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The Refuge | 1 | Sibling Rivalry
Episode 1 • 6th November 2019 • Threshold • Auricle Productions
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Nick Mott:

This series was supported by the Pulitzer

Nick Mott:

Center.

Lisa Murkowski:

Mr. President. I don't know if you recognize this

Lisa Murkowski:

is a very historic day, of course, but it's also the

Lisa Murkowski:

beginning of winter solstice. It doesn't feel like it...

Amy Martin:

This is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, recorded

Amy Martin:

by CNN at the signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December

Amy Martin:

2017. Although the focus of that bill was taxes, it was a mega

Amy Martin:

bill, with lots of different puzzle pieces, and one of them

Amy Martin:

was something that Senator Murkowski had been trying to put

Amy Martin:

into place for a very long time.

Lisa Murkowski:

For us in Alaska, we've had some pretty

Lisa Murkowski:

dark days recently, but with passage of this tax bill, with

Lisa Murkowski:

passage finally, to allow us to open up the 1002 area, this is a

Lisa Murkowski:

bright day for Alaska. This is a bright day for America. So we

Lisa Murkowski:

thank you for that. We thank you for that.

Amy Martin:

The 1002 area is a particular part of the Arctic

Amy Martin:

National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. This tax bill

Amy Martin:

included a provision allowing for oil and gas drilling there.

Lisa Murkowski:

This has been a multi generational fight.

Amy Martin:

That fight started in the 1980s and one of the

Amy Martin:

people who was leading it back then was another Murkowski,

Amy Martin:

Frank. Lisa's father, a long time US senator, then Alaska

Amy Martin:

governor, Frank pushed for oil and gas development in the

Amy Martin:

Wildlife Refuge throughout his political career, but he was

Amy Martin:

never able to make it happen. But at the end of 2017 with

Amy Martin:

Republicans in control of the Senate, the House and the White

Amy Martin:

House, Senator Lisa Murkowski saw an opportunity to complete

Amy Martin:

the work that her father had begun.

Lisa Murkowski:

Know that our promise to you today is a bright

Lisa Murkowski:

future.One where we care for our environment, where we care for

Lisa Murkowski:

our people, and we also care for our country in providing a

Lisa Murkowski:

resource that is needed, not only by the United States, by

Lisa Murkowski:

Alaskans, but by our friends and allies. This, Mr. President, is

Lisa Murkowski:

what energy dominance is all about. So let's go.

Amy Martin:

And with that, the largest wildlife refuge in the

Amy Martin:

country was open for business.

RNC Crowd:

Drill, baby drill and drill now.

Climate Protestors:

Whose lives? Our lives! Whose planet? Our

Climate Protestors:

planet!

Amy Martin:

Welcome to Threshold. I'm Amy Martin, and

Amy Martin:

this is season three, a journey into the battle over drilling

Amy Martin:

for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And before we

Amy Martin:

dive in here, I want to acknowledge that chances are

Amy Martin:

good you already know where you stand on this issue, and whether

Amy Martin:

you're opposed to drilling or in favor of it,it's likely that the

Amy Martin:

other position seems insane to you. Most Americans have never

Amy Martin:

been to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and probably

Amy Martin:

would have a hard time finding it on a map. But that does not

Amy Martin:

stop people from having very intense feelings about drilling

Amy Martin:

there, both pro and con. And I think this might be because most

Amy Martin:

of us look at this place from a distance and from far away, the

Amy Martin:

issues here seem pretty black and white. The Arctic National

Amy Martin:

Wildlife Refuge is owned by the federal government. That means

Amy Martin:

the land and the oil and gas beneath the surface belong to

Amy Martin:

all Americans. These are public resources meant to be used or

Amy Martin:

not used for the public good. So do you want oil to be drilled in

Amy Martin:

this remote wildlife haven or not? A simple yes or no

Amy Martin:

question. But the closer you get to this place, the more

Amy Martin:

complicated the picture becomes for the indigenous people of

Amy Martin:

this region, the refuge isn't remote at all. It's their

Amy Martin:

homeland, and the whole concept of it being owned by the federal

Amy Martin:

government is offensive to some people. In fact, this fight over

Amy Martin:

drilling is actually part of a much bigger and older fight

Amy Martin:

about sovereignty and cultural survival. And then to add to the

Amy Martin:

complexity, these two conflicts over oil and over indigenous

Amy Martin:

rights intersect in different ways in different communities,

Amy Martin:

leading some people to be strongly pro drilling, and some

Amy Martin:

to be just as strongly opposed. In short, there's a whole lot

Amy Martin:

more going on here than you might think, and after 40 years,

Amy Martin:

all these fights are coming to a head. As we release this in the

Amy Martin:

fall of 2019, the Department of the Interior is saying they will

Amy Martin:

start auctioning off development rights to oil companies as soon

Amy Martin:

as this winter, but some of the opponents to drilling are trying

Amy Martin:

to stop that from happening through legislation and

Amy Martin:

lawsuits. So passions are likely to be running hotter than ever

Amy Martin:

in coming months. Our goal in this series is to bring some

Amy Martin:

light to all of that heat to help you understand what this

Amy Martin:

place is. And what's at stake if the oil gets drilled and if it

Amy Martin:

doesn't. So as Senator Murkowski said, let's go.

