The Western Arctic Reserve may be less well-known than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but its wildlife populations are every bit as unique, spectacular and endangered.

The coastal lagoons and the inland deep-water lakes of the Teshekpuk Lake region shelter yellow-billed loons, tundra swans and spectacled and Stellar's eiders. The landscape can appear painted black and white from the wings of thousands of Pacific brant -- up to 33 percent of the entire population molts in these wetlands. The Teshekpuk ecosystem is also crucial to residents of several North Slope Native villages for subsistence hunting and fishing. The bluffs along the Colville River offer nesting grounds for the highest density of breeding peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons and rough-legged hawks in the world. In the Kasegaluk Lagoon more than 3,500 beluga whales gather to feed, bear their young and molt along with a wide variety of other marine mammals. And the Utukok Uplands provide critical calving grounds for a caribou herd 450,000 strong -- Alaska's largest.

Incredibly, the Western Arctic Reserve has never been granted full federal protection. In 2009 we'll be asking the new Congress to pass a law to permanently protect the special areas within the Western Arctic Reserve -- please check back then to take action.