The Trump administration is poised to approve a deal that would allow a contentious road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wild area in southwestern Alaska, according to internal Interior Department documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The agreement, which is not yet final, is the latest twist in a decades-long fight over the road that has reverberated across Alaska and the nation’s capital. The first Trump administration approved a similar deal in 2019, but the Biden administration canceled it in 2023, saying Trump officials failed to consider the effects of road construction on wildlife and Alaska Native communities.
The deal calls for the Interior Department to transfer 490 acres of land within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to King Cove Corp., a tribal organization that wants to build the road, according to the documents. In exchange, King Cove Corp. would give the government thousands of acres of its own land, some of which would be added to the refuge, the documents show.
Proponents of the road say it is essential for connecting the remote town of King Cove with an airport that could be used for emergency medical evacuations. Opponents say road construction would cause irreparable harm to wildlife as well as many Alaska Native tribes that rely on hunting and fishing.
The agreement was first reported by E & E News. Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, confirmed that the agency was considering a deal but declined to provide details.
“The department is moving forward with required reviews to evaluate a potential land exchange that would enable a road between King Cove and Cold Bay,” Peace said in an email. “We are committed to completing this process in full compliance with federal law and with robust public and tribal engagement.”
The road would stretch about 40 miles from King Cove to the community of Cold Bay. About 10 of those miles would cut through Izembek, whose wetlands contain some of the world’s largest beds of eelgrass, which attract several species of migratory birds.
In the spring and fall, virtually the entire global population of emperor geese and Pacific black brant geese converge on the refuge to feast on eelgrass. In the winter, tens of thousands of Steller’s eider sea ducks stop there to molt.
“This place is a biodiversity stronghold that is very, very deserving of protection,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans, senior director of Alaska and Northwest programs at Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group.
The road would connect King Cove with an airport in Cold Bay that can provide emergency medical evacuations to hospitals in Anchorage. At least 18 residents of King Cove have died because they could not receive medical attention in time.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, has argued that critics of the project appear to be prioritizing birds over people who need potentially lifesaving care. Representatives for Sullivan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The question of whether to allow the road has vexed federal officials for three decades. The Clinton administration helped broker a deal to spend more than $50 million on a hovercraft that covered the distance between King Cove and Cold Bay in 20 minutes. The hovercraft handled about two dozen evacuations for several years before being abandoned in 2010 as too costly and incapable of operating in high seas or winds.
Izembek has enjoyed federal protections since President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or Anilca, in 1980. The landmark law conserved more than 100 million acres of federal land in Alaska, including national parks, wilderness areas and other sites.
In one of his last public acts, Carter, who died last year at 100, warned that allowing the road would set a dangerous precedent. In a rare legal filing by a former president, Carter wrote that the move would allow future administrations to carve up millions of acres of lands practically at will.
“Anilca was a great compromise, to a certain extent, because it recognized the need for development in Alaska while also recognizing that there were places too special to develop,” said Michelle Sinnott, a staff attorney at Trustees for Alaska, which represented conservation groups in a lawsuit over the first Trump administration’s deal on Izembek.
If the Interior Department finalizes the new deal, Trustees for Alaska and its clients would “not stop fighting” to protect the refuge, Sinnott said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
