The Interior Department is holding its first lease sale under President Donald Trump’s second term in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, selling off tracts of land for potential drilling in an area that has been virtually untouched by the oil and gas industry.
Better known as ANWR, the remote refuge sits more than 600 miles from Anchorage, Alaska, bordering Canada. It is widely considered one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, with undisturbed ecosystems and habitats of caribou, polar bears, and hundreds of species of birds stretching nearly 20 million acres. There are no established roads, trails, or facilities of any type within the refuge, and only two permanent villages whose native communities have survived off the land for thousands of years.
