Lake and Peninsula Borough Clerk Kate Conley said Monday that she has approved an application for an initiative to stop within the borough any resource extraction activities that could have a significant adverse impact on the wild salmon resource.

Conley said she had advised George Jacko Jr. of Pedro Bay, who presented the application on behalf of Alaskans for Bristol Bay, that she will be preparing the initiative petition itself over the next few weeks.

The so-called "Save Our Salmon" initiative is aimed at prohibiting construction of large scale mining activities within the borough, to prevent adverse impact on dozens of salmon spawning streams. The Pebble Partnership, which has been doing exploration for several years at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed and plans to apply for permits to mine the site for copper, gold and molybdenum, is not specifically mentioned in the petition.

Once the petition is prepared, Alaskans for Bristol Bay will have 90 days to collect 96 signatures of persons eligible to vote in the Lake and Peninsula Borough, she said. The number of signatures is based on borough regulations which call for such petitions to be signed by at least 25 percent of the people who voted in the last borough election.

Once those signatures are gathered, the borough assembly will decide whether to have a special election or whether to include the initiative in the next general election, which will be held on Oct. 4, she said. 

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