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Protecting the Arctic
Alaska Wilderness League
Started 17 years ago, the League has advanced its cause of protecting Alaska's wilderness primarily through defensive legislative and advocacy efforts. But they have increasingly experienced diminishing returns from these battles. Because of this, the League was eager to move toward a proactive approach.
Through a four month process, focused on preservation of the Arctic Refuge, we worked with League staff to design Meaningful Actions from concept to production. In addition, The Action Mill designed a new narrative and a strategic framework and planning tool, based on the Arctic's natural calendar, that the League and its allies use to develop strategic campaigns that align with their new proactive approach.
This new narrative flips the conventional wisdom about the Arctic on its head. Advocates of drilling in the Arctic often claim that it is a cold, dead place. But on closer inspection, the land and sea of the Arctic is the birthplace of an abundance of life, from caribou to swans, polar bears to sparrows. By taking the perspective of the animals who are born there, we change the story to one where protecting this area—this source of life—is the clear choice. This shift allowed the League to create two actions that help the public understand how important the Refuge is by seeing the connections between this far-off environment and the environment around their own homes.
With the League we designed two cornerstone actions to give people the experience of these connections: Arctic Flight and Arctic Gardens.
Arctic Flight
The Arctic Flight actions consisted of kites in the shape of birds that are born in the arctic and visit different parts of the lower 48 states. These kites are flown at events timed to match the migration of the birds they represent, helping participants experience the migration cycle and introducing them to the abundance of birds that call the Refuge home.
The Action Mill designed a simple kite kit that could be produced by anyone with a printer, a straw, a shopping bag and some string. Through flying kites the League also connected with new kite enthusiasts and organizations that they have never connected with before as well as gave their members meaningful connections to the Arctic that we experience everyday but that are often invisible to us. The Arctic Flight actions were also used in the fall of 2010 to develop the League’s Educators Network. In the fall of 2010 over 12,000 students in 32 states joined in the Arctic Flight events.
Arctic Gardens
The Arctic Garden actions took the concept behind the kite actions and brought them into backyards and schoolyards. Constituents are given garden kits that they can use to set up a local oasis in their backyard, attracting birds as they migrate from the Arctic each year. These gardens give people the chance to directly interact with and support birds that are born in the Refuge, creating a deep and emotional connection with birds that were born in and depend on an area that is thousands of miles away. The League distributed over 10,000 kits in the fall of 2010, and used the arctic garden action to design house parties and fundraisers within their member networks.
As these actions progress, more and more people will look out their windows, see birds, and think “Look, there’s the Arctic!” This direct, physical connection to the Arctic is the foundation of the League’s initiative, developed with the Action Mill: the Arctic is alive, and it is all around us.
"I like the way they make me think."
-Jill Kennedy, Director of Planned Giving, on The Action Mill
