Arctic National Park Essay

When a person thinks about a national park, they are probably thinking of an eye popping, jaw dropping land of beauty. This is why Gates of the Arctic is a perfect example of what a true national park can be. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is a U.S. National Park in the heart of Alaska. It is the northernmost national park, which the entirety of the park lies north of the Arctic Circle and is the second largest park at an area of 8,472,506 acres. The park includes most of the central and eastern parts of Brooks Range. The park borders the east by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Dalton Highway and the Arctic National Refuge. On the west the Noatak National Preserve and the Kobuk Valley National Park borders the park. The park straddles

the continental divide, separating the drainages of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans. The boreal forest extends to about 68 degrees north latitude, characterized by black and white spruce mixed with poplar. To the north of that line, which contains the Brooks Range, lies cold-arid land that is described as “Arctic desert.” During the long winters temperatures can reach -75 °F, but can reach 90 °F for a short time in the summer. The park offers all sorts of fauna including moose, brown bears, Dall sheep, black bears wolves, and caribou.
The creation of Gates of the Arctic dates back to 1960s, but the park’s name dates back to 1929 when wilderness activist Bob Marshall explored North Fork of the Koyukuk River.

He encountered a pair of mountains, which were the Frigid Crags and Boreal Mountain; he called this portal the “Gates of the Arctic.” In 1968 a National Park Service survey recommended the establishment of a 4,100,000-acre park in the area. In that same year, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall recommended to President Lyndon B. Johnson that he should use the Antiquities Act to proclaim a national monument in the Brooks Range, but President Johnson declined. During the 1970s, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act prompted serious examination of the lands held by the federal government. A series of bills were studied to deal with the land proposals authorized under ANCSA, but legislation that would eventually become the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act was held up in congress in the 1970s. On December 1, 1978 President Jimmy Carter used the Antiquates Act to proclaim much of the proposed new Alaskan parklands as a national monument, which included Gates of the Arctic National Monument. In 1980 Congress passed ANICA, and Gates of the Arctic became a national park on December 2,

1980.