Date

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Speaker

Location

Parking:
On site and free.

Time

Cost

Title

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Powerful Landscape/Powerful Politics

Topics

The Arctic Refuge is a unique and pristine wilderness area that is crucial both to the Native people and a huge range of wildlife. The coastal plain is the most biologically productive part of the Arctic Refuge for wildlife activity. The coastal plain is the most important onshore polar bear denning area in the United States and is also home to many unique and important animals including grizzly bears, Dall sheep, musk oxen, arctic foxes and wolverines. Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, representing more than 130 species, make stopovers on their trips from Baja Peninsula, Chesapeake Bay and Antarctica to use the remote coastal plain as a breeding and nesting-ground. The coastal plain is most recognized for the annual migration of the 130,000 member Porcupine River Caribou herd. Each spring the Porcupine River Caribou travel over 400 miles to reach the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge to give birth to their young.

About the Speaker

We invite you to a slide presentation presented by Kathryn Hannay, who was fortunate to join the Sierra Club on a backpack trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to learn about the natural history, cultural traditions, and political pressure on this pristine wilderness. Kathryn is an artist who has organized and led many work projects for Audubon and the Sierra Club in Alaska.