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| credit: Washington Post |
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is a place you never heard of, but nearly every Pacific black brant on its way to Mexico for the winter stops there to feed. So it is an important place for the geese as well as endangered Steller's eiders, tundra swans, brown bears, and foxes. But Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AS) and residents of the village of King Cove want to build a road through it. Senator Murkowski is willing to block the nomination of Sally Jewell as Interior Secretary to get it done. Alaskans have been lobbying the federal government for
twenty years to allow building a gravel road across the Izembek isthmus from King Cove to Cold Bay which has an all-weather airport. Residents say its necessary for safety reasons since the village has no real medical facilities of its own and their airport is a dirt strip hemmed in by sea and mountains. Since 1980 when the 315,000 acre refuge was designated wilderness there have been eleven deaths in plane crashes from King Cove that supporters say could have been avoided if a road existed. Flying across Cold Bay is not always viable since the weather in the Aleutian Chain is often too severe for safe air or even boat travel. King Cove officials want to exchange 13,000 acres of native land and 43,000 acres of state land for 206 acres from the Refuge and 1600 more from the Alaska Maritime NWR. The Interior Department has repeatedly rejected efforts to build the road on grounds that it would disturb an area otherwise off-limits to vehicle traffic and fragment habitat of endangered species. US Fish & Wildlife Service rejected the exchange idea in a final environmental impact statement on February 5th. USF&W Director Dan Ashe wrote in a statement that, "building a road through the refuge would damage the ecological functions of the refuge and impair its ability to provide vital support for native wildlife."
Murkowski told residents she will "use every tool in [her] toolbox" to get a road. She said she would be willing to block the nomination of the new Interior Secretary in letters to Salazar, Obama and Biden. Outgoing Secretary Ken Salazar has agreed to meet with villagers as he has the final departmental decision on the matter. The federal government has tried to help the 750 residents with medical services providing a $37.5 million telemedicine center that links to Anchorage, and transportation with a $9 million hovercraft connection to Cold Bay. The hovercraft stopped operating because the $1 million operating budget made it unaffordable for the Aleutians East Borough. The Borough maintains lousy Aluetian weather made it unreliable. A former medical director for the region said traveling an icy road in darkness and avalanche conditions would also be "foolish beyond any reason". Although villagers promise the road would only be used for medical emergencies, the idea had its genesis in a 1994 King Cove resolution calling for a road, "to link together two communities having one of the State's premier fishing port...with one of the State's premier airport at Cold Bay." The resolution did not mention safety as a justification for construction. Perhaps Ms. Murkowski should put away her
toolbox and leave Izembek to the geese and ducks who do not mind the weather.
