The White House announced Sunday that President Obama would seek wilderness designation for much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska/White House
President Obama, in a move certain to generate controversy, is pushing for the country's largest Wilderness designation to be bestowed on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Additionally, the Democrat wants four rivers -- the Atigun, Hulahula, Kongakut, and Marsh Fork Canning -- to be added to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
Only Congress can designate Wilderness areas, and with the Republican Party in control of both the House and the Senate, and past interest from the energy sector for drilling in the wildlife refuge, the president's proposal likely could go nowhere.
Interior Department officials said Sunday that the department is releasing a conservation plan for the refuge that for the first time recommends additional protections, and that President Obama will make an official recommendation to Congress to designate core areas of the refuge ' including its Coastal Plain ' as wilderness, the highest level of protection available to public lands. If Congress chooses to act, it would be the largest ever wilderness designation since Congress passed the visionary Wilderness Act over 50 years ago.
'Designating vast areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as Wilderness reflects the significance this landscape holds for America and its wildlife,' said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. 'Just like Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of our nation's crown jewels and we have an obligation to preserve this spectacular place for generations to come.'
The president's decision builds upon years of public engagement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revise the Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) and complete an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as required by law. The plan will guide the Fish and Wildlife Service's management decisions for the next 15 years.
An Interior release said that, "(B)ased on the best available science and extensive public comment, the Service's preferred alternative recommends 12.28 million acres ' including the Coastal Plain ' for designation as wilderness. The Service also recommends four rivers ' the Atigun, Hulahula, Kongakut, and Marsh Fork Canning ' for inclusion into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System."
Currently, more than 7 million acres of the refuge are managed as Wilderness, consistent with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. However, more than 60 percent of the refuge ' including the Coastal Plain ' does not carry that designation.
Designation as wilderness would protect and preserve the refuge, ensuring the land and water would remain unimpaired for use and enjoyment by future generations. Only Congress has the authority to designate Wilderness areas and Wild and Scenic Rivers.
Recommendations for Wilderness or Wild and Scenic River designations require approval of the Service Director, Secretary of the Interior, and the President. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Sunday released the revised comprehensive conservation plan and final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. While the Service is not soliciting further public comment on the revised plan/EIS, it will be available to the public for review for 30 days, after which, the record of decision will be published. At that point, the President will make the formal wilderness recommendation to Congress.
'The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge preserves a unique diversity of wildlife and habitat in a corner of America that is still wild and free,' said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. 'But it faces growing challenges that require a thoughtful and comprehensive management strategy. The incorporation of large portions of the refuge into the National Wilderness Preservation System will ensure we protect this outstanding landscape and its inhabitants for our children and generations that follow.'
The revised plan/EIS addresses a variety of issues, including the protection of wildlife populations and their habitats, opportunities for fish- and wildlife-dependent recreation, subsistence needs of local inhabitants, and other public uses. The plan also strengthens wildlife and habitat monitoring, as well as the monitoring of public use of the refuge so as to better respond to changing conditions on the landscape, particularly those associated with climate change.
The 19.8-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is home to the most diverse wildlife in the arctic, including caribou, polar bears, gray wolves, and muskoxen. More than 200 species of birds, 37 land mammal species, eight marine mammal species and 42 species of fish call the vast refuge home. Lagoons, beaches, saltmarshes, tundra and forests make up the remote and undisturbed wild area that spans five distinct ecological regions.
The refuge holds special meaning to Alaska Natives, having sustained their lives and culture for thousands of years. The Gwich'in people refer to the Coastal Plain of the refuge as 'The Sacred Place Where Life Begins,' reflecting the area's importance to their community, maintaining healthy herds of caribou and an abundance of other wildlife.
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Olaus Murie was a renowned biologist and one of the country’s great champions of wildlife and wilderness.
Scientist, visionary, and former governing council member and president of The Wilderness Society, Olaus Murie’s vision helped establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and shaped a new way of thinking about predators and ecosystems.
Early life
Olaus Murie’s passion for wilderness began during his childhood in the fertile Red River valley of Minnesota. Murie studied at Pacific University in Oregon.
Career
Olaus Murie began his career as a wildlife biologist in Alaska, where he studied caribou herds in northern Alaska’s Brooks Range and found his lifetime companion, Mardy.
The Muries moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to study the local elk herd and it became their lifelong home. Olaus became an early, staunch defender of predators and their crucial role in ecosystems.
Legacy
In 1937, Murie joined the governing council of the young Wilderness Society. He helped convince President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to add surrounding rain forests to Olympic National Monument.
He worked to establish Jackson Hole National Monument in the valley below the Teton Range.
In 1950, The Wilderness Society named Murie its president. The Muries’ log cabin in Moose, Wyoming became an unofficial Wilderness Society headquarters. As president, Murie lobbied successfully to prevent large federal dam projects within Glacier National Park and Dinosaur National Monument.
Murie’s greatest quest became protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. In 1956, Mardy, Olaus, and a few others spent several weeks on an Arctic expedition. Armed with their evidence, they returned to the lower 48 and spent four years campaigning tirelessly to protect the place so dear to them. In 1960, President Eisenhower set aside 8 million acres as the Arctic National Wildlife Range, which later became part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
And what would be the chances of that? Virtually zero unless ANWR was the last place left with oil and gas was $20 a gallon.
There is plenty of oil - as long as alarmist don't cut off the supply by banning fracking and closing off massive oil fields. .
I don't even have to read the post that is IGNORED. Tell me if I'm right or not. He's saying something like, "Wilderness is wrong because we have a right to drill for oil so because I am entitled to all the oil I want to run my big SUV and it's unconstitutional and the environmentalists are trying to kill capitalism. So let's drill and frack and burn and make all the money we can right now with no regard for the future because the future's not important if it will cut into our profits today."
Does that pretty well sum it up?
pretty much.
Nope - not even close.
Really dahkota? Where did I say "Wilderness is wrong"? Where did I say I am "entitled" to all the oil I want? Where did I say " it's unconstitutional"? Where did I say "So let's drill and frack and burn and make all the money we can right now with no regard for the future" Where did I say "the future's not important if it will cut into our profits today."?
Never said or implied any of those things. But then Lee's favorite strategy is to create strawman he can attack because he can't actual address reality. Dahkota, I guess that puts you in the same camp.
Seriously, though, perhaps this is a chance to learn something from the Africans and from the errors we made in the past. If this land is going to be preserved for the future, it must be done NOW because tomorrow may be too late.
I hope we will somehow find the wisdom and courage to insist that it be done even if we have to go to battle against short-sighted profit mongers who see only dollar signs in anything they look at.
And by the way, why after years of blaming Obama for high oil prices, why have we not heard anyone saying, "Thank you" lately?
Thank you Dahkota. Now let me guess what the last two posts say. There will be claims that he never said what he said and that he's being accused by people who don't understand reality and the Constitution and all that is great about capitalism. Probably some comments, too, about how people who oppose his views fail to use exactly the right words and if they do, they're still wrong.
Perhaps we should just open up Breckenridge for mountain topping and/or fracking. Might not find oil there, but once we've taken the land by eminent domain who is to care?
I gotta agree with you, though, Lee, on the pleasure of the ignore curtain.