Action Alerts

The Western Arctic is under threat, protect one of the most important ecosystems on Earth

What's At Stake

A dunlin searches for food among short green grasses in the Western Arctic, in the area close to Lake Teshekpuk.

A dunlin searches for food among short green grasses in the Western Arctic, in the area close to Lake Teshekpuk. (Kiliii Yuyan for Earthjustice)

Every spring, birds from every corner of the globe make their way to Alaska’s Western Arctic, the largest tract of public land in the United States. Some travel from South America, others from New Zealand or Southeast Asia, all converging on one of the most ecologically rich and remote nesting grounds in the world.

In the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, yellow-billed loons glide across still waters. Long-tailed ducks, red phalaropes, and king eiders feed and breed in its wetlands. Shorebirds like dunlins and semipalmated sandpipers raise their young in the expansive tundra, while brant geese and snow geese gather in molting flocks along the lake’s edge.

Read More
Two sandhill cranes dance in the Western Arctic, in the area close to Lake Teshekpuk.

Two sandhill cranes dance in the Western Arctic, in the area close to Lake Teshekpuk. (Kiliii Yuyan for Earthjustice)

This isn’t just a place of staggering natural beauty. It is a globally significant ecosystem that supports countless species, from migratory birds to caribou, polar bears, and Indigenous communities who have lived in relationship with this land for millennia. The Western Arctic also plays a critical role in stabilizing our climate: its permafrost stores vast amounts of carbon, and its reflective sea ice helps cool the planet. Protecting this region is essential not only for preserving biodiversity and Indigenous lifeways, but also for slowing global warming and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

But now, the Trump administration has proposed repealing key protections for this landscape to prioritize expanded oil and gas drilling.

The protections at risk were put in place to shield ecologically sensitive areas from harmful fossil fuel development. Rolling them back would fast-track drilling in some of the most fragile and valuable wildlife habitat in the country.

This is just the first step in a broader push to industrialize the Western Arctic and won’t be the last. The disastrous Willow project is located there, and the oil and gas industry has plans to continue expanding across the region, which will ultimately accelerate the climate crisis.

We have less than 60 days to raise our voices.

Tell the Department of the Interior: The Western Arctic is too important to lose. Repealing these protections puts wildlife, subsistence traditions, and our climate at risk. These lands must remain protected.

A pair of snowy owls in the Western Arctic, in the area close to Lake Teshekpuk. One owl crouches down, holding a small rodent in its mouth. The second is in midflight, with its wings spread.
A pair of snowy owls in the Western Arctic, in the area close to Lake Teshekpuk. (Kiliii Yuyan for Earthjustice)

6 Days Remain

Delivery to Bureau of Land Management

Important Notice

Your message is delivered to a public agency, and all information submitted may be placed in the public record. Do not submit confidential information.

By taking action, you will receive emails from Earthjustice. Change your mailing preferences or opt-out at any time. Learn more in our Privacy Policy. This Earthjustice action is hosted on EveryAction. Learn about EveryAction’s Privacy Policy.

Why is a phone number or prefix required on some action forms?

Trouble Viewing This Action?

If the action form is not loading above, please add earthjustice.org as a trusted website in your ad blocker or pause any ad blockers, and refresh this webpage. (Details.) If the action form still does not display, please report the problem to us at action@earthjustice.org. Thank you!

Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.