President Jimmy Carter was a champion for protecting Alaska’s irreplaceable landscapes and a visionary leader. We honor his lifetime achievements as one of Alaska’s greatest conservation heroes and extend our deepest condolences to his loved ones.
President Carter was not only a champion for lands, water, and wildlife – he was also the first world leader to address concerns about a changing climate. Carter’s presidency and dedication to conservation cannot be overstated in protecting Alaska’s intact lands and waters. Under his leadership, Congress passed ANILCA in 1980, which set aside more than 100 million acres in Alaska—an area the size of California. ANILCA sought to preserve certain lands and waters in Alaska with nationally significant values, including areas important for wildlife, subsistence, wilderness, recreation, scientific, scenic, and historic reasons for future generations. It also prioritized protecting the hunting, fishing, and cultural traditions of Alaska’s Indigenous people whose lives have depended on the resources of their homelands for thousands of years.
Caption: Debbie Miller of Alaska Wilderness League visits with the Carters on the tundra in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Photo courtesy of Debbie S. Miller.
In 1990, President Carter and Rosalynn Carter also traveled to America’s largest and wildest refuge, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the protection of which was made possible under President Carter’s historic law. During their visit, the Porcupine caribou herd aggregated on the coastal plain, and as the Carters witnessed the astonishing procession of more than 100,000 caribou marching by them on the tundra, Carter boldly said “Oil development can never happen here.”
We are filled with gratitude for everything that President Carter accomplished as a U.S. leader to protect Alaska’s landscapes, and inspired to carry his legacy forward. The Arctic Defense Campaign will fight any efforts to industrialize the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge for oil and gas, until it receives the enduring protections that it both needs and deserves.
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