In his book “Wilderness and the American Mind” Roderick Nash asserts that “wilderness was the basic ingredient of American civilization.” As we witness the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on our wild lands, especially in the West, we must embrace the singular environmental issue of our time: saving the Western Arctic, aka the National Petroleum Reserve, from drilling and mining.
A crucial tool in this battle is Braided River’s splendid new book “On Arctic Ground,” edited by Debbie S. Miller, a brilliant and tireless advocate for Alaska’s wilderness. Miller’s book focuses on four “special areas” that the Alaska Wilderness League has proposed for permanent protection: Teshepuk Lake; Utukok River Uplands; Colville River; and Kasegaluk Lagoon. These unique, fragile, and irreplaceable ecosystems — 23 million acres — teem with wildlife.
Yet the Bureau of Land Management is proposing to lease vast tracts for extraction, including strip mining for coal — Coal! — in the middle of the calving grounds of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd. Admire the photo of caribou in the Utukok River watershed on p. 42-43 and then imagine its desecration from strip mining.
Give this inspiring book to your children. And join the battle to save our civilization’s last great wilderness.
Michael W. Shurgot
Seattle
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