The Bureau of Land Management will soon announce a proposed plan for 3-D seismic exploration across the 1.5 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, with a possible public comment period to follow.
Take action to stop this. And join us on Thursday, 1/17, from 6 - 8 pm, for a special Save the Ales, our monthly social, action-packed letter-writing event. Lois Norrgard of our Executive Committee and the Alaskan Wilderness League, will update us on the campaign to protect the Arctic Wilderness then we'll all write letters to decision makers, and enjoy good beer and company!
This damaging exploration would mean permanent impacts to one of the last truly wild places we have left in the nation. The initial plan that has been submitted by SAExploration, Inc., is grossly unacceptable; they want to deploy a small army of industrial vehicles and equipment with a mandate to crisscross every square inch of the Arctic Refuge’s biological heart. This scheme will put denning polar bears at risk and leave lasting scars on the fragile tundra and its vegetation, and that’s before a single drill rig has been placed or length of pipeline installed.
The Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain is the biological heart of America’s most iconic wildlife refuge. Birds from all 50 U.S. states raise their young there, alongside other species including caribou, polar bears, muskoxen and so much more. The area is considered sacred by the Gwich’in people, who have relied on the Porcupine Caribou Herd for their food, and their culture, for thousands of years. Despite all the evidence that the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain has incomparable value for its wilderness, wildlife and subsistence resources, SAExploration failed to reference or say it would conduct any scientific study on the impacts of its proposed work.
In the plan it calls for two teams of 150-160 workers, living in mobile camps that would be moved up to two miles every few days throughout the coastal plain by giant sleds, long-haul fuel tractors, loaders and a dozen huge seismic “thumper” trucks. Working continuously in two 12-hour shifts every day from January through May, these teams would cross the coastal plain in these 90,000-pound trucks, 10,000 pounds heavier than the 18-wheeler trucks that routinely traverse America’s highways.
These massive trucks would crisscross the tundra, sending high-pressure vibrations into the ground roughly every 41 feet to map out oil and gas resources. The trucks would drive, side by side, 660 feet (0.125 miles) apart in a grid pattern east to west, then north to south.
The seismic work outlined by SAExploration would occur in the midst of an area designated as critical habitat for the threatened Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear – which is currently down to a population of approximately 900 bears – in the middle of polar bear denning season. Polar bears are increasingly using the area to build their dens as sea ice disappears due to climate change. Premier polar bear researcher, Dr. Steven C. Amstrup, has stated that “Based on previous observations of polar bear response thresholds, the SAExploration seismic survey could disturb over 96 percent of denning habitat on the Coastal Plain. In addition, there is a 25 percent probability that heavy vehicles could drive right over one or more dens—with fatal consequences for mother polar bears and cubs. Even if a mother bear escaped before being crushed, young cubs are unlikely to do so.”
The National Sierra Club Arctic campaign continues to fight back against the Trump Administration’s reckless plan to drill for oil or allow seismic exploration in the Arctic Refuge, and our combined efforts are having an impact. In addition to preparing for public comment to the administration and BLM, we have been working with our Gwich’in allies to call on SAExploration’s CEOs to withdraw their application, and met with 9 of the biggest banks to make them aware of the urgency, asking that they commit to elevate this within their firms and to scrutinize, if not outright reject, any applications for funding to explore or drill in the coastal plain. We also took our message back to Capitol Hill with the Gwich’in Nation, meeting with congress as well as the EPA Tribal Affairs’ office and representatives from EPA’s Environmental Justice office. Voice your opposition to this damaging proposal here.
Sierra Club Arctic campaign message:
This is a growing team effort, and it will truly take this kind of growing chorus of Sierra Club staff, activists, and volunteers alike to fight back and win on this, we need to keep up the pressure and momentum. Throughout 2019 we will be calling on activists across the country to stand with the Gwich’in in a series of calls to action and house parties to engage additional people in the rapidly growing fight.
Learn more about this issue and join us at Save the Ales:
January 17th, 6 - 8 pm, Save the Ales, Enjoy good company and beer, while learning and taking action for the planet. In January the action will focus on protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - with special guest Lois Norrgard of Alaska Wilderness League (and our Executive Committee) presenting.
For more information: Lois (with the Forest and Wildlands Committee), Lois (with the Forest and Wildlands Committee), lois.norrgard@northstar.sierraclub.org