Sadly, the answer is always the same. Because of Alaska’s remoteness and lack of infrastructure, and Shell’s inadequate technology, the company would recover very little – if any – spilled oil.
While Prudhoe Bay has its place in meeting U.S. energy needs, there is no doubt that oil development has caused irreversible changes to the Prudhoe Bay region.
As the new president of The Wilderness Society, I’m visiting Alaska’s Arctic to get a first-hand look at the landscapes we’re working to protect and the role oil drilling has on Alaska’s Arctic and its people.
Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is an amazing landscape of rainforest-covered mountains and islands that provide habitat for salmon, bear, deer, wolves, and the Alaska people who have spent decades seeing the forest as a source of income from logging.
This study conducted by Stillwater Sciences for The Wilderness Society examines the effects of timber harvests on coho salmon populations in a heavily logged watershed on Alaska's Prince of Wales Island, and the results are alarming: Logging and related road construction and erosion near Sta
