Just a miniscule portion...

...of the barren, lifeless coastal plain.

But one reality in Arctic Alaska is that almost nothing can be buried, so a spreading mesh-work of pipelines and supporting structures is still required to get fuel to markets. Another reality is that, even with the concentrated drilling, the infrastructure for extracting and moving oil now fragments 1,000 square miles of tundra. [...]

As with a coral reef or a rain forest, structure is habitat, and on the treeless coastal plain the oil structures provide welcome cover, perches and nesting or denning sites for predators, particularly arctic foxes, ravens and gulls.

Make sure to check out the maps, showing the original proposed drilling area and the current patchwork of exploratory wells and pipelines.