text: As someone who spent 20 years commercial fishing by the Chuit (as we called it) river - I really don't get the focus on salmon as the centerpiece of this fight over mining. There aren't very many salmon there - period - and no one depends on them for much of anything. What is cool about the the Chuit is the drainage itself - a place of marvelously sized cottonwoods and estuarine serenity that is not always easy to find.
  
  Over the last 50 years the mobile part of Anchorage has developed the west side of the inlet into a summer vacay destination - all the way from the west forelands to Knik arm. And very likely the future will see even more access - perhaps by road. The kind of experience one gets from slapping mosquitos and watching for bears in drainages like the Chuit is of enormous value to city-bound folks - and we should preserve those close opportunities.
  
  I've got nothing against coal - BUT our legislature should find a way to make the Chuit drainage an important state park.