Protecting the Arctic Refuge – Again!

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the largest and most iconic refuge in the nation. Its vast, mountainous and forested landscape is home to polar bears, caribou, scores of migratory birds, wolves and brown bears, among other amazing species. Defenders of Wildlife has worked for decades to protect wildlife and preserve the ecological integrity of this unparalleled landscape.

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Jeremy Là Zelle and Kristin Gates

Oil drilling was prohibited in the Arctic Refuge until 2017, when President Trump and the Republican-controlled House and Senate mandated two lease sales. They alleged the sales would raise $2 billion to help offset tax cuts contained in the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.” The first sale held by the Trump Administration on January 6, 2021, was a financial flop. Not one major oil company showed up to offer a bid and instead only meager bids from minor players totaling just $14 million were placed.

On January 8, 2025, the Bureau of Land Management announced the second required lease sale in the Arctic Refuge coastal plain and it yielded no bids whatsoever. Clearly the oil companies are aware of the environmental and economic challenges associated with building in this remote and pristine region.

The incoming Trump administration, however, is still pushing this terrible idea. It’s critical we remain vigilant and keep the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain free of industrialization. Polar bears and caribou are just two excellent examples of why.

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Lisa Hupp / USFWS

Protecting the Polar Bears of the Arctic Refuge

Onshore denning habitat on the Arctic Refuge coastal plain is vital to the survival of polar bears. These federally threatened bears have very low reproductive rates and are highly sensitive to human disturbance. They rely on the region’s sea ice and coastal areas for hunting, traveling and denning. An increasing number of mother bears come ashore in the fall to make their dens to give birth and raise their cubs through the winter.  

Oil industry activities — such as seismic testing, aircraft and vehicle noise — and even the presence of humans, can lead mother bears to abandon their dens and cubs. A bear who is forced to leave her den prematurely is vulnerable to predators and extreme weather, and her cubs’ chance of survival drastically decreases. The noise and vibrations from seismic activity, which involve enormous “thumper trucks,” could inadvertently disturb or destroy undetected dens and the bears inside and disrupt the polar bears’ hunting habits, making it more difficult for them to find food, further stressing the already declining Southern Beaufort Sea population.  

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© 2015 TNWA Photography

Given that polar bear populations are already under significant stress from climate change and habitat loss, the additional threat of seismic exploration and potential den disruption could have devastating effects on their survival along the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. Protecting this pristine environment is essential to ensure the future of Alaska’s polar bear populations.  

Caring for the Caribou of the Arctic Refuge

Caribou herds are named and identified by their annual calving grounds. For thousands of years, long before it was called the Arctic Refuge, the Porcupine Caribou Herd returned like clockwork each year to the very same lands slated for oil and gas development on the Refuge’s coastal plain. This herd undertakes one of the world’s longest terrestrial migrations from Canada to Alaska — roughly the same distance from Chicago to New York City — every spring. They arrive at the safety of the Arctic Refuge by the thousands to give birth to the next generation of caribou.  

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Jeremy Là Zelle and Kristin Gates

Human disturbances are encroaching wildlife habitat at an unprecedented rate globally.  Although widely distributed, caribou and wild reindeer populations have declined over 50% in the past two decades. These declines are thought to be a result of both global changes in climate and anthropogenic, or human-caused, landscape changes including oil and gas development, mining and road construction.  

Caribou play a critical role in the nutrient cycling for the Arctic, including encouraging rare and diverse plant growth. They support predators like wolves, wolverines and bears. Caribou are also important to the culture, traditions and food security of Indigenous communities in the region. The proposed industrial invasion of the coastal plain threatens not only caribou and carnivores, but the survival of the culture of the Gwich'in people of Alaska and Canada. The Porcupine Caribou Herd is one of the largest caribou herds in Alaska.  We cannot allow the devastation of the most important site for the Porcupine Caribou Herd.

Help Save the Arctic Refuge

We must protect the Artic Refuge for polar bears, caribou and all the other wildlife and people relying on this sacred and irreplaceable landscape. Check out our Arctic Refuge story map, follow Defenders to learn more and stay in the fight to protect this irreplaceable habitat and its wildlife.