Trump Administration Stakes Out Unlawful “Road to Ruin” through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge

Despite pending litigation, the Trump administration secretly ordered ground-disturbing survey work to facilitate an illegal land trade and construction of a destructive road through wilderness wetlands in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Conservation groups challenging the land exchange agreement and road construction received a memo documenting the survey work.

The survey, reportedly completed this week, impacted wildlife and habitat through 80 helicopter landings and the installation of 122 survey monuments, violating the Wilderness Act. The intensive work occurred within congressionally designated wilderness in preparation for trading away vital public lands to a private entity to build the controversial road through the heart of Izembek.

The clandestine survey is the latest step in a backroom deal that attempts to strip wilderness and refuge protections from internationally recognized wildlife habitat for road construction, and comes just days after conservation organizations requested that a federal district court vacate Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s illegal land exchange agreement with King Cove Corporation.

Quote from Defenders of Wildlife: 

“In a ludicrous yet unsurprising move, the Trump administration is literally staking out an illegal and unnecessary road through globally renowned wilderness wetlands in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. This administration has repeatedly shown it has no respect for our environmental laws, wildlife or public lands, and will do anything to satisfy special interests. First a secret agreement and now a surprise survey—what’s next, bulldozers in the dead of night? No matter how much they try to hide, we’ll never stop fighting this road to ruin,” said Mark Salvo, Vice President of Landscape Conservation for Defenders of Wildlife.

Quotes from other conservation organizations:

“Zinke is doing everything he can to secretly ram this road through, but we’ll continue to expose his deception,” said Randi Spivak, public lands director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s appalling that Zinke would allow survey work to be done without any public process and while our lawsuit is pending. I recently visited Izembek and saw firsthand how damaging this two-lane road would be to this incredible wilderness. There’s really nothing else like Izembek and it needs to remain protected.”

"This is another egregious example of the Zinke Department of Interior using underhanded methods to circumvent established requirements for public process by rushing implementation of environmentally destructive projects without any opportunity for public participation," said Dr. David Raskin, president of the Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges. "This invasion of the Izembek Wilderness by helicopters and other machinery is yet another step in their continuing program to undermine the Wilderness Act and the public's right to maintain special places that have been protected from such degradations for many decades."

“This is a sad day for all Americans who value wilderness, and a wake up call,” said Desiree Sorenson-Groves, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Wildlife Refuge Association. "The administration’s ongoing assault on the Izembek Refuge just took another step by directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow helicopters in designated wilderness, a flagrant disregard for the highest protection bestowed upon lands or waters in the United States.”

“It is outrageous that Secretary Zinke is moving forward, yet again, to harm one of America’s most prized wilderness and sensitive wetland areas, and denying the public any chance to be meaningfully involved in the process. Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is internationally recognized for its wetlands and wildlife values. Protecting it is in the public’s best interests,” Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska Regional Director, The Wilderness Society.