The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is one of the largest remaining complete ecosystems in the world. The refuge contains the greatest diversity of animals in any conservation area in the circumpolar region and is highly sensitive to development.
The Coastal Plain, where drilling is again proposed, is the calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd that migrates from their winter grounds in Canada. There are 180 species of migratory birds from six continents that depend on the coastal lagoons for nesting, molting and feeding.
The Alaskan Gwitch’in, which means people of the caribou, depend on the Porcupine caribou for their social, economic and spiritual lives. They call the Coastal Plain “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.”
For 12,000 years both Canadian and U.S. indigenous people have depended on the caribou for food and their culture. In 1987 both countries signed the Canada-U.S. Agreement on the Conservation of the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
Canada honored the treaty and provided permanent wilderness status to their calving grounds, establishing Ivvavik and Vuntut National Parks. The U.S. has not honored the treaty.
In 1960 President Eisenhower established the Arctic National Wildlife Range including the Coastal Plain. In 1980 the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act doubled the size to 19 million acres and designated this area part of our wildlife refuge system to “conserve fish and wildlife populations and their habitats; including the Porcupine caribou herd to fulfill international treaty obligations, and to provide for subsistence uses.”
Having trekked the Arctic Refuge along the Kongakut River and foothills of the Brooks Range I saw small herds of caribou turn into thousands pouring over the passes on their way to the Coastal Plain to give birth. Sitting on a high ridge looking down on the Coastal Plain with life giving lagoons, and seeing ice on the Arctic Ocean, I know what we have to lose by drilling there.
There are no roads, no human trails; you can hunt, fish, kayak, canoe, backpack, and experience wilderness as it was created. This pristine wilderness is public land and belongs to every American.
Phyllis Mains
Cortez
