The Bureau of Land Management has officially started a new planning process for the entire Western Arctic Reserve. This is a great opportunity to tell the Obama administration to protect the Arctic from dirty industrial fossil-fuel development. Please take action before Oct 1, 2010

Sample letter: Alaska State Office, Bureau of Land Management

Attention: NPR-A Planning Team
222 W. 7th Ave., #13
Anchorage, AK 99513

Subject: Scoping Comment for NPR-A Area-wide Plan

The NPR-A, or Western Arctic Reserve, comprises the largest unprotected tract of public land in the United States. It provides habitat for a wide variety of Arctic species, and its wilderness values are second to none.  As the BLM develops the new Area-wide Plan for the reserve, I urge you to provide "maximum protection" for areas with high value habitats. The new plan should consider important values in the reserve, including the area's unparalleled wildlife, subsistence, wilderness and recreation values. Furthermore, the BLM should consider protecting the entire western Arctic as a wilderness area.

Congress has required that "maximum protection" be given to "special areas" in the reserve. These areas include:

- Teshekpuk Lake, the third largest lake in Alaska, which lies at the heart of one of the single most productive and wetland complexes in the circumpolar Arctic. The area surrounding Teshekpuk Lake provides important habitats for waterbird nesting, molting and staging, as well as critical caribou calving and insect relief areas for the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd.

- The Colville River is the largest river draining the North Slope of Alaska and one of the most important raptor nesting areas in the world, accounting for approximately 100 pairs of peregrine falcons, as well as numerous pairs of gyrfalcons, rough-legged hawks and golden eagles.  

- Kasegaluk Lagoon provides a unique barrier island ecosystem located along the northwestern coast of the reserve. Up to 3,500 beluga whales gather in the lagoon to feed and bear their young, and the area is also important for spotted seal as a haulout area. Kasegaluk Lagoon is an important feeding area for both polar bears and grizzly bears.

- The Utukok River Uplands in the southwestern part of the reserve contain the heart of the calving area of the 490,000-animal Western Arctic caribou herd, the largest caribou herd in Alaska. The Utukok Uplands Special Area also provides important habitat for wolves and supports an unusually high density of wolverines.

Other important areas within the Reserve also deserve strong protection under the new Area-wide Plan. These include: the Dease Inlet-Meade River area that provides important wetland habitat for waterfowl, loons and shorebirds; Peard Bay and adjacent wetlands that provide high-density shorebird and waterfowl habitat as well as denning for polar bears; and the Ikpikpuk River and adjacent wetlands, which have exceptional values for fish and wildlife and a high-density nesting area for peregrine falcons in the headwaters.

In addition to protecting these important "special areas," the BLM should consider protecting the entire Western Arctic Reserve as a wilderness area. As the BLM develops the new Area-wide Plan, I urge that the BLM identify and analyze a full range of management alternatives that include the strongest possible protections for the Western Arctic Reserve.