Located in northeastern Alaska along the border with Canada, the Arctic Refuge is the only stretch of America's arctic coastline that is not open to oil development. The remaining 95 percent is available to the oil industry for leasing and development. The Arctic Refuge is the last great wilderness, with a herd of caribou numbering 129,000 that migrates annually from its wintering grounds in Canada to its birthing grounds on the coastal plain--the very area where the oil industry seeks permission to drill. Grizzly bears and wolves roam freely still, and relics from the ice age, musk oxen, still grace this place that U.S. Fish and Wildlife scientists call a complete spectrum of arctic and subarctic ecoystems in our nation, and the only one protected for future generations.

But that status is seriously threatened. Pro-drilling Representatives and Senators want to allow oil companies into the wildlife refuge. Our U.S. Congress holds the fate of this remnant of our once vast natural heritage. Already the House of Representatives has voted to allow oil drilling in this last great wilderness. The Senate may vote this autumn or early next year on whether or not to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Your letters, calls, and e-mails CAN make a difference .