5 gems we need to protect in the Western Arctic

In the Western Arctic lies the United States' largest expanse of public land, a stretch that holds immense cultural significance and provides habitat to countless wildlife. But you wouldn't know it by this place's official name: "the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska."

The name suggests a single purpose: providing oil and gas. However, this complex landscape is home to caribou and polar bears. It's the traditional homelands of Indigenous Peoples who have stewarded and relied upon these lands since time immemorial. Spanning more than 23 million acres, almost as big as the state of Indiana, the Western Arctic is not just a place we find petroleum-and it doesn't deserve to be thought of that way.

The Arctic is not a remote frontier for resource extraction; it is a fragile ecosystem facing unprecedented threats from climate change and human activity.