What species are put at risk through exploration, drilling and production?
Wildlife and plant life that live in or use the seasonally rich coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are triply at risk. First, oil exploration and extraction activities are concentrated in the refuges most critical and sensitive areas such as calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd and denning areas for one of Americas two polar bear populations. Second, because the impacts of oil and other chemical spills accumulate in areas such as air holes used by seals and other marine mammals, the impact of even small spills is magnified. There, because many migrating bird species such as trumpeter swans and arctic terns visit the refuge in anticipation of a short, uninterrupted burst of food resources to feed themselves and develop their young prior to migration, disturbances of any duration could have population-wide impacts. And last, because the coastal plain is the biological heart of a huge arctic/subarctic ecosystem, harm to wildlife there would be expected to rever
