Nature Note:Canadian Author Supports More Wilderness in ANWR

President Barack Obama is seeking to expand wilderness protection in ANWR,the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,making it off-limits to oil drilling.According to Canadian author Edward Struzik,whose book "Future Arctic" has just been published,it's the same old story.The difference now is,we may be coming to the end of frontier oil and gas.The costs of drilling have risen dramatically,and the reserves just aren't big enough.Obama has taken an insurance policy for the future,to preserve the caribou and subsistence resource,Mr.Struzik told talk show host Diane Rehm.
ANWR is thought to hold at least 10 billion barrels of oil,but it's the cost and risk of getting that oil out.We should take the more cautious approach and protect caribou.I think this is a prudent decision by the President.It's a visionary thing.He's the first Western leader to acknowledge the Arctic is changing and we need to do something about it.The important fact is,the Coastal Plain of ANWR is an important calving ground for the caribou.Restrictions placed on hunters and no development whatsoever on the Coastal Plain-these factors have resulted in the rebound of the Porcupine caribou herd.
There's a great state interest here.If we could learn from the past,the state should have put something in the bank.Nobody seems to learn the lesson that you've got to have an insurance policy.Alaska has motored on as if oil will always sustain their economy.Prudhoe Bay is drying up.In Canada,the Alberta government is now in serious trouble.They're thinking about cutting back on education and health care-and maybe even instituting a sales tax.
Expanded wilderness designation-such would secure the future fate of polar bears,caribou and the food supply of native Alaskans,Mr.Struzik insisted.*
The status of ANWR has been debated since the Reagan administration.Now the Interior Department's Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the refuge is in a 30 day public review period,at the end of which a Record of Decision will be issued and implementation of the Plan can begin.Besides setting aside three new wilderness areas in ANWR,the Plan calls for placing two of the refuge's rivers in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers program.The Plan is bitterly opposed by many Alaskans,who feel slighted by the federal government.They do not have the votes in Congress to stop the wilderness protection from taking effect,however-at least until and unless the political landscape in Washington changes even more than it already has.