In the United States, public lands are owned by all American citizens. At the federal level, these include the national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, national wilderness areas among other land classifications. Multiple federal agencies such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages these properties for specific and often multiple purposes including wildlife management, recreation, livestock grazing and timber harvesting. From their inception these lands have generated controversy and that continues today with the movement to privatize their use. View the “Public Trust'' documentary and respond to the following writing prompt: How should public lands be managed in the US?

This is a special series about the 40-year fight over drilling for oil in one of the world’s wildest places: Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In 2017, Congress opened part of the refuge for oil and gas development, and the Trump administration says they aim to start selling the drilling rights this winter. But opponents to drilling are saying: not so fast.

The refuge began as a bold vision to preserve enough land to sustain a whole web of Arctic animals. Today, these 19 million roadless acres are home to moose and caribou, wolves and foxes, and birds that fly in from around the world to nest. Polar bears are using the coastal areas as a true refuge as the world warms and the sea ice retreats.

But shortly after ANWR was created, an enormous oil deposit was discovered nearby, and a different vision for the far north took hold. Oil production at the Prudhoe Bay oil field transformed Alaska’s economy and provided thousands of jobs. For the last 40 years, these competing visions of public land, conservation, and natural resource development have been colliding.

But this isn’t just a fight between environmentalists and oil companies—the indigenous communities in the region are also fighting to be heard. Both the Iñupiat and the Gwich’in have roots in the refuge that go back thousands of years. For some indigenous people, the refuge is sacred land that needs to be preserved. But others say oil development is the best hope for the future of their community.

Right now, this decades-long battle is coming to a head. Climate change is warming the Arctic twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and the plants, animals and people living there are struggling to adapt. Oil drilling could turn up those pressures, but as the Prudhoe Bay oil field continues drying up many Alaskans see drilling in ANWR as the way to revive their faltering economy.

In this series, we ask what’s at stake if we drill in the refuge—and if we don’t. We also track down the origin story of this conflict, and try to understand how the fate of this remote Arctic refuge became one of the most contentious environmental issues in America today.

With all of this in mind consider the following: “Should the United States open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling for oil and other natural resources?”

Bison used to number in the millions on the Great Plains, but animals in conservation herds now number less than 20,000 and are considered “near threatened.” Because most herds are less than 500 on small landscapes, scientists have agreed that bison have become ecologically extinct. This means they no longer play the critical roles in shaping prairie biodiversity.

With all of this in mind, consider the following: “The United States named bison the national mammal, but we still haven't decided if we're ready to restore them as wild animals on the American landscape. Could we ever live with wild, free-roaming bison again? Should we try? Why, or why not?”