Preserving Alaska benefits Iowa

By Joe Wilkinson and Doug Harr

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Balancing our country's demand for oil with our need for wild places has not been easy for the last 100 years. It is getting tougher these days.

For decades now, our appetites for petroleum to fuel industrial growth and Americans' passion for recreation and travel have drastically increased the risk to the same natural areas many wish to visit and experience.

Alaska is rich in both petroleum and those wild places. It has always been thought of as the solution to our domestic oil strategy because of the National Petroleum Reserve. The reserve was thought to hold enough oil to fuel our needs for many years. Recent government reports, though, place oil deposits there far below original estimates.

We in Iowa are connected to this 22-million acre region in two ways. First, there is oil and our demand for it. No argument there.

More important, though, the reserve is home to vast numbers of wildlife: waterfowl, shorebirds, caribou, bears and other. Tundra swans, snow geese, brant, pintail and dozens of other species nest there. They migrate through Iowa - resting and refueling along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, around Coralville, Saylorville, Red Rock and Rathbun reservoirs, through the Prairie Pothole Region and other wildlife areas. They provide hunting, photography and bird-watching opportunities for tens of thousands of Iowans.

Both connections are strong.

The Bureau of Land Management - within the U.S. Department of the Interior - is charged with maintaining the balance between wildlife and its habitat, and our need for oil. Not an easy task. Iowans now have the opportunity to speak up, to help determine how the reserve will be managed. We can help establish a balance between the need for wildlife habitat and the demand for oil.

Through the Iowa Wildlife Federation's website (www.iawildlife.org), Iowans can look through the options the Bureau of Land Management is considering. Support one - or more - and provide suggestions for future management. Time is running short. The Bureau of Land Management has a June 1 comment deadline.

Alaska and its rich resources may be thousands of miles away. However, those resources enhance our lives repeatedly. If you enjoy wildlife, we feel you should make this task a priority.

Joe Wilkinson of Solon is president, Iowa Wildlife Federation, and Doug Harr of Ogden is president, Iowa Audubon. Comments: wilk116@southslope.net or dharr@netins.net