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Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
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.
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.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association continues to counter an assault on Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges by the state’s powerful congressional delegation, now empowered by the Trump administration to undo 40 years of protection afforded Alaska’s refuges by the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
