Porcupine River

Transcription

{music} The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge stretches to the east farther than you can see all the way to the Canada Border. Walking that distance would take even ardent adventurers well over a month. The Dalton Highway provides a wonderful opportunity for visitors to you have access to America's wilderness refuge. Wilderness is important to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because the refuge was originally founded to preserve wildlife, wilderness and recreational values. What is wilderness? Well, wilderness is a place where people can go to find solitude, to find opportunities to explore, to have freedom from the impacts of daily life and to get a sense of renewal and see what it means to be a human on this landscape. The Wilderness Act, signed into law four years after creation at the refuge, was written and supported by the same group of scientists and conservationists whose work led to the establishment of arctic refuge. They saw the refuge as an ultimate example the wilderness, one of the last large, wild American landscapes free from man's control, where ecological processes could continue as they have for millennia. {Female narrator}: The US Fish and Wildlife Service protects fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the benefit American people and the lands that the Fish and Wildlife Service manage, national wildlife refuges, are tremendous treasures for the American people, because they help us ensure that we have a network of lands that can provide us with healthy habitats for the wildlife and fish that we love to share and enjoy with our families. {Male narrator}: The refuge includes an array of landscapes, from the boreal forest of the Porcupine River uplands, to the foothills and slopes of the Brooks Range, to the Arctic tundra the coastal plain, to the lagoons and barrier islands of the Beaufort Sea coast. These intact ecosystems are home to an immense variety of birds, mammals, fish and the plants that sustain them. For thousands of years, they've also provided a homeland to native peoples who have lived in the northern and southern portions what is now the Arctic Refuge. They continue many other hunting and gathering activities to this day. {Female narrator}: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is dear to my heart of course, but also unique within the system of the national wildlife refuges. It is the most superlative example of wilderness within the National Wildlife Refuge System, and it's a beautiful treasure that many people, many people who will never even come to this place, hold dear to their hearts. {music}