Trump administration will allow controversial road through Alaskan refuge

The Trump administration announced Thursday it is moving forward with a controversial land deal to allow for the construction of a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a pristine stretch of coastal wildlands in southwest Alaska.

The move comes in conjunction with a package of actions designed to boost energy development in Alaska, including opening 1.56 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.

The Izembek decision is designed to give those living in King Cove, Alaska, better access to the rest of the world. When members of the tiny, remote fishing village get sick or injured, they often have to climb aboard a boat or helicopter to reach the nearest airport in Cold Bay and fly to a hospital in case of emergency. The question of whether to build a road, and how to weigh the interests of people against wildlife populations, has perplexed policymakers for decades.

“It just seems preposterous to me that somehow it’s taken 40 years for us to put people first,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at a news conference Thursday while flanked by Republican lawmakers from Alaska. “We’re going to be able to protect wildlife and we’re going to be able to save the lives of the people that live there.”

Burgum said the decision is a win for both human health and the environment by giving fewer than 500 acres of land to the King Cove Corporation, a Native Alaska group, in exchange for expanding the wildlife refuge. “We’re going to be able to protect wildlife and we’re going to be able to save the lives of the people that live there,” he said.

But environmentalists and other Indigenous groups argue the refuge is too pristine and important to bisect with a road. The beds of eelgrass in Izembek are a key feeding spot for emperor geese and other migratory birds while the wetlands around it are home to caribou and brown bears.

A road through the refuge will introduce too many people and too much pollution to a pristine environment full of wildlife unaccustomed to people, according to Nicole Whittington-Evans, a senior director at Defenders of Wildlife — not to mention the chance that cars will turn wildlife into roadkill.

“The science is clear that roads have a profound impact on wildlife and habitat,” she said.