Script for PBS Bears of the Last Frontier House Party:
A couple minutes before the show is scheduled to start in your area, please gather folks and give this introduction:
Hello everyone and welcome to my home. I’m so glad you could join us to watch what is sure to be a great episode of NATURE: Bears of the Last Frontier featuring the bears of the North Slope of Alaska. I’ve been told by some folks who saw a sneak preview that we will see polar bears near Kaktovik, Alaska which is an island off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and grizzly bears and caribou in the Western Arctic which is more formally known as the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska. After we watch the show, I’ll show a short 10 minute video that goes into more depth on the amazing place that is the Reserve and what you can do to help protect it.
Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
PBS Bears of the Last Frontier! Then after the show:
Wow, that was a great program. I hope you are excited to protect this amazing place. Here’s a video produced by the folks at Alaska Wilderness League that speaks to the incredible wilderness and wildlife values of the Reserve.
Show DVD “The Reserve”
Now that you’ve learned even more about this amazing and unique piece of public land, I hope you’ll join me in signing a petition to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management is responsible for managing the Reserve and is currently undertaking a huge planning process for the future management of the Reserve. This plan will be released at the beginning of next year and we want to make sure that Secretary Salazar understands that the American public wants to see it protected for future generations.
I wanted to give you a little more detail on a couple of the special places within the diversity of the Reserve. (You can pick a couple that appeal to you to highlight). You can find more detailed information on Alaska Wilderness League’s website (http://www.alaskawild.org/our-issues/npr-a-campaign/).
· Teshekpuk Lake Special Area: Teshekpuk Lake, the largest freshwater lake on the North Slope, is part of one of the most productive wetland complexes in the circumpolar Arctic. This area supports hundreds of thousands of migratory waterfowl. It also provides a critical refuge for Pacific Black Brant and Greater White-fronted Goose during molting when they lose their flight feathers, requiring a remote location free of predators with abundant food. Teshekpuk Lake is an Important Bird Area of global significance, also home to large numbers of other waterbirds and shorebirds including Yellow-billed Loon, Red-throated Loon, Long-tailed Duck, King Eider, Spectacled Eider, Dunlin, and Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Teshekpuk Lake is surrounded by the calving grounds and insect relief areas essential to the health of the Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd (67,000 animals), a critical subsistence food resource for the North Slope communities of Barrow, Atqasuk, and Nuiqsut. Nuiqsut is the community that Rosemary from the DVD is from.
· Utukok Uplands Special Area: The Utukok River Uplands includes the calving grounds for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd (400,000 animals), one of the largest caribou herds in the world. This herd is a critical subsistence food resource for some 40 villages throughout northwestern Alaska. The Utukok River Uplands provides vital habitat for multiple Arctic predator species including grizzly bears, wolves, and an exceptionally high density of wolverines.
· Colville River Special Area: The cliffs and bluffs along the Colville and its tributaries (the Kikiakrorak and Kogosukruk Rivers) make this an internationally-recognized area for nesting birds of prey, including Peregrine Falcons, Gyrfalcons, Rough-legged Hawks, and Golden Eagles. The Colville River also supports more than 20 species of fish and a small but significant population of moose, not commonly found on the North Slope.
· Kasegaluk Lagoon Special Area: Kasegaluk Lagoon is a unique barrier island ecosystem important to marine mammals. It hosts multiple spotted seal haul outs, concentrations of ringed seal and beluga whales, and includes critical “no disturbance zone” habitat for threatened polar bears. Recent walrus haul outs indicate the area may provide essential refuge for this species as sea ice recedes due to climate change. Kasegaluk Lagoon is an Important Bird Area of global significance with a great diversity of bird species including concentrations of breeding Common Eider, Spectacled Eider, Red-throated Loon, Long-tailed Duck and is a staging area for Pacific Black Brant. Kasegaluk Lagoon is an important subsistence food harvest area.
· Dease Inlet-Meade River
The Dease Inlet-Meade River includes thousands of small lakes that are important habitat for nesting loons, waterfowl, and shorebirds—such as the Yellow-billed and Red-throated Loons, Brant, White-fronted Geese, King Eider, and the threatened Spectacled Eider. Home to ice seals, the Dease Inlet-Meade River also provides refuge and denning areas for endangered polar bears, a haven for the Teshekpuk Caribou Herd from insects, and nesting grounds for sea ducks.
· Ikpikpuk River
The Ikpikpuk River and its tributary, the Titaluk River, host a high concentration of raptors including nesting Peregrine Falcons and Rough-legged Hawks. These rivers also provide significant habitat for shorebirds, the Arctic Tern, Long-tail Duck, Yellow-billed Loon, Bar-tailed Godwit and others.
· Peard Bay
Peard Bay includes high densities of ice seals, polar bears, and various sea ducks, such as endangered Spectacled Eiders. Dotted by thousands of small lakes, Peard Bay provides a haul-out area for ringed and bearded seals and is known as a continentally-significant Important Bird Area. It provides habitat for nesting loons, waterfowl and shorebirds, and boasts the highest density Spectacled Eider nesting area in Alaska.
· DeLong Mountains and Arctic Foothills
The DeLong Mountains and Arctic Foothills cover an area from the crest of the Brooks Range to the southern boundary of the Utukok River Uplands and Colville River Special Areas. This area is heavily used by migrating caribou, and is home to grizzly bears, wolves and wolverines. This area is ecologically important as a linking corridor from interior Alaska, across the Brooks Range, to the Arctic Coastal Plain.
Please join me in signing this petition and I hope you will stay involved throughout this planning process to provide a voice for wild Alaska and future generations.
Thank you so much for coming!