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The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Finally, your chance to save it for good

October 12, 2011 By Tim Woody

The oil and gas industry has had its eye on the Arctic Refuge for decades, but you can help protect it from drilling.

Credit: Lincoln Else

Decades of unrelenting calls from the oil industry to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may finally be stymied—if we act now.The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which manages the Arctic Refuge, is considering recommending wilderness designation for the refuge’s coastal plain, where oil and gas companies have lobbied to drill since the 1980s. Read more

Justice for the Arctic

January 18, 2011 By Ben Beach

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in Wilderness Magazine, our annual publication that features in-depth coverage and features about the day’s most pressing conservation issues. Become a member to receive a copy as well as quarterly newsletters. Justice for the Arctic An essay by historian Douglas Brinkley Region:  Alaska Read more

Happy 50th Birthday, Arctic Refuge! Help us give the gift of greater protections

December 1, 2010 By Neil Shader

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Brendan O'Brien.

For 50 years the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been a place of untrammeled beauty, an untouched Eden in the last frontier. But that tranquility is again under attack from short-sighted politicians in Washington that want to spoil the crown jewel of the National Wildlife Refuge System with roads and oil drills. The Arctic Refuge has been under constant threat from oil drilling, threatening the caribou, polar bears, and native Gwich’in people that call the Refuge their home. Read more

Protecting the Arctic Refuge: See what 50,000 voices have accomplished

October 4, 2010 By Neil Shader

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by JGHurst, Flickr.

When one person says something, it can often be overlooked — when 50,000 people say something, well, then everyone listens. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is listening. In late September they announced they will conduct a wilderness review for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This review is the first step to getting a full presidential recommendation to Congress that the Arctic Refuge be permanently protected as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Read more

The land of the kings: Alaska’s Western Arctic Reserve needs protections

September 29, 2010 By Neil Shader

King Eider in Alaska. Courtesy USGS.

Despite its remote position on the northern-most edge of the United States, Alaska’s Western Arctic Reserve is a bustling place where busy populations of migrating birds, waterfowl and other wildlife thrive. It is the kingdom of the King Eiders, a dramatically feathered Arctic duck species that flocks in mass to the area’s wetlands every year to breed. Unfortunately, the oil and gas industry has its sights set on this once well-established empire near the Arctic coast. Read more

Flying Kites for Alaska’s Birds

May 5, 2010 By Susannah Clark

The Arctic is Alive Rally. Photo by Neil Shader.

Despite a not-so-breezy morning, members of The Alaska Wilderness League coerced dozens of passersby to fly white bird-shaped kites in front of the reflecting pool on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. last Wednesday. The first of many planned “ The Arctic is Alive” rallies, the display was meant to send a message to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before a public hearing about the management plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge held later that day. Read more

Celebrating 50 Years of Bears, Birds, and Caribou in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

April 30, 2010 By William H. Meadows

Bill Meadows

Soon more than 100,000 caribou will be roaming the coastal plain, with females nursing their new-born calves. Polar bears will have left their dens and headed off to coastal waters. Millions of migratory songbirds and waterfowl will be nesting. The Gwich'in people will be fishing and hunting and building stores for the winter, as they have for thousands of years. Read more

Bush’s Last Assault: Real life Arctic tale needs a happy ending (Part 5 of 6)

November 20, 2008 By Anne Gore

Polar bear. Photo by Ken Whitten.

I recently had the chance to see Arctic Tale, a National Geographic documentary film geared towards children that tells the story of a young polar bear (Nanu) and walrus (Seela) from birth to adulthood. The movie touches on a few examples of how climate change is affecting these animals and pulls at the heartstrings in the process. In one scene, Nanu’s brother collapses from hunger and exhaustion. He dies and has to be left behind as his mother and sister move on in search of food. Read more