Save Alaska's Teshekpuk Lake

admin — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 00:33:46 -0500

Teshekpuk Lake and its surrounding pristine wetlands are designated as a "special area" of the United States federal lands. Since 1977, this beautiful, unspoiled area has been protected and free from large-scale industrial exploitation.

But recently there have been efforts to open the entire Teshekpuk Lake wetlands to oil drilling. The Bush administration tried to sell the area as part of an oil and gas lease sale held on September 27, 2006. The federal courts however, ruled that the plan was illegal, and the critical wildlife habitat around Teshekpuk Lake was removed from the sale.

Prior to the court ruling, over 300,000 Americans asked the administration to protect the Teshekpuk Lake wetlands. And during the summer, a bipartisan group of representatives and senators likewise argued for restored protections. Now, with federal courts confirming the problems with the Bush plan, we must continue to build pressure and momentum.

Now is the time to act.

Send a Letter
To the Bureau of Land Management

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I am writing to comment on the Draft Supplemental Integrated Activity Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for Northeast portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), which poses a threat to the currently protected and biologically important Teshekpuk Lake region.

At a minimum I urge the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) not to take any action that will remove current protections for this incredibly important area.  I urge BLM adopt Alternative A, the �No Action,� alternative.  Furthermore I urge the agency to increase protections by making additional areas of the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area that are important to wildlife and subsistence off limits to any oil and gas development.

The Teshekpuk Lake area is one of the most important wetland complexes in the entire circumpolar Arctic.  The area contains vital habitat for migratory shorebirds and waterfowl, and other wildlife, including the 45,000-head Teshekpuk Lake Caribou herd.

Because of its abundance of wildlife the area is also critically important to the maintaining the subsistence-based culture of the Inupiat people of Alaska�s North Slope.

The Teshekpuk Lake area has been protected for thirty years from oil and gas development through four administrations by Secretaries of Interior from Cecil Andrus to James Watt.  There is no viable reason for the current administration to remove these long-standing protections.

At a time in our history when our country must combat global warming and overcome its addiction to oil, it makes so sense to damage this biologically valuable habitat with oil and gas development that will contribute greenhouse gas emissions.

I thank you for considering my comments and urge BLM to maintain the current protections for vitally important habitat in the Teshekpuk Lake region and indeed extend these protections to include additional areas.

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Save T-Lake - Protecting Alaska's Teshekpuk lake

Save Alaska's Teshekpuk Lake