Michael Melford

The life cycle of the salmon -- birth, migration to salt water, return to their natal river, spawning, and death -- is one of the most spellbinding sagas in the natural world. When this male sockeye dies, its body will contribute life-sustaining nutrients to the pristine ecosystem of Bristol Bay, Alaska, which is home to one of the greatest salmon runs and commercial fisheries in North America.

However, Bristol Bay is now at risk from proposals to develop a giant copper, gold, and molybdenum mine. The Pebble Mine would be centered on a two-mile-wide open pit, transforming a roadless wilderness into a hellish moonscape of waste rock, storage pits, earthen dams, access roads, pipelines, and power lines.

In this exquisite book, National Geographic photographer Michael Melford’s stunning images of the Alaskan landscape and its wild residents show us what is at stake.