December 7, 2020

Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy:

As organizations and brands in the hunting and angling community, we know that public lands and waters in the United States provide some of the world’s highest quality opportunities to enjoy our pursuits. Our ability to hunt and fish on land owned by the collective citizenry of our nation is the envy of people around the world.

While there are incredible lands and waters across the entire U.S., Alaska has a special hold on the hearts and minds of hunters and anglers. The Great Land occupies a space of wonder, timelessness, solitude, and enormity. In a state so rich and diverse, only one region can qualify as the last frontier of The Last Frontier - the Arctic north.

Alaska’s Arctic region – including the expanse north of the fabled Brooks Range – is a unique blend of rugged peaks, valleys, foothills, tundra, open plains, wetlands, lakes, and rivers flowing northward to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Two of the region’s most critical intact landscapes are found here: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Refuge) and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The Arctic Refuge encompasses 19.3 million acres (the largest in the National Wildlife Refuge System), and the NPR-A covers roughly 23.6 million acres (the single largest undisturbed tract of public land in the USA).

Alaska’s far north holds some of the most essential fish and wildlife habitat on the globe, supporting robust populations of mammals, birds and fish that are pursued by hunters and anglers and relied upon by indigenous subsistence communities. Opportunities to hunt nomadic caribou from the Porcupine herd, which depend upon the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, and the Western Arctic and Teshekpuk herds within the NPR-A represent experiences that don’t exist anywhere else on the planet. To witness thousands of caribou pulsing across the tundra is a true wonder and sight to behold.

The ability to cast a line to wild Arctic char and grayling is a special experience that only complements opportunities to pursue a multitude of other species across Alaska’s north. With bears, wolves, moose, Dall sheep and even ptarmigan existing in abundance, hunters are presented with worthy rewards for persevering in unforgiving terrain. Wetting a line in the frigid rivers and lakes across other portions of north Alaska yields not only cold fingers but also species ranging from Dolly Varden, whitefish and lake trout to northern pike and salmon.

Waterfowl that are decoyed by hunters across the U.S. spend their summers nesting and raising their young on wetlands in Alaska’s Arctic regions. The Teshekpuk Lake Special Area in the NPR-A is critical habitat for tens of thousands of greater white-fronted geese, Pacific black brant, cackling geese and snow geese. It’s been labeled the world’s most important goose molting area and is one of the Arctic’s most significant wildlife habitats that remains pristine and undisturbed. Other species of waterfowl in Arctic Alaska that migrate to all North America’s flyways include the four species of eiders, tundra swans, wigeon, pintail, longtail duck, canvasback, teal, merganser and more.

We urge our decision makers to heed the best scientific evidence available and to err on the side of caution when it comes to proposed development in Alaska’s Arctic regions. Critically important areas such as Teshekpuk Lake and the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge must to be given the highest levels of protection for their value to fish and wildlife, both resident and migratory. Alaska’s Arctic represents an ideal in the hearts, minds and dreams of hunters and anglers, and we must work together to ensure we and future generations are able to experience and enjoy their majesty.

Respectfully,