The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been controversial since its inception, yet few know much about the refuge beyond its potential for oil production.
Most people have heard of ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and most have a fairly strong opinion about whether or not oil exploration and drilling should or should not occur there, yet few know how or why the Refuge was established.
Vast Wilderness
The largest of all the national refuges in the United States, ANWR covers more than 19 million acres in northeast Alaska, an area roughly the size of South Carolina. ANWR encompasses a full range of Arctic and sub-Arctic habitats, including boreal forests, rolling upland taiga, glacier capped mountains, Arctic tundra, three major wild rivers, numerous smaller rivers, coastal barrier islands and lagoons, and shoreline along the Beaufort Sea.
ANWR Established
In 1938 a visionary forester named Robert Marshall proposed establishing a permanent American frontier that would forever be protected from development. The idea was controversial from the beginning. In the 1950’s, George Collins, and Lowell Sumner, two National Park Service scientists, explored an area of Alaska from the Brooks Range north, and published a paper titled Northeast Alaska: The Last Great Wilderness. Their work inspired Olaus Murie, then president of the Wilderness Society, his wife Mardy Murie, along with other prominent conservationists of the day. They pushed for the establishment of an Arctic Refuge. In 1960 the Eisenhower Administration set aside 8.9 million acres to formed the core of what is today called the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Arctic National Wildlife Range Expanded
Since 1960, the Refuge has been expanded several times to its current size of 19 million acres. The Refuge’s mission has been defined and expanded by various pieces of legislation over the years, including the 1964 Wilderness Act, the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) signed into law by President Carter in 1980. ANILCA called for the scientific study of the wilderness, and also contained provisions for oil and gas assessments on 1.5 million acres of the coast plain.
ANWR’s Mission Further Defined
In 1997 President Clinton signed the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, which further defined the purpose of all national refuges. The Act states that refuges are to conserve and manage a “national network of lands and waters for conservation, management, and where appropriate, restoration of fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats…for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.”
Untouched by Human Activity
A Fish and Wildlife Service overview of ANWR states that as far as scientists have been able to ascertain, no species are missing from the Refuge’s eco-system, and no exotic species have been introduced. “Large-scale ecological and evolutionary processes continue here, free of human control and manipulation…” as they have since the beginning of time.
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