District Court Okays Bulldozing a Road to the Doorstep of Izembek Wilderness

A federal district court in Alaska today allowed construction to begin on a 2.8-mile road segment on King Cove Corp. lands to connect to a 10.5-mile corridor within Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness. Another court recently vacated as unlawful the Trump administration’s land exchange trading away refuge and wilderness lands to KCC for the longer corridor.

“Today, the State of Alaska and the Trump administration got their way — bulldozing through decades of federal land protections to build a road straight to the doorstep of one of the wildest places left in America,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife’s Biodiversity Law Center. “This isn't the end of the fight for Izembek. It's a reminder of exactly what we stand to lose when the law is treated as an obstacle and not a safeguard. We will appeal this disappointing decision immediately.”

On August 14, Interior issued an illegal decision finding that building the KCC segment is compatible with fulfilling Izembek’s statutory purposes. Defenders filed suit to challenge that decision on August 17 and on August 18 filed a motion for emergency relief seeking to pause ground-disturbing activities until the court rules on Defenders’ claims.  

The State of Alaska has been driving the KCC segment forward, even in the face of multiple lawsuits challenging the exchange decision. It staged heavy construction gear ready to break ground on Sept. 1, and construction could be completed as soon as the end of the year.

"We know what comes next: a flood of illegal off-road vehicle use into the designated wilderness area of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, which Congress established over four decades ago as a safe haven for imperiled and unique wildlife,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Defenders senior director for the Alaska and Northwest programs. “Even the smallest segment of this road will affect the refuge in ways we can't yet imagine — and it will surely come at the detriment of wildlife, wetlands, and wilderness values."

Wedged between the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska on the remote Alaska Peninsula and protected since the 1960s, the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness provides irreplaceable habitat for hundreds of species, from migratory birds to marine mammals. Each year, the refuge serves as an essential migration stopover for hundreds of thousands of waterfowl, including nearly the entire world’s population of Pacific black brant, along with Taverner’s cackling goose and emperor goose. Izembek is also a critical habitat for several species protected under the Endangered Species Act, including a distinct population of the northern sea otter, Steller sea lion and Steller’s eider — as well as robust populations of caribou, brown bears and Pacific salmon. In recent years, walrus have used the Izembek Lagoon as a haul out between hunts.