Our first leg of the Ultima Thule is two weeks hiking in the north-east Arctic, beginning in the foothills of the Romanzov Mountains along the Aichilik River and hiking south to the Upper Sheenjek River, designated in 1980 as a Wild River. We hope we might see some of the caribou migration, though it’s always impossible to predict, and it is not encouraged to share exact locations of the migration because of hunting. Our hike will be just to the west of the popular Kongagut River on the far eastern edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Route from the Aichilik River to the Upper Sheenjek

We hope to be able to enter voice blogs from occasional calls on our SAT phone, assuming multiple connections work in the equation. My brother has offered to help upload these blogs, so we’ll try for at least a couple of times a week- stay tuned!

This trip will be in the Refuge proper. In 1980, the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act (ANILCA) designated all of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge- except for a critical 1.5 million acres of coastal plains to the immediate north of our trip area- wilderness. This area under debate is called 1002, after the section of ANILCA under which it was set apart. Section 1003 of ANILCA indicates that “production of oil and gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is prohibited and no leasing or other development leading to production of oil and gas from the [Refuge] shall be undertaken until authorized by an act of Congress.” Hence the source of the debate, as studies continue.

The concerns are many. The mass migration of animals by land and sea, as well as millions of birds from around the world, to the Arctic coast each summer are indicators of what biologists understand as an area of remarkable biological diversity. Because the Refuge and coastal plains encompass six distinct ecological regions, and in Area 1002 especially the distance from the mountains to the sea is compressed, these ecological regions are compressed into an exceptionally valuable wilderness area. This part of the coast is only 3.2% of the Arctic coastal plains and 4.5% of the Arctic foothills region in the state, a seemingly small amount to permanently protect given it’s tremendous environmental significance.

Check back with us every few days for a short voice blog on how the trip is going! We will give you a written report and photos when we return the second week of July. In the meantime, please check out the pages we’ve put together on climate change, migration, and our public lands. A couple of other interesting sites to check out: Necessary Journeys, Karsten Heuer and his wife’s trip following the Porcupine Caribou herd, and the Fish and Wildlife site on the Refuge. If you really want to get into it, an oldie but goodie…Arctic Dreams is fascinating, and truly brings the mystery  and complexity of the Arctic into focus.

Tags: 1002, Aichilik River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, caribou migration, Porcupine Caribou Herd, Romanzov Mountains, Sheenjek River

This entry was posted by Shannon Huffman Polson on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 12:51 am and is filed under Blog entry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.