By Bethany Bella

Im sure Im not the only one who thinks of red-nosed reindeer and prancing Christmas elves whenever I hear the word Yukon. And just like the gripping phrase from the beloved holiday cartoon, this northern paradise of Yukon, Canada is disappearing faster than a bumbling snow-monster descending into an icy oblivion. Modern mining technologies have made this remote landscape between Alaska and the western strip of Canada, the Yukon expanse only hosts 37,000 inhabitants in roughly the same size as the state of California. Forests, mountains, wetlands, and lakes are all sprinkled throughout the vast tundra, providing habitats for a variety of arctic wildlife, as well as a shelter for profitable mineral ores. The recent spike in Yukon-derived deposits isnt a first search for the ultimate get-richquick bounty of gold. Along came 1896, the beginning of the boom, so to speak. Soon after the golden exclamation reached the lower 48 states, hundreds of men began boarding ships to the banks of the Yukon and Klondike Rivers, eager to strip the land of all its impurities. Within a few short months, a freshly-leveled forest became the site of Yukon Territorys capital, Dawson City, a metropolis of 30,000 gruff, desperate miners, offering electricity, running water, and telecommunications. In 1899, Yukons mining epicenter diverged farther down the riverbed, and by 1953 was left mostly uninhabited. Nevertheless, the recent demand for mineral resources like gold, zinc, copper, along with other valuables has exposed the region of Yukon once more to mans unmerciful pickaxe, or more accurately, his bulldozer and round of explosives. This is the biggest geo-chemical exploration project on the planet right now, Shawn Ryan, a current Yukon prospector, claimed, and maybe in history.

the pinnacle for a gold miners incurable lust, capitalizing on the regions long-preserved, mountain-trapped deposits. Wedged

for the area. In the 1870s, prospectors began scoping out the mountainous expanse, scurrying in and out of rocky crevices in

Since 1996, Ryan and his crew of excavators have staked nearly 55,000 claims across Yukons sprawling terrain, foraging for the next golden opportunity quite literally. But many modern-day miners have continued to act under an unsustainable mentality, subjecting the Earth to hazardous waste-chemicals, known in the environmental community as acid mine drainage, and exploiting lands once sacred to the indigenous tribes of Canada. The mining industry always makes big promises, but now we have closed mines in the Yukon that are leaking arsenic and cyanide and lead. Instead of paying to clean up the mess, the companies just go bankrupt, Dave Loeks, chairman of the Peel Watershed Planning Commission, said. Only about 13 percent of the Yukons land area is strictly off-limits, while almost any adult can stake a claim, in pursuit of his destined, untold

riches. This rush for resources is jeopardizing the lands primitive dwellers, individuals who rely upon the environments animals and ecosystems to sustain them and their culture. The people coming up and taking out minerals arent asking what happens to the animals we hunt, the fish we eat, the topsoil that holds it all together, Trish Hume, a member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, said. And when the boom is over, how does our tiny population afford to clean up the toxic mess? The vast Yukon is currently in a state of flux, balancing precariously between the role of a sustainable dwelling and

an exploited mining abandon. Environmental advocates are pressuring Washington officials to reconsider the development plans for this territory, arguing that in this century, the environmental consequences far outweigh the greed of such disrupting mining companies, whose narrow-minded quest has prevented them from beholding a landscape of unaltered beauty. Wherever you go, theres just mountains and more mountains, too many to name, too many to count, Morgan Fraughton, a prospector manager, said. And I think, What if one of them disappeared? Would it really make a difference? We may soon find out. For more on this issue, read Tom Clynes feature on the Yukon Territory in the February 2014 issue of the National Geographic Magazine.