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(13,061 posts) Tue Feb 11, 2025, 01:39 PM Feb 11

Take Action by Thurs. Feb. 13: Izembek Wilderness threatened yet again!

From Wilderness Watch -
New proposed land exchange threatens Izembek Wilderness and its remarkable wildlife

A few days after the November elections, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a land exchange to facilitate the construction of an 11-mile road through the protected tundra and wetlands of the world-renowned Izembek Wilderness and National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

If built, the road would be catastrophic for the critters that live there and would essentially cut the 307,982-acre Izembek Wilderness in two. Worse yet, if this land exchange goes through, any future Secretary of Interior could exchange lands in any Wilderness, National Park, or National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to allow for roads or other developments.

You can help us stop this disastrous land exchange—please submit your own public comments by February 13:
https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/izembek-land-exchange-deis/index.html
OR
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FWS-R7-NWRS-2023-0072-7708

Located near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula in southwest Alaska, the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, over 95 percent of which is designated Wilderness, is a remote stretch of land where a quarter-million migratory birds—including virtually the entire population of Pacific black brant—congregate each fall.

Nearly 7,000 caribou make their annual trek into the Wilderness where they overwinter, and hundreds of sea otters swim with their young in the Izembek Lagoon, occasionally in the vicinity of migrating orcas, gray whales, minke whales, and Steller sea lions. Massive brown bears—as many as nine per mile—lumber through Wilderness streams during peak summer salmon runs.

Roads are not permitted in designated Wilderness areas, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for a Potential Land Exchange Involving Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Lands” proposes an exchange of private lands for protected Wilderness acreage within the proposed road’s project area.

This road has been proposed for decades. The initial rationale -- to connect the village of King Cove and its large fish cannery with an all-weather airstrip in Cold Bay -- failed. Then proponents of the project said the road was needed to provide emergency medical evacuations for King Cove residents. But marine-based transportation options are cheaper and more reliable options in a medical emergency, according to numerous studies -- including by the Army Corps of Engineers. In fact the federal government recently committed more than $40 million to upgrade the dock at Cold Bay specifically for medical transport.

The agency, in the waning days of former Interior Sec. Deb Haaland's tenure, has crafted yet another novel justification, claiming the road will benefit subsistence users by providing easier access. This would set a dangerous precedent that any future Interior secretary could use to build roads through any Wilderness, National Park, or National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Wilderness Watch states: Every conservation unit in Alaska—more than 100 million acres—is now on the chopping block thanks to the agency's careless action.

Please join me in urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to drop the land exchange proposal.
You can also comment directly on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services site:
https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FWS-R7-NWRS-2023-0072-7708

More at link:
https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/izembek-land-exchange-deis/index.html

Fish and Wildlife Service page for the Izembek Wilderness is still up as of this writing, so check it out here:
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/izembek