‘Field Trip’: Gates of the Arctic National Park
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2023
⏱️ 63 minutes
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Summary
Today we join Lillian Cunningham on a “Field Trip” to one of the most remote and least-visited national parks as she confronts the question facing its future: whether a portion of this untouched wilderness will soon include a path for industry.
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Established in 1980, Gates of the Arctic marked a radically different way of thinking about what a national park should be. Compared to previously established parks, it’s hard for the public to access. This park is truly undeveloped — there are no roads or infrastructure. And it’s immense. You could fit Yosemite, Glacier, Everglades, White Sands, Death Valley and the Grand Canyon within its borders and still have room to spare.
But even here, in one of the most remote and least-visited of the national parks, the outside world is finding its way in.
Ten miles west of the park, mining companies are drilling for copper. The metal is necessary for a number of green technologies, including electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines. The mines could support President Biden’s goals to reduce the use of fossil fuels and beef up domestic sources of critical minerals.
To access these mines, the state has proposed an access road that would cut through 211 miles of Arctic tundra. Twenty-six miles of the road would cross through Gates of the Arctic. Biden has pledged to conserve nearly a third of U.S. land and water by 2030, and his administration has stopped similar mining projects. Environmentalists and some Native American groups are also fighting to have the wilderness preserved.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Gates of the Arctic National Park is one of the largest areas in the country without a single road. |
| 0:09.0 | But next year, that could change. |
| 0:12.0 | It's one of the most high-profile environmental issues in |
| 0:17.1 | Alaska. The Biden administration is expected to make a decision sometime next |
| 0:21.4 | spring about a road that would be key to a proposal for an open pit mine. |
| 0:27.0 | This fall, the administration issued a finding that the project could affect native communities |
| 0:32.0 | and the way they live even more than |
| 0:34.1 | previously thought. From the Newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports |
| 0:39.3 | I'm Martin Powers and it's Saturday, December 30th. Today we are going to take you on a field |
| 0:46.8 | trip. Field trip is the name of our podcast series that launched earlier this year. |
| 0:51.4 | It's about national parks. My colleague Lilleen Cunningham at the post spent |
| 0:56.2 | time in Alaska for what became the final episode of the series. She ventured deep into the |
| 1:01.4 | tension over this project that could be decided next year. |
| 1:05.5 | It's something that you'll no doubt see in the headlines soon. So we wanted to bring you this episode, |
| 1:10.7 | and after you listen to this, go look up a field trip and listen to the whole |
| 1:14.9 | series it is beautiful and thought-provoking. Enjoy and happy new year. We'll be |
| 1:20.6 | back in your feeds on Tuesday, January 2nd. The seaplane that brought me here just flew away. |
| 1:48.0 | It left me in rain and fog by a lake surrounded by spruce trees in one of the most remote parts of Alaska, |
| 2:02.0 | north of the Arctic Circle. |
| 2:09.6 | I thought I was gonna feel like a little more, |
| 2:12.1 | I don't know, nervous or something to like see the |
| 2:16.6 | planes take off and know we're here all by ourselves, but it actually just feels really cool. It's a beautiful feeling. |
... |
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