As President Obama gives his annual State of the Union address, those of us at The Wilderness Society feel the timing is urgent to give our own “State of Public Lands” briefing.

As the nation's premiere public lands conservation organization, we’re happy to report that the Obama administration has begun to correct the most industry-centric land policies of the Bush era, a time when vast tracks of the nation’s wildlands were offered on a platter to oil and gas development.

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.

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.

On Sunday, ten days after setting out from Alaska’s Dalton Highway, my friend Brad Meiklejohn and I floated on our packrafts into Arctic Village, the final stop on our adventure through the Arctic Refuge and the place I’ve come to teach a summer science camp to village kids. As we geared up for this great journey, we expected some encounters with wildlife; the refuge has delivered ten-fold.

Zombies are a hot topic in pop culture these days — zombie books, zombie television shows, and even rumors of a Brad Pitt led zombie movie.

And unfortunately, the zombie trend has reached Capitol Hill, and some bad policy ideas are crawling out of the legislative graveyard.