WHEREAS, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife has filed application with the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior for withdrawal of approximately nine million acres of land for use as an Arctic Wildlife Range for the preservation of wildlife and wilderness resources in northeastern Alaska; and
WHEREAS, this area, of which over five million acres were formerly withdrawn as part of Public Land Order 82, is a refuge for caribou, grizzly bear, polar bear, Dall sheep, wolverine, and countless flocks of over 100 species of migratory birds, and is, therefore, an area of wilderness resources unique in North America; and
WHEREAS, the Honorable Fred A. Seaton, Secretary of the Interior, in a statement before the House of Representatives Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs has referred to the Arctic Wildlife Range in Alaska as the major item of legislation presented by his department in the fish and wildlife field; and
WHEREAS, an opportunity now exists, which may be lost in the future, for preserving a unique, working laboratory for the study of Arctic wildlife;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the American Society of Mammalogists commends Secretary Seaton for his presentation of this legislation and urges prompt and favorable action on it.