Editing Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (section)

==History==
The Arctic Refuge is part of the traditional homelands of many bands or tribes of the [[Gwichʼin]] people. For thousands of years, the Gwich'in have called the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge "Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit" (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins).<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Coastal Plain – The Sacred Place Where Life Begins|url=http://ourarcticrefuge.org/about-the-refuge/the-coastal-plain-the-sacred-place-where-life-begins/|access-date=2021-11-11|website=Gwich'in Steering Committee|language=en|archive-date=9 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109162130/https://ourarcticrefuge.org/about-the-refuge/the-coastal-plain-the-sacred-place-where-life-begins/|url-status=live}}</ref> 
Climate change is rapidly affecting the Arctic region, with melting polar ice caps leading to rising sea levels and warming due to the albedo effect. The potential oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge threatens the Porcupine caribou herd's calving grounds, while climate change forces polar bears to change their hunting and denning patterns. Additionally, the unique marine ecosystem of the Arctic basin is being disturbed by industrial noise and oil exploration. The Inupiaq village of Kaktovik, a community that has adapted to this harsh environment over thousands of years, also faces potential disruption.

The [[National Wildlife Refuge|National Wildlife Refuge System]] was founded by [[Theodore Roosevelt|President Theodore Roosevelt]] in 1903,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fws.gov/midwest/insider3/May17Story6.htm|title=Diversity of species calls wildlife refuge home|last1=Burke|first1=Leann|publisher=U.S Fish & Wildlife Service|access-date=12 April 2018|archive-date=31 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731195038/https://www.fws.gov/midwest/insider3/May17Story6.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> to protect immense areas of wildlife and wetlands in the United States. This refuge system created the [[Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918]] which conserves the wildlife of Alaska.

In 1929, a 28-year-old forester named [[Bob Marshall (wilderness activist)|Bob Marshall]] visited the upper [[Koyukuk River]] and the central [[Brooks Range]] on his summer vacation "in what seemed on the map to be the most unknown section of Alaska."<ref name="Sierra Club 2018">{{cite web | title=The Last Stand of the Last Great Wilderness | website=Sierra Club | date=2018-10-29 | url=https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-6-november-december/feature/last-stand-last-great-wilderness | access-date=2018-11-30}}</ref>

In February 1930, Marshall published an essay, [[s:The Problem of the Wilderness|"The Problem of the Wilderness"]], a spirited defense of wilderness preservation in ''[[The Scientific Monthly]],'' arguing that wilderness was worth saving not only because of its unique aesthetic qualities, but because it could provide visitors with a chance for adventure.<ref name="Shabecoff 2012 p. ">{{cite book | last=Shabecoff | first=P. | title=A Fierce Green Fire: The American Environmental Movement | publisher=Island Press | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-59726-759-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K8NfpCunXEkC | access-date=2018-11-30 }}</ref> Marshall stated: "There is just one hope of repulsing the tyrannical ambition of civilization to conquer every niche on the whole earth. That hope is the organization of spirited people who will fight for the freedom of the wilderness."<ref name="Nash Miller 2014 p. 200">{{cite book | last1=Nash | first1=R.F. | last2=Miller | first2=C. | title=Wilderness and the American Mind: Fifth Edition | publisher=Yale University Press | year=2014 | isbn=978-0-300-15350-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eQupAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 | access-date=2018-11-30 | page=200}}</ref> The article became a much-quoted call to action and by the late 20th century was considered seminal by wilderness historians.<ref>Glover, p. 116</ref> According to environmental journalist Brooke Jarvis, "Marshall saw the enormous, largely unsettled Arctic lands he had explored as a possible antidote to this—not another chance to keep chasing America's so-called Manifest Destiny but a chance to finally stop chasing it." Even for Americans who would never travel there, "he thought they would benefit knowing that it still existed in the condition it always had." "In Alaska alone," Marshall wrote, "can the emotional values of the frontier be preserved."<ref name="Sierra Club 2018"/>

In 1953, an article was published in the journal of the [[Sierra Club]] by then National Park Service planner George Collins and biologist Lowell Sumner titled "Northeast Alaska: The Last Great Wilderness".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kaye|first1=Roger|title=The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: An Exploration of the Meanings Embodied in America's Last Great Wilderness|url=https://www.wilderness.net/library/documents/science1999/Volume2/Kaye_2-10.pdf|access-date=16 July 2014|work=Volume 2|agency=USDA Forest Service Proceedings|issue=15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231115044/http://www.wilderness.net/library/documents/science1999/Volume2/Kaye_2-10.pdf|archive-date=31 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Collins and Sumner then recruited [[The Wilderness Society (United States)|Wilderness Society]] President [[Olaus Murie]] and his wife [[Margaret Murie]] with an effort to permanently protect the area.

