History of ANWR

www.anwr.org

ANWR has its beginnings in 1923 when 23 million acres of land were set aside as an oil reserve for national security. This reserve was known as the Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4, which would later be called the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. In 1952-53 a group of scientist released “The Last Great Wilderness”. During the Second World War, this northeastern region of Alaska was used exclusively for military purpose. This article released findings that had been made that concluded that the Northeastern corner of Alaska would be ideal for a wildlife protection area. As a response to this report, the United States Government decided to create two distinct areas in northeastern Alaska. The North Slope area along Prudhoe Bay was set aside for oil and gas production. This was in addition to the original National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska area. The second area was an 8.9 million acre wildlife reserve in the coastal plain region of Northeastern Alaska. This area became the Artic National Wildlife Range, later called the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. After vast amounts of oil were found in Prudhoe Bay, attempts at opening up the protected wildlife refuge were begun (http://arctic.fws.gov/). However, in 1980 the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was passed. This act increased the size of the reserve to 19 million acres total. Specifically, it set aside 8 million acres for wilderness areas, 9.5 million acres for a wildlife refuge and 1.5 million acres for a Coastal Plain Study Area (http://www.anwr.org/). This 1.5 million acre study area was designated under section 1002 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (http://arctic.fws.gov/). This specific section of the wildlife reserve is where the current controversy is occurring.

http://arctic.fws.gov/issues1.html#section1

Proponents of the Bush administration’s ANWR oil development

Critics of the Bush administration’s ANWR oil development plans