A historic first in Alaska may mean drilling in an untouched national refuge; Native Alaskans want a 'seat at the table.'

Map by Sarah Melotte, The Daily Yonder, from Bureau of Land
Management data. Click on map to enlarge.

Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is big, beautiful, and rich in natural resources and biodiversity. It has also been the "focal point of more than six decades of drilling controversy," which will come to a tentative resolution when tracts within the region's 19-million-acre expanse open for oil and gas leases this month, reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. Native Alaskan communities want to be among the decision-makers for the coastal land that "is estimated to contain 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil."

Drilling in ANWR has never been done before. The region is home to "charismatic species like polar bears, wolves, and the caribou that are sacred to the Gwich’in, a Northwestern Alaska tribe," Melotte writes. "Oil and gas operations elicit mixed responses from Alaskan Natives. . . Some worry that drilling activity will hurt vulnerable wildlife and subsistence living, others say the oil and gas industry funds important infrastructure for their communities."

The coastal region, also known as the North Slope Borough, receives 95% of its total budget from oil and gas development taxation. Reservation members also depend on shareholder income regional corporations generate and pay out to Alaskan Natives. The Artic Slope Regional Corporation serves as an example. The company "has over 13,000 shareholders who receive dividends," Melotte notes. "Since its establishment in 1972, the ASRC has distributed more than $1 billion in dividends."

"Many leaders of the Iñupiat, an indigenous people native to Alaska’s North Slope Borough, say that oil and gas operations can be good for native communities if conducted responsibly," Melotte reports. Nagruk Harcharek, president of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a nonprofit organization that advocates for Alaska’s Iñupiat people, told Melotte, "Before oil and gas, you couldn't graduate high school and stay in the North Slope. Now there are K-12 schools in every North Slope village."

Harcharek used a past North Slope drilling project to help explain how Native Alaskans want to be included in drilling activity and practices. Melotte writes, "He said they were consulted 'early and often' in the decision-making process. . . . He said they want to be included before decisions are announced publicly."

Despite Alaska's rich natural resources, many Alaskan Natives live in poverty and still hunt for food, and drilling activities could interfere with their reliance on wild game. "Hunting is more than just a hobby in many native villages with high poverty rates," Melotte writes. "Hunting is a method of survival, said Dr. A.L. Lovecraft, professor of Political Science and director of the Center for Arctic Policy Studies at the University of Alaska. '[Drilling] also comes with all of this other baggage... Problems related to health, indoor health, indoor air quality, outdoor air quality.'"

A huge U.S. lithium mine needed for EV battery production vs. a flower found nowhere else in the world

Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine site (ioneer photo)

Step by step, the Biden administration inches closer to green-lighting ioneer's Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, reports Ernest Scheyder of Reuters. Last week, it "published a key environmental report [which is] the last step needed before approving what would become one of the largest U.S. sources of the electric vehicle battery metal." But some conservationists are adamantly against the mine opening despite its cleaner energy purpose.

Ioneer's path to opening has been ongoing for at least six years while the project was reviewed. "The Bureau of Land Management published a final environmental impact statement, that sets in motion a review period of at least 30 days before a record of decision -- essentially a mine's permit -- can be issued," Scheyder explains. "BLM also published an opinion on how a rare flower at the mine site can best be protected."

The rare Tiehm's buckwheat flower (CBD photo)

The site is home to Tiehm's buckwheat flower, "which is found nowhere else on the planet and was declared an endangered species in 2022," Scheyder reports. "The Center for Biological Diversity and some other conservation groups thus oppose ioneer's project." Patrick Donnelly of CBD called Tiehm's buckwheat flower a "linchpin of the local ecosystem, harboring a highly diverse pollinator community."

It's hoped the mine's lithium production can help the U.S. combat Chinese metal production. Scheyder writes, "The U.S. Geological Survey has labeled lithium a critical mineral vital for the U.S. economy and national security. The proposed mine, roughly 225 miles north of Las Vegas, contains enough lithium to power roughly 370,000 EVs each year."

New study shows grass and shrubs -- not trees -- help to spread many catastrophic wildfires

Researchers built data sets that show where wildfires burned homes and indicate if those homes were rebuilt. (Map by Radeloff, UW, from Census Bureau, NASA, Forest Service data)

Grasses and shrubs are more often the cause of extensive wildfires, not forest fires "jumping from tree to tree," a new study published in the journal Science shows. "When people think of wildfires, they often think of huge forests burning," Elise Mahon of UW News reports. "But according to new research led by Volker Radeloff, a professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin, in the United States, the largest areas near humans burned by wildfires are grass and shrublands, not forests."

To look at the primary cause of catastrophic wildfires, Radeloff looked at areas "where people and wildlands meet, which are known as the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, these areas cover about 10% of land in the United States but are home to about one-third of the population," Mahon reports. "As Radeloff explains, many people enjoy living in these places because they like to be near the amenities of nature. But these areas are also hot spots for environmental conflicts like wildfires, the spread of diseases from animals, habitat fragmentation and loss of biodiversity."

In areas with population growth "such as the American sunbelt, more human development is expanding the WUI. Add to that a changing climate with warmer, drier conditions, and the likelihood rises that wildfires will affect humans more frequently," Mahon explains. "While the total area burned by grass and shrubland fires is much larger than forest fires, grass and shrublands are also much more widespread than forests. They burn and move faster than forests, meaning grassland fires can spread to a larger number of homes than a forest fire might."

Regardless of risk, many communities choose to expand. "Researchers found that the risk of wildfire in any kind of WUI vegetation is not deterring the development and rebuilding of homes in areas that have burned in the past," Mahon reports. "That's especially concerning for homes in grassland and shrubland because the vegetation, which can become fuel for fire, recovers much more quickly than a forest would. That means there's more fuel for a fire to burn again in the same grass and shrubland area more frequently."

To help build safer homes in these areas, "Radeloff believes learning from the homes that don't burn would be a step in the right direction for people that choose to rebuild after a fire," Mahon writes. "However, Radeloff says this burden shouldn't be entirely on the homeowner. He believes there is room for policymakers to influence how prepared a community is and where zoning should allow new housing developments."