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A Lasting Solution for the Arctic Refuge

Over the past several years there have been countless outrageous attempts in Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to exploitative and destructive oil drilling.

Now, with a new Congress, we have a promising opportunity to protect this pristine wildlife haven once and for all.

Please write to your representative today and urge support for providing the permanent protection that this national treasure deserves.

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Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Support the Arctic Wilderness bill (H.R. 39)

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

As your constituent, I urge you to cosponsor H.R. 39, the "Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act," which would provide permanent wilderness protection for America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Congress has come too close to despoiling this national treasure too many times over the past few years. It is time to put the issue to rest by designating Wilderness protection for the Arctic Refuge, finally safeguarding this beloved landscape from the certain destruction that oil development would bring.

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not a path to energy independence or lower gas prices, and the harm to our most pristine wildlife refuge and the ancient way of life of the native Gwich'in people would be irreparable.

It is our responsibility to protect national treasures like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations. It is my hope that you will join every effort to keep it pristine, starting with adding your name to the Arctic Wilderness bill.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
January 19, 2007


Background Information

America’s wildest refuge has been in critical danger for years. There have been countless attempts to open the heart of the Arctic Refuge to a spider web of roads, oil rigs, and pipelines, which would forever destroy this pristine landscape. Through the hard work of conservation-minded Americans like you, we have been able to keep the Refuge safe in fight after fight—but these constant threats must stop.

 Earthjustice at Work
Earthjustice has long  been working through the courts to protect the Arctic and special places throughout Alaska.

With the start of the new 110th Congress, we have the opportunity to provide permanent wilderness protection for this pristine Arctic landscape. Now is the time to say, once and for all, that this area will always be protected as a haven for wildlife and a cultural reserve for native Alaskans and future generations.

Wilderness is the answer

On January 10, 2007, U.S. Representatives Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) introduced a bill to designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as an official Wilderness Area, permanently protecting this unspoiled wildlife and cultural haven from oil drilling and other destructive activities. Wilderness designation would add the Artic Refuge to a network managed as directed by the Wilderness Act of 1964, to remain “untrammeled by man” and “without permanent improvements.”

This legislation is vital to recognizing the incalculable value of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and highlighting the special role of the coastal plain, its biological heart and the “sacred place where life begins” for the native Gwich’in people. The area is also home to denning polar bear, which the Bush administration recently acknowledged are seriously threatened by global warming. 

If passed, the “Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act” would be the culmination of promises made to future Americans by both President Eisenhower, who established the core of the Refuge, and by Rep. Morris Udall, who championed legislation doubling its size in 1980.

The fate of a wild place

At the heart of the debate over the Arctic Refuge is the pristine coastal plain, home to polar bears, brown bears, musk oxen, and wolves, along with millions of migratory birds and the Porcupine caribou herd, which migrates thousands of miles to calve there during the summer months. The Native Gwich'in people depend upon this annual migration for their subsistence way of life, calling the coastal plain "the place where life begins." This 1.5 million acre area between the Brooks mountain range and the Arctic Ocean is the biological heart of the 19 million acres designated by Congress in 1980 as a national wildlife refuge.

While drilling proponents assert that the oil "footprint" would cover just 2, 000 acres, the reality is that the spider web of roads and pipelines necessary to wrest oil from this unique landscape would broadly and permanently damage an enormous swath of the coastal plain. This permanent and irreversible destruction would also be in vein -- The Department of Energy’s latest analysis estimates drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge wouldn’t lower gas prices at all in the short term, and would only net consumers about a penny a gallon at peak production in 2025.