Threats to wildlife in ANWR estimated

LOS ANGELES, March 29 (UPI) -- Despite the harsh climate of Alaska's rugged Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the animals that live there may not be hardy enough to withstand the opening of their pristine habitat to oil exploration.

A new study issued Friday by the United States Geological Survey concluded that the populations of caribou, musk oxen, polar bears and other species that call the remote ANWR home could suffer declines unless human activities in their ranges are restricted, particularly during breeding seasons.

The report, which came out while Congress was adjourned for Easter, made no recommendations on the controversial plan to allow oil drilling in a portion of the ANWR, but it warned that the animals that inhabit the area -- designated as the 1002 Area -- were vulnerable to having their lives and futures disrupted by the arrival of man and machine.

There was no immediate comment on the report from the environmental community, but the report will likely be used to challenge the claims of drilling proponents that petroleum extraction can be carried out in a manner that causes minimal disruptions to wildlife.

The Bush administration has pressed for the opening of the 1002 Area of the 19-million acre ANWR as necessary to meet growing energy demand in the United States and reduce dependence on overseas crude supplies.

"It's time to decide how we are going to fuel our economy and to what country we are going to become indebted," Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, said last week "We're going to have to decide where we're going to get our oil."

The Department of the Interior said late Friday that caution was needed in interpreting the report on the politically charged issue since the scientists who drafted it used five different "fictional" scenarios with differing levels of petroleum development, including some that will not be considered by the Senate when they resume the debate next month over the plan to open 1002 Area.

"The scenarios used in the report on ANWR don't resemble the legislation currently before Congress," Interior Department spokesman Mark Pfeifle told United Press International.

Pfeifle said the scenarios included permanent roads and airstrips while the oil industry plans to use ice roads that melt away in the spring.

While the oil industry says it has the technology to leave virtually no environmental "footprint" in the ANWR, the USGS report cautioned that the migratory heard of caribou known as the Porcupine Caribou Herd, or PCH, that uses part of the 1002 Area as a breeding ground was particularly fragile.

"The PCH has less capacity to accommodate ... stresses than other Alaska barren-ground herds," the USGS said in its summary of the report. "Any absolute effect of petroleum development would be expected to have a larger relative effect on the Porcupine caribou herd than on the other herds."

Scientists concluded that the 1002 Area was the best calving area available to the Porcupine herd and that if the animals were disturbed or felt threatened, they would find little in the way of an alternative home since nearby areas lack the vegetation needed as a food supply for mothers and their young.

"Empirical relationships between calf survival, forage available to females in the annual calving grounds, and predation risk derived from 17 years of ecological data predict that June calf survival for the PCH will decline if the calving grounds are displaced, and that the effect will increase with displacement distance from the 1002 Area," the report summary said.

Risks also exist for the muskoxen that call the 1002 Area home year-round. The animals, which number under 250 individuals and are on the decline, must conserve their energy during the winter if they are to have a successful summer breeding season and would not do well if they were forced to move any large distance through deep snow.

"Musk oxen in the refuge are vulnerable to disturbance from activities associated with petroleum exploration and extraction due to their year-round residency, their small population numbers and their need to conserve energy throughout the long winter if they are to successfully reproduce," the report said.

The mighty polar bears also use the coastal area of the ANWR to raise their young and while considered a relatively resilient species, the USGS advised strict management of human activities in the areas where bear dens exist. The report also warned that migrating snow geese could face threats from an increased number of aircraft in the area.