The Alaska Wilderness League (AWL) is a

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization that works to protect Alaska's most significant wild lands from oil and gas drilling and from other industrial threats. Founded in 1993, AWL has its main office in Washington, DC, with additional offices in

Anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

and

Juneau Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of wha ...

, Alaska. The AWL seeks to protect the

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR, pronounced as “''ANN-warr''”) or Arctic Refuge is a national wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska, United States, on traditional Inupiaq, Iñupiaq and Gwichʼin, Gwich'in lands. The refuge is of ...

from being opened to oil and gas development, and its leadership has made a significant impact in this area. The organization has rallied public support and successfully stopped numerous attempts by Congress to open the refuge to development. AWL's work had long-standing support from President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

, who served as its Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors until his death in 2024. In 2001, AWL and its supporters helped fund photographer

Subhankar Banerjee Subhankar Banerjee may refer to: * Subhankar Banerjee (musician) (1966–2021), Indian classical musician and tabla player of the Farukhabad gharana * Subhankar Banerjee (photographer) (born 1967), Indian photographer {{hndis, Banerjee, Subhankar ...

's ground-breaking winter field photography in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The photos he took were published in the book ''Seasons of Life and Land''. Banerjee's photographs of the Refuge were exhibited at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...

, and controversy erupted when his captions for the photos were altered and the exhibit was moved to a far corner of the museum. Some charged that Alaska Senator

Ted Stevens Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. (November 18, 1923 – August 9, 2010) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senate, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. He was the longest-serving Republican Party (United St ...

had used political pressure to remove the exhibit from the spotlight because Senator

Barbara Boxer Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is a retired American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United St ...

had held up Banerjee's book during a Senate floor debate over oil drilling in the Refuge, but the museum maintained the changes were made "for artistic reasons".Censorship or Politics? Views Differ Over Exhibit
/ref> Starting in 2004, AWL expanded its work to include ecologically significant areas of Alaska's vast National Petroleum Reserve, the

Tongass National Forest The Tongass National Forest () in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at , an expanse larger than 10 U.S. states and 75 U.N. member nations. Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many s ...

, and the

outer continental shelf The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is a legally defined geographic feature of the United States. The OCS is the part of the internationally recognized continental shelf of the United States which does not fall under the jurisdictions of the ind ...

areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

Press

Andrew Revkin: Who's Backing Gingrich's ‘Drill Here' Push? (NY Times)

Notes

External links

*
Dochetry, Bonnie. Challenging Boundaries: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and International Environmental Law Protection.
Environmental organizations based in Washington, D.C. {{Environmental-org-stub