The Western Arctic Reserve may be less well-known than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but its wildlife populations are every bit as unique, spectacular and endangered.

The coastal lagoons and the inland deep-water lakes of the Teshekpuk Lake region shelter yellow-billed loons, tundra swans and spectacled and Stellar's eiders. The landscape can appear painted black and white from the wings of thousands of Pacific brant -- up to 33 percent of the entire population molts in these wetlands. The Teshekpuk ecosystem is also crucial to residents of several North Slope Native villages for subsistence hunting and fishing. The bluffs along the Colville River offer nesting grounds for the highest density of breeding peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons and rough-legged hawks in the world. In the Kasegaluk Lagoon more than 3,500 beluga whales gather to feed, bear their young and molt along with a wide variety of other marine mammals. And the Utukok Uplands provide critical calving grounds for a caribou herd 450,000 strong -- Alaska's largest.

Incredibly, the Western Arctic Reserve has never been granted full federal protection. That's because it was set aside as the "National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska" nearly a century ago. But the reserve was meant to be tapped only in time of dire national need. The Bush administration wants to put more than half of the reserve on the auction block for leasing to oil companies.

In September 2006, however, NRDC and other groups won a federal court judgment that halted sales in sensitive habitat around Teshekpuk Lake. While the court victory is a temporary reprieve from oil and gas drilling, it is up to Congress to pass a law to permanently protect Teshekpuk Lake and the wildlife that depend on it.

Tell Congress to provide permanent protection for Teshekpuk Lake and the other special areas within the Western Arctic Reserve.

Photo credits: Cottongrass, © Gary Braasch. Caribou, © Steven Kazlowski, Alaska Stock.