The Map George W. Doesn't Want You to See - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - Brief Article

This is a simplified version of the map that got Ian Thomas fired. Thomas, a contract map-maker with the U.S. Geological Survey in Patuxent, Maryland, was abruptly dismissed this March after adding it to the 20,000 other maps he had posted to the agency's Web site (www.mbr-pwrc. usgs.gov/geotech). The USGS says that the map is inaccurate because it is out of date; Thomas says it was based on the most recent publicly available information.

The real reason for Thomas's dismissal seems to be that the map was posted at the same time that officials at the Department of the interior were briefing Secretary Gale Nor ton on the ecology of the" 1002 Area" (outlined in black on the map). This is the coastal plain where the Bush administration wants to permit oil drilling; it is also, as Thomas's map inconveniently pointed out, critical to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's caribou. Had Thomas used the newest data, the core calving area shown here would appear even larger.

* For more on the scandal and other maps by Thomas, see www.maptricks.com.