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Wilderness: A Western Concept Western civilization has its roots in the city-states bordering the Mediterranean Sea, where separation of the urban dweller from nature was considered a desirable outcome of civilization. Because surviving cultures are not static, and both Western and arctic indigenous cultures are undergoing rapid change, the targets that are the focus of legal action to protect wilderness in the Arctic are moving targets. The recent trend by arctic countries to recognize claims of arctic peoples to lands and resources is an encouraging sign that the historical perception held by Westerners of the Arctic and its peoples is being revised. arcticcircle.uconn.edu /HistoryCulture/wilderness.html   (4013 words)

Alaska’s Western Arctic - Center for Biological Diversity - Programs   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a 19-million-acre expanse of wildlands located in the northeast corner of Alaska. The Western Arctic Reserve, formally known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), is a unique and ecologically valuable 23-million-acre wilderness stretching across the northwest portion of Alaska’s arctic. The Western Arctic Caribou use the Utukok Uplands in the western portion of the Reserve for calving grounds and as a critical migration route as they make their way south. www.biologicaldiversity.org /swcbd/programs/alaska/westernarctic.html   (879 words)

The Western Arctic: Earthjustice: Environmental Law   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) The western Arctic lies at the northern edge of Alaska, west of the Arctic Refuge and Prudhoe Bay, and below the Arctic Ocean in the north. The western Arctic is an area of varied topography that ranges from coastal lagoons in the north to rugged mountains in the south. Together with the efforts to open the Arctic Refuge and the ongoing leasing and other activities in the western Arctic, the offshore activities in the Arctic Ocean are part of a full-scale assault on America's Arctic. www.earthjustice.org /library/background/the_western_arctic.html   (1636 words)

Arctic Refuge: Questions and Answers One of the factors that makes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a very special place is that, as far as we know, there are no species that should be here but are not, and no species that should not be here, but are. Most visitors to the Arctic Refuge plan their trips for the short summer season of June, July and August. Because of the vast size of the Refuge and the unlimited number of entry points, it is difficult to estimate the number of independent visitors who come into the Refuge using their own planes, boats, or on foot, but we believe it is a relatively low number, perhaps about 200 individuals each year. arctic.fws.gov /faqs.htm   (686 words)

Arctic Studies Center - Resources - Frequently Asked Questions Trees are unable to survive in the high Arctic because of the extreme low temperatures, high winds and lack of sufficient rainfall. Among peoples of the Arctic, shamans can be male or female, and often what distinguishes them from the rest of their community are the close relationships they share with spirit guides and helpers, who assist the shaman in protecting and ensuring the health and welfare of their community. Peoples in arctic regions have traditionally eaten a variety of fish, seals, whales and caribou, as well as the numerous types of plants and delicious berries that grow naturally in the Arctic. www.mnh.si.edu /arctic/html/resources_faq.html   (3109 words)

Western & Arctic Coast Gallery - Exhibitions at the University of Alaska Museum of the North Western & Arctic Coast Gallery - Exhibitions at the University of Alaska Museum of the North The most prominent feature of the Western and Arctic coast is the broad, flat coastal plain. In 1971, marine scientists discovered the Boulder Patch, commonly referred to as the "Arctic's underwater garden." The Museum's one-third scale diorama shows these diverse animals and explains why the growing season for the plant community occurs in the dead of winter. www.uaf.edu /museum/exhibit/galleries/westarctic.html   (227 words)

NASA - Changes in the Arctic: Consequences for the World However, significant changes in the Arctic environment, especially those over the past decade, could lead to dramatic swings in weather and climate patterns across the rest of the globe, with potentially far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and human populations. Arctic spring, summer, and autumn have each warmed, lengthening the seasons when sea ice melts from 10 to 17 days per decade. The Arctic is so important to the world's climate because it acts as the "collection bed" for the world's excess energy. www.nasa.gov /vision/earth/environment/arctic_changes.html   (1991 words)

