Caribou Tracks on Coal Seams II | Coal and the Caribou | 2006 | 62 in. x 70 in.

June 2006, Utukok River upland, Alaska. The photograph shows tracks on coal seams made by the Western Arctic caribou herd during their annual migrations, over a very long period—likely many centuries or even millenia. These tracks are deeply etched in the coal surface. This also means that the coal is right on the surface and any development there most likely will employ a relatively recent mining process known as mountain–top removal. This type of mining has been used in the Apalachian Mountains that spans several southeastern states of the United States. Only from the air can one grasp the magnitude of the devastation of mountain–top coal mining, with dark craters and huge black ponds filled with a toxic byproduct, called coal slurry. In the Utukok River upland, potential coal development is an issue of political–ecology, as the vast caribou herd use this area for calving and post–calving aggregation.