The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is one of the world's most remote natural areas with a full range of undisturbed arctic and subarctic ecosystems and its native flora and fauna. It contains the greatest wildlife diversity of any protected area in the circumpolar north. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides important habitat for breeding, feeding and denning polar bears, black, and brown bears; calving grounds and migration corridors for the Porcupine and Central Arctic Caribou herds, muskox, and Dall's sheep; and critical habitat for millions of breeding and staging migratory birds.
This incredibly important and fragile ecosystem can be easily impacted by human development, and won't be safe until it is made apparent that protecting the wildlife and pristine beauty of this public land is more economically sustainable and profitable than permanently destroying it.
To catalyze this shift in the Alaskan public and politicians’ priorities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing building a new Net Zero energy efficient Conservation and Visitor Center in Fairbanks to increase the refuge's visibility. Fairbanks, Alaska’s second largest city, is trying to diversify its extraction-based economy towards a more sustainable, amenities-oriented economy in which Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will be valued as an adventure destination and asset to the Fairbanks community.
TAKE ACTION and WRITE Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Chief of Real Estate Eric Alvarez to support the acquisition of these 45 acres that will house the new Conservation and Visitor Center, be an important trail hub for Fairbanks, and provide a key platform for repositioning Fairbanks as the gateway to America’s most vast wilderness.
EVERY dollar we can raise privately by October 2022 will entice Congress and the administration to fund the $5 million needed to acquire the property for this important project that will forever change Alaska’s position on Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Learn more details about Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Conservation and Visitor Center here.
For more information about WildLandscapes, go to www.wildlandscapes.org
Learn more about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge petition in change.org
Photo credit: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, USFWS