Senate vote protects Arctic Refuge... for now     Kathryn Hannay celebrates pitching her tent on her first day of the Sierra Club Activist Backpack to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On Wednesday, March 19, the Senate approved an amendment co-sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) to remove from the budget the provision to open the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The vote was 52-48; eight Republicans joined all but five Senate Democrats to pass the amendment. This is the second time in a year that the Senate has refused to allow oil drilling in the Coastal Plain. Considered to be “America’s Serengeti,” the Coastal Plain is the calving grounds for the 129,000 Porcupine Caribou which migrate 400 miles from the Yukon Basin up to the refuge each spring. The Coastal Plain is also the denning site for polar bears and home to thousands of migrating birds each summer. For more information about this issue, check the following sites: > Alaska Wilderness League > Sierra Club Local member Kathryn Hannay, joined with other Sierra Club members on an Arctic Refuge Activist trip last June. Join her on April 22 for an evening of interesting Arctic information. Click here for a related story.

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