The Arctic is alive. Every year, birds we see in our own backyards, in all 50 states and across six continents, begin their lives on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Each year these birds migrate south to visit us before returning home to the Arctic to begin the cycle of life anew. The Arctic Refuge is also home to numerous mammals including caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, musk oxen, Dall sheep, wolves and wolverines.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of the Arctic Refuge, we must do everything we can to ensure that this last wild haven remains for generations to come.

The history of the Arctic Refuge is about its “unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values,” not its development potential. Long before the Arctic Refuge was set aside as a protected place, these values were recognized by wilderness visionaries and the people of the Gwich’in Nation.

For thousands of years, the Gwich’in people have regarded the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge as “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit” or the “Sacred Place Where Life Begins,” because it has been the most frequently used birthing and nursery grounds for the migratory Porcupine Caribou Herd.

For decades, thousands of conservationists, many of whom never set foot in the Arctic Refuge themselves, fought to preserve this place as our nation’s last true wilderness refuge.

Throughout the coming year, Alaska Wilderness League will be celebrating the beauty and wonder of this special place while working hard to secure the strongest protections available.

We hope that you will join us as we fly kites for the Refuge, plant our own Arctic gardens and build to a nationwide celebration on December 6, 2010, 50 years to the day that President Dwight Eisenhower first officially recognized the unique value of the Arctic Refuge’s wilderness.