- Alannah Acaq Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for organizing opposition to what would have been the largest open-pit mine in North America, called Pebble Mine.
- Proposed in 2001, Pebble Mine was vetoed in 2023 by the Environmental Protection Agency for posing a major threat to the abundant salmon fishery of Bristol Bay, in southeast Alaska. That veto received additional support this year in court by the Department of Justice.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Hurley discussed the long path she and the United Tribes of Bristol Bay’s coalition have walked to defeat Pebble, as well as the hurdles that remain ahead as the fight moves to court, and as UTBB pursues more comprehensive protections for the Bristol Bay watershed.
In the early 2000s, Alannah Acaq Hurley began working over her college summer breaks to spread awareness among rural communities in Southeast Alaska about a project called Pebble Mine: a pit 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide and 180 meters (600 feet) deep proposed at the head of Bristol Bay — the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, and the waters that Hurley and her family call home. In 2001, the Canadian company Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. obtained mineral leases to deposits in the area for what would have been the largest open-pit mine in North America.
Decades later, Hurley is now the executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB), and the work to stop Pebble continues. Hurley has received a 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work in organizing an opposition that seems poised to bring the proposed copper and gold mine to a halt.
After a 2023 veto of the project by the Environmental Protection Agency due to “unacceptable adverse effects” on the region’s salmon fishery and a surprising court filing by the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump’s administration supporting that veto earlier in 2026, more than two decades of work by local advocates seem to have turned the winds against the Pebble Mine project.
Yet Hurley said the work to protect the region — home to the Yup’ik, Dena’ina, and Alutiiq tribal nations, and to eagles and moose, bears and whales — is far from over.
“Our tribes have never changed their request that we see the landscape as one — everything is connected,” Hurley told Mongabay. “It’s really hard when you have political lines in the sand. But we have always had a really long-term vision to not only deal with Pebble, but deal with all these types of claims that are in our watershed, so our children aren’t doomed to fight proposal by proposal now until eternity.”
In 2013, Hurley was selected to serve as executive director of the newly-formed UTBB, which brought together Bristol Bay’s federally recognized tribal nations to advocate for their traditional way of life.
Over Hurley’s years as executive director, she helped gather a broad coalition of allies against the Pebble project and brought the opposition to state and federal authorities, including testifying before Congress at the end of 2019. She told Mongabay that she hopes winning the Goldman Prize, often referred to as the “Green Nobel,” will bring more recognition to the ongoing work of this coalition.
As Northern Dynasties Minerals presses forward in court to allow mining, the UTBB will continue to represent Bristol Bay in court, as well as pursue state legislation to permanently protect the watershed’s more than 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of wilderness from mining claims in the future.
Mongabay spoke to Hurley about the long movement against Pebble Mine and what’s ahead. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Mongabay: Many of our readers have never been to Bristol Bay. Could you tell us about this area that you’ve been working so hard to protect?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: Bristol Bay is in southwest Alaska. It is just off the mainland, right before the Aleutian chain, and we are so wildly blessed here. We have mountains and wetlands and tundra and fresh water and the ocean — our whole region is pretty diverse. If you think about Alaska’s untouched wilderness and pristine water, literally being able to drink out of the river or the lakes, that’s what it’s like.
We’re still able to hunt and fish and gather like our ancestors have for thousands of years. It’s very remote, very peaceful, very beautiful. And very rich: full of everything we need to thrive.
It has about 27 year-round communities, none connected by road. There are a couple communities that are connected together, but it’s very remote, very rural. You have to fly or boat everywhere, or in the winter, if it’s cold enough, you can snowmachine between communities. And these are very small communities, ranging from just a few people to our largest community, Curyung, Dillingham, where I live, and that’s about 2,000 people.
And politically, some of those different boundaries around Bristol Bay actually encapsulate three different groups of Indigenous people: Yup’ik people, Dena’ina people and Alutiiq people. All very different culturally, different languages. There historically was a lot of warring between different groups and tribes, and so to come together on this issue of Pebble Mine and many others, I think, is just a testament to the foresight and dedication of our leaders to keep Bristol Bay healthy and pristine.
Mongabay: Let’s talk about the path to the EPA veto and what got you there. What motivated the United Tribes of Bristol Bay to push for this veto?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: Before the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, our tribes had actually been fighting [against the mine] for quite some time and had petitioned the EPA to use their authority to stop the Pebble project completely.
The EPA came back and said, ‘We’re going to do an assessment. You know, is Bristol Bay really the last great sockeye salmon fishery left on the face of the planet? And if this type of development were to move forward, what type of potential impacts could it have on water and the fishery?’ They did that three-year study and confirmed exactly what our people had been saying for quite some time: that this type of development would devastate the water and therefore the fishery and everything it sustains.
The tribes had petitioned the EPA originally because their concerns were falling on deaf ears at the state level at that time. And so, in the midst of this, UTBB was formed to unite and amplify the tribal voice. They saw the power in uniting our tribes, in strengthening the government-to-government relationship with the feds and really calling them on the carpet to really, truly live up to their trust responsibility and take the tribes’ concern seriously.
Over the course of a few different administrations, we’ve seen different protections proposed, held up in court, withdrawn. Then our tribes and some of our partners sued, and then they were reinstated on appeal. And in January of 2023, our tribe celebrated those protections being finalized by the EPA.
As we thought, they are being challenged by not only the company, but joined by our governor and the state of Alaska, unfortunately. We’re currently in litigation still, but all of the different groups within Bristol Bay, many of our allies, are still very fully committed and actually have formally intervened in those cases to defend the protections.
