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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge during Spring |
Historical State of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Initially, a large region of northeastern Alaska was to be an oil reserve called Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4, or later known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. In World War II, this area was utilized for the military. However, a group of researchers discovered that such area would be very suitable as a wildlife protection area. Therefore, the U.S. government created two areas in the northeastern Alaskan region: an area along Prudhoe Bay for oil and gas production and an 8.9 million-acre region between Brooks Range and Beaufort Sea that was called the Arctic National Wildlife Range, or later known as Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Large amounts of oil were found in Prudhoe Bay, which led to attempts of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. To protect against these attempts, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed in 1980. The act increased the size of the reserve from 8.9 million acres to 19 million acres in total—8 million acres for wilderness areas, 9.5 million acres for the wildlife refuge and 1.5 million acres for a coastal plain study area.
Current Human Impacts
One of the controversies about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was oil drilling. Donald Hodel, President Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior, proposed the idea of drilling for oil in the region in 1987. By doing so, the nation would be able to increase domestic oil production. However, in less than ten days, the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred. Prince William Sound was polluted with more than 10 million gallons of crude oil. Many species such as harbor seals, loons, and pigeon guillemots were greatly affected by such incident. In 1991, another attempt of such proposition occurred, but it was once again defeated. It was estimated that the area contained approximately between 3.2 to 5.6 billion barrels of oil. Despite the possible oil value the land had, a main issue was that the habitat could be greatly affected if oil production was to occur. It was said to affect around 200 species of mammals and birds, such as the caribou. The oil industry suggested operating in winter to reduce the impact on the habitat by working on ice pads and ice roads that would melt away by spring. Despite the migratory birds and the caribou that would be gone in winter, there was still a large number of pregnant polar bears that were to be denning in snowbanks along the coast. The debate on oil leasing of the reserve is still continuing.
The Arctic Wildlife Refuge is also affected by the issue of climate change. Research showed changes that could be very devastating; for instance, the sea ice was found to have decreased immensely. Permafrost was found to have warmed 3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit from 1984 to 2004 on the coastal plain of the Refuge. Many alpine glaciers on the reserve, such as the McCall Glacier, were diminishing greatly. Polar bears had been found dead due to drowning in large body of water. There were also cases of cannibalism with polar bears that might be caused by the thinning of ice. Besides polar bears, other animals were also affected such as Muskox. This species have reduced in number in the reserve. Such decrease might be due to the changing weather of freezing rain and thaws.
Future Prospects
If oil drilling did occur in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Inupiat Eskimos supported oil drilling as it would provide much economic opportunity. Indeed, the U.S. would be less reliant on imports if the refuge was opened to oil production (about 57% of the petroleum the U.S. consumes are imported). If ANWR was drilled for oil, U.S. import oil dependency would decrease to 46 to 49%. However, drilling oil would greatly affect the Gwich’in Indians that lived south of the Brooks Range, as they were subsistence hunters, therefore relying on caribou (3,000 to 5,000 were killed and used every year). Furthermore, the habitat would be destroyed, devastating many mammals (gray wolves, polar bears, brown bears, black bears, caribou, and dall sheep) and birds (tundra swans, snow geese, bluethroats and buff-breasted sandpiper) and fish (arctic grayling, dolly varden, and arctic cisco). The reserve contains 5 different ecological regions—coastal marine, coastal plain tundra, alpine tundra, forest-tundra, and boreal forest and oil drilling would damage such a diverse region. In addition, if the climate change continues as such rate, all Brooks Range glaciers would vanish within 80 to 100 years. Animals such as polar bears would not survive if the climate continued to increase, as polar bears had drowned previously due to unusual open areas of water.
What Can Be Done For Improvements
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be preserved if oil drilling does not occur. Despite the economy opportunites that the reserve may present with oil drilling, people must conserve one of the few Arctic regions left in America. Groups must continue to lobby in favor of preserving the habitat. In 2010, key legislators and some groups have started a campaign to make the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into a national monument as an attempt to preserve the land. Also, people being more aware of global warming and taking preventive measures would help control the increasing temperatures that are occurring in the reserve. Many animals are adapted to a limited climate range and therefore keeping the climate in check will reduce the negative impacts.
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References
"For 30 Years, a Political Battle Over Oil and ANWR." . NPR, 10 Nov 2005. Web. 25
Nov 2011. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5007819>.
"History of ANWR." . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov 2011. <http://www.unc.edu/~money/
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Kaye, Roger W. "The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: An exploration of the Meanings
Embodied in America's Last Great Wilderness." n. page. Print. <http://www.
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Mitchell, John G.. "Oil Field or Sanctuary?." National Geographic Magazine. National
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Murphy, Kim. "Effort launched to prevent drilling in Arctic refuge." Los Angeles Times.
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United States. U.S. Department of Energy. Analysis of Crude Oil Production in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge. Washington, DC: , 2008. Print. <http://www.eia.gov/
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"Wildlife and Wild Landscapes." Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Alaska Region. U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, 13 Jul 2011. Web. 28 Nov 2011. <http://arctic.fws.gov/
wildlife_habitat.htm>.
"Climate Change and its Impacts." Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Alaska Region. U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, 29 Dec 2009. Web. 28 Nov 2011. <http://arctic.fws.
gov/ctclimatechange09.htm>.
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