RNC Crowd:

ANWR is the most misrepresented place I think

RNC Crowd:

I've ever seen.

Unknown:

We are the caribou people. If it wasn't for the

Unknown:

caribou, we won't be here today.

Unknown:

It's a big opportunity that we be able to profit off of.

Unknown:

It's easy to fall back on ideology when there's the dearth

Unknown:

of first hand experience.

Unknown:

Our permafrost is melting. Our snow doesn't stick like it used

Unknown:

to.

Unknown:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: It's definitely not a done deal. What

Unknown:

they're doing is legal, but it's immoral.

Amy Martin:

I'm standing in a small boat about to head out

Amy Martin:

into the waters of northern Alaska.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: Alright we're ready to go.

Amy Martin:

That's our captain, 23-year-old Vebjorn Aishana

Amy Martin:

Reitan, inviting me into the cabin. But the answer is no, I

Amy Martin:

do not want to come inside. I want to stay right where I am

Amy Martin:

shivering in the wind and taking in everything I can about what

Amy Martin:

this place looks and feels and sounds like.

Amy Martin:

So after two years of Arctic reporting and multiple Alaska

Amy Martin:

adventures, we are finally, finally on our way to the Arctic

Amy Martin:

National Wildlife Refuge.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn lives in the village of Kaktovik, which sits on a small

Amy Martin:

barrier island just off the coast, and he's taking my

Amy Martin:

colleague Nick Mott and me over to the mainland. It's a cloudy

Amy Martin:

day, and as we motor along the edge of the North American

Amy Martin:

continent, slowly emerges from the mist.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: What you see is a great ocean, a line of

Amy Martin:

green and black that is the land, and above that big gray

Amy Martin:

and that's the sky. That doesn't tell you much.

Amy Martin:

I think that's actually a really great

Amy Martin:

description.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: Oh yeah?

Amy Martin:

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge fills the whole

Amy Martin:

northeast corner of Alaska. It's bordered by Canada to the east

Amy Martin:

and the Arctic Ocean to the north, and it's the northern

Amy Martin:

part of the refuge where we're headed today, the coastal plain.

Amy Martin:

This is the place where tens of thousands of caribou come to

Amy Martin:

nurture their newborn calves every spring, and it's the area

Amy Martin:

where oil companies may someday build pipelines and roads and

Amy Martin:

start drilling for fossil fuels. The Coastal Plain is the

Amy Martin:

epicenter of this fight. It's been the subject of countless

Amy Martin:

news stories, scientific reports, government documents

Amy Martin:

and angry letters to the editor. But for Vebjorn, it's just his

Amy Martin:

backyard.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: I don't think people think of it as a

Amy Martin:

refuge. Even we just think of it as our it's where we come from,

Amy Martin:

kind of.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn's dad is from Norway, his mom is from

Amy Martin:

Kaktovik, and the village of Kaktovik is actually inside the

Amy Martin:

refuge boundaries. So when he says the refuge is where he

Amy Martin:

comes from, he means the Alaskan side of his family, the Inupiaq

Amy Martin:

side.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: I've been on the refuge since before

Amy Martin:

I have to walk, my mom would carry me in the back of her

Amy Martin:

parka.

Amy Martin:

So it's just been part of your whole life.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: Yeah. Refuge is important to us.

Amy Martin:

As we move toward the coast, the palette is

Amy Martin:

simple, just like Vebjorn said- it's all grays, muted greens and

Amy Martin:

soft browns. It's kind of like we're floating through a Mark

Amy Martin:

Rothko painting, one of the dark ones. But there are some light

Amy Martin:

spots in this painting too, and they're big and white and fuzzy.

Amy Martin:

There's a bunch of bears!

Amy Martin:

Oh my god, so cute!

Nick Mott:

Oh yeah!

Amy Martin:

About 200 yards away, nestled into long green

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn cuts the motor as we float by.

Amy Martin:

grass on a small island, we spotted a cluster of ivory white

Amy Martin:

polar bears.

Nick Mott:

Mom and two cubs?

Nick Mott:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: Yeah. We'll see if they let us look at

Nick Mott:

them.

Amy Martin:

So we're on our way over to the mainland, and

Amy Martin:

there's a mom and two baby polar bear cubs hanging out right on

Amy Martin:

the lip of the island. It's sort of cliffy.

Nick Mott:

They're all cuddled up. It's adorable.

Amy Martin:

They're all cuddled up. Nick's taking pictures. How

Amy Martin:

did they look through the camera?

Nick Mott:

Even more adorable.

Amy Martin:

They're kind of looking at us and we're looking

Amy Martin:

at them, and they're all just kind of lounging about.

