Act now ... before Big Oil does

National Resources Defebse Council ^ | 5/14/12 | Beinecke

[pabianice]

The Obama Administration is considering a management plan for the Western Arctic Reserve that would protect vital habitat for caribou, polar bears, beluga whales and millions of migratory birds. Help save this natural treasure from oil and gas drilling!

We have a rare opportunity right now to save a vast Arctic wilderness from rampant oil development -- forever.

For the first time ever, the Obama Administration is considering a comprehensive management plan for Alaska’s Western Arctic Reserve that would protect key wildlife habitat from destructive oil and gas development.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management to safeguard the Reserve’s most special areas from industrialization.

The Western Arctic Reserve is less well-known than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but its different wildlife populations are every bit as spectacular and endangered.

Since the Western Arctic Reserve was set aside as a “National Petroleum Reserve” almost a century ago, it remains one of our continent’s most extraordinary -- and threatened -- expanses of wilderness.

It includes the prized Teshekpuk Lake region, which provides critical calving grounds for a large caribou herd that is essential to the Inupiat way of life, as well as summer habitat for polar bears. A staggering variety of birds also take refuge in these wetlands, some migrating from as far south as Antarctica.

Along the northwestern coast of the Western Arctic Reserve, up to 3,500 beluga whales gather in the Kasegaluk Lagoon every year to feed and bear their young.

One of the options now being considered by the Bureau of Land Management could permanently protect 11 million acres of the Reserve from being turned into an oil and gas wasteland.

Urge the Bureau of Land Management to adopt Alternative B and grant the Western Arctic Reserve the strong protection it urgently needs and deserves.

Thank you for taking action to keep the Arctic wild and free.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council

[thackney]

The Western Arctic Reserve will be...

Please do not call it that. It is a new name made up by environmentalists trying to change its designation.

It is the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska or NPRA.

Thanks!

[El Laton Caliente]

I'm sitting in the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field typing this. The Caribou like the rock pads the oil wells are on, keeps them out of the mosquitos. The Musk Ox hang around the oil field because fewer bears are here. If the bears are threatening people they get a bean bag in the butt and are sent running.

The red and white fox are abundant in the oil field. The geese, swans and HUGE sea gulls just showed up for breeding season.

As I can tell, if anything, the wild life LIKE the oil field...