Congrats the winner of the Share the Experience photo contest! Gregory Cameron Teller took home the contest’s grand prize for his touching photo of a baby polar bear and its mama at Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska – an honor that includes having his photo appear on the 2016 America the Beautiful public lands pass. This was Teller’s first time visiting the wildlife refuge, and of the experience, he says, “We stayed a couple of days in a village in the refuge where bear’s frequented this part of the landscape. Moments with mothers and their cubs were just perfect; especially this shot as the cub reached up to his mother.”
Check the other winning photos: http://on.doi.gov/1DMPBJl
Today, the
Obama Administration moved to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, releasing a conservation plan and calling on Congress to designate core areas of the refuge – including its Coastal Plain – as wilderness, the highest level of protection available to public lands.
The 19.8 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is widely considered one of the most spectacular and remote areas in the world. It is home to the most diverse wildlife in the arctic, from caribou and polar bears to gray wolves and muskoxen. Lagoons, beaches, saltmarshes, tundra and forests make up the remote and undisturbed wild area that spans five distinct ecological regions, and the refuge holds special meaning to Alaska Natives – having sustained their lives and culture for thousands of years. Learn more at
www.DOI.gov.
Top photo: Mother and polar bear cub at Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Middle photo: Moonrise over the Brooks Range.
Bottom photo: Northern Lights dance above the refuge.
Happy Birthday, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! The iconic refuge, home to polar bears, moose and caribou, was established Dec. 6, 1960. In 1980 the federal government expanded it to its current 19.6 million acres, almost half of which are wilderness.
Photo: Last Lake on Sheenjek River, Arctic Refuge, by Steve Hillebrand/USFWS
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a vast and beautiful wilderness, is an intact continuum of six different ecological zones spanning some 200 miles north to south. Such a diverse spectrum of habitats and associated fish and wildlife populations within a single conservation area is unparalleled in the circumpolar north. The Brooks Range is pictured above.
Photo: Steve Chase, USFWS
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