Protecting America’s Unique Arctic Ecosystems

Stretching from the Canadian border to the Chukchi Sea, south to the Brooks Range and north to the edge of the polar ice cap is America’s only high Arctic ecosystem. It is a vast expanse of land that includes a complex network of treeless tundra, coastal lagoons, wetlands, streams and rivers that provide habitat for some of the largest and most unique concentrations of wildlife on the North American continent. Each summer, the wetlands of Alaska’s North Slope host millions of swans, geese, ducks and shorebirds, some of them endangered, such as the spectacled eider and Eskimo curlew. The rich saltwater lagoons of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas provide essential calving, feeding and rearing areas for some of the largest concentrations of marine mammals on the continent, including polar bears, beluga whales and ringed seals. The watersheds of the region’s major rivers are home to a unique population of Arctic Peregrine Falcons, as well as other raptors, including gyrfalcons, golden eagles and rough-legged hawks. The region encompasses the calving grounds of more than half a million caribou, including two of the continent’s largest caribou herds—the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the Western Arctic Caribou Herd. Alaska Natives have thrived in the Arctic for thousands of years, living off the abundance of the land and seas. It is one of the few places where people still maintain a subsistence lifestyle.

But America’s Arctic is under unprecedented stress from global warming impacts and increased industrial development. America’s Arctic contains some of the world’s largest oil and gas reserves. Since the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968, oil field development in the American Arctic has meant the construction of a massive industrial complex that now accounts for nearly 20% of the nation’s domestic oil production.

Other looming threats to the Arctic include the continuing efforts by Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. In addition, efforts are afoot to develop the massive coal reserves, estimated at four trillion tons, much of it high-grade, low-sulfur coal that extend across 30,000 square miles of the Western Arctic, including privately-held land owned by the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Further, with the shrinking sea ice, ships are already sailing into Arctic seas where there are no ports or emergency equipment to deal with oil spills or other catastrophes.

The wilderness character of the Arctic is in the process of changing forever. Trustees for Alaska continues to play an essential role in protecting America’s Arctic by providing strategic and legal advice as well as representation to national, regional, and local environmental organizations, Alaska Native villages, and broad-based coalitions.