A symposium was held Wednesday night at the Nolan Center to discuss the effects of mining on Southeast Alaska's bear population. Lance

Craighead, a bear biologist, said that mining has the potential to have a very negative impact on bears. Most mining, Craighead said, occurs in

nearby British Columbia but anything happening there would literally flow downstream to Alaska.

"In general, Canada has some of the laxest mining regulations in the world next to China," he said. "For that reason they're about one of the few countries that still has big mining operations."

One of the biggest impact...