The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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May 6, 2011

Your View: Conservation would gain more than oil on Arctic Refuge

By Charles Burgess, St. Peter The Free Press

— In April, I went to Washington to work with the Alaska Wilderness League to protect the Arctic Refuge, and we marked the one year anniversary of the disaster of the Deepwater Horizon and huge spill that followed.

My hope was to prevent a similar event in the refuge.

HR 139/ S 33 are bills before the House of Representatives and the Senate. Also known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Bill, they seek to get permanent protection for the coastal plane of the refuge. The coastal plane (a.k.a. the 1002 Area) is of great ecological significance. It is home to many species of wildlife such as caribou, wolves, bears, fox and many kinds of birds (including over 100 species that migrate to or through Minnesota annually).

It is valuable spiritually to the Gwich’in people of Alaska and Canada because it is the birthing grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd which the tribe depends on heavily for survival. The area is known to the Gwich’in as the “Sacred Place Where Life Begins.”

There is no way to drill in such a sensitive area without causing irreparable damage. Damage to the caribou would threaten the cultural survival of the Gwich’in people.

How can we ask people to give up thousands of years of history so that we can fuel our vehicles for a short time? Conservation could gain far more oil than the refuge can give us.

I urge everyone to try to conserve — and to contact our elected members of Congress and ask them to support HR 139/ S 33.

 

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