A fast-track proposal to develop a gold mine near Alaska’s Cook Inlet and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is alarming scientists, environmental groups and local communities because of the devastating effects it is expected to have on the region’s critically endangered beluga whales.
Cook Inlet is home to a small and genetically distinct population of beluga whales that has struggled for decades from habitat loss, industrial activity, pollution, and underwater noise. Supporters of the mining project say it will bring jobs, economic growth and profit to Native Alaskans.
This week Traveler’s Lynn Riddick talks with Cooper Freeman, Alaska Director of the Center for Biological Diversity. His organization along with many others argue that the gold to be extracted isn’t worth the cost of threatening a species already vulnerable to extinction and forever desecrating a magnificent landscape.
Photo credit Cooper Freeman, Center for Biological Diversity.
0:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
0:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
0:59 Beyond the Reef - Tim Heintz & Grant Geissman - Seascapes: A Musical Journey
1:20 Friends of Acadia
1:46 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
2:11 Episode 374 - Cook Inlet's Beluga Whales
20:14 Otter Point - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
20:30 Grand Canyon Conservancy
20:52 Friends Alliance
21:16 Washington National Park Foundation
21:39 NPT Promo
21:57 Episode 374 Continues
56:33 Kenai Fjords - Various Artists - The Spirit of Alaska
57:00 Episode Closing
57:34 Orange Tree Productions
58:06 Splitbeard Productions
58:18 National Parks Traveler footer
- By Jess Repanshek - May 17th, 2026 5:00am
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