As a professional woodworker, I realize that trees have to be cut down and metals need to be mined for me to do my job. But I don’t support cutting down thousands of trees for export or mining copper upstream of where our salmon are spawning. The Chilkat River has produced food and jobs for thousands of years.
It would be crazy to risk that for a small number of short-term jobs because some foreign corporation claims to have Haines’ best interest at heart. They will take the lion’s share, and if they make a mess, leave it to us and our tax dollars to deal with. Allowing an international mining corporation to be in control of Haines’ future is a bad idea.
Gordon Whitermore