Amy Martin:

If you listen to the second season of our show, which is all

Amy Martin:

about the Arctic, you might have noticed that we didn't mention

Amy Martin:

polar bears, like not at all, and that was intentional. Polar

Amy Martin:

Bears have gotten so much attention that I decided I

Amy Martin:

wanted to focus on other things. I told our team that unless or

Amy Martin:

until a polar bear happened to amble directly across our path,

Amy Martin:

we weren't going to cover them. But here they were in our path,

Amy Martin:

snuggled up together on an Arctic Island, and we couldn't

Amy Martin:

take our eyes off of them.

Nick Mott:

It's just a polar bear cuddle puddle. It's the

Nick Mott:

cutest thing I've ever seen.

Amy Martin:

And it's not warm like I would actually be kind of

Amy Martin:

stoked to be in that cuddle puddle if it didn't involve

Amy Martin:

claws and teeth.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn moves us past the bears. We don't want to stress them out

Amy Martin:

by watching them for too long.

Amy Martin:

Wow, it's beautiful out here.

Amy Martin:

And as we round the island, we see another bear.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: There's another one.

Amy Martin:

Where?

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: Yellow, bright yellow, kind of.

Amy Martin:

Oh yeah! Yup. You see it Nick? Twelve o'clock,

Amy Martin:

kinda.

Nick Mott:

I do, I do. I've heard of Kaktovik as polar bear

Nick Mott:

central, and I thought it was, you know, an overstatement.

Amy Martin:

It's definitely not.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: Yeah, all over.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn knows a lot about bears. The "bjorn" part of

Amy Martin:

his first name means "bear" in Norwegian, and like his father

Amy Martin:

and brother, he's a licensed guide for the thousands of

Amy Martin:

tourists who flock to Kaktovik every year to see the polar

Amy Martin:

bears.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: We get orders for trips two years

Amy Martin:

ahead, sometimes for the very busy part of the season, people

Amy Martin:

buy as many tours as we're willing to sell.

Amy Martin:

There's a whole lot more to say about polar bears in

Amy Martin:

this area, and I promise this is not the last you'll hear from me

Amy Martin:

about them in this series. But for now, just know that the

Amy Martin:

coastal plain of the refuge is very important to polar bears,

Amy Martin:

and that's where we're about to land. Vebjorn tells us to hop

Amy Martin:

out while he secures the boat. I'm more than happy to comply.

Amy Martin:

Yes!

Amy Martin:

I'm feeling a little giddy because I'm finally standing in

Amy Martin:

this place that I've been hearing about for my entire

Amy Martin:

adult life.

Amy Martin:

We're on a little spit of land, gravelly beach and little

Amy Martin:

blustery, windy, dewy, wet in front of us is that green tundra

Amy Martin:

of the coastal plain. It's gorgeous.

Amy Martin:

My first impression is just wide open space. The Arctic National

Amy Martin:

Wildlife Refuge is huge, almost 20 million acres, or about

Amy Martin:

30,000 square miles. So if we were to hike from this spot on

Amy Martin:

the coastal plain down to the southern boundary of the refuge,

Amy Martin:

it would be like walking across the state of South Carolina or

Amy Martin:

the entire country of Austria without seeing a single town or

Amy Martin:

house or road. I cross the pebbly beach to where Nick is

Amy Martin:

standing.

Amy Martin:

How would you describe it?

Nick Mott:

It is, I mean, from far away, it looks like a blob

Nick Mott:

of great green, but up close it's all different. There's

Nick Mott:

these little grasses and little shrubby things and leafy things,

Nick Mott:

and it's there's reddish and greenish and yellowish and

Nick Mott:

grayish, and everything's wet. Everything's squishy.

Amy Martin:

You can picture the refuge as having three main

Amy Martin:

regions, brushy foothills in the south, the mighty Brooks Range,

Amy Martin:

cutting across the middle, and then in the north, where we are,

Amy Martin:

this swath of tundra resting between the mountains and the

Amy Martin:

ocean. And all of these habitats, high alpine, riparian,

Amy Martin:

coastal plain, they all flow together with nothing human made

Amy Martin:

to intrude or interrupt. This variety and connectivity is part

Amy Martin:

of what makes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge unique

Amy Martin:

and highly attractive to so many different species of animals,

Amy Martin:

birds from as far away as India and Central Africa fly into nest

Amy Martin:

here. Salmon, grayling and char swim in the rivers. And in terms

Amy Martin:

of Northern mammals, there's an all star cast, wolves, Arctic

Amy Martin:

Foxes, wolverines, Canada lynx, moose and all three types of

Amy Martin:

North American bears, black, brown and polar. Plus the

Amy Martin:

Porcupine caribou herd, named after the Porcupine River, one

Amy Martin:

of the largest and healthiest herds of caribou in the world.

Amy Martin:

This is wild country.

Amy Martin:

It's just this beautiful, huge, wide open plain.

Amy Martin:

I lie down in the grass to listen and look.

Amy Martin:

It's like an ocean of grass. And there's this sense of solitude.

