From: Ronnie Rykert [rryk1015@brockport.edu]
Sent: December 10, 2008 9:20 PM
To: lpayette@nirb.ca
Subject: Uravan Garry Lake Project, NIRB File 08EN037

Nunavut Impact Review Board,
I a writing to you today from the United States in which I currently live in New York. I have recently come to understand the decling caribou from the Beverly Caribou Herd, and the application of Uravan Mineral's, for mineral development (of uranium) on the calving grounds. I urge you today to not allow this to happen.  
As stewards of this earth and our dominan of over the animals of the land I belive that it is our responsibility and duty to maintain the health and the well being of populaitons of animals. Animlas are a gift and a very signigicant one. They offer food and are renewable resource for people that depend upon them. The Beverly Caribou Herd not only are an important resouce for the Inuit people of the Artic but are also a beautiful and mysterious creature of nature providing people enjoyment and an appreciation for the outdoors and wildlife. Do we not owe it to future generations to preserve this herd? 
Aside from the caribou herd providing benefits to people it is also a very important part of the ecosystem. Without them predators in the Arctic could be on the decline as well for lack of food. 
I strongly believe that any development in the Beverly Caribou Herd's calving grouds and especially the development of a mineral (uranimum) plant would have negative impacts on the herd and stress them even more.  Development on the calving grounds would cause habitat fragmentation, reducing their ability to forage and successfully complete mating activites from year to year. Development of this size and type could also cause loss of caribou from the Berverly Herd through accidents such as caribou and vehicle collisions as well as negative effects from the uranium. 
I strongly urge you in not developing the Uravan Mineral plant in the calving grounds of the Berverly Caribou Herd for it is suffering a population decline and numbers need to start increasing if to save the herd. Once a populations numbers have decreased to these low numbers it is hard to again reach the size of the original herd, and disruptions such as the development of a plant on the Bervely calving grounds could be the ticket to the extinction of the herd.
Again I urge you to think of the importance of the caribou to the ecosystem, and Inuit people as well as their right to live and we are the ones intruding upon their homes!
Thank You
Ronnie Rykert