Defenders Seeks Permanent Safeguards for One of America’s Last Wild Places

 Defenders of Wildlife today applauds the introduction of the Arctic Refuge Protection Act, a crucial step toward permanently safeguarding the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from destructive oil and gas drilling—efforts the Trump administration has pursued with determination. Defenders and many others have long stood with the Gwich’in Nation in seeking to protect one of the most iconic and ecologically sensitive landscapes in North America.

“Today, the Gwich’in people stand on Capitol Hill, giving a voice to one of the last truly untouched landscapes left in North America. Industrializing this sacred place would have irreversible consequences—not just for wildlife, but for the climate and the Indigenous communities that depend on it,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Defenders of Wildlife senior director of Alaska and Northwest programs. “This legislation is a vital move toward justice and ecological preservation. We urge Congress to act swiftly to pass the Arctic Refuge Protection Act and finally give the Refuge the permanent Wilderness protection it deserves.”

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge supports an extraordinary diversity of wildlife, including one of the world’s most imperiled polar bear populations, as well as wolves, musk oxen, Arctic foxes, and hundreds of migratory bird species that journey from every continent to nest and raise their young in its expansive wetlands.

Most notably, the Refuge’s Coastal Plain provides critical calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd—one of the largest remaining caribou herds in North America. The Gwich’in depend on the Porcupine caribou herd for physical, spiritual and cultural survival. The Coastal Plain is known to the Gwich’in call the Coastal Plain “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.”

The Coastal Plain also provides terrestrial denning critical habitat for the Southern Beaufort Sea population of polar bears. With the continued disappearance of sea ice, more bears are denning and spending increasing time in the Coastal Plain, making it an even more important area for a population struggling to survive.