📷 Izembek Lagoon | Gerrit Vyn / Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Today, the Department of the Interior (DOI) issued a Notice of Intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a potential land exchange in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) that would allow the construction of a road.

Previous proposals to construct a road through the ecological heart of this unique national wildlife refuge have so far been unsuccessful due to the significant and irreversible damage it would make to one of the world’s most critical wetlands and waterfowl habitats. This road would have devastating impacts on more than half a million Pacific brant, emperor geese, swans, and other wildlife, resulting in habitat fragmentation, disturbance, and pollution. These impacts on wildlife would also inevitably impact subsistence hunting and harvesting for Indigenous communities that rely on these resources.

The National Wildlife Refuge Association has worked tirelessly to protect the Izembek NWR for decades. In this renewed effort to authorize a road, the Biden Administration perpetuates the suggestion that the Secretary of the Interior has the authority to trade away congressionally designated wilderness to private parties to allow roads or other development projects. Such authority would implicate all of Alaska’s protected lands, setting a precedent that other wilderness areas can be subjected to similar trades to allow development projects.

These critically important wetlands must be protected for future generations, as Congress intended. Izembek National Wildlife is America’s most ecologically significant national wildlife refuge and must be safeguarded from these continued threats. The Refuge Association will continue to work towards its permanent protection.