and dozens of birds of prey. This was the
predator gauntlet that the caribou had to
run, one of many reasons that they rely
on the lands designated in Section 1002
of the Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act passed by Congress
in 1980—land that recently has been
opened to the fossil fuel industry. The
vulnerable land provides caribou with
an abundance of high-protein food,
protection from wolves and golden eagles
who stick to the mountains to raise their
young, protection from grizzlies that are
easy to spot on the open plains, and relief
from the hordes of mosquitoes that can
drive any living being crazy.
The cows and calves didn’t make it
to us in the foothills. We stayed as long
as we could, but we ran out of food and
had to return to our base camp at theKongakut River and eventually back
home. It was weeks before the caribou
and calves finally made it to their core
calving and nursing habitat. It was a
very hard year for the caribou. I hoped
this wasn’t a portent of their future. I
believed we could band together to make
an impact. Our team hoped that the sto-
ries we told and the photographs and
videos we produced gave a glimpse of40 Outdoor Photographer outdoorphotographer.com