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Media attention increased during the conflict between wilderness users and a proposed mine development at Windy Craggy Mountain. The developers proposed that a highway be built across the Tatshenshini to carry ore to Haines, Alaska, and then to Japan. In 1989 concerned rafters and conservationists formed the organization Tatshenshini Wild to fight the proposed mine and to gain international recognition for the area as a protected wilderness. In 1993 the area was set aside as a provincial park. Shortly after the area was designated, and despite opposition from the mining industry, in 1994 the system of protected areas in Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia that cover much of the St. Elias Mountains was declared a United Nations World Heritage Site. This includes Kluane National Park in the Yukon, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, and the Tatshenshini-Alsek Wilderness Provincial Park in British Columbia. These parks together comprise the largest protected area in the world, with a combined area of approximately 8.5 million hectares.
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