Iconic of both Alaska's wildness and its fragility is the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge is at the center of the long debate over oil and gas development in Alaska. But it is not only the Refuge that is in grave danger. The Bush Administration's frantic emphasis on oil drilling on the nation's public lands has put a number of other valuable areas in the state at risk.
Aggressive Agenda
The Bush Administration's aggressive energy development agenda will strike with particular force in Alaska: it will commit to oil and gas activity five times as much Alaska land as has been leased over the past 50 years.
The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is certainly the best known example. The coastal plain serves as the calving grounds for the Porcupine River Caribou herd and also as the most important onshore denning habitat for polar bears in the U.S. Among other important places that could fall to energy development are these:
- Millions of acres of land in the western Arctic's National Petroleum Reserve that today are crucial for migratory waterfowl and another large concentration of caribou, the Western Arctic herd;
- The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge south of Anchorage where gas wells are proposed on lands that are central to brown bear survival;
- The Copper River Delta, which sustains one of Alaska's richest salmon runs, where oil and gas drilling are proposed near Katalla. The Wilderness Society and some of its Alaska partners will appeal this plan; and,
- A thousand miles of Arctic coastline, where the Interior Department proposes offshore oil and gas leasing. The Inupiat Eskimos oppose this development that would further jeopardize already endangered bowhead whales and polar bear populations as well.
Alaska's North Slope
From the north slopes of the Brooks Range, though the coastal plain and out into the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, America's Arctic is a diverse complex of globally significant, interdependent terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The heart of America's eastern Arctic is the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a region recognized for its superlative wildlife habitat, mind-bending scenic vistas and a long history of use by Alaska Natives.
The Refuge is properly considered the crowning glory of our National Wildlife Refuge System. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge system calls the Arctic Refuge "the only conservation system unit that protects, in an undisturbed condition, a complete spectrum of the arctic ecosystems in North America."
The biological heart of the Refuge is the coastal plain. And it is a crucial life link for the Gwich'in people for whom the Porcupine River caribou herd is a mainstay. The coastal plain serves as the herd's principal calving ground and also supports polar bears, arctic foxes, migratory birds and musk oxen.
But the Congress left unsettled the fate of the Refuge's coastal plain, the so-called "1002 Area," stopping short of designating it wilderness, but providing that it could only be opened to energy development by act of Congress. So Congress has wrestled regularly with efforts to open the Refuge to the oil and gas activity that will surely destroy it.
The Morris K. Udall Wilderness Act would designate almost 1.6 million acres on the coastal plain as wilderness and protect it from industrial intrusion. In the last Congress, 153 members of the House, representing both parties, cosponsored the bill. The Refuge's congressional champions will reintroduce the bill in the new Congress and we will advocate for it again, even as we summon all our strength to defend the Refuge against what is likely to be the most serious attack yet.
The Western Arctic
The core of America's western Arctic is what is commonly, and sadly, known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The name suggests an industrial site, the only value of which is subterranean. It is a name meant to divert the public eye and the public mind from the real value of the place: It is the largest expanse of unprotected public wildlands in the nation, seasonal home to huge numbers of waterfowl and to the nation's largest caribou herd.
The coastal plain in the western Arctic reserve is much wider and much wetter than the Arctic Refuge's coastal plain. Those extensive wetlands, in particular the Teshekpuk Lake area, are especially important to nesting and molting waterfowl, loons and shorebirds. The Colville River supports birds of prey in high densities. And the Utokok Uplands are home to Alaska's largest caribou population, numbering 430,000 animals.
Although some areas within the western Arctic reserve have been designated "special areas," that status provides no more than minimal protection for recreation, fish, wildlife, and historic and scenic values. While not all of this remarkable place qualifies for wilderness designation, much does and it should be protected as such. Other special places in the reserve should be protected for their wildlife and Native subsistence values, both of which would be forfeit to energy development on the scale contemplated.
The Arctic Outer Continental Shelf
The marine environment of the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf, composed of the southern reaches of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, provides critical habitat for polar bears and important marine mammals such as beluga and bowhead whales and bearded and spotted seals.
The ecological integrity of America's Arctic is delicate and endangered by poorly planned, piecemeal and damaging development. The Bush Administration wants to sacrifice millions of acres of wild Alaska public land for oil and gas leases before Americans even know what they stand to lose. In a self-serving chorus of empty reassurance, the oil industry and the administration promise careful, environmentally sound development.
But they ignore, and ask us to ignore, the stark evidence of destruction from existing oil and gas activity. Alaska's North Slope already comprises one of the largest industrial complexes in the world and the complex is growing. Development of existing oil fields has come at a steep environmental price.
The Oil Fields Sprawl Across 1,000 Square Miles Of America's Arctic
The industrial facilities and activities associated with the fields cause significant air and water pollution, changes in wildlife use patterns, severe restrictions on Alaska Native subsistence activities and other direct, indirect and cumulative impacts as yet not adequately measured. According to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Prudhoe Bay oil fields have produced an average of 400 oil spills -- 250,000 gallons -- every year.
Meanwhile, the most biologically rich wildlife and wilderness values of the region go unprotected. An administration serious about a "balanced" approach to energy policy and conservation would give complete protection to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and would acknowledge that special places with the Western Arctic area also deserve permanent protection.
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