When she was younger, Rosemary Ahtuangaruak used to camp for weeks at a time with family at their allotment near Teshekpuk Lake, on Alaska’s North Slope. Her uncle would pick her up from work, she said, with the snowmobile fired up and ready to bring her to the array of lakes and wetlands that many describe as one of the nation’s great wilderness areas.

“Get your winter gear,” she recalled him announcing. “We’re going camping.”

Within a couple of months that area could host drilling rigs probing the depths for oil with exploratory wells. ConocoPhillips has applied to extend ice roads and well pads farther west into the Arctic wilderness beyond its Willow oil project , which was approved by the Biden administration in 2023 and is now under construction. The company also wants to build roa

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