President Jimmy Carter's Arctic Legacy

This week, we are thrilled to be wishing President Jimmy Carter—a stalwart Arctic champion—a happy 99th birthday!

In 1990, President Jimmy Carter became the first and as yet only president to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, along with his wife Rosalynn. They joined Braided River author, adventurer and environmentalist Debbie Miller and her young daughters and her sister at their wilderness camp along the Okpilak River. President Carter wanted to meet the woman who wrote Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (reissued in 2011 by Braided River). He wanted to be on the lands he worked so fiercely to protect.

While president from 1977 to 1981 he signed into law one of the most significant land conservation measures in our nation’s history: the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or ANILCA. The law protected over 100 million acres of public lands in Alaska, doubled the size of the country’s national park and refuge system, and tripled the amount of land designated as wilderness. He has publicly acknowledged regrets that he let the Lands Act pass under his signature without being able to successfully negotiate the future preservation of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Throughout the remaining years of his life, he tirelessly advocated for permanent wilderness protection. 

The following is an excerpt from President Carter’s foreword in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land by Subhankar Banerjee (published by Braided River/Mountaineers Books in 2003). 

A TIME FOR COURAGE

“The Arctic Refuge stands alone as America’s last truly great wilderness. This magnificent area is as vast as it is wild, from the windswept coastal plain where the polar bears and caribou give birth, to the towering Brooks range where the Dall sheep cling to cliffs and wolves howl at the midnight sun.

One of the most unforgettable and humbling experiences of Rosalynn and my lives occurred on the coastal plain. We had hoped to see the caribou during our trip, but to our amazement, we witnessed the migration of tens of thousands of caribou and their newborn calves. In a matter of a few minutes, the sweep of tundra before us became flooded with life, with the sounds of grunting animals and clicking hooves filling the air. The dramatic procession of the Porcupine caribou herd was a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife spectacle. We understand firsthand why some have described this special birthplace as “America’s Serengeti.”

Standing on the coastal plain, I was saddened to think of the tragedy that might occur if this great wilderness was consumed by a web of roads and pipelines, drilling rigs and industrial facilities. Such proposed developments would forever destroy the wilderness character of America’s only Arctic Refuge and disturb countless numbers of animals that depend on this northernmost terrestrial ecosystem.

We must look beyond the alleged benefits of a short-term economic gain and focus on what is truly at stake. At best, the Arctic Refuge might provide 1 to 2 percent of the oil our country consumes each day. We can easily conserve more than that amount by driving more fuel-efficient vehicles.  Instead of tearing open the heart of our greatest refuge, we should use our resources more wisely. 

It will be a grand triumph for America if we can preserve the Arctic Refuge in its pure, untrammeled state. To leave this extraordinary land alone would be the greatest gift we could pass on to future generations.”

Photo by Rick Diamond

Jimmy Carter served as the 39th president of the United States, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work advancing human rights.