Alaska Bristol Bay guide, lodge owner, and conservationist Nanci Morris Lyon has spent 20 years as one of the most devoted champions standing between Pebble Mine and the world’s most extraordinary wild salmon fishery.
A legendary Bristol Bay rainbow. Nanci has dedicated her life to chasing and fighting for these fish. © Nanci Morris Lyon
Story by Marian Giannulis
Nanci Morris Lyon isn’t afraid of working hard when the odds are stacked against her. When describing her ascent from a working-class upbringing on a small farm in eastern Washington, to being one of the first female guides in a world-class fishery, to owning a premier fishing lodge in a coveted destination, she has this to say: “The possibilities and opportunities for failure were so numerous. It’s unbelievable. But I never thought about that, and I just continued to look ahead and move ahead.”
That fortitude has led to Lyon’s success in business and contributed to the success of one of the most significant conservation wins in recent memory.
Following her passion
Lyon’s love for fishing and the outdoors has guided her entire life. Her father sparked that passion early on.
“Some of my earliest childhood fishing memories are of my father holding me over the edge of the boat so I could pee. So that gives you an idea of how little I was, to be able to do that,” she said. “I can never remember him leaving me home or us not fishing at every opportunity we had.”
Lyon’s father didn’t let her age or gender stop her from coming along on all those outdoor adventures.
That passion took her north to Alaska. Lyon spent some time moving between careers—veterinary medicine to real estate, business management to guiding—before she settled into her true calling and home: guiding in the bountiful waters of Bristol Bay.
“I fell in love with Bristol Bay so fast,” Lyon said. “It felt like home. There was water everywhere and it was clear and it was clean and you could see fish in it.”
When Lyon first landed in western Alaska in the mid-1980s, things looked a lot different than they do today. She was a pioneering female guide when there were few sportfishing lodges and female anglers in the region.
After almost a decade of guiding in Bristol Bay for others, she launched her own guiding business. That quickly grew from her being a single-guide operation to running a crew of seven guides. Lyon then took over as the head guide for Bear Trail Lodge before she became a part owner. Eventually, she took sole ownership of Bear Trail with her husband, Heath.
The fight of a lifetime
Nanci Lyon has spent the last 40 years guiding in one of the most incredible fisheries on the planet. She’s spent half that time fighting against the largest proposed open-pit mine in North America. Lyon was curious and intrigued by the potential opportunity when she first heard about Pebble Mine. At first blush, the mine seemed promising for the region’s economy.
“I quickly began to see how this was not going to be a good thing for Bristol Bay,” she said. “And there were several other people out here that came to that conclusion in the same amount of time that I did.”
The realities of building a mine spanning 20 square miles, with a 700-foot-tall and miles-wide earthen-pit dam holding back billions of tons of toxic waste, on top of the seismically active headwaters of the world’s most productive salmon fishery (and world-class rainbow trout and other resident species that rely on salmon and clean water) soon sank in. Lyon worked alongside other locals and lodge owners, like Brian Kraft, who saw past the promise of short-term riches to long-term destruction of the habitat that would threaten their salmon-based economy, cultures, and communities.
Together, they traveled throughout Bristol Bay and educated others on the massive threats the proposed mine would bring, village by village. It took real courage to speak out in those early days. Disagreements on Pebble fractured families and divided communities, but Lyon knew she owed it to her neighbors and the fish to make sure all were informed.
She also knew they couldn’t win this fight on their own.
“One of the first contacts I made was to Trout Unlimited (TU) looking for help,” Lyon said. “I knew that we needed other people more knowledgeable and with more clout to be able to come take a look at what was happening and advise us in what direction we should consider going.”
TU president and CEO Chris Wood visited the region and pledged TU’s support for the fight that has lasted 20 years and is still ongoing. Lyon has collaborated with TU ever since.
This decades-long battle is peppered with significant moments and memories for Lyon. The testifying at community meetings with her infant daughter, Rylie, on her lap…The turmoil of constantly battling against an incredibly powerful and wealthy foreign mining company…The countless fishing trips where she used her skills as a guide to introduce powerful people to the wonders of Bristol Bay, seeking donations, support, and influence.
“I wonder what else we could have accomplished if we weren’t battling Pebble all those years,” she pondered.
Nanci’s two brothers played a major role in her favorite childhood memories. © Nanci Morris Lyon
Nanci loves sharing her passion for fishing with other anglers young and old. © Nanci Morris Lyon
Nanci has worked with TU to advocate for safeguarding fish habitat for two decades. Here she is pictured alongside TU staff, other lodge owners, and former Alaska Governor Walker. © Nanci Morris Lyon
Nanci proudly displays a rainbow that Guide Academy student Courtney helped her catch. © Nanci Morris Lyon
A local legacy
Lyon’s contributions to safeguarding Bristol Bay took up much of her time, but her legacy doesn’t stop there. She resides in the community of King Salmon year-round, just a short drive from her lodge on the banks of the Naknek River. In her early days in western Alaska, most locals did not flyfish, and many were wary of the practice.
“I’d visit local schools to referee basketball and as the kids got to know me, they’d be like, ‘So what’s that? What’s flyfishing like?’” she said.
Lyon responded to the interest by teaching flyfishing classes at the local college that always sold out. She was then approached by Luki Akelkok and Tim Troll from the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust to come on as the lead instructor for the newly formed Bristol Bay Fly Fishing and Guide Academy.
The Guide Academy prepares young adults for jobs in the sportfishing and tourism industries while inspiring them to become local leaders in salmon stewardship. This free, weeklong course has taught nearly 200 students from the region. Several of the graduates have gone on to leadership roles in the tourism industry in Bristol Bay, including guiding at Lyon’s lodge.
“The people who have roots here and have culture here are the ones who are going to protect it better and more thoughtfully than anyone else could,” Lyon said. “The more graduates we can put into the guiding business the closer we are to that goal.”
Community of champions
When Lyon reflects on the immense effort to save Bristol Bay, she focuses on the good. This fight has brought together so many people from different walks of life to support a shared cause. Commercial, sportfish, and subsistence fishermen typically don’t see eye to eye, but within Bristol Bay these groups have worked together to defend the shared resource that supports them all.
Champions from communities across Bristol Bay banded together and worked alongside Alaskans, conservation groups, business leaders, Republicans, Democrats, and Americans from throughout the country to safeguard this national treasure.
“The fight has been so awful and so long and so strenuous in so many ways, but so
Trout Unlimited’s mission is to protect, reconnect, and restore North America’s cold-water fisheries and their watersheds. Learn about our work in Alaska at prioritywaters.tu.org/alaska. Marian Giannulis is the Alaska Communications & Engagement Director for Trout Unlimited.
For more conservation reading, check out Fish Alaska’s Conservation Blog for more.