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The National Wildlife Refuge Association stands firmly against the Biden administration’s endorsement of a proposed land swap that would pave the way for a road through the heart of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. This decision undermines decades of conservation efforts, threatens critical wildlife habitat, disregards tribal opposition, and sets a dangerous precedent for all public lands in Alaska.
Twenty-two former public officials, including multiple former Secretaries of the Department of the Interior, sent a letter to Secretary Haaland expressing their concerns regarding the Interior’s intentions for the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Throughout their collective tenures in public service, they have defended Alaska’s public lands and the conservation and subsistence values protected under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge needs your voice! The Department of the Interior is currently in the process of once again potentially allowing a road to be built through the heart of this internationally-renowned wilderness. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is accepting public comments from individuals and organizations on this process no later than June 20, 2023.
The Department of the Interior issued a Notice of Intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a potential land exchange in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that would allow the construction of a road.
The Department of the Interior recently announced that Secretary Deb Haaland rescinded a 2019 proposed land exchange in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that authorized a road to be constructed through the heart of this pristine Alaskan landscape. The National Wildlife Refuge Association has worked for decades to protect the Izembek NWR from this threat and celebrates this important step towards safeguarding America's most ecologically significant national wildlife refuge.
In November, the National Wildlife Refuge Association continued to advocate for increased appropriations for the National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System) in fiscal year (FY) 2023. We led a letter signed by 62 organizations, including 17 Refuge Friends organizations, to appropriators requesting at least the funding levels of $574 million included in the House-passed version of the Department of the Interior Appropriations bill, and we signed a group letter requesting increased funding for environmental agencies that goes well above simply keeping pace with inflation.
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska recently had a big win in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals when a rehearing was granted for a previous District Court decision that could allow a road to be constructed across the unique national wildlife refuge. The National Wildlife Refuge Association, former President Jimmy Carter, Former Secretary Bruce Babbitt, and other conservation partners petitioned to request a rehearing of that decision by a larger set of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges earlier this year.
Former President Jimmy Carter has filed an amicus curia, or friend of the court brief, supporting a rehearing of a District Court decision to allow a road to be constructed across the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Carter’s brief comes in support of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and other conservation partners’ petition requesting a rehearing of that decision by a larger set of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges.