Mongabay: What do you think this veto, and the support from the Department of Justice, signals for the potential for environmental protections in the current Trump administration?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: I will say that we are equally surprised and happy that the current administration is working to defend those protections in court as well. It is also a very unpredictable administration.
And so, while we’ve made great progress, we are still definitely working to solidify those protections in court in a pretty volatile environment as well as working to address the 20 other active mining claims throughout the watershed.
Mongabay: This has been a long path to finally getting the Pebble Bay mine canceled, and there’s more still to come. Spending so many years on such an intense project, what are some of the strategies that you and your coalition use knowing you’re in for a long-term battle to keep up momentum, hope and morale for the group, especially with a political situation that has been changing really dramatically?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: Unfortunately, Indigenous people in this country are no stranger to battles when the odds are against you. I think for our people, from a tribal perspective, we don’t really have a choice. It’s such an existential threat to not only our culture and ways of life, but our actual existence in our homelands. We could not live here without clean water.
For me personally, it’s been helpful seeing how grounded many of my mentors and tribal leaders are in our cultural practices and ways of life, and trying our best to operate from a place of love as opposed to anger.
You can be angry at the system, you can be angry at all these different injustices, but remember that this all comes from a place of love, a love for our people, a love for our land, a love for our ways of life. Operating from a place of love and being grounded in our practices has always been a source of strength and has helped us persevere over the many decades this has been going on.
Mongabay: As you said, there is more work to come: Northern Dynasty has taken the fight over Pebble to court, alleging that the EPA’s veto is unlawful. What is the United Tribes of Bristol’s response to that?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: Yes. We’re in court and expect arguments to start this summer. United Tribes of Bristol Bay, and some of our partner organizations in and out of the region, have formally intervened in the case and are working to defend the protections and are feeling cautiously optimistic. I think we have decades of administrative record and science on our side.
However, the Clean Water Act protections, the EPA veto, applies only to the Pebble deposit.
There are other mining claims, although Pebble is the biggest — so the thought was that if Pebble went through, it would provide the infrastructure to basically make a mining district for all these other proposals. So, while we’ve been successful and are defending those protections that stopped the development of the Pebble deposit in court, we’re also seeing movement with some of these other proposals, regardless of the fact that Pebble has been stopped.
So, while we’re defending the protections that stopped Pebble, we are looking at potential legislation at the state level. Since we have 20 other active mining claims on state lands in our watershed, this [legislation] would address all mines like Pebble within the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve.
Mongabay: What sort of action would you seek for the long-term protection of these lands?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: Our tribes have never changed their request that we really see the landscape as one — everything is connected. It’s really hard when you have political lines in the sand. But we have always had a really long-term vision to not only deal with Pebble, but deal with all these types of claims that are in our watershed, so our children aren’t doomed to fight proposal by proposal now until eternity.
All of those other deposits obviously would have to go through a very similar process as Pebble, in terms of federal permitting and state permitting. But because they’re located on state lands, their landlord, the state of Alaska, is actually where the broadest and most durable form of protection could come [if it applied the legislation UTBB would like to propose].
So, we have this two-part strategy that we’ve talked very publicly about. We need to stop Pebble. It’s the biggest, most imminent threat. That was obviously the priority for the last decade. And then simultaneously, or as much as you can with limited time, energy and resources, we’ve been working on a larger watershed-wide protections goal.
We definitely have a little more time and energy now to work towards that broader goal. And there was actually a bill introduced in the state legislature last session, which would ban metals mining in the reserve. Due to the challenging political environment and our governor, who is very much on the side of Pebble, it isn’t going to pass this session. But we’re building momentum for the future in a hopefully more favorable state administration.
Mongabay: You’ve built such a powerful coalition so far through this project. Do you see it working together on other projects or issues that you see on the horizon?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: Yes, I think the coalition that was built in the Pebble effort, we’re only beginning to see the fruits of what happens when people stop fighting over a resource and work together to start protecting it, recognizing that existent existential threat for all of us.
I think we already have some beautiful examples of better understanding, respect and a will to work together with local Indigenous peoples. I feel like there’s no way we would have been here without so many allies, so many individuals speaking up.
At the end of the day, it’s about connection and relationships across these different groups, and even when times get hard, working through those things. And so, I’m really excited for what we can do together in the future. I feel like those connections and those relationships are only going to serve our region in ways that we have yet to see.
Mongabay: Last but certainly not least, you’re the recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, which is an incredible achievement. How do you see the recognition that comes with this prize benefiting your work and future efforts?
Alannah Acaq Hurley: Thank you so much. You know, it’s really a testament to the work of the collective. This fight wasn’t about one person. There’s no way one person could have made the progress we’ve made together as a collective and a coalition. And so, I see this recognition really helping amplify the amazing success that we’ve been blessed with in Bristol Bay when it comes to Pebble. We are just so thankful for the continued recognition, celebration and willingness to help us continue to be Indigenous peoples in Bristol Bay.
But also, my hope is for people to see that the work is not over. The work needs to continue for long-term, healthy, sustainable Native people in Bristol Bay, and being able to steward this land in ways that our ancestors have for thousands of years requires long-term commitment and vision.
I’m really excited to help bring awareness to that, and hopefully bring some rejuvenated support for our region and the many things we have ahead.
Banner image: Alannah Acaq Hurley in Dillingham, Alaska. January, 2026. Image by Goldman Environmental Prize.
Nigerian bat specialist wins Goldman Prize for community conservation work
Nigerian bat specialist wins Goldman Prize for community conservation work
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