When people talk about the environmental impact of drilling for oil and running pipelines all over Alaska, they often tend to focus on the oil itself. You know, leaky pipes, drilling spills, Exxon Valdez, and all of that contaminating rivers and suffocating birds. While those indeed are harmful (and depressingly photogenic), a lot ecological research in Alaska focuses on the impact of industry itself. It’s easy to vilify the oil industry because time and again it’s shown it doesn’t give two hoots about the environment.At the same time, there’s a message that may be missed: In the world’s pristine areas, any industry and development is going to have a material impact on the environment. The Alaskan tundra is a frozen desert. Covering that with pipelines and buildings—even little things like filling dumpsters with human food waste—changes that dynamic.National Geographic published an interesting photo piece as part of an ongoing series studying predator-prey relationships and population dynamics in and around Prudhoe Bay. Construction and developments have produced curious changes in the area’s ecology. Ravens are finding better nesting sites within infrastructure, allowing them to stay in the area year-round and increasing their predation on other local birds. Foxes and other animals, with roadkill and trash available, have stopped migrating as much as they once did.National Geographic cites trash scavenging as a big issue, writing:Prudhoe Bay is operated by BP, and ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil are also major owners of the oil field. Management has taken serious steps to try to control scavenging animals, like switching to Dumpsters with lids on them and educating workers not to feed bears or foxes.
“The oil companies did a really great job from the late 1990s until the last four or five years, and they are still doing pretty well in the oil field itself. But in the community of Deadhorse, which is right outside of the fields, things have really been slipping a bit,” said Dick Shideler. Shideler fears that local bears, which were painstakingly and sometimes lethally weaned off scavenging in the late 1990s, may become food-conditioned all over again with a growing influx of new workers.Click through to the story for some excellent camera trap photos and more case studies. While you do, here’s a thought to mull over. While there are ways to mitigate the impact of industry, any development is going to have a distinct affect on that area’s environment. Whether it’s good or bad is up to you to decide, but only with research like this can we deal with our impact intelligently.
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Photo via Joel Sartore, National Geographic
Photo via Joel Sartore, National Geographic
“The oil companies did a really great job from the late 1990s until the last four or five years, and they are still doing pretty well in the oil field itself. But in the community of Deadhorse, which is right outside of the fields, things have really been slipping a bit,” said Dick Shideler. Shideler fears that local bears, which were painstakingly and sometimes lethally weaned off scavenging in the late 1990s, may become food-conditioned all over again with a growing influx of new workers.Click through to the story for some excellent camera trap photos and more case studies. While you do, here’s a thought to mull over. While there are ways to mitigate the impact of industry, any development is going to have a distinct affect on that area’s environment. Whether it’s good or bad is up to you to decide, but only with research like this can we deal with our impact intelligently.