Global Monitoring Division The coastal region of the western Arctic is especially sensitive climatically because it is near cryospheric boundaries and it is influenced by both extratropical and Arctic synoptic activity. The analysis suggests that, from the mid 1960s warming in the western Arctic has exceeded 1.0 °C, and in the case of Barrow, the 30-year trend exceeds 1.4 °C, noting that this longer record includes the very warm years of the mid 1990s. In other words, variations in western Arctic temperatures during the cold season are associated with cloud-radiative effects that in turn relate to advective processes. www.cmdl.noaa.gov /star/westernarctic.html   (2119 words)

Greenpeace - Climate Campaign - Arctic - Reports The western Arctic, including Alaska and northwestern Canada, is warming at a rate three to five times faster than the Earth as a whole. The dramatic changes observed in the Arctic ice pack over the last few decades are associated with temperature and other climate changes already endangering Arctic wildlife, especially those found at the extreme north or south of their ranges. This report, prepared by Greenpeace and Arctic Network, is the first ever compilation of Alaskan Native testimonies on the impacts of climate change in the Western Arctic. archive.greenpeace.org /~climate/arctic99/html/content/reports.html   (885 words)

Western Arctic Caribou Herd Nears 500,000 Mark There is also growing use of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd by resident and nonresident hunters living outside the herd's range. Because of its tremendous size, the ecological importance of the Western Arctic Herd to Northwestern Alaska is incalculable. Since the Western Arctic Caribou Herd crashed in the mid-'70s, biologists and hunters have been concerned that the herd could experience a similar drop in coming years. www.wolfsongalaska.org /news/Alaska_current_events_695.htm   (665 words)

CBC - Canada Votes 2006 - Candidates and Ridings The Western Arctic riding is formed from Canada's vast Northwest Territories, which stretch from the mountainous Yukon border to the Barrens abutting Nunavut, and from the bleak High Arctic to the forested 60th parallel. Former Western Arctic Deputy at the 2004 Youth Parliament of the North and the West. Federal: Elected in Western Arctic in 1988, 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004 www.cbc.ca /canadavotes/riding/307   (821 words)

Arctic West Arctic 30-day forecast is completed by the first Friday of each month. A seasonal West Arctic (90 day) forecast for the coastal shipping lane along the north slope of Alaska is available on 1 June of each year. A seasonal East Arctic (90 day) forecast for the Thule Greenland resupply is available on 1 June of each year. www.natice.noaa.gov /products/arctic/index.htm   (487 words)

NRDC Backgrounder: The Bush Administration's Unbalanced Plan to Drill in the Western Arctic The Inupiat Eskimo, who live in a number of villages in the Western Arctic Reserve, depend on the region's wildlife for subsistence, including food, clothing and shelter, and have a spiritual and cultural connection to the land. Regardless, the Western Arctic Reserve has never been granted full federal protection because it was set aside in 1923 as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a potential oil source for the U.S. Navy in the event of an emergency. This area is mostly mountainous highlands and provides the calving area in the Utukok uplands for the 450,000 Western Arctic caribou herd. www.nrdc.org /media/pressreleases/040823.asp   (1420 words)

Arctic Wild - Wilderness Adventures in Alaska : Brooks Range - Arctic National Wildlife Refuge : Gates of the Arctic - ... Here in the inspiring wilderness between the Brooks Range and the Arctic Ocean, the land is so vast and untamed that salmon swim undammed rivers and caribou may live and die without ever seeing a human. The arctic is a land of light and silence and stunning beauty; the arctic is wild. North of the Arctic Circle, the sun does not set on our Brooks Range wilderness adventures in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Gates of the Arctic National Park. www.arcticwild.com   (293 words)

