J-school junior named 2011 Burch Fellow

Bryce Butner, a junior journalism and English double major from Burnsville, N.C., will travel to Alaska to document the controversy surrounding a proposed open-pit copper mine as part of the Burch Fellows Program in the College of Arts and Sciences. He was one of six undergraduates selected.

As a result of Butner’s adolescence spent on trout streams across western North Carolina, his interests include fisheries, ecology and sustainable fishing practices. If construction of the copper mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, is permitted, the sockeye salmon runs could potentially diminish. He plans to document local sentiment, both pro- and anti-mine, as well as interview local politicians, scientists and mining officials. He will pay particular attention to the fact that, if constructed, the mine could provide jobs for certain impoverished Alaskan communities while simultaneously depleting the economies of other communities. He plans to publish a documentary about the controversy.

The Burch Fellows Program provides funding for Carolina undergraduates to undertake journeys in the U.S. and abroad to pursue independent study projects. The program, supported by Lucius E. Burch III ’63 recognizes undergraduates who possess extraordinary ability, promise and imagination.