Ray Cameron of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks says females and their calves keep well away from roads and oil developments. Around Prudhoe Bay that doesn't matter too much. The local central Arctic herd is small and there is plenty more coastal plain. But farther east in the wildlife refuge, where the porcupine herd has gathered for calving for probably thousands of years, the plain is much narrower and the herd much larger. The big danger is that it will get squeezed between global warming and oil development.
Environmentalists are appalled at the idea of the wildlife refuge being invaded for oil.
Even on optimistic assumptions, says Randall Snodgrass of WWF US, there is only enough oil under the coastal plain to meet America's petroleum thirst for six months. We need the caribou herd like the Amazon Indians need the rainforest. It is our lives and culture.