Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Too Wild To Waste - opposition to President Bush's plan to drill for oil - Brief Article

National Wildlife, June-July, 2001

Anyone who cares about America's wildlife and natural heritage must speak out to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil development.

That's the clear message of the National Wildlife Federation's campaign to generate grass-roots opposition to Bush administration proposals for oil and gas development in one of the wildest, most pristine places in the United States. NWF plans call for petition drives and letter- writing campaigns to urge Congress to keep the Arctic refuge off-limits to drilling.

The 1.5-million-acre coastal plain that is the focus of proposed oil exploration is the most biologically productive part of the refuge. A total of 135 bird species from four continents, as well as more than 100 other wildlife species, depend on the habitat of the coastal plain. It also is the primary calving ground for the Porcupine caribou herd, the most important land-denning area for polar bears in the Alaskan Arctic, year-round home to musk-oxen, arctic foxes and wolverines, and habitat for wolves and bears.

"America cannot drill its way to energy security in the Arctic or anywhere else," says NWF President Mark Van Putten. "The best way to meet our future energy needs is to develop new and existing alternative sources and to better conserve the energy we have."

NWF notes that 95 percent of the potential oil reserves of Alaska's north coast is already open to exploration. The additional five percent in the Arctic refuge has been off- limits since the1950s.

According to the latest government estimate, there is only a 50 percent chance of finding a nine-month supply of oil in the refuge-far too little to risk damaging such a special place.

To learn more about this issue and what you can do, see www.nwf.org/arcticrefuge or contact Pam Goddard by calling 202-797-6636 or by e-mailing goddard@nwf.org.