In 1954, the [[National Park Service]] recommended that the untouched areas in the Northeastern region of Alaska be preserved for research and protection of nature.<ref name="U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service">{{cite web | title=Time Line: Establishment and management of Arctic Refuge - Arctic | website=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | url=https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/timeline.html | access-date=2018-11-30 | archive-date=1 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201051421/https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/timeline.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> The question of whether to drill for oil in the National Wildlife Arctic Refuge has been a political controversy since 1977. The debate mainly concerns section 1002 in the ANWR. Section 1002 is located on the coastal plain where many of the Arctic's diverse wildlife species reside. There are two sides of this debate: support for drilling and the opposition of drilling.

In 1956, Olaus and Mardy Murie led an expedition to the [[Brooks Range]] in northeast Alaska, where they dedicated an entire summer to studying the land and wildlife ecosystems of the Upper [[Sheenjek River|Sheenjek Valley]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Krear, PhD|first1=Robert|title=The Muries Made the Difference|journal=The Muries Voices for Wilderness & Wildlife|date=July 2000|pages=19–20}}</ref> The conclusion resulting from these studies was an ever-deeper sense of the importance of preserving the area intact, a determination that would play an instrumental part in the decision to designate the area as wilderness in 1960. As Olaus would later say in a 1963 speech to a meeting of the Wildlife Management Association of New Mexico State University, "On our trips to the Arctic Wildlife Range we saw clearly that it was not a place for mass recreation... It takes a lot of territory to keep this alive, a living wilderness, for scientific observation and for esthetic inspiration. The Far North is a fragile place."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Murie|first1=Olaus|title=Look Ye Also While Life Lasts|work=The Muries: Voices for Wilderness and Wildlife}}</ref> Environmentalist Celia M. Hunter met the Muries and joined the fight. Founding the Alaska Conservation Society in  1960, Celia worked tirelessly to garner support for the protection of Alaskan wilderness ecosystems.<ref>alaskaconservation.org</ref>

The region first became a [[Protected areas of the United States|federal protected area]] on December 6, 1960, via an order authored by [[Ted Stevens]], Solicitor of the Interior,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/senator-has-long-pushed-for-drilling/ | title=Senator has long pushed for drilling | date=3 November 2005 | access-date=5 May 2023 | archive-date=5 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230505120740/https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/senator-has-long-pushed-for-drilling/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sen. Ted Steven's History of Ethics Violations and Antipathy Toward the Environment |url=https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/ted-stevens-chronology.pdf |website=greenpeace.org |access-date=22 May 2023 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420152237/https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/ted-stevens-chronology.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and signed by [[Fred Andrew Seaton]], [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] under [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. In 1980, [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed the [[Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act]].   The bill was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on 2 December 1980.<ref>King, Seth S. (3 December 1980). "[https://www.nytimes.com/1980/12/03/archives/carter-signs-a-bill-to-protect-104-million-acres-in-alaska-warning.html Carter Signs a Bill to Protect 104 Million Acres in Alaska]". ''New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved 14 December 2017.</ref>

{{convert|8|e6acre|km2|spell=In}} of the refuge are designated as [[National Wilderness Preservation System|wilderness area]], the [[Mollie Beattie Wilderness]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=wildView&WID=364 |title=Mollie Beattie Wilderness |author=Wilderness Institute, University of Montana |year=2011 |publisher=Wilderness.net |access-date=29 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016091841/http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=wildView&WID=364 |archive-date=16 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The expansion of the refuge in 1980 designated {{convert|1.5|e6acre|km2}} of the coastal plain as the [[1002 area]] and mandated studies of the [[natural resource]]s of this area, especially [[Oil exploration|petroleum]]. Congressional authorization is required before [[oil drilling]] may proceed in this area. The remaining {{convert|10.1|e6acre|km2}} of the refuge are designated as "minimal management," a category intended to maintain existing natural conditions and resource values. These areas are suitable for wilderness designation, although there are presently no proposals to designate them as wilderness.

Currently, there are no roads within or leading into the refuge, but there are a few Native settlements scattered within. On the northern edge of the refuge is the [[Inupiat people|Inupiat]] village of [[Kaktovik, Alaska|Kaktovik]] (population 258)<ref name="factfinder.census.gov">{{Cite web |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en  |access-date=13 September 2008 }}{{dead link|date=June 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> and on the southern boundary the [[Gwich'in people|Gwich'in]] settlement of [[Arctic Village, Alaska|Arctic Village]] (population 152).<ref name="factfinder.census.gov"/> A popular wilderness route and historic passage exists between the two villages, traversing the refuge and all its [[ecosystem]]s from [[Boreal ecosystem|boreal]], interior forest to [[Arctic Ocean]] coast. Generally, visitors gain access to the land by [[aircraft]], but it is also possible to reach the refuge by boat or by walking (the [[Dalton Highway]] passes near the western edge of the refuge).  In the [[United States]], the geographic location most remote from human trails, roads, or settlements is found here, at the headwaters of the [[Sheenjek River]].