Keven Marquardt is a member of the Iowa Sierra Club Alaska Wilderness
Committee and has been instrumental in arranging programs at ISU and in
the Des Moines Metro area.  Phyllis
Guest column: Happy birthday, ANWR 
KEVIN MARQUARDT of Des Moines is studying environmental studies and
psychology at Iowa State University. Contact: [log in to unmask] •
December 4, 2010 
Dec. 6 marks the anniversary of a monumental decision to protect a
bountiful natural ecosystem in northeastern Alaska. Fifty years ago, the
secretary of the Interior during the Eisenhower administration signed a
Public Land Order establishing 8.9 million acres as the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. This move to protect a vital piece of Alaska was a move
toward protection of fragile environments that contain species that are
at high risk from human development.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter's administration continued the legacy by
signing the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). It
expanded the Range to 18 million acres, designated much of the land as
protected wilderness, and it was renamed the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge (ANWR).

Today, at 19.6 million acres, the refuge is the largest single unit of
public land in the United States; 1.5 million acres of the refuge,
adjacent to the Beaufort Sea, is known as the Coastal Plain. The native
Gwich'in Nation refers to it as the "sacred place where life begins"
because it serves as the biological heart for the refuge where hundreds
of species bear their young.
One of those species is the iconic polar bear. When female polar bears
are disturbed, they abandon their dens leaving their cubs to die. As a
result, the survival rate for cubs is reduced. Since it is the most
significant onshore polar bear denning habitat in the United States, the
Coastal Plain must remain untouched.

The Gwich'in Nation relies on the intact Coastal Plain because their
subsistence lifestyle for the past 20,000 years has depended on the
Porcupine Caribou herd of 125,000, which annually travels nearly 1,500
miles to and from ancestral calving grounds to give birth. As one of the
last undisturbed native populations in the United States, this Nations'
survival relies on the permanent protection of the land.
In addition, permanent protection of the Coastal Plain will ensure that
over 180 migratory bird species will keep their sanctuary forever. These
bird species land in parks, farm fields, and backyards throughout the
United States and six continents. Many land in Iowan's backyards serving
as a small oasis for birds foraging for seeds, insects, and berries.

Clearly, the symbiotic relationship between the native animal species and
the native population must be left intact. Unfortunately, proponents of
oil exploration and development are pushing to open the Arctic Coastal
Plain in order to begin pumping to the lower 48 states. These proponents
have used recent oil price spikes as the reason to begin pumping. After
the vast array of pipelines, pumping stations, and sprawling industrial
infrastructure have been constructed, any discovered oil would not be
available for at least a decade. The U.S. Geological Survey found there
is only a six-month supply of economically recoverable oil in the Arctic
Coastal Plain. Opening the Arctic Coastal Plain will have next to no
effect on overall oil prices because the supply is too small and the
Persian Gulf oil that we currently purchase is far too cheap.
Kudos to both the Eisenhower and Carter administrations for the 50 years
of protection for the Arctic Refuge, but this protection is constantly in
limbo. The Arctic Coastal Plain is one of the last frontiers in the world
that sustains native communities and countless endangered species. As
Americans, we must be cognizant of the potential environmental injustice,
disruption, and endangerment issues that can arise if we do not insist
that President Obama designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as our
newest National Monument. Declaring the Arctic Refuge a National Monument
will provide a historic legacy of Americans devotion to our final
frontier.

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