Introduction to ANWR

Introduction to ANWR

VIDEO: Introduction to ANWR
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The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - ANWR - is one of the best-kept secrets of the great outdoors of North America. Located in the northeastern corner of Alaska, above the arctic circle, it is a vast treasure of pristine wilderness. At nearly twenty million acres, it is the nation's largest wildlife refuge - an area nearly the size of the state of Maine, virtually untouched by development.

Due to the extreme environmental conditions in ANWR, the diversity of wildlife is not expansive, but is comprised of plants and animals uniquely adapted this rich and fragile habitat, including tiny alpine flowers; black, brown, and polar bears; and bird species from 4 continents.

Geologic features unique to these arctic and subarctic ecosystems include permafrost, glaciers, and ice fields. Although this environment may seem primitive and forbidding, it is in fact a delicate ecosystem, with a brief growing season and long, harsh winters, in which life cycles are easily disturbed, and recovery to impact is slow.

Threats to the delicate balance of the environment of ANWR include global warming and, most immediately, the threat of oil development. Estimates vary on the quantity of oil that may lie under the coastal plain in the north of the refuge, but even the most ambitious estimates do not begin to approach the intrinsic value to humanity of the vast, unique presence of ANWR as it exists today.