Teshekpuk Lake Threatened
Oil Development is About to Decimate The Teshekpuk Lake Region in Northern Alaska.
If you take the road north from Fairbanks, Alaska to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean, you will pass between the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and another sensitive wilderness area called the Teshekpuk Lake region. Teshekpuk Lake lies within the boundaries of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
Teshekpuk Lake is a large body of water surrounded by extensive wetlands made up of deep freshwater lakes, coastal inlets, meadowlands, and river deltas. The area is unique because the wetlands provide both an abundance of food and a large area relatively safe from predators - an ideal place for the molting geese that congregate there in vast numbers at the end of the breeding season.
The Pik Dunes, to the south of Teshekpuk Lake, form a habitat of freshwater lakes and active dunes that are important to migrating caribou, while the region to the north is the molting ground for many thousands of geese (Pacific Black Brant, Lesser Snow Geese, Canada Geese, White-fronted Geese and others) and a nesting area for countless other birds. Bird species that depend on the region include Snowy Owls, Short-eared Owls, Stellar's Eider, and at least two threatened species: the Yellow-billed Loon and the Spectacled Eider.
The Teshekpuk Lake region has been a vital hunting and fishing area for the native people of Alaska for generations: thus, they will also be adversely impacted if oil development goes ahead in the region.
While the Teshekpuk lake region holds great potential for oil resources, successive US governments have recognized its importance for wildlife and native people, and the area has been largely protected from the ravages of oil drilling in Alaska up until now. However, the restrictions against oil development have been removed and the US Bureau of Land Management is moving ahead with a lease sale that will allow the oil industry to move in.
The future of Teshekpuk Lake looks grim:
- Oil leasing will create a web of roads, pipelines, drilling pads, and other oil infrastructure that will carve up the fragile wetlands north to Teshekpuk Lake, disrupting both the natural ecology and the varied populations of animals and plants.
- The North Slope of Alaska already suffers over 500 oil spills annually as a result of oil exploration and development. (http://www.audubon.org)
- Nearly two million gallons of toxic petroleum products were spilled on the North Slope between 1996 and 2004. (http://www.audubon.org)
- Estimates suggest there may be two billion barrels of oil in the Teshekpuk Lake region (seattletimes.nwsource.com) - enough to supply the US economy for all of three months(www.nationmaster.com).
It's not too late to save Teshekpuk Lake. Read my blog entry The National Audubon Society is Trying to Save Teshekpuk Lake.
