The Biden administration has released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the proposed 211-mile Ambler Road through Alaska’s Brooks Range and some of the wildest country on the continent.
This region is home to numerous Athabaskan and Iñupiat villages and the Western Arctic Caribou Herd. Wilderness Watch has long contended that the impacts to the region’s wildness, its communities, wildlife, and waters of northern Alaska far outweigh any benefits from this massive industrial mining project. If this proposal seems familiar, it's because the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is conducting another public comment period on the road—thanks in large part to many of you who commented previously! The project was approved in 2020 during the Trump administration, but in February 2022, the Biden administration suspended the road’s right-of-way and announced a new environmental review to replace the Trump administration’s insufficient and faulty review. It’s that new environmental review that is now open for public comment.
We need you to speak out against the Ambler Road by Friday, December 22. The proposed 211-mile road would stretch west from the Dalton Highway (aka the Haul Road to the North Slope) to the mining claims. Along the way, the road would cross Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and the Kobuk Wild and Scenic River, both ecologically significant public lands which make up part of the largest remaining roadless area in the country. The Ambler Road would cross nearly 3,000 streams, 11 major rivers, 1,700 acres of wetlands, and major caribou migration routes. The road would also bisect a wide swath of the southern Brooks Range, home to grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, moose, wolverines, and three caribou herds. The only acceptable alternative in the new Draft SEIS is the No Action Alternative. Under this alternative, the BLM would not issue a right-of-way and the Ambler Road would not be permitted by the BLM. Wildernesses in Alaska, even those as large as Gates of the Arctic, derive much of their extraordinary values from the expanse of wildlands surrounding them— which are critical to maintaining the integrity of these great places. If built, the Ambler Road would undoubtedly lead to more use and motorized intrusions into the Wilderness. The road is proposed to be closed to the public, but after the road is built pressure would surely mount to open it to the public, compounding the negative impacts to this great wild expanse. Similar promises on past projects have been broken, leading to permanent and widespread impacts from ATVs, motorboats, airstrips, and hunting and fishing pressure, all impacting wildlands, wildlife, and local traditional subsistence uses.
Please tell the BLM by December 22 that you oppose the destructive and unnecessary Ambler Road and support the No Action Alternative in the Draft SEIS. Thank you for taking action to help protect Wilderness and wildlife in Alaska! |
