> Ed, > > The 90% which is uninhabitable is so because there aren't any people there.
I guess it depends on how you inhabit land. Semi-nomadic people live in one place for part of the year and in other places during other parts of the year. That was the tradition of northern Inuit and Indians and is still practiced by many of them - e.g. they go to fish camps during the summer. The north slope of the Yukon and ANWR is full of meaning to people who have migrated through it or who move through it seasonally. In the sense that a semi-nomad would understand it, it is inhabited. > The North Slope has people and lots more- including oil, but that's the > good 10%. > > The oil-drilling activity at Prudhoe has been very good to the Inupiat. The > tribe I mentioned as opposing drilling was the Gwichin. They are also the > tribe that invited oil prospectors in, but no oil was found. > > Now they oppose it. If there's no oil, I guess you wouldn't really want people to drill for it. > As you know, the porcupines move in a giant half circle through Gwichin > Territory to their calving grounds on the North Slope. I don't see why, but > if oil drilling interfered with their calving, they would calve elsewhere - > as they did some years ago when weather prevented their journey. So, they > had to calve where they could, with some losses. > > The porcupine herds have been decreasing in number for some years - without > the help of Man - unless the Gwichin hunters have been doing some extra > killing, which is doubtful. They're not porcupines, Harry, they're caribou. They're known as the Porcupine Herd because they are identified with the Porcupine Basin which they have to cross through to get from their wintering grounds to their summer calving grounds. I'll have to take your word for their decrease, though they are managed by an international board under the Porcupine Caribou Management Agreement. I used to know people on the board, but have lost contact with them during the past ten years. Ed Weick
