Waterfowl – ducks, geese, and swans – ranging in size from Green-winged Teal to Tundra Swans are among the more than 200 species of birds that utilize the Arctic Refuge (photos by Paul Konrad).
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Last week, the Alaska Wilderness League and 14 other groups filed a lawsuit against the current administration for its plan to lease the entire 1.56 million acres of the Coastal Plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas development. The National Audubon Society was among the groups that filed suit, noting that more than 200 species of birds, including a wealth of ducks, geese, sandpipers, plovers, songbirds, hawks, falcons, and the iconic Snowy Owl depend on the Arctic Refuge. Birds migrate from six continents to nest in this refuge! Audubon describes the Arctic Refuge as an iconic American treasure on par with the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Yosemite.
“Birds can’t vote and they can’t file a lawsuit – but we can! This is an all-hands-on-deck moment to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and protect America’s bird nursery from drilling,” said David Yarnold, President and CEO of the National Audubon Society, after the Department of the Interior took the final administrative step to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leasing and development.
Also filing suit were the Gwich’in Steering Committee, a voice for Indigenous traditional hunting communities, to challenge the oil and gas development plan. Gwich’in people revere the Arctic Refuge’s Coastal Plain as a sacred place where the Porcupine Caribou Herd comes to calve each summer after migrating across the border from Canada. The caribou are a critical subsistence resource for the Gwich’in and Inupiat people, and hold important roles in cultural tradition in Gwich’in villages in Alaska and Canada.
In a separate lawsuit also filed last week, the National Audubon Society, Gwich’in Steering Committee, the Sierra Club, and a host of other groups similarly argue that the Department of the Interior broke several federal laws to approve the leasing plan. Other groups included in the lawsuit are The Alaska Wilderness League, Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, National Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Public Interest Network, Wilderness Watch, Trustees for Alaska, CPAWS of Yukon, and the Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society.
In joining the lawsuit, the Alaska Wilderness League noted that 70 percent of voters in the United States oppose oil development in the Arctic Refuge. The lawsuit argues that the Department of the Interior failed to comply with the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Wilderness Act, and the Endangered Species Act, as well as the Tax Act of 2017.
“BLM [the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management] rushed its analysis, curtailed public participation, short-changed Indigenous input and concerns, and omitted science and facts,” said Brook Brisson, senior staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska. “The decision-making process has been fundamentally flawed from day one. It’s no surprise that the outcome is a leasing program that flagrantly breaks the law and fails to respect and protect human rights, the public trust, and one of our nation’s most iconic public lands.”
Natalie Dawson, Executive Director and Vice President of Audubon Alaska, added: “The Department of Interior blocked scientific review, dismantled its own agency processes, and ignored the concerns of Indigenous Peoples from across the Arctic to pander to politicians who have close ties to North Slope oil companies. Alaskans will not be duped into thinking oil and gas from the Arctic Refuge is a path to prosperity. We need political action to address climate change in our most vulnerable communities, and investment in sustainable and regenerative economies like Indigenous-led cultural tourism in the Arctic.”
You can act personally by adding your name to a petition prepared by the National Wildlife Refuge Association regarding the Arctic Refuge at: https://refugeassociation.salsalabs.org/arcticrefugepetition/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=44444444-4444-4444-4444-444444444444
As reported in The Birding Wire last month, Audubon with other wildlife conservation groups and a number of states won a federal court victory defending the Migratory Bird Treaty Act after a federal court invalidated the Department of the Interior’s new interpretation of the law that allowed companies a to kill birds. This law is also key for protecting birds in the Arctic Refuge and throughout the country.
You can read more in the Sierra Club press release at https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/08/gwich-allied-groups-sue-trump-agencies-for-illegal-lease-program-arctic
To refer to the original Audubon news release regarding the Arctic Refuge lawsuit, see https://www.audubon.org/news/audubon-all-hands-deck-defend-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge