Alternative One

Glenn Michell Dobbs, 67 years of age, is president and CEO of Mines Management Inc, Montanore Minerals Corporation, and Newhi Inc, all based in Spokane, Washington. He has dealt mainly in money rather than mining throughout his career, founding the Alpha Commodities Fund in 1976, First American Bank in 1978, and the InterGold Fund in 1996, as well as acting as regional manager for Monex International. In 2009, Dobbs, along with several entities Dobbs controls or owns that are located in the Bahamas and the Carribean island of Nevis, was sued by a former investor. In the suit, the victim claims that Dobbs bilked him out of several hundred thousand dollars.  Dobbs paid an out-of-court settlement to the victim. Glenn Dobbs served a brief term as a Washington State representative, during which he earned a Washington State Labor Council score of zero for his labor voting record, invariably saying "no" to pro-labor, pro-worker legislation.

Jerry Pogue, 68 years old, is the “Wealth President” of MMI.  He sits on the boards of various mine and non-mine related corporations, including Wealth Minerals Ltd of Vancouver, British Columbia and MCBWeb.com, a website development business, also based in B.C. Pogue heads Palmer Resources Ltd, a Canadian mining concern, and is chairman of the board of Indico Resources Ltd. and Lyon Lake Mines Ltd. Pogue styles himself a self-employed financial consultant, stock broker, and investment analyst.

Robert L. Russell, 75, is a director of MMI. Educated as an engineer, Russell is a mining services consultant via his business R.L. Russell Associates.  In the late 20^th century, Russell managed the Freeport McMoRan gold mine in Indonesia, the site of not only the world’s largest such facility but also the site of some of the worst human rights violations on earth. According to a New York Times investigative report, Freeport McMoRan paid the Indonesian military a total of $20 million to police the mine site and filed false proxy statements in violation of the Securities Exchange Act.  Officials also believe that the mining company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices act. In addition, this Indonesian gold mine has caused severe environmental damage to the formerly pristine Indonesian landscape, causing the Government Pension Fund of Norway, the world’s largest pension fund, to exclude Freeport-McMoRan from its investment portfolio on ethical grounds. 

Threatened Wildlife:  Canada Lynx

Canada lynx  range between 18-23 pounds and measure 30-35 inches in length, similar to the size of a bobcat.  However, the lynx has front legs that are shorter than its back legs, giving it a slightly hunched look. Also, unlike bobcats, lynx have tufted ears and black-tipped tails.  Their primary prey is the snowshoe hare. The Canada lynx has been listed as threatened under the ESA since 1998.  In 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that the lynx is threatened due to inadequate regulatory mechanisms, specifically the lack of consistency of management efforts by the National Forest Land and Resource Management Plans. The most important factors that affect lynx reproduction are timber management, fire management, recreation, backcountry roads and trails, and other human developments, including mines and agriculture.  The most important factors regarding lynx mortality include trapping, illegal shooting, and competition with human activities, such as mining and logging.

Threatened Wildlife:  Gray Wolf

The gray wolf is the largest canine, at up to 6 and a half feet in length from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. Wolves can weigh between 55 and 130 pounds.  Gray wolves were listed under ESA as an endangered species until, in 2011, Montana senator John Tester accomplished their delisting by skirting the ruling of a federal judge and adding a rider to an unrelated bill that removed their protection under the Endangered Species Act. According to data from 2010, 326 wolves populate the Northwest Montana region. The state of Montana plans a wolf hunting season to begin in September, with a quota that would cut the current population in half.  The term “wolf harvest” is being used as a pseudonym for the wholesale destruction of this recently reintroduced species. During the 2009 wolf hunt, 82 percent were “harvested” on public lands. Human predation is the leading cause of wolf mortality, with 141 of the total 179 wolf deaths documented in Montana for 2010 due to human actions related to wolf and livestock situations.

Threatened Wildlife:  Grizzly Bear

Female grizzly bears range in weight from 330 to 770 pounds, while males can weigh up to 1,000 pounds.  While technically a carnivore, 80 to 90 percent of the grizzly’s diet is plant material, such as the nuts of the whitebark pine. Once numbering approximately 50,000 in North America, currently only about 1,000 grizzlies remain in the lower 48 states.  The grizzly bear, listed since 1975  as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), has as a species lost 99 percent of its habitat in the contiguous U.S.  In 1993, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated a half dozen Grizzly Bear Recovery Zones, one of which is the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) in northwest Montana.  NCDE is the third largest of the six zones, contains the most bears, and is the only zone that directly fronts the stronger Canadian grizzly population region. Grizzly experts consider NCDE the best chance for fostering the long-term survival of the species in the U.S., with the exception of Alaska.  Within NCDE, the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly population contains, at most, approximately 45 individual bears.