Summer issue of ACF Dispatch reports on the toxic possibilities of a proposed uranium mine in Elim--is this the future we want for Alaska?

The Inupiat village of Elim (pop. 339) in northwest Alaska is perhaps best known as one of the checkpoints on the famed Iditarod Trail. In the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome, Elim is one of the last stops before mushers cross the icy, windblown expanse of Norton Sound. Residents of the village have relied for hundreds of years on the environment—in the form of salmon, seals, walrus, beluga whales, caribou, moose, plants, and berries—to sustain their way of life. Elim is now facing a challenge that could seriously affect the environment, and thus the health and well-being of all its people. Exploration work is underway for a uranium mine 30 miles northeast of the village in a place the Inupiat know as—ironically—Death Valley.

Read about the proposed Elim mine and others, a temporary victory at Teshekpuk Lake, landmark energy legislation, how a successful grant helped reveal Interior Department misconduct, the growing plight of Alaska's polar bears and walruses, and more in the summer issue!

To learn more, read the cover story and the rest of the Dispatch.