Amy Martin:

This might seem like kind of an odd comparison, but the coastal

Amy Martin:

plain reminded me a little bit of the prairies of eastern

Amy Martin:

Montana, another place defined by grass and wind and huge

Amy Martin:

horizons. There is an austerity to this landscape. You can feel

Amy Martin:

immediately that anything extraneous you bring here will

Amy Martin:

be blown away, including your own pretensions. But there's a

Amy Martin:

gentleness to it too. The ground is soft, the grass whispers and

Amy Martin:

waves. The land somehow manages to be both wide open and highly

Amy Martin:

mysterious at the same time.

Amy Martin:

Just feels like another world.

Amy Martin:

We just flew directly over the entire coastal plain of the

Amy Martin:

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And there's like beautiful green

Amy Martin:

tundra with the Brooks Range in the background. And then you

Amy Martin:

land here and it is, it's not that.

Amy Martin:

A few days after Nick and I visited the coastal plain, we

Amy Martin:

were in Deadhorse, Alaska, the nerve center for the Prudhoe Bay

Amy Martin:

oil field. For decades, this was the largest oil field in the

Amy Martin:

United States, and it's just 100 miles away from the refuge.

Nick Mott:

It's just all industrial. It looks like a big,

Nick Mott:

giant industrial park anywhere you look.

Amy Martin:

Big machine shed, type looking things, lots and

Amy Martin:

lots of trucks.

Amy Martin:

As Nick and I walk along the side of this gravel road, it's

Amy Martin:

clear that Deadhorse is not a town designed for pedestrians.

Amy Martin:

It's not really a town at all. It's a network of roads and

Amy Martin:

equipment and anonymous buildings, some housing

Amy Martin:

machines, some housing workers, blocks of trailers stacked one

Amy Martin:

on top of another.

Amy Martin:

They look like something a kid would play with, almost like

Amy Martin:

they kind of interlock and fit together.

Amy Martin:

In the 1960s the discovery of an enormous pool of oil at Prudhoe

Amy Martin:

Bay sparked a transformation in the state of Alaska, and

Amy Martin:

especially across its northern tier, known as the North Slope.

Amy Martin:

Today, you can almost think of Prudhoe Bay and the coastal

Amy Martin:

plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as twins raised

Amy Martin:

by different families. They started out with the same basic

Amy Martin:

DNA- flat tundra located on the remote Arctic coast of Alaska,

Amy Martin:

but they've been under the wing of two different communities,

Amy Martin:

and now they've grown into distinct and even opposing

Amy Martin:

entities.

Amy Martin:

This is a completely changed landscape. It's like a

Amy Martin:

industrial city dominated by giant machines, roads and big

Amy Martin:

trucks.

Amy Martin:

Nick and I can see drilling rigs nearly 200 feet high, dotting

Amy Martin:

the horizon line, and we're only looking at a small fraction of

Amy Martin:

the Prudhoe Bay operations. Roads and pipelines, spire web,

Amy Martin:

dozens of miles out from here, across the tundra. The airport

Amy Martin:

is full of people from around the country, most of them men

Amy Martin:

flying into work or flying home to rest. I talked to one of

Amy Martin:

those guys while he grabbed his last cigarette before getting on

Amy Martin:

the plane home to Anchorage. He told me his name was Jadyn. He

Amy Martin:

didn't want to give his last name, and he said, in the

Amy Martin:

winter, he's part of an exploration crew.

Jadyn:

You're helping build ice roads so that different

Jadyn:

companies can go and they can drill, search for oil, and then

Jadyn:

they can tap into a reservoir and see if it's producing.

Jadyn:

That's pretty much what it is, is you're just accommodating the

Jadyn:

rigs that are gonna come over.

Amy Martin:

And how far, like, if you're out in the furthest

Amy Martin:

part exploring, like, how long would it take you to get back

Amy Martin:

here?

Jadyn:

Oh, well, it depends on if the ice roads are built. If

Jadyn:

the ice roads aren't built, probably take you 16 hours to

Jadyn:

get to Deadhorse.

Amy Martin:

Holy smokes, it's way out there.

Jadyn:

Yeah.

Amy Martin:

Jadyn said that's 16 hours in a really slow-moving

Amy Martin:

vehicle, but still, that gives some sense of the scope here.

Amy Martin:

Deadhorse is kind of like a base camp with hunting parties sent

Amy Martin:

out across the tundra to track down and capture more oil.

Amy Martin:

Do you know that there's a possibility they're going to

Amy Martin:

start drilling over in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Jadyn:

Yeah, I've heard about that.

Amy Martin:

Yeah. What do you think?

Jadyn:

Honestly, I think that, I think that it could be good for

Jadyn:

our economy. I think that it would open up a lot of jobs for

Jadyn:

Alaskans and from people, for people from the lower 48. I

Jadyn:

think that it's, with all of the considerations that are given to

Jadyn:

the environment and to the indigenous people that are up

Jadyn:

here, I think that it could be a really good thing.

Amy Martin:

A lot of people in the country disagree with Jadyn.

