Protect

Battling Barbaric Practices At Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

Battling Barbaric Practices At Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

Alaska's Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has weathered a lot of storms since it was created in 1941 as the Kenai National Moose Range. Its two million acres of forests and wetlands Anchorage is regularly wracked by cataclysms that dwarf lower 48 events. When the 2019 Swan Lake Fire burned 168,00 acres, an area larger than El Paso, it triggered muscle memories in firefighters who quelled the 200,000-acre Funny River Fire five years earlier. Wildfires threaten humans but their regenerative benefits for wildlife are indisputable. The same can't be said of political storms.

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More Than 30 Groups Organize To Save Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

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More than 30 national, state, and local organizations have joined forces in the fight to protect the Okefenokee Swamp. The new coalition, known as the Okefenokee Protection Alliance (OPA), recently formed in response to a new and alarming threat to the Okefenokee in the form of proposed heavy mineral sands mining adjacent to the swamp.

Plan Announced To Allow Baited Brown Bear Hunting In Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

Plan Announced To Allow Baited Brown Bear Hunting In Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

Today, the Trump Administration announced a plan to allow hunters in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to hunt brown bears over bait. The goal is to drastically reduce the brown bear populations on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula to artificially boost moose populations for the benefit of hunters. This change is in complete contrast to what the Refuge System was created for: natural biodiversity and integrity of wildlife populations. If allowed to go forward, this rule could threaten the entire population of brown bears on the Kenai Peninsula. Wildlife refuges are federal lands, and should be managed by the National Wildlife Refuge System to conserve wildlife species, including brown bears. The State of Alaska manages state lands in a different manner, but that does not negate that the Kenai NWR are federal lands and should be managed as such.

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Working in Alaska

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Working in Alaska

The National Wildlife Refuge Association continues to counter an assault on Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges by the state’s powerful congressional delegation, now empowered by the Trump administration to undo 40 years of protection afforded Alaska’s refuges by the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act