Threats To Gates Of The Arctic

Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is located far north of densely-populated city centers, yet this park is not without threats to its environment, wildlife, and landscape, including threats from a mining road and contaminated metals and minerals leaching out of melting permafrost and turning riverways a bright orange.

Featured In The National Parks Traveler

4th Annual Threatened And Endangered Parks | National Parks And The Mines Next Door

Political and legal fights about mines, many involving impacts on national parks from mining activity outside their borders, were around long before the November election pointed a government smiley face toward the mining industry alongside the welcome mat offered by candidate Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” promise for oil and gas development.

Now, both sides are girding for a new phase of the battle — anticipating a variety of salvos, from executive and congressional actions to litigation and community pressure.

To read more, head over to this page.

Op-Ed | Ambler Road A Threat to Alaska’s Wildlands

… The Trump administration approved the right of way for the 211-mile Ambler road across the southern edge of Alaska’s Brooks Range. The route will access mineral deposits near the village of Ambler. The official name is Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project.

Among other critical lands, the proposed road, if built, will cross the southern portion of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Kobuk River Wild and Scenic River.

To read more, head over to this page.

Why Melting Permafrost Is Turning Alaskan Streams Orange

… Subsequent research by federal and academic researchers revealed that at least 75 streams and rivers are “rusting,” contaminated with metals and minerals in far-flung reaches of the Brooks Range — including in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve along with the Kobuk Valley park and the Noatak preserve — as permafrost thaws in Arctic warming that’s occurring about four times faster than in the rest of the world.

To read more, head over to this page.

Podcast Episode 304 | Into the Thaw

But over the course of several decades author Jon Waterman also has witnessed the impact of climate change to [Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve], and it hasn’t been good. It’s the main thread of a story he lays out in his latest book, Into the Thaw.

To listen to this podcast, head over to this page.