Rafting through ANWR, to protect the 'Last Great Wilderness

 

 The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has long been considered the "Last Great Wilderness" of the United States, and it's no surprise why. Located on nearly 19.3 million acres of tundra in the northeast corner of Alaska, this natural treasure is the largest and one of the most remote refuges in the U.S. It also happens to be one of the most threatened.

 

Thanks to the Wilderness Act of 1964, the refuge continues to thrive, but the onset of oil and gas exploration in the refuge's northern coastal plain, also known by petroleum companies as Area 1002, may soon change that. Only about 40 percent of the refuge is officially designated as a protected wilderness area. This area, known as the Mollie Beattie Wilderness Area, includes 8 million acres of arctic, subarctic and alpine ecosystems that are home to caribou, polar bears, moose, musk oxen and seals.

 

The map below offers a better understanding of how the petroleum industry is encroaching on the environment. The areas in red represent privately owned drill sites and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Though the refuge's Area 1002 is small in contrast to the National Petroleum Reserve (the largest stretch of undisturbed public land in the U.S.), its coastal plain landscape happens to be the site of ...more