On October 23, the Trump administration launched fresh attacks on three iconic wildlands in Alaska, places that Wilderness Watch, our members and supporters, and our conservation allies have fought to safeguard for decades. These places, which teem with native wildlife, are the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Izembek Wilderness, and the areas near and through Gates of the Arctic threatened by the Ambler Road construction.
Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain
The 1.56 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been a target for oil and gas development ever since the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) failed to provide much needed and deserved wilderness protection. The wild coastal plain is the birthing grounds of the fabled 200,000-member Porcupine caribou herd, relied upon for subsistence living by the Gwitch’in native people, and provides critical habitat for polar bears, migratory birds, and other native wildlife. In 2017, Trump signed a tax bill that required two lease sales in the coastal plain. The second sale did not attract one single bidder, and the Biden administration later suspended and cancelled leases from the first sale. On October 23, the Trump administration announced that it will hold an oil and gas lease sale in the coastal plain this winter, and would reinstate seven cancelled oil leases from the previous sale that had been acquired by the State of Alaska.
Izembek Wilderness
Located near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula in southwest Alaska, the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, over 95 percent of which is designated as the 308,000-acre Izembek Wilderness, is a remote stretch of land where a quarter-million migratory birds—including virtually the world’s entire population of Pacific black brant—congregate each fall. Nearly 7,000 caribou make their annual trek into the Wilderness where they overwinter, and hundreds of sea otters swim with their young in the Izembek Lagoon, occasionally in the vicinity of migrating orcas, gray whales, minke whales, and Steller sea lions. Massive brown bears—as many as nine per mile—lumber through wilderness streams during peak summer salmon runs. For years, the native village of King Cove has demanded to build a road through the heart of the Izembek Wilderness to access a year-round airstrip at Cold Bay. Initially the access was to transport seafood from the now-shuttered Peter Pan seafood plant in King Cove. In recent years that demand has morphed into access for emergency medical evacuations, despite a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers analysis that showed that non-road alternatives for transportation would be more reliable, less expensive, and would not harm Izembek and its wildlife. Last week, the Trump administration announced that it had finalized a land exchange with King Cove to delete lands from the Izembek Wilderness so that the road could be constructed, and the land patents have already been exchanged. The Izembek Wilderness will lose 490 acres of land through which the road corridor would be built in exchange for 1,739 acres of King Cove Corporation lands outside of the Refuge.
Ambler Road
The 211-mile Ambler Road has been proposed to reach the mining claims of a private Canadian mining company south of the Brooks Range. If built, the Ambler Road would stretch west from the Dalton Highway—the Haul Road leading to the Prudhoe Bay oil field on the North Slope—to the mining claims. Along the way, this “road to ruin” would cross Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and the Kobuk Wild and Scenic River, both ecologically significant public lands that make up part of the largest remaining wild, roadless area in the entire nation. The Ambler Road also would cross nearly 3,000 streams, 11 major rivers, major caribou migration routes, and would bisect a wide swath of the southern Brooks Range, home to numerous Athabaskan and Iñupiat villages, as well as grizzly bears, wolves, and Dall sheep. If built, the Ambler Road would undoubtedly lead to more use and motorized intrusions into the National Preserve and nearby Wildernesses. Road noise, dust, and vehicle headlights would further degrade the area’s wild character. The Biden administration ruled against building the Ambler Road after the first Trump administration approved it. On October 23, Trump’s Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, reissued right-of-way permits for the 211-mile road.
What Happens Next?
While these Trump actions are certainly potentially catastrophic for these three iconic Alaska wildlands and their wildlife, the story is not yet over. Litigation may well slow or stall these decisions, including several active, related cases we’re currently involved with that address oil and gas leases in the Arctic Refuge.
Wilderness Watch and our allies will continue to fight to protect the priceless areas, and we thank our terrific members and supporters who have sent in literally tens of thousands of comments over the past years in order to protect these incredible wild places and their critters. Stay tuned!! |
