From the Alaska Wilderness League (http://www.alaskawild.org):
Caribou in Alaska’s Western Arctic need your public comment by September 6.
Located within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area provides calving grounds for the 40,000-head Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd, and is home to one of the most productive and unique wetland complexes in the circumpolar Arctic.
BUT, Reserve Special Areas like Teshekpuk Lake might not be protected much longer.
Ryan Zinke recently declared Alaska “open for business” to oil and gas development. Now, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management is soliciting public comments on oil and gas leasing in the Reserve, including on lands located within the Reserve’s Special Areas – these are areas currently off limits to development because of their subsistence and wildlife values.
In addition to caribou, the Reserve’s Special Areas sustain populations of beluga whales, wolves, brown bears, polar bears and musk oxen, plus bird species including black brant, golden eagles, peregrine falcons and more. These protections resulted from input from the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group, regional and local tribes in Alaska, and more than 400,000 Americans, including many of you who took action.
All of this consensus building took years to achieve, and the plan has been in effect for just a handful of years. It would be incredibly irresponsible to reopen it now.
Please send a message at http://act.alaskawild.org/sign/reserve2017/ to keep the Reserve’s protected Special Areas and the birds that depend on them safe from new development threats.
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