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

Amy Vedder and Nicole Whittington-Evans, right, stop for a shot while crossing the Ikpikpuk River

Credit: Courtesy Nicole Whittington-Evans

Have you ever been so close to a wild bird that you could see its dark, determined eye while it sat on its nest, or touch its soft, intricate feathers?  Dr. Amy Vedder, Senior Vice President of Conservation at The Wilderness Society, and I recently had this experience in Alaska’s Western Arctic region at a shorebird research field camp organized by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).  Region:  Alaska Read more

Polar bears, bowhead whales, and native communities are safe from the oil spill devastation that their Gulf coast counterparts are still dealing with. The Obama Administration has announced that they are postponing oil drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off of Alaska’s northern coast until at least 2011. That includes Shell Oil’s plans to do risky exploratory drilling this summer. The decision comes as part of a larger report on the Deepwater Horizon disaster that was delivered to the President by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Read more