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The Arctic Refuge is managed for all Americans by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal agency within the Department of the Interior.
The original 'Arctic National Wildlife Range' was created in 1960 by Public Land Order 2214 "For the purpose of preserving unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values..."
In 1980 the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) enlarged the area, designated much of the original Range as Wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act, renamed the whole area the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and added four purposes.
- The ANILCA purposes are:
- (i) to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity including, but not limited to, the Porcupine caribou herd (including participation in coordinated ecological studies and management of this herd and the Western Arctic caribou herd), polar bears, grizzly bears, muskox, Dall sheep, wolves, wolverines, snow geese, peregrine falcons and other migratory birds and Arctic char [note that those residing in Alaska's North Slope rivers and lagoons are now classified as Dolly Varden] and grayling;
- (ii) to fulfill the international fish and wildlife treaty obligations of the United States;
- (iii) to provide the opportunity for continued subsistence uses by local residents; and
- (iv) to ensure water quality and necessary water quantity within the refuge.
- (ii) to fulfill the international fish and wildlife treaty obligations of the United States;
Section 1002 of ANILCA required that studies be performed to provide information to Congress. These mandated studies included a comprehensive inventory and assessment of fish and wildlife resources, an analysis of potential impacts of oil and gas exploration and development on those resources, and a delineation of the extent and amount of potential petroleum resources. Because this Congressionally designated part of the Refuge coastal plain was addressed in Section 1002 of ANILCA, it is now referred to as the "1002 Area."
Also referring to this area of the coastal plain, Congress declared in Section 1003 of ANILCA that the "production of oil and gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is prohibited and no leasing or other development leading to production of oil and gas from the [Refuge] shall be undertaken until authorized by an act of Congress."