Amy Martin:

In one recent national poll, around 67% of registered voters

Amy Martin:

said they were opposed to oil development on the coastal

Amy Martin:

plain. But in Alaska, those numbers are almost flipped. In a

Amy Martin:

recent state poll, 65% of Alaskans agreed with Jadyn in

Amy Martin:

supporting drilling, and that likely has something to do with

Amy Martin:

the fact that for the last 40 years, oil has paid for almost

Amy Martin:

everything in Alaska, social services, public infrastructure

Amy Martin:

projects, the university system and the annual dividend checks

Amy Martin:

that all Alaskans receive. 80 and sometimes even 90% of the

Amy Martin:

state budget has been supplied by taxes and royalties from oil

Amy Martin:

development. But now Prudhoe Bay is drying up. There are still

Amy Martin:

smaller pockets of oil to be had. That's what Jadyn is

Amy Martin:

helping to find, I'm assuming. But most of the easy to reach

Amy Martin:

oil is gone, and the declining production at Prudhoe is

Amy Martin:

wreaking havoc on the state. There's no sales tax or state

Amy Martin:

income tax here, so without oil, everything starts to grind to a

Amy Martin:

halt. To make things worse, at the same time that production at

Amy Martin:

Prudhoe Bay has been slowing down, global oil prices have

Amy Martin:

also been declining, so there's less oil coming out of Prudhoe

Amy Martin:

and less money generated per barrel. It's in this context

Amy Martin:

that Senator Murkowski and other Alaska leaders are eager to find

Amy Martin:

new places for the industry to work in the state, places like

Amy Martin:

the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So the connection

Amy Martin:

between the refuge and the oil field has never truly been

Amy Martin:

broken. Their fates remain intertwined. But what's the back

Amy Martin:

story here? Why did one piece of Arctic tundra stay wild while

Amy Martin:

the other became a huge oil field? We'll have more after

Amy Martin:

this short break.

Erika Janik:

Hey everybody, this is Erika Janik, Threshold's

Erika Janik:

Managing Editor. Did you know that we have a Threshold

Erika Janik:

newsletter? Our newsletter is a great way to stay connected to

Erika Janik:

Threshold between seasons, find out what we're thinking about

Erika Janik:

and what we're reading, listening to and watching. So

Erika Janik:

subscribe to the Threshold newsletter today using the link

Erika Janik:

in the show notes or on our website, thresholdpodcast.org.

Amy Martin:

Welcome back to Threshold, I'm Amy Martin, and

Amy Martin:

for season three of our show, we're telling the story of the

Amy Martin:

40-year fight over drilling for oil in the Arctic National

Amy Martin:

Wildlife Refuge. And if we zoom out here, it's really not a

Amy Martin:

surprise that the northern coast of Alaska has become something

Amy Martin:

of a battleground. We've got the largest conventional oil field

Amy Martin:

in the country living right next door to the largest wildlife

Amy Martin:

refuge in the country. So how did these two sibling areas end

Amy Martin:

up taking such different paths in life? Well, one place to

Amy Martin:

start answering that question is in the 1940s. Alaska had been a

Amy Martin:

territory of the United States for over 75 years at this point,

Amy Martin:

and many Alaska Natives were already very familiar with

Amy Martin:

outsiders. Trappers and commercial whalers and

Amy Martin:

prospectors lured north by the promise of gold. But for most

Amy Martin:

Americans in the lower 48 the Alaska territory was a vague

Amy Martin:

abstraction.

Film:

Most people, if they thought of Alaska at all,

Film:

thought of it as a cold, rugged wasteland of little value except

Film:

for its gold, fur, and fisheries.

Amy Martin:

But because of Alaska's proximity to Japan and

Amy Martin:

the Soviet Union, that started to change during World War Two.

Film:

Now suddenly it seemed to have considerable additional

Film:

value.

Amy Martin:

The US military started to get much more

Amy Martin:

interested in the territory during and after the war. This

Amy Martin:

is from a 1944 US Army film about the building of the first

Amy Martin:

road connecting Alaska to Canada.

Film:

This is the road through the brooding wilderness. This is

Film:

the wedge which is pried open the last great frontier of

Film:

America, the key which has unlocked the treasure chest of

Film:

Alaska and the Canadian Northwest.

Amy Martin:

And some of this treasure was black gold. Oil

Amy Martin:

prospectors started to come north in the 1940s and 50s, some

Amy Martin:

of them attracted by stories of Native Alaskans who cut chunks

Amy Martin:

of oil-soaked sod out of the ground and took it home to burn.

Amy Martin:

But around this same time, another force was growing in the

Amy Martin:

country, the conservation movement. A new ethic of concern

Amy Martin:

for wild places, was taking hold, and groups like The

Amy Martin:

Wilderness Society and the National Wildlife Federation had

Amy Martin:

thousands of members by this point.

Film:

He needs our help, Smokey does. To keep our forests green

Film:

and growing.

