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Yet, we already have resource development in Berners Bay. Alaska Discovery has been taking guests kayaking into Berners Bay (and other destinations) to enjoy our pristine Alaska wilderness for more than 35 years.

We, and many others like us, have been here for a long time, and we will be here for many years after Coeur Alaska has finished with their proposed project. Ours is a sustainable resource. Our staff live here. We spend our income locally. Our guests are here for many days. They stay in our hotels, they eat in our restaurants, they shop in our stores. They patronize Alaska-owned businesses, and those dollars spent all stay here in Alaska. Annually, these guests bring millions of dollars to the economy of Southeast Alaska, and they will continue to do so far longer than the 10 to 15 years that Coeur Alaska tells us they will keep the mine open.

Our industry offers much and takes almost nothing. We may not be able to match the short-term dollars that Coeur is insisting they will bring to the region, but we will far surpass that financial benefit to Southeast Alaska in the long term. And there is no question of whether we will be leaving a legacy of environmental degradation.

Let's weigh our knowns against our unknowns.

We know that having increased ferry traffic will disrupt the wilderness nature of Berners Bay. We know the noise pollution from an operating gold mine will disrupt that quiet and solitude that we all need to reconnect with at some time or another (or we wouldn't be here in Alaska). We know that we will have a visual fragmentation of the natural landscape of Berners Bay with a dock at Cascade Point and a dam on Slate Lake.

With eco-tourism, we know that the noise pollution may be that whispered excitement as people are enchanted by the wonders of Berners Bay, or the light splash as a paddle dips in the water. We might have increased kayak traffic, up to six kayaks a day, three days a week - and we know that, at the end of the day, the visual and cerebral tranquility has not been disturbed.

It may take adventure tourism 25 years to bring into the Juneau economy the dollars that Coeur offers us in 10 years, but we won't have the unknowns of how much damage to the marine life - possible cyanide pollution of the groundwater, which environmental laws have to be "bent" to favor Coeur Alaska, or whether this will become a Superfund site - and we've gained that same economic benefit that defenders of development are calling for, without any of the risks that all of us are unsure of with a mining operation. That is what sustainability is all about. It works in our fishing industry. Let's keep it working in our own backyard.

• Butch Carber is a Juneau resident who works for Alaska Discovery Wilderness Adventures.