Northern Alaska

Arctic region comes alive in summer as birds return

By Leon Unruh / Alaska.com

This area above the Arctic Circle -- without large summer runs of salmon and facing months of twilight and bitter cold every winter -- is alive in the summer with millions of migratory waterfowl.

	The Arrigetch Peaks are found in Gates of the Arctic National Park, which is in the Brooks Range. © Alaska Division of Tourism

Wildlife

The Native population has depended since time immemorial on the wildlife and vegetation of the Northern region.

Caribou, whales and birds enabled -- and still do, in many cases -- the subsistence lifestyle to provide food and clothing.

Other animals in the region include polar, black and brown bears; wolves; musk oxen; small mammals such as beavers and foxes; and huge flocks of migratory swans, geese, ducks and shorebirds from not only North America but also from the other continents.

Oil

The oil fields around Prudhoe Bay in northern Alaska provide about 20 percent of the United States' consumption and, through royalties, a great share of Alaska's state budget. The associated construction, pipeline and transportation industries are a bulwark of the state and regional economy.

The oil companies' desire to explore for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to the east of the established oil fields, has focused attention on the refuge's caribou herd and on the Gwich'in people, who depend on the caribou, as well as on the issues of what a refuge should protect and on the nation's demand for oil. But even as the drilling issue makes its way through the political corridors, tourism in the refuge has increased.

On the western side of Arctic Alaska, a mine north of Kotzebue is the nation's largest provider of zinc. The central Brooks Range has some gold mines, a remnant of a rush in the early 20th century.

Northern parks and refuges

Northern Alaska features Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley national parks, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, a national preserve and several national wild rivers. In addition to holding all of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the North contains part of another national preserve and two refuges relied on by migratory birds.