The Trump administration announced Thursday it is moving forward with a land deal opposed by environmentalists to construct a roughly 18-mile road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, which features virtually no human development and is intended to preserve wildlife habitats on the coast of southwest Alaska. The announcement comes in addition to efforts to ramp up energy production in the state, including oil and gas drilling in the previously untouched Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Access to emergency care and wildlife protection
The Trump administration argues that the move will expand access to vital medical services for residents of the area. Currently, the residents of the isolated fishing village of King Cove must rely on boats to reach the nearest airport in Cold Bay, then fly to a hospital for emergency care.
Policymakers have long sought to balance the needs of people with the protection of wildlife and ecosystems in the delicate habitat.
“It just seems preposterous to me that somehow it’s taken 40 years for us to put people first,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum remarked at a press conference on Thursday.
Burgum declared the project a victory for people and the environment by dedicating fewer than 500 acres of land to the King Cove Corporation, an Alaska Native organization, while agreeing to expand the wildlife refuge.
“We’re going to be able to protect wildlife, and we’re going to be able to save lives of the people that live there,” Burgum said.
Environmentalists criticize project
Environmentalists and a number of native groups remain opposed to the road. They argue that the refuge’s ecosystem is too delicate to be disturbed by a roadway through it. Those opposed to the project warn that the construction will threaten migratory birds and the road will harm wildlife such as caribou and brown bears, as well as pollute the environment.
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The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is the largest in the United States, spanning nearly 20 million acres.
Mining efforts to be expanded
President Trump also signed an executive order earlier this month allowing the Ambler mining road, which is a proposed more than 200-mile commercial transportation corridor through protected wilderness, including parts of the Gates of the Arctic National Park. The road will also impact more than 60 Native communities in Alaska, according to the Sierra Club.
The Trump administration intends to use the area for mineral mining to boost energy production, according to The Washington Post.
Sierra Club issues statement
“Today’s announcements are the latest step in Donald Trump’s plans to sell out our wildest landscape and natural heritage to corporate polluters,” the Sierra Club said in a response to the Trump administration’s announcement on Thursday. “Alaska Natives have called these landscapes home since time immemorial, and wildlife rely on them to survive and thrive. These decisions will collectively wreak havoc on fragile ecosystems in the most disruptive way possible, causing long-term environmental damage, all to boost the bottom lines of CEOs.”
