{"id":62406,"date":"2025-05-31T14:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T18:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/?p=62406"},"modified":"2026-06-03T09:05:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:05:53","slug":"americas-arctic-a-remote-patch-of-oil-rich-tundra-that-teems-with-migratory-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/news\/americas-arctic-a-remote-patch-of-oil-rich-tundra-that-teems-with-migratory-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"America's Arctic: A Remote Patch of Oil-Rich Tundra That Teems with Migratory Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Yellow-billed Loon by Gerrit Vyn.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Update: June 2026. <\/strong><\/strong>This spring the Trump Administration held the highest value oil lease sale in the 103-year history of the National Petroleum Reserve\u2013Alaska. Leases were sold to lands covering 1.3 million acres of the NPR-A, including parcels in and around Teshekpuk Lake that had previously been protected as designated Special Areas of significant ecological value. Stan Senner, Audubon\u2019s former vice president for bird conservation and former director of Audubon Alaska, says the Teshekpuk Lake area is the most important wetland complex in the Circumpolar Arctic for birds. More about the spring 2026 oil lease sale in the NPR-A<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update: May 2025.<\/strong> The Trump administration announced that it is reviewing the Special Areas’ “maximum protections” finalized by the Biden administration in April 2024. The Bureau of Land Management signals its intention to rescind these protections from the impacts of oil and gas extraction, as part of a series of actions launched by an Executive Order to “unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update: April 2024.<\/strong> The U.S. Department of the Interior under the Biden administration announced rules codifying protections for the existing 13.3 million acres of Special Areas<\/a> in the National Petroleum Reserve\u2013Alaska, limiting future oil and gas leasing and industrial development. Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management announced a process will soon start to consider expanding or adding additional Special Areas within the NPR\u2013A. The decision did not affect the Willow project, a major new oil development that the Biden administration approved in 2023, which lies just east of the areas protected in the 2024 announcement. More about the April 2024 protections<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Originally published March 31, 2024; updated April 22, 2024. From the Spring 2024 issue<\/a> of Living Bird<\/em> magazine. Subscribe now<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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