ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE Fairbanks, Alaska United States Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE SYSTEM ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE Fairbanks, Alaska ANNUAL NARRATIVE REPORT Calendar Year 1987 United States Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE SYSTEM REVIEW AND APPROVALS ) ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE Fairbanks, Alaska ANNUAL NARRATIVE REPORT Calendar Year 1987 INTRODUCTION The Arctic National Wildlife Range was established by Public Land Order Number 2214 on December 6, 1960 for the purpose of preserving unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values. The Arctic National Wildlife Range located in the northeastern corner of Alaska, contained approximately 8,900,000 acres. The area was withdrawn from all forms of appropriation under the public land laws, including the mining but not the mineral leasing laws. This was the culmination of efforts begun over a decade earlier to preserve this unique part of Alaska. The National Park Service began a survey in 1949 of Alaska's recreational potential while the Navy was searching for oil and gas in the Naval Petroleum Reserve Number 4 (now National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska) and adjacent areas. The survey was directed by George L. Collins, Chief of the National Park Service's Region 4 State and Territorial Recreation Division. Collins recommended to the National Park Service in 1954 that the northeast corner of Alaska be preserved for its wildlife, wilderness, recreational, scientific and cultural values following field work and consultation with prominent conservationists such as Olaus Murie and A. Starker Leopold. Collins also recommended that the area be an international park, to include contiguous lands between the Alaska-Canada border and the Mackenzie Delta. There ensued a political struggle over the future of the Arctic Wilderness during the next seven years. There was considerable support for such an action, but there also was strong opposition from those concerned with future industrial development in the terri tory and the restriction that such a designation would require. The oil industry and those branches of government that promote energy development already recognized the oil and gas potential of the area. There was some disagreement among conservationists and federal representatives over which agency should manage the land. George Collins had originally proposed a park, while Olaus Murie felt that rather than promoting "mass recreation" and related economic development, the area should be managed as wilderness by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It was ultimately agreed that Fish and Wildlife Service management should be sought. Public support for establishment of the Arctic National Wildlife Range continued to grow while opposition also increased from mining interests who desired entry and Alaskan politicians who feared a growing federal role in Alaska. The national elections of November 1960 brought eight years of Republican administration to an end, so Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton acceded to increasing public pressure during his final days in office and signed Public Land Order 2214 creating the Arctic National Wildlife Range and closing it to entry under existing mining laws. Opposition from Alaska's congressional delegation over the next eight years successfully blocked appropriation of funds to manage the Arctic National Wildlife Range. Funds for management of the wildlife range were appropriated for the first time in 1969. Efforts were made during the next decade to add unreserved public lands in Alaska to the National Park, National Forest, National Wildlife Refuge, and National Wild and Scenic Rivers Systems as an outgrowth of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. President Jimmy Carter·signed into law the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act on December 2, 1980. This act was a compromise piece of legislation. It re-established the range as the "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge" encompassing the existing 8. 9 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Range and an additional 9.1 million-acres of adjoining lands west to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline corridor and south to the Yukon Flats (Figure 1). An area of approximately 8 million acres, comprising most of the original wildlife range, was designated as wilderness. Approximately 1.6 million acres of the Arctic coastal plain within the refuge was opened to a limited exploration program (seismic testing) for oil and gas (Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Section 1002). Exploratory drilling, leasing, development and production of oil and gas in the refuge were prohibited. Section 1002 required an assessment of the resources of the coastal plain of the refuge. An initial report and subsequent updates on the results of a continuing baseline study of fish, wildlife and habitat resources of the coastal plain were legislatively mandated. The results were to guide the development of an environmental impact statement and guidelines governing the seismic exploration program, and an assessment of impacts from any future oil and gas development. The legislation also required a report by the Secretary of Interior to Congress no later than September 2, 1986, on the oil and gas potential and an assessment of the impact that oil and gas development may have on the fis.h and wildlife resources on the refuge's coastal plain. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act also redefined the purposes of the refuge as follows: (i) to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity including, but not limited to, the Porcupine caribou herd (including participation in coordinated ecological studies and management of this herd and the Western Arctic caribou herd), polar bears, grizzly bears, muskox, Dall sheep, wolves, wolverines, snow geese, peregrine falcons and other migratory birds and Arctic char and grayling; (ii) to fulfill the international treaty obligations of the United States with respect to fish and wildlife and their habitats; (iii) to provide, in a manner consistent with the purposes set forth in subparagraphs (i) and (ii), the opportunity for continued subsistence uses by local residents; and (iv) to ensure,- to the maximum extent practicable and in a manner consistent with the purposes set forth in paragraph (i), water quality and necessary water quantity within the refuge. The surface estate to approximately 65,292 acres within the boundaries of the refuge along the Arctic coast was conveyed to the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation under the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The surface estate of approximately 2,854 acres not previously conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act on Barter Island was conveyed to the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation under provisions of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The subsurface estate of the 2, 854 acres was simultaneously conveyed to the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. Secretary of the Interior James Watt signed an interim conveyance on August 9, 1983, to the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation for the subsurface estate to lands previously conveyed to the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation aggregating 65,292 acres. An inholding of approximately 971,800 acres was added to the refuge as a donation by the State of Alaska in 1983. An attempt was made to add an adjacent tract of public land (approximately 325,000 acres) to the refuge until July 8, 2005 (pending Congressional joint resolution before June 28, 1986) as a withdrawal under Section 204(c) of Public Law 94-579. Congressional approval was not granted, so the tract reverted to Bureau of Land Management management until a new public land order is issued and approved by Congress. The refuge offers unique wildlife, scientific, recreational, and aesthetic values in the Alaskan Arctic. It is the only area where people may practicably travel on foot or by boat and traverse a full range of north slope landscapes and habitats due to the close proximity of the Arctic coast and mountains. Mt. Isto, (9,049 ft), Mt. Chamberlin, (9,019 ft), Mt. Hubley (8,914 ft), and Mt. Michelson, (8,855 ft), the four tallest peaks in the Brooks Range, are located in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge contains the only extensive glaciation in the Brooks Range as well as a full complement of Arctic flora and fauna. This includes portions of the calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd, one of the largest in Alaska (approximately 180,000 caribou), reintroduced muskoxen, habitat for the endangered peregrine falcon, snow geese and other migratory bird species, grizzly and black bears, Dall sheep, wolverines, moose, and a complete complement of the other wildlife species common to Arctic and subarctic Alaska. In addition, the waters offshore of the refuge harbor summering bowhead whales, and the coastal lagoons provide year-around habitat for polar bears and ringed and bearded seals. Other marine mammals which may be found in the coastal lagoons or offshore waters include walrus, spotted seals, gray whales and beluga whales. Polar bears den on refuge land. Major habitat types include alpine tundra and rocky areas, wet and moist Arctic tundra, boreal spruce forest, muskeg bogs, coastal brackish lagoons, shrub thicket areas and numerous types of coastal and inland wetlands. Approximately 138,300 acres are glacier covered. A landcover mapping program is currently in progress and will provide more detailed landtype data in