Outdoor retailers, including more than 100 Colorado outdoor companies and Colorado businesses, signed a letter opposing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The $887 billion spent on recreation on public land is enough reason to protect this renewable resource.
Senator Cory Gardner indicated he will vote with Alaskan lawmakers who want to drill on the 1.5 million acres of Coastal Plain, recognized as the “cradle of life” by Arctic Gwich’in people who have survived on caribou for 20,000 years for their spiritual, cultural and physical existence.
The Arctic Refuge is one of the largest remaining complete ecosystems in the world, containing the greatest animal diversity in any circumpolar region and is highly sensitive to development. In 1980, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act doubled the size to 19 million acres to “conserve fish and wildlife populations and their habitats; including the Porcupine caribou herd, to fulfill international treaty obligations, and to provide for subsistence uses.”
Trekking the Arctic Refuge, I saw small herds of caribou turning into thousands pouring over the passes on their way to the Coastal Plain to calve. From a ridge, I saw the lagoons and rich grasses that support the animal species tourists come to see, and 200 bird species that fly to six continents.
There are no roads, no human trails; you can hunt, fish, kayak, canoe, raft, backpack and experience wilderness as it was created.
This pristine wilderness is public land and belongs to every American, and is too precious to destroy for six months of oil.
Phyllis Mains
Cortez
