I'm forwarding this email I received from NRDC. I wonder how many
people are even aware of this. I know I wasn't.

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Subject : An important message from Robert Redford



Dear NRDC Member,

I wanted you to know that the Bush administration is using the recent
rise in
gasoline prices as a pretext to sacrifice one of America's greatest
natural
treasures -- the Western Arctic Reserve of Alaska -- to massive oil
development.

We have a very narrow window in which to block this corporate-
sponsored raid on
our natural heritage. Over the next 30 days, the Bush administration
is taking
public comments on its plan to put 96 percent of the reserve's
wildlife-filled
northeast region on the auction block.

I am asking you and hundreds of thousands of others to join me in
flooding the
Bush administration with messages of protest over the next critical
weeks.

Please do your part by going to
http://www.savebiogems.org/westernarctic/takeaction.asp?RR0407
and sending an electronic message telling the Bureau of Land
Management to
withdraw its destructive plan and to permanently protect the
reserve's world-
class wildlife habitats.

Then please forward my message to as many people as you can.

The Western Arctic Reserve may be less well-known than the Arctic
National
Wildlife Refuge -- which lies directly to the east -- but its
wildlife
populations are every bit as unique, spectacular and endangered.

I am especially concerned about the Western Arctic Reserve's
Teshekpuk Lake
region -- one of the most important tundra-wetland ecosystems left on
our
planet. This vast network of coastal lagoons, deep water lakes, sedge
grass
meadows and braided streams provides the critical calving grounds for
the
45,000-member Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd.

Thirty percent of all Pacific black brant also take refuge in these
safe and
remote wetlands, remaining flightless while they replace their old
feathers.
Steller's eiders, northern pintails, tundra swans and rare yellow-
billed loons
are just a few of the other amazing species that flock to Teshekpuk
Lake to
nest, free from disturbance. Come fall, some of these birds will
migrate as far
south as Antarctica.

Polar bears roam the coastal areas of Teshekpuk Lake from summer to
early
winter. And people are counting on the lake for survival as well. The
Inupiat
Eskimos have subsisted here in balance with nature for at least 8,000
years by
following the herds of caribou.

Incredibly, the Western Arctic has never been granted full federal
protection.
That's because it was set aside as the "National Petroleum Reserve-
Alaska"
nearly a century ago. But Congress also stipulated that this oil
field be
tapped only in time of dire national need.

Our government kept oil rigs out of the Western Arctic Reserve even
during the
darkest days of World War II and the oil embargo of the 1970s. As a
result,
most of the reserve has remained pristine -- its primeval beauty
unmarred by
roads, oil rigs or other signs of human interference.

Interior secretaries since the 1970s have recognized the need for
special
protection in the Teshekpuk Lake area. But if the Bush administration
gets its
way, Teshekpuk Lake will soon be stripped of most of those
protections and sold
to the highest bidder.

And for what? Drilling in the Western Arctic would have no effect on
gas prices
at the pump. Its oil would take years to get to market and would
never equal
more than one or two percent of America's oil supply -- a tiny drop
in the
bucket of our nation's oil consumption.

Only one group would benefit from destroying the Western Arctic: the
oil
giants. Meanwhile, they would turn one of the planet's most fragile
homes for
Arctic wildlife into an industrial zone of pipelines, producing wells
and
contaminated waste sites.

The Western Arctic Reserve is supposed to be an energy savings
account of last
resort. A recent poll shows that the vast majority of Americans would
rather
save oil and lower gas prices by adopting tougher fuel economy
standards for
our cars and trucks.

Please join me in telling the Bush administration to follow the
cleaner and
more self-reliant path of fuel efficiency -- and to put Teshekpuk
Lake and
other critical habitats off limits to the oil industry.

Please go to
http://www.savebiogems.org/westernarctic/takeaction.asp?RR0407
and tell the Bush administration to withdraw its destructive plan.
And remember
to forward my message to your friends, colleagues and family.

This fight represents one of our very last chances to preserve
untrammeled
wilderness as we first found it. Let's speak with one voice and stop
this
senseless attack on one of the world's greatest sanctuaries for
Arctic
wildlife. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Robert Redford
Board of Trustees
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)