Wilderness

One of the most remote and pristine stretches of the United States may soon be crawling with heavy equipment searching for oil. After an 18-month study the Clinton administration says it is opening nearly four million acres of wilderness on Alaska’s Arctic coast to oil exploration. Living On Earth’s Senior Correspondent Peter Thomson traveled to […]

A new estimate of the amount of oil beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has reignited the debate over whether or not to allow oil wells in the remote Alaskan preserve. Much of the land is officially designated as wilderness. But a slice of the refuge’s coastal plain was left without such protection, because of […]

The chain-saw is the fastest way to remove the record number of fallen trees now obstructing trails in wilderness areas, but some doubt that the noise pollution they create makes it the right way if these places are to remain truly wild. That’s what’s behind a dispute about chain-saws among back country users in the […]