|
PRESERVING THE ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE
REFUGE
1995 FWOC
Resolution
No. 17:
|
|
The Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska has been rightly called "The North
American Serengeti". It is the feeding and nesting ground for
millions of migratory birds. The Refuge provides the most
important polar bear denning habitat in the entire U.S. There are
Arctic wolves, musk oxen, wolverines, grizzly bears, arctic foxes, and
many more animals that rely on the Refuge for food and for their
breeding grounds. Most spectacular of all is the migration of the
Porcupine caribou herd of 180,000 animals that sweeps from Canada each
spring onto the summer feeding and calving grounds of the Refuge.
|
The livelihood and culture
of the Gwich'n people and other native people in Alaska and Canada are
very dependent on the Porcupine caribou herd.
|
|
In the biological heart of
the Refuge, oil companies want to explore and drill for oil, which
could lead to the ultimate destruction of this fragile habitat and the
animals that desperately need this habitat untouched to survive in this
harsh unforgiving land! Alaska does not need another EXXON
Valdez-type disaster!
|
| The Federation of Western
Outdoor Clubs goes on record in opposition to oil exploration and
drilling in the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge and calls upon Congress
to act in setting aside the Refuge as wilderness to preserve its
integrity in perpetuity. |
|
..........................................................................................................................................
|
|
|
|
FWOC members and member clubs are urged to
send copies of the above resolution, along with any comments of their
own on this issue, to the congressional representatives of the western
states and also to the Governor of Alaska. Those members who are
stockholders in oil-exploration or oil-producing companies should
consider conveying their opposition to opening up the Arctic Refuge to
development to those firms.
|
|