Amy Martin:

Olas and Mardy Murray were two early leaders of

Amy Martin:

this movement. He was a wildlife biologist, she was a naturalist

Amy Martin:

and author. They met in her hometown of Fairbanks, got

Amy Martin:

married, and spent their lives together, having epic

Amy Martin:

adventures, studying the wilderness. In 1956, they spent

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a summer in the Brooks Range, that big mountain range that

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cuts across the northern part of the state, and that inspired

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them to lead a campaign to protect the northeast corner of

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the Alaska territory. The idea was to preserve an intact,

Amy Martin:

diverse ecosystem with all of its original species moving

Amy Martin:

freely across the landscape. In 1960, the year after Alaska

Amy Martin:

became a state, the Murrays succeeded in their effort to

Amy Martin:

protect that big piece of Northeast Alaska, President

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Eisenhower designated almost 9 million acres as the Arctic

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National Wildlife range. It was one of the world's first

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attempts to protect land on this scale. Just by way of

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comparison, this new wildlife range was more than four times

Amy Martin:

the size of Yellowstone, and there were no roads, no hotels,

Amy Martin:

no souvenir shops. This was wilderness preserved four years

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before the Wilderness Act was passed. It was a landmark moment

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in the American conservation movement. But then just eight

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years later, and 100 miles to the west, an oil company hit the

Amy Martin:

jackpot.

ARCO Film:

In the near future, crude obey the largest reservoir

ARCO Film:

yet discovered on the North American continent will provide

ARCO Film:

nearly 10% of the oil consumed in the United States.

Amy Martin:

This is from a short film made by the Atlantic

Amy Martin:

Richfield company, or ARCO, after they discovered the huge

Amy Martin:

oil deposit at Prudhoe Bay. It was the biggest oil field in the

Amy Martin:

US prior to the fracking boom.

ARCO Film:

Since the first discovery of oil in 1968,

ARCO Film:

Atlantic Richfield company's operating area at Prudhoe Bay

ARCO Film:

has been the scene of an ongoing adventure. Oil men and their

ARCO Film:

rigs are part of a massive operation designed to tap some

ARCO Film:

10 billion barrels of oil locked in a natural reservoir beneath

ARCO Film:

the Arctic tundra.

Amy Martin:

The Prudhoe Bay oil field was both a windfall and a

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massive headache for ARCO, because the oil was in a really

Amy Martin:

hard to reach spot. They had no way to get it out to market.

Amy Martin:

Attempts to load the oil into tankers and send it South by sea

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proved disastrous. The sea ice was too dangerous for the ships,

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so ARCO and six other oil companies decided to come

Amy Martin:

together and build a pipeline. It would start on the North

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Slope and cut through 800 miles of Alaskan wilderness and native

Amy Martin:

land down to the port of Valdez. Many Alaskan native tribes and

Amy Martin:

conservation groups were strongly opposed to the

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pipeline, but they lost that fight. The pipeline was

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approved.

ARCO Film:

Pitting himself against nature, man has beaten

ARCO Film:

the odds.

Amy Martin:

This film was made in 1975, when development of the

Amy Martin:

Prudhoe Bay oil field was kicking into high gear. ARCO

Amy Martin:

built a network of roads over the spongy tundra and shipped in

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huge metal structures containing the equipment needed to drill

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through 2000 feet of permafrost to get to the oil below. Many of

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those structures are the same ones Nick and I were looking at

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as we walked around Deadhorse.

ARCO Film:

Soon the modules will be hauled onto shore, set into

ARCO Film:

the Arctic landscape, permanent monuments commands ingenuity and

ARCO Film:

spirit.

Amy Martin:

In 1977, oil started to flow through the Trans-Alaska

Amy Martin:

pipeline, and in turn, money started to flow into the state

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budget. So in very broad strokes, we can think of the

Amy Martin:

cast of characters at this time in three groups, the oil

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industry, the conservationists and Native Alaskans. None of

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these groups is a monolith, but especially among the indigenous

Amy Martin:

people, it's important to know that we're talking about

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hundreds of different communities with different

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traditions and different responses to the changes

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happening around them. With the infrastructure in place to move

Amy Martin:

oil out of the North Slope, companies began to look around

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the neighborhood, wondering where more crude might be

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hiding. The conservationists saw the writing on the wall. Any

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land that didn't get protected in Alaska might soon be changed

Amy Martin:

forever. And meanwhile, indigenous Alaskans were

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fighting just to get a seat at the table. Native Alaskan land

Amy Martin:

rights hadn't been officially clarified in federal law until

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1971, and as these outside groups started to argue over

Amy Martin:

their ancestral lands, many Native communities felt forced

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to choose a side, to align themselves, either with industry

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or conservationists in order to be heard at all. And all of this

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change was happening in Alaska while the rest of the country

Amy Martin:

was freaking out about oil.

PBS NewsHour:

Good evening for millions of Americans. This may

PBS NewsHour:

be the worst weekend they've ever faced for finding gasoline

PBS NewsHour:

to give them the automobile freedom they take as their due.

PBS NewsHour:

Gasoline shortages are spreading across the country.

Amy Martin:

In the 1970s, conflicts in the Middle East led

Amy Martin:

to multiple oil embargoes, and people found themselves waiting

Amy Martin:

in line for hours to fill up their cars with very expensive

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gasoline.

