RELEASE: Groups deliver 250,000 comments asking for Western Arctic protection

DENVER – Environment America Research & Policy Center and partner organizations, including Environmental Action, delivered more than 34,000 comments to the Bureau of Land Management during a comment period that ended on Thursday. The comments called for permanent protections from oil and gas drilling for 13 millions acres of designated “special areas” in the Western Arctic Reserve. The larger coalition of more than a dozen environmental groups calling for protections delivered approximately 250,000 comments from grassroots supporters.

“Protecting the Western Arctic is a big deal and could be a huge victory for the caribou on land, the Beluga whales in the water and all the cool creatures such as polar bears and seals that go back and forth,” said Environment America Research & Policy Center Public Lands Campaign Director, Ellen Montgomery. “If this plan is realized, 10.6 million acres — an area larger than the state of Maryland — would be off-limits to oil and gas drilling. Even more exciting, the Biden administration would set up a process to expand existing special areas and to create new special areas, so even more acres could be conserved in the future.”

In addition to all the land and marine animals, millions of migratory birds visit the shorelines and lakes. Five areas including lakes, wetlands, rivers and bays have been designated as “special areas,” because of their unique environmental values.

“By protecting more than 13 million acres of the Western Arctic, President Joe Biden can cement his growing legacy” said Montgomery. “The more nature that this administration protects, the greater the gift to future generations of people and wildlife. We urge the president to move forward with this plan as quickly as possible.”

Since October 2022, the Biden administration has designated four new national monuments that protect nature — most recently, the 900,000-acre Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in northern Arizona, as well as sites in Colorado, Texas and Nevada. His administration has also taken action to benefit two other American treasures: the Boundary Waters in Minnesota and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico.