A federal judge has overturned the land exchange intended to enable the state to build a controversial road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, possibly halting plans for construction to start in the coming weeks.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled Aug. 18 that the Department of the Interior violated three laws when it approved a trade of Native-owned land for acreage within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The state plans to appeal the decision.
In approving the land trade between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the King Cove Corp., the local for-profit Native village corporation, the Trump administration’s Interior Department violated three laws, Gleason ruled: the Endangered Species Act, the Refuge Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
The road has been promoted for decades as an emergency route connecting the village of King Cove, with about 750 residents, to an all-weather airport at the much-smaller village of Cold Bay. The Cold Bay airport is a military legacy dating back to World War II; it has a runway extending over 10,000 feet, allowing it to accommodate large jets.
King Cove is more than 600 miles southwest of Anchorage.
The 18.9-mile road, as planned, would cross a narrow isthmus that separates the refuge’s Izembek Lagoon on the north from Kinzarof Lagoon on the south. Both lagoons are important to migratory birds and other wildlife.
The Alaska Department of Transportation, which has mobilized equipment and materials to start building a section of the road, intends to begin construction despite Gleason’s ruling.
This year’s construction “is still on track,” Sonny Mauricio, a public information officer with the department, said by email. “That work is on King Cove Corporation’s own land, which is separate from and outside the land addressed in Judge Gleason’s ruling, so the decision doesn’t affect this year’s construction plans,” Mauricio wrote.
Justin Shelby, operations manager for the department’s central region, said construction is intended to start sometime after Sept. 1.
Alaska’s acting attorney general reiterated the state’s desire to build the road quickly.
“Although we are sorely disappointed that the court ruled more process was necessary after years and years of endless review, the construction of this life-saving road remains a priority. We will appeal this decision and move forward with helping the community build the portions of the road that we can while we work on our appeal to overturn this ruling,” Acting Attorney General Cori Mills said in a statement.
But attorneys for the environmental and tribal plaintiffs who oppose the road and sued to overturn the land trade said construction of any part of the project would be illegal.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit issued to the state on July 9 covers the entire 18.9-mile road, not just a piece of it, the plaintiff attorneys said. And that permit is predicated on the land exchange, they said.
“Our position is that there is no way that the road construction can legally proceed,” said Michelle Sinnott, an attorney with Trustees for Alaska, an environmental law firm representing the conservation groups that sued to overturn the land exchange.
Debate over the road has divided Alaska Native groups.
The residents of King Cove and the Aleut Corp., the regional corporation that includes the village, are strong advocates for the road and the land trade that would enable it. But many Western Alaska Yup’ik residents, including those who are members of the three tribal governments that have sued to block construction, oppose the project because of threats to migratory birds that depend on Izembek’s wetlands and are also important sources of subsistence food.
The refuge, especially the lagoon area that has been protected as designated wilderness, is the gathering site for hundreds of thousands of birds, including most of the world’s population of Pacific black brant, a type of goose. The refuge also holds one of the world’s largest beds of eelgrass, a plant that supports birds and marine life.
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