PBS NewsHour:

I've been here since 4:30 this morning. It's

PBS NewsHour:

ridiculous. Waiting in line here. People are very desperate.

PBS NewsHour:

They depend an awful lot on their cars.

Amy Martin:

Many Americans began to feel like their freedom and

Amy Martin:

security were in the hands of unfriendly foreign governments.

PBS NewsHour:

After 30 days of unsuccessfully trying to get the

PBS NewsHour:

American hostages out of Tehran, the government of the United

PBS NewsHour:

States is now trying to get the deposed Shah of Iran out of this

PBS NewsHour:

country.

Amy Martin:

All of this turmoil in the global oil markets was a

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big incentive to produce more oil at home, and the flat

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northern swath of the wildlife range, just 100 miles away from

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Prudhoe Bay, seemed to be beckoning with untapped

Amy Martin:

potential. But several conservation minded members of

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Congress were already busy piecing together a massive

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federal bill to protect that land. It was called the Alaska

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National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or ANILCA, and

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it proposed doubling the size of the wildlife range and

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protecting millions of additional acres across the

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state. ANILCA had quite a bit of bipartisan support in Congress,

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but as it got closer to passage, several sticking points emerged.

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There was growing resentment among some Alaskans about the

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idea of the federal government making rules about their state.

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In Fairbanks, President Carter was burned in effigy to protest

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in ANILCA, and with people all over the country clamoring for

Amy Martin:

an end to gas shortages, some lawmakers wanted to keep as much

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oil flowing out of Alaska as possible, so some in Congress

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said they wouldn't vote for this conservation bill unless oil

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companies were given permission to drill in the wildlife range.

Amy Martin:

But other lawmakers said exactly the opposite, that they would

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withhold their votes unless the wildlife range was protected. So

Amy Martin:

there was a bit of a stalemate.

Ronald Reagan:

Thank you very much.

Amy Martin:

Until November 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected

Amy Martin:

president in a landslide. Suddenly, it was clear that if

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ANILKA didn't get passed before President Carter left the White

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House, the bill would die. So lawmakers struck a deal. They

Amy Martin:

basically agreed to table the question of drilling on the

Amy Martin:

coastal plain. They said more study was needed to determine

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what the impact of oil and gas development would be, and they

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specified that drilling could only occur through an act of

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Congress. This compromise was written into Section 1002 of

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ANILKA. That's how the coastal plain came to be known as the

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1002. In December 1980, President Carter signed the bill

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into law, protecting land across the state and doubling the size

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of the wildlife range to 18 million acres. Later, a million

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more acres were added, and it was renamed the Arctic National

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Wildlife Refuge. So this compromise written into Section

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1002 of ANILCA allowed the bill to pass, but it also allowed

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this fight over drilling to live on. It stamped a big question

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mark over the coastal plain, and between 1980 and today, dozens

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of lawmakers have tried to resolve that uncertainty. Many

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have pushed to make drilling legal. Many others have tried to

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permanently protect the coastal plain, and in the process, the

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refuge has become a symbolic battlefield, a place where anger

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over American environmental policy from all sides has been

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collected and concentrated. But all of that drama feels very far

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away from here.

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Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: Behind us is the ocean and assanspet

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driftwood on the side. Front of us is the tundra.

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I'm back on the coastal plain of the Arctic

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National Wildlife Refuge with Vebjorn Aishana Reitan. And

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although I said earlier that this place and Prudhoe Bay are

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like twins being raised by different families, it's

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important to remember that that's just the story of the

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last 50 years or so. Different Native Alaskan tribes have

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relationships with this place that go way, way further back

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than that. Vebjorn and most people in Kaktovik are Inupiat,

Amy Martin:

a sub-group of the Inuit whose territory spans the far northern

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parts of the Western Hemisphere, from eastern Russia all the way

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over to Greenland. And on the southern side of the refuge,

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there's the Gwich'in, part of the Athabascan family of tribes,

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who also have a large territory on both sides of the US/Canada

Amy Martin:

border in northern Alaska. So although this place is currently

Amy Martin:

designated as a home for wildlife, it's also a home for

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people, and it has been for a really long time.

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Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: So if they set up oil operations here,

Amy Martin:

they probably would limit people's travel across so it

Amy Martin:

would be a lot harder for us to get out on the land. Probably be

Amy Martin:

a bit of friction from that.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn says both the animals and the people that

Amy Martin:

live in this area move around from mountains to plains, rivers

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to ocean, it's all integrated and interdependent. And he's

Amy Martin:

concerned about how oil development could change that.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: It wouldn't feel like... It's not

Amy Martin:

the land that I imagine this place to be. It's not that's not

Amy Martin:

how it is here. They already make enough money. They don't

Amy Martin:

need to come here.

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The village of Kaktovik is the only community

Amy Martin:

located inside the 1002 area. So if drilling happens in ANWR, it

Amy Martin:

could mean people in Kaktovik have to live with an industrial

Amy Martin:

complex more or less in their backyard. But because the

Amy Martin:

village owns some of the rights to the resources in the 1002 oil

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development could also mean a flush of new money here. So the

Amy Martin:

people of Kaktovik have a lot to lose or a lot to gain, depending

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on your perspective.

