To the Editor:
The influx of snowy owls this winter to the Lower 48 has everybody talking, and here in Northern Virginia it’s no different. Given the unusual migration, many people have been lucky enough to have sighted one of these beautiful birds in the wild for the very first time. These birds can make amazingly long and dangerous journeys from their summer breeding grounds in the Arctic, and our piece of the Arctic in Alaska is a key sanctuary for this rare visitor.
As U.S. citizens we can work to protect our part of the Arctic, which includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a vital sanctuary to birds that migrate through all 50 states and nearly every continent of the globe.
We can do our part by supporting efforts in Congress to ensure the protection of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge, not only for the birds, polar bears and caribou who rely on it, but for all of us. I hope Virginia’s senators – Senator Mark Warner and Senator Tim Kaine – will show their support for the Refuge as well. It would show true leadership
and commitment to this special place if they would now sign on to co-sponsor the Senate bill to protect it, S. 1695.
Corey Himrod
Burke
Alaska Wilderness League