The American Spectator

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(Page 4 of 13)

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I made many trips to the North Slope in '94-'98 when assigned to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage. Our squadron managed the North Warning system (or the "Dew Line" for you old-heads) -- a series of radar sites with the mission of tracking all air traffic entering the area via the arctic route.

During those trips, it ceased to amaze me how barren the landscape actually was -- the closest relief was the Brooks Range -- the tops of the mountains were within sight about 50-60 miles to the south, depending on where you were on the arctic coast. The coastal plain, where the actual oil reserves are located, has no trees and, other than the odd arctic tern, virtually no wildlife. In essence, the place was a peat bog; the closer to the water you traveled, the deeper the muck became during summer. During the other seasons, the landscape was a solid block of ice.

The bottom line is the coastal plain within ANWR has no redeeming environmental qualities. One has to go 40 miles inland before there is much of a change in elevation. And a change in elevation is what you need to see any "pretty stuff" that the environmentalists deem as worthy of protection, that is, any tundra that is more than six inches in height off the ground.

During a trip between two radar sites, we did see quite a few caribou -- they were mostly scratching their backs against the fence posts that surrounded some sort of storage yard that was owned by Alyeska -- the company that ran the pipeline at the time. Other than during the short migration period, it seemed that when wildlife did congregate on the plain, it was done only where there was man-made development. You could see four-legged critters hanging out by the vent shafts of the pipeline, but they were nowhere to be seen in the spacious open areas on the plain.

p>If it was up to me, I would expand the restricted 2,000 acres or so that was put aside for oil development in ANWR to allow development anywhere along the coastal plain no closer than 10 miles from where the Brooks foothills started. Why? To increase the presence of wildlife -- it seems they only hang-out where development has been established. br> -- Owen H. Carneal, Jr. br> Yorktown, Virginia /p>

Can you send this story out to every SMALL TOWN newspaper in the country? The major news outlets seem to routinely censor the conservative point of view.

p>We need help. br> -- Margaret Ripley /p>

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