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Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: It's not just me that this matters for i

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guess i. Everybody has to agree on it. For some people, it might

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be worth it.

Amy Martin:

I don't have an issue with oil people. They're good people.

Amy Martin:

It's just that I don't want the industry right outside here.

Amy Martin:

I just have to pause for a moment here to call

Amy Martin:

attention to what Vebjorn just said, that people he disagrees

Amy Martin:

with are good people. That attitude is so hard to find in

Amy Martin:

our country right now, around this and so many other issues,

Amy Martin:

and it's especially noteworthy to hear it coming from someone

Amy Martin:

with so much personally at stake in this debate. Vebjorn has a

Amy Martin:

palpable love for the refuge, born out of years of experience

Amy Martin:

out on this land. But he also has a strong love and respect

Amy Martin:

for the people of his community, and he knows that many of them

Amy Martin:

support drilling in the refuge.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: I know some people are and they're,

Amy Martin:

they're for all development, for good reasons. They have good

Amy Martin:

reasons. They just prioritize differently than me. So we just

Amy Martin:

have to decide what we prioritize. Some people want a

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good livelihood for their family, and they think they're

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going to get it through oil development, they're probably

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right. We're going to have to sacrifice to get those jobs, I

Amy Martin:

guess. I guess they have decided that's a sacrifice they're

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willing to make.

Amy Martin:

And you're just not.

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Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: No. I'm not like everybody else in the

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village. I could get a job wherever else. I just, that's

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not an opportunity most people have. I don't have the insight

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that they do.

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Vebjorn has always moved back and forth between

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Norway and Alaska, but he says, if he had to name one place as

Amy Martin:

his home, this would be it.

Amy Martin:

I've heard people say this thing about, oh, the coastal plain,

Amy Martin:

it's just a wasteland. It's just tundra, as if this is like, not

Amy Martin:

worth anything. I don't know what is your response to that?

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: They've probably never been here, or

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they haven't been here in a way that they get to appreciate all

Amy Martin:

the life that lives here. This is the home of, uh, thousands of

Amy Martin:

different animals and a whole bunch of different species and

Amy Martin:

even little animals, mice. And the mice are hunted by snowy

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owls. So, yeah, all the animals, they depend on this land.

Amy Martin:

And he says, so do the people.

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn Aishana Reitan: This, this is what people from here

Amy Martin:

are. People from Kaktovik. They're from here.

Amy Martin:

50 years ago, Prudhoe Bay probably looked and

Amy Martin:

felt a lot like the coastal plain of the Arctic National

Amy Martin:

Wildlife Refuge. And 50 years from now, the refuge might look

Amy Martin:

and feel something like Prudhoe Bay. Standing here next to

Amy Martin:

Vebjorn, it's hard to imagine this place buzzing with trucks

Amy Martin:

covered with pipelines. Proponents of drilling say new

Amy Martin:

technologies will keep the footprint small and that the

Amy Martin:

refuge will not end up looking like Prudhoe. But at the same

Amy Martin:

time, the Department of the Interior is recommending making

Amy Martin:

one and a half million acres here available to oil companies

Amy Martin:

with permission to build up to 175 miles of roads. The first

Amy Martin:

steps in that process could begin as early as this winter.

Amy Martin:

To some people, that would be a tragedy. To others, it would be

Amy Martin:

a blessing and a restoration of justice.

Fenton:

We are not an exhibit in a museum. Nor should the land

Fenton:

that we have survived and strived for centuries be locked

Fenton:

away for the peace of mind from those from far away places.

Amy Martin:

We're headed to the village of Kaktovik, next time

Amy Martin:

on Threshold.

Nick Mott:

Our reporting was funded by the Pulitzer Center,

Nick Mott:

Montana Public Radio, the Park Foundation, the High Stakes

Nick Mott:

Foundation, the William H and Mary Wattis Harris Foundation,

Nick Mott:

and by our listeners. Our work depends on people who believe in

Nick Mott:

it and choose to support it, people like you. Join our

Nick Mott:

community and find pictures from our trip to the refuge at

Nick Mott:

thresholdpodcast.org.

Amy Martin:

This episode of Threshold was produced by me,

Amy Martin:

Amy Martin, with help from Nick Mott. The threshold team

Amy Martin:

includes Eva Kalea, Michelle Woods and interns, Caysi Simpson

Amy Martin:

and Brooke Artziniega. Our summer intern, Megan Myskofski,

Amy Martin:

also contributed to this series. Special thanks to Frank Allen,

Amy Martin:

Hana Carey, Dan Carreno, Michael Connor, Kara Cromwell, Katie

Amy Martin:

deFusco, Matt Herlihy and Rachel Klein. You can find links to all

Amy Martin:

of the films, newscasts and other archival footage that we

Amy Martin:

used in this episode at our website, thresholdpodcast.org.

Amy Martin:

All of the original music is by Travis Yost.

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