Sounding TAPS for the Wild

For the first 170 miles south from Prudhoe Bay, the TAPS crosses streams that flow north to the Arctic Ocean. For more than 400 miles south of the Atigun Pass, TAPS is suspended over rivers that flow to the historic Yukon River, running from Canada to the Bering Sea, more than 500 miles to the west. Forty miles after TAPS crosses Atigun Pass, it drops from the Chandalar Shelf to join the route of the Koyukuk River for about 40 miles. The Koyukuk cuts across the south flank of the Gates of the Arctic National Park and winds through the Kanuti and Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuges before it joins the Yukon. These two refuges provide habitat for large mammals (moose, wolves, bear and caribou); small mammals (otter, wolverine, marten, fox, beaver and voles); over 100 species of birds and 16 species of fish. The Yukon itself adds four more refuges, including the wetlands of the Yukon Delta, which are used annually by an estimated 100 million shore and water birds. More than half of the continent's black brant and all of North America's cackling Canada geese are reared there, in addition to large populations of emperor geese, Pacific white-fronted geese and tundra swans. For 170 miles through mountainous south-central Alaska to the crest of Thompson Pass, the TAPS crosses rivers running eastward to the Copper River system, which flows into the Gulf of Alaska. Risks to this region therefore extend beyond the broad Copper River Delta, the largest contiguous wetland on the Pacific coast. The delta provides critical habitat for many species, including Canada geese and trumpeter swans, sockeye and chinook salmon, endangered Steller sea lions and sea otters.