The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a haven for wildlife and native peoples – and a battleground in the climate and energy wars.

With abundant wildlife and grandiose landscapes unmarred by roads, structures or any visible sign of human development, ANWR is often called “America’s last great wild place.”

Springtime signals the culmination of North America’s longest land migration – the arrival of the caribou herd at its ancient calving grounds on ANWR’s Coastal Plain. Caribou have followed this migration path in northeastern Alaska for thousands of years. Each spring tens of thousands of calves are born here, where abundant grasses and low shrubs provide crucial sustenance for a herd of 200,000 animals.

Spring also heralds a flurry of avian activity with the arrival of one million migratory birds, coming from as far away as Argentina and Antarctica.

This Coastal Plain – the biological heart of ANWR’s priceless ecosystem, known to the indigenous Gwich’in as “the sacred place where life begins” – is also the focus of a 40-year battle between environmentalists and oil interests.

So far, efforts to drill the area have failed. But that may be about to change.

In a rush to help oil companies secure decades-long leases in this pristine wilderness area before the election, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with plans to allow drilling in ANWR. Under a program announced on August 17, the first leases to drill for oil and gas could be sold by the end of 2020. This move, backed by Republicans and opposed by environmental groups, applies to some 1.57 million acres of the refuge’s Coastal Plain.

Democrats, including presidential candidate Joe Biden, criticized the move as a giveaway to big oil that would harm the Arctic’s unique ecosystem and native peoples. A wildlife scientist has called the idea of drilling in ANWR “simply obscene.”

The environment is on the ballot. Vote to save ANWR. Vote for Joe Biden and Democrats all down the ticket.