol Bay ecosystem –– an irreplaceable and uniquely diverse part of the Northwest’s foodshed. Not only is the welfare of Bristol Bay’s wild Pacific salmon at risk, but so too is the area’s $325 million fishing industry as well as dozens of native and subsistence communities. Bristol Bay fishermen and Trout Unlimited representatives will be on hand at New Seasons stores to help consumers learn more about protecting Bristol Bay, which is threatened by new proposals to allow large-scale mining, including a massive gold and copper mine known as Pebble Mine, as well as offshore oil and gas drilling.

The tasting event and education events will take place on June 14 and June 15 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at all nine New Seasons Market locations.

Last summer, New Seasons Market and Trout Unlimited paired up for a smaller-scale event resulting in increased consumer awareness about the issues facing Bristol Bay and more than 600 signatures in opposition to the proposed Pebble Mine. This salmon season, Trout Unlimited and New Seasons Market hope to reach even more consumers, encouraging them to vote with their forks by choosing to support Bristol Bay fishermen–– careful stewards of this vital watershed––and asking elected officials, specifically Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to protect Bristol Bay.

With proposals like the Pebble Mine on the table, Bristol Bay is in danger of becoming a highly toxic, large-scale mining district. According to documents filed with the State of Alaska, the Pebble Mine would generate an estimated three billion tons of waste that would require the construction of five new dams, one of which would be larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China. Of particular concern are findings by scientists that the potential toxic waste generated by the Pebble Mine could both degrade critical salmon habitat and hinder wild salmon’s ability to smell their way “home” and return to their spawning grounds.

“Bristol Bay gives us a glimpse of what salmon runs once were up and down the Pacific Coast, and how they could support communities and entire regions by themselves,” said Trout Unlimited Alaska Director Tim Bristol. “People need to understand that Bristol Bay, with its fishery and ecosystems intact, is worth more over the long term than copper or gold,” said Bristol. “We are hoping the people in Portland and elsewhere throughout the lower 48 will help us send that message to decision-makers loud and clear.”

Central to New Seasons Market’s mission is helping customers learn about food systems and empowering them to make healthy choices for themselves and for the environment. With this in mind, New Seasons Market has partnered with Trout Unlimited to offer wild Bristol Bay salmon in-store (once available) and to provide a venue for local Bristol Bay fishermen to talk with Oregonians about the issues facing their fisheries. New Seasons Market will also be placing a “Vote With Your Fork - Save Bristol Bay” sticker on their salmon fish wrap this season, inviting shoppers to choose Bristol Bay salmon whenever they can as a way of showing decision-makers that they demand not only Bristol Bay salmon, but the protection of the Bristol Bay watershed as well.

"Alaska's Bristol Bay has some of the healthiest salmon runs in the world and we must fight to protect this watershed not only for the species that thrive there, but also for the fishing community whose livelihood depends on it,” said Lisa Sedlar, president of New Seasons Market. “We are proud to partner with Trout Unlimited and the Bristol Bay fishermen to bring this important issue to the attention of our community. Our goal is to help let people know that they can make a difference by how they choose to spend their salmon dollars.”

"When something has value, people will work together to protect it," said Alan Moore of Trout Unlimited. "Our hope is that by creating new investment opportunities and awareness amongst salmon consumers and businesses like New Seasons Market about Bristol Bay’s tremendous salmon fishery, we’re raising its value and making threats like the Pebble Mine more difficult to slide under the public radar."

For more info visit:
• www.savebristolbay.org
• www.whywild.org
• www.newseasonsmarket.com