Dear NRDC Supporter,

The Bureau of Land Management recently protected 13 million acres across the Western Arctic, putting 10 million of those acres off-limits to oil and gas leasing, and finalized a rule that could safeguard even more.

This new Special Areas Rule is intended to serve as a pathway for the Indigenous communities who depend on the region’s natural resources to further protect their subsistence rights and cultural traditions.

Learn more about the threats facing the Western Arctic and the Indigenous communities that have thrived there for generations.

Each spring, Indigenous villages at the outskirts of the Western Arctic await sights of one of the Arctic’s most unique creatures, the caribou. In recent decades, the caribou’s migration during calving season has grown increasingly treacherous.

And they aren’t alone in facing climate-fueled food insecurity — the caribou are a sacred food to the region’s Indigenous communities, who are concerned not only about their ability to continue their hunting traditions, but also to preserve meat in the underground ice cellars of the warming Arctic.

Though largely pristine and devoid of oil industry infrastructure, more than half of the Western Arctic is currently open to leasing. Pipelines and roads could soon start snaking through the Western Arctic Reserve as oil exploration operations expand, degrading habitat not just for caribou but also for grizzlies and polar bears, migratory birds, and countless other wildlife species.

NRDC has been fighting to protect the Arctic from reckless drilling for decades — and we’re not just up against Big Oil.

The Trump administration sought to open a whopping additional 18.6 million acres, or 82 percent, of the Western Arctic Reserve to oil and gas leasing, on top of the entire Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — two moves the Biden-Harris administration overturned in 2022.

The Special Areas Rule is a critical step forward in protecting this vital landscape from destruction. Now NRDC’s fight continues — with our partners on the ground and in Washington — to permanently protect the Arctic from the ravages of industry.

Add your voice to help protect the Western Arctic from oil and gas drilling.

Sincerely,

Jenny Shalant
Editorial Director, NRDC