Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Photographic documentation of the necessity to preserve this precious area.

Tucked away in the northeastern corner of Alaska is one of the most contested landscapes in all of North America: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Considered sacred by Indigenous peoples in Alaska and Canada and treasured by environmentalists, the refuge provides life-sustaining habitat for caribou, polar bears, migratory birds, and other species. For decades, though, the fossil fuel industry and powerful politicians have sought to turn this unique ecosystem into an oil field. Defending the Arctic Refuge tells the improbable story of how the people fought back. At the center of the story is the unlikely figure of Lenny Kohm (1939–2014), a former jazz drummer and aspiring photographer who passionately committed himself to Arctic Refuge activism. With the aid of a trusty slide show, Kohm and representatives of the Gwich'in Nation traveled across the United States to mobilize grassroots opposition to oil drilling. From Indigenous villages north of the Arctic Circle to Capitol Hill and many places in between, this book shows how Kohm and Gwich'in leaders and environmental activists helped build a political movement that transformed the debate into a struggle for environmental justice. In its final weeks, the Trump administration fulfilled a long-sought dream of drilling proponents: leasing much of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain for fossil fuel development. Yet the fight to protect this place is certainly not over. Defending the Arctic Refuge traces the history of a movement that is alive today—and that will continue to galvanize diverse groups to safeguard this threatened land.

Frames the current debate over potential oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by presenting a detailed history of the establishment of ANWR. Features interviews with survivors from the initial push to establish ANWR in the 1940s and 1950s and with family members and associates of those who are no longer living. Also chronicles the 1980 expansion of ANWR.--(Source of description unspecified.)

Two hundred color images celebrating the birds that journey to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge each year are accompanied by essays by noted biologists and conservationists.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) consists of 19 million acres in north-east Alaska. It is administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in the Department of the Interior (DOI). It is a 1.5 million acre coastal plain on the North Slope of the Brooks Range that is currently viewed as one of the most likely undeveloped US onshore oil and gas prospects. According to the US Geological Survey, there is even a small chance that taken together, the fields on this federal land could hold as much economically recoverable oil as the giant field at Prudhoe Bay, found in 1967 on the coastal plain west of ANWR. That state-owned portion of the coastal plain is now estimated to have held 11-13 billion barrels of oil. The Refuge, and especially the coastal plain, is home to a wide variety of plants and animals. The presence of caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves, migratory birds, and many other species in a nearly undisturbed state has led some to call the area America's 'Serengeti'. The Refuge and two neighbouring parks in Canada have been proposed for an international park, and several species found in the area (including polar bears, caribou, migratory birds, and whales) are protected by international treaties or agreements. The analysis in this book covers, first, the economic and geological factors that have triggered new interest in development, followed by the philosophical, biological, and environmental quality factors that have triggered opposition to it. The book begins with a review of the nature and issues of the ANWR.