Enchanted, and Fragile

Stretching 200 miles along the Arctic Ocean coast of Alaska is one of the nation’s most productive and unique wild areas--a fragile alpine tundra that is home to caribou, brown, black and polar bear, musk ox, wolves, snow geese, 18 rivers, 36 species of fish and scores of bird varieties. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says this stretch of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is as primitive as any conservation area in the nation. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt calls it “an enchanted landscape.” But it’s also vulnerable to the sort of oil and gas exploration and production that has turned the Prudhoe Bay region to the west into an Arctic industrial site.

President Clinton still has time to protect these coastal wilds. Before he leaves office Jan. 20 he should use his powers under the Antiquities Act to declare the coastal plain a national monument permanently protected from commercial exploitation. Clinton has made ample use of the act, and the Arctic plain would crown a remarkable record of preserving unspoiled wild lands for future generations of Americans.

It would also fix one of the great regrets of former President Jimmy Carter. Twenty years ago, Congress concluded years of bitter debate and compromise by passing the landmark Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which encompassed 57 million acres of Alaskan wilderness, allotted 47 million acres to native Alaskans and gave control of 104 million acres to the state of Alaska. Among the federal preserves created was the 19-million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, stretching from the Prudhoe Bay oil field eastward to the Canadian border and dipping as far as 200 miles inland across the stark Brooks Range.

Carter, who counts the Alaska lands law as one of his major achievements, has said, “My most grievous disappointment was that the Arctic wildlife refuge area was not completely protected.” The loophole was a concession to the petroleum industry and its congressional supporters and was required to win passage of the overall Alaska lands bill. The plain still cannot be developed without congressional approval, and Clinton’s threat of veto has blocked that avenue.

Nevertheless, without permanent protection the plain is under increasing pressure from the oil industry, especially with the prospect of world crude oil shortages and the election of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, a supporter of development, as president.

Federal geologists estimate that the plain contains between 4.3 billion and 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, the equivalent of a few months’ supply. The oil companies see the plain as easy pickings.

But a unique area such as the Arctic refuge cannot be replaced or replicated. That is why Clinton should act now to keep this wildlife refuge truly wild.