Show Oilmen Cal Care e For Land In Alaska a When Angus Gavin first saw the barren Arctic Coast it was wasa a beautiful but harsh and lonely land That was in the late when as a Scottish Scottish Scottish Scot Scot- tish immigrant he went to work for the Hudsons Hudson's Bay Fur Company TODAY things are happening happen happen- ing on at least one section of that Coast Alaska's North Slope where dozens of petroleum petroleum pe pe- petroleum pe- pe companies are drilling drilling drilling drill drill- ing for oil And Gavin a year old Winnipeg Canada resident who still has a trace of burr burrin in his voice is one of many ecologists who have been hired by the oil companies to help them keep the land beautiful GA GAVIN VIN found himself roaming roaming roaming roam roam- ing the areas around the rigs studying how the presence of men and machinery was affecting affecting affecting af af- af- af the birds animals and the land itself He even inspected garbage disposal he related in an article in in the magazine Petroleum Today Actually he said I found that some of the camps r o. up on Prudhoe Bay have more modern waste-disposal waste systems than most of the municipalities ties in the United States GA GAVIN VIN ALSO discovered that the great caribou herds an essential food source for forthe forthe forthe the Eskimos seemed Even when the wells are busy and the drillers and roustabouts are banging away he said Ive seen caribou only a few hundred yards off grazing quietly ONE OF the big problems for the oilmen is the areas area's tundra ground which has a askin askin askin skin of moss lichen and grass and not much else underneath but permafrost In the short Arctic summer the tundra thaws to depths up to three feet Oilmen have to support drilling drilling drilling drill drill- ing rigs on piles and cover the base with five feet of gravel They construct roads and airstrips by laying gravel on top of the tundra without breaking the surface of the vegetation WHEN A well is completed and the rig moved off the site is cleared and returned to a condition much like its original appearance Years from now Gavin says this may be one of the more remarkable things that will be said about the North Slope oil field development development development develop develop- ment on The oilmen cared for the land too |