A Place Like No Other

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a spectacular wilderness of boreal forests, rugged mountains, sweeping tundra vistas, wild rivers, coastal lagoons, and barrier islands. Located in the northeastern corner of Alaska, the Arctic Refuge features a complete range of arctic and sub-arctic ecosystems and an extraordinary assemblage of wildlife. It is a place of unparalleled beauty, so wild that one may walk for days without seeing signs of another human being.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls the Refuge's Coastal Plain "the center for wildlife activity" for the entire Refuge. The Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge, the epicenter of the drilling debate, consists of the strip of land between the Beaufort Sea and the Brooks Range. This rugged, beautiful, and diverse landscape represents the ideal assortment of habitat types for migrating and breeding birds, as well as a host of other species. There is no greater place in America to experience wild nature, hike, fish, hunt, raft, camp, or simply lose oneself to the natural rhythms of the land.

However, part of the Coastal Plain of the Refuge, also known as the "1002 Area," is not permanently protected. To forever protect all of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge, Representatives Edward Markey (D-MA) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN) introduced the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act, H.R. 39.

Critical Polar bear habitat and more

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides vital habitat for some of America's most spectacular wildlife. Polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves, and muskoxen are just a few of the more than 250 species that rely on the Coastal Plain for their habitat. Millions of birds, representing some 180 species, migrate to the Coastal Plain to nest, rear their young, molt, and feed; birds from all 50 states and 6 of the world's continents migrate to the Arctic Refuge for the summer.

The Coastal Plain is critically important habitat for the vast Porcupine Caribou Herd. It's also the most significant on-shore polar bear denning habitat in the U.S. - an increasingly important reality as researchers discover that as global warming reduces offshore sea ice, polar bears are becoming more dependent on coastal denning.

Indigenous People

For centuries, the Gwich'in people of Alaska and Canada have been dependent, for their lives and their culture, on the Porcupine Caribou Herd. This caribou herd has used the Coastal Plain as a calving area for millennia, traveling hundreds of miles from wintering grounds in Canada and the U.S.; there is no alternative to this sensitive habitat. The gathering of the Porcupine Caribou Herd following calving is a spectacle reminiscent of Africa's Serengeti and of the enormous herds of buffalo that once thundered across the Great Plains.

To the Gwich'in, the Coastal Plain is known as "the Sacred Place Where Life Begins." Consequently, the Gwich'in oppose drilling in the area most important to the survival of their culture and support permanent protections for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge. Designating the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness would not only permanently protect one of the last remaining great American wilderness areas, but also one of America's few remaining unique and irreplaceable native cultures.

You Can Help!  Please use the back button in your browser window to return to our action page and ask your members of Congress to co-sponsor H.R. 39, the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act.