There are few icons of wilderness as powerful as the bears of southwest Alaska. With thousands of them living wild on the Alaska Peninsula, they play crucial roles as ecosystem curators and economic drivers, drawing wildlife lovers from all over the world who support the region's lucrative, sustainable, bear viewing industry. 

A McNeil bear is not just a McNeil bear. McNeil bears travel far and wide frequently venturing outside the protection of the Sanctuary to utilize the seasonal abundance of the Alaska Peninsula. Many will cross the mountains to take advantage of the last great salmon run on earth in Bristol Bay.

The Pebble Mine is the biggest threat to brown bears in the world today. A proposed copper mine and infrastructure corridor will fragment the best bear habitat in the world, destroy crucial denning areas, and destroy the salmon runs of Bristol Bay that have supported the peoples and ecosystems of southwest Alaska for tens of thousands of years.