Congress established the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness in order to safeguard the refuge's extraordinary wildlife and wetlands value. The unique eelgrass, tundra, wetland, and coastal habitats of the refuge have repeatedly been recognized internationally for their global significance.  For example, the refuge:

• Was the first wetlands area in North America to be placed on the List of Wetlands of International Importance under the RAMSAR Convention, and international treaty;
• Has been recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) of global significance in 2001 by BirdLife International in partnership with the National Audubon Society;
• Qualifies as a Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network Site.

Looming Threat

