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Your Favorite Refuges - Happy National Wildlife Refuge Week

As another National Wildlife Refuge week winds to a close, it is time to recognize some of the favorite Refuges around the country.  Some are famous, and some are hidden gems, but all are wonderful testaments to America’s conservation heritage. See some of the favorites below – and get out to your favorite Refuge, whether it is tomorrow or any time of year, and celebrate these special places.  Or explore a new Refuge – many are within a 1-hour drive from a major metropolitan area.  Read more

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

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

Stop Arctic Drilling: Help prevent this brewing disaster

Polar bear crossing through Arctic waters

Help save the Arctic from oil drilling! As you read this, big oil corporations are just a few steps away from drilling in sensitive Arctic waters, and possibly even under — and eventually in — the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, if all goes their way. Time is critical because several decisions affecting the fate of these extraordinary Arctic lands and waters could be made any day. Region:  Alaska Read more

Alaska's Western Arctic lands: Follow our Alaska director as she investigates shorebirds

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

New book by Douglas Brinkley chronicles the fight for Alaska's wilderness

Historian and prolific author Douglas Brinkley has topped bestseller lists with his unique explorations of American history, spanning topics as diverse as the life of Rosa Parks, Henry Ford and his company, and Hurricane Katrina. Read more

America's Wilderness Forever! The Wilderness Society Turns 76

Hikers at Glacier Bay, Alaska

A big thank you to all wilderness lovers, who have helped us reach another anniversary and another year of protection work for the nation’s most cherished wild lands. Read more

Justice for the Arctic

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

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