Izembek National Wildlife Refuge: Oppose a Costly and Unnecessary Road Construction Project

Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge was the first designated Ramsar wetland site in the United States. This designation comes from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. 

At 310,000 acres, Izembek NWR spans from brackish waters through lowland tundras and up to glaciers and volcanoes. It is home to five distinct species of salmon, and large mammals like caribou, foxes, moose, and wolves. Thanks to the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act being passed in 1980, nearly 97% of Izembek NWR is federally designated as the Izembek Wilderness Area. 

What’s at Stake 

South of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is King Cove, a town of 1,000 residents that has for decades pushed a project that would build a road between King Cove and Cold Bay. A piece of that road would run directly through Izembek NWR, endangering some of the more than 200,000 migratory birds that move through the Izembek NWR each year and violating the federal wilderness designation in place for the proposed construction site. The road project is a major priority for Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). 

The potential damage to Izembek National Wildlife Refuge from construction, habitat fragmentation, watershed pollution, and more, is too great to justify a $30 million road directly through the federally protected national wildlife refuge and wilderness. 

Ongoing litigation 

In 2019, former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke approved a land transfer between the King Cove Corporation and the Department of Interior. This was ruled an “arbitrary and capricious” action by a federal judge and the land swap was thrown out. The National Wildlife Refuge Association supported this decision. 

In March of 2021, the Biden Administration filed a brief as part of an ongoing appeal of this court case. The brief is in support of the proposed land swap. This is a disappointing and scientifically unsound stance for the Biden Administration to take and National Wildlife Refuge Association is disheartened by the brief. Additionally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated in Congressional hearings that survey work for the road could start this summer. 

The National Wildlife Refuge Association advocates for the Biden Administration to backpedal on supporting the proposed land swap, and for the Department of Interior to pause any survey work until the litigation over the land swap is completed. The proposed construction area is a federally protected wilderness area that does not permit road construction. Any construction taking place in this area violates the wilderness designation set in 1980 and the National Wildlife Refuge Association will continue to push the Administration to reverse course.

Other Resources

• The Road to Nowhere (2009) spotlights the fiscal waste and environmental harm the road would cause.

• Red Herring Highway (2017) fact sheet depicts the real reason behind the road – economic development, plain and simple.

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