Audubon Alaska - Western Arctic (NPR-A)   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) East of Prudhoe Bay lies the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, whose coastal plain stretches east from the oil fields to the Canadian border. From the Colville River, west to the Chukchi Sea, the western Arctic represents a vast landscape that remains largely unchanged in character from the lands inhabited by Inupiat Natives during the last millennia. The Reserve and the surrounding western Arctic region are recognized for their extraordinary wildlife values. www.audubon.org /chapter/ak/ak/m3item5.html   (1073 words)

Audubon Alaska: Issues & Action From the Colville River, west to the Chukchi Sea, Alaska’s western Arctic region encompasses a vast landscape that remains largely unchanged in character from the lands inhabited by Inupiat Natives during the last millennia. The wilderness values of the western Arctic rank among the highest on the continent, and the region sustains many species of fish and wildlife, which are highly valued resources and the foundation for the subsistence culture of the Inupiat Natives who still live in this region today. This new development program, in addition to other resource development activities in the western Arctic, is likely to substantially alter the character of this region in the coming decades. www.audubon.org /chapter/ak/ak/IssuesAction_WesternArctic_NPR-A.html   (852 words)

Western Arctic Alaska:Opportunity for Conservation The reserve envelops most of western arctic Alaska and its vital wetlands. This is in spite of assertions of full protection by previous administrations, strong objections by environmental groups, more than 200,000 comments by the American public urging protection of this region, and concern from the Inupiat natives, who depend on local wildlife for subsistence. There is room for both development and real wildlife protection in the NPR-A. Based on our years of field studies at various places in the Alaskan arctic, the Teshekpuk Lake region is clearly a place that stands out as having exceptional wildlife value, which we believe is worthy of real protection. www.wcs.org /353624/arcticalaska   (431 words)

Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-op: Indicators -- Western Arctic Sea Ice Extent The upper graph shows the smallest size of the yearly sea ice coverage in the Western Arctic based on satellite measurements on August 15th. The reduction in minimum ice coverage in the Western Arctic may be a reflection of the warming climate however with only three decades of measurements we cannot be completely sure whether this trend is due to natural variations in Arctic climate or long-term climate change. The Western Arctic study area includes Viscount Melville Sound, the Beaufort Sea and the Western Arctic Waterway. www.taiga.net /coop/indics/sea_ice_extent.html   (436 words)

Western Arctic: 23 Million Acres at Risk! At a vast 23 million acres -- an area equal in size to the state of Indiana -- the misnamed National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (Western Arctic) is the largest remaining unprotected wild area in the United States. This proposal is a one-sided development plan that endangers the Western Arctic's special places and undermines responsible environmental safeguards where development would proceed. There are at least five special areas within the BLM's planning area of the Western Arctic that should be permanently protected for their unique wilderness and wildlife, such as Meade River/Dease Inlet, Teshekpuk Lake, Peard Bay, Kasegaluk Lagoon, and Colville River. actionnetwork.org /SierraClubNJ/alert-description.html?alert_id=2003549   (862 words)

About NOAA's Arctic Research Office (ARO) It represents NOAA on the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, leads U.S. involvement in the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, and provides a point of contact between NOAA and the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research and the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. During FY 1997, in cooperation with the Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research, NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research used those funds to begin support of 15 research projects in two principal areas: natural varaibility of the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem, and anthropogenic influences on the Western Arctic/Bering Sea ecosystem. Prior to Kathy's appointment as a Program Manager in NOAA's Arctic Research Office she was a professor of oceanography, marine geology and geophysics and environmental issues for seventeen years at Hunter College of the City University of New York. www.arctic.noaa.gov /aro/about.shtml   (513 words)

Campaigns | Western Arctic (NPR-A)   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) A number of areas in Alaska's western Arctic are under threat as the petroleum industry, along with allies in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), are seeking to drill for oil and gas in some of the region's most impressive and most sensitive natural areas. In just a few short years, the delicate arctic ecosystems of the Reserve could be destroyed for only a modest amount of oil, scarred for millennia with the remains of oil drilling operations and poisoned with chemical byproducts. The western half of the reserve is so far away from existing fossil fuel transport infrastructure that there are no plans to lease lands until 2004. www.alaskawild.org /campaigns_other_npra_2005.html   (2636 words)

Bush Would Trade Biological Heart of Western Arctic for Oil, environment news The Bush administration's proposed revisions to the 1998 management plan for the northeast portion of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve are unjustified and threaten "the biological heart of the Western Arctic," according to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Schoen says there is broad scientific consensus that oil and gas drilling has negative impacts on the animals that depend on the scarce wetlands of the Arctic. The court has ordered the BLM to prohibit any surface occupancy, including seismic activities, on any leases issued until the litigation is resolved and the court rules on the merits of the case. www.earthhopenetwork.net /bush_trade_arctic_for_oil.htm   (999 words)

Edge of the Arctic Shelf The overall goal is to understand how the Arctic shelves communicate with the interior basin from a coupled physical--biogeochemical standpoint. The premise is that this system is in a delicate balance that could be upset by global change, which in turn could have important ramifications. This is the salty layer at mid-depth which shields the surface ice cover from the warm deep water. www.whoi.edu /arcticedge/arctic_west04/expedition/index.html   (385 words)

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge The Western Arctic’s extensive network of wetlands supports world-class populations of golden eagles, peregrine falcons, and other birds of prey, along with millions of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. Elsewhere in the Western Arctic, grizzly bears, wolves, caribou, and moose roam the foothills, beluga whales and spotted seals swim freely in icy coastal lagoons, and Arctic poppies and cotton grass dance in the wind. By a two-to-one margin, voters reject an argument to open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling, even in the case of impending war with Iraq and a possible cut-off of a portion of America’s supply of oil from the Middle East. www.arcticwildlife.org /alaskawild196.htm   (1847 words)

Campaigns | Arctic Campaign   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) The fate of the Arctic Refuge -- the habitat, the wildlife, and the culture it has supported a thousand generations -- now depends on the will of Congress, which has an opportunity to stave off the oil companies’ assault by protecting this majestic landscape for future generations. Because the Central Arctic caribou herd is so much smaller than the Porcupine herd and does not migrate, wildlife biologists are hesitant to draw parallels between the two herds. Golden eagles, arctic peregrine falcons, snowy owls and ptarmigan are among the few that stay in the Arctic Refuge through the winter. www.alaskawild.org /campaigns_arctic.html   (5454 words)

ArcticGems.org From the famed coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to the spectacular Western Arctic with its expansive wetlands and wildlife habitat, these areas are as unique and as ecologically valuable as they are threatened. The 23-million acre Western Arctic, inappropriately named the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), is the largest remaining unprotected wild area in the United States. Unfortunately, like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the east and the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Western Arctic has been targeted by the Bush administration’s national energy plan as a priority area for oil and gas development. www.northern.org /arcticgems/index.html   (327 words)

Western Arctic Climate At the regional scale, the climate of Alaska is controlled by polar and arctic air masses. The Tundra Division extends northward from the Arctic Circle to approximately 75°N and lies within the outer zone of the influence of Arctic Air masses. While the two dominant climate types of tundra and subarctic are dominated by arctic and continental polar air masses respectively, in the Bering Sea region there is a strong maritime influence. www.uark.edu /misc/jcdixon/Historic_Whaling/Climate/Climate_descrip.htm   (813 words)

Protect the Western Arctic Petition Because the Western Arctic must be preserved and must not be allowed to have it destroyed by the greedy oil companies. The arctic is a beatiful place, please let the future generations also have atleast one last wildlife refuge. A truly balanced oil and gas leasing plan for the Western Arctic must be based upon an adequate review of wilderness and wild and scenic river potential, and include responsible environmental safeguards for areas where drilling proceeds. www.thepetitionsite.com /takeaction/336433053   (1237 words)

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