The Story of Olaus and Mardy Murie, Defenders of Nature! Mardy and Olaus Murie fell in love in—and with—Alaska. Then set out on an adventure across the Arctic for Olaus’s work as a biologist, encountering the beauty and danger of the wilds along the way. They learned from Indigenous communities to appreciate the interconnectedness of all living creatures and understood that the way humans were moving in on wild land was threatening the natural world. So they shifted the focus of their work to conservation, fighting to protect the land and animals—and lobbying for the creation of what finally became the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, nine thousand square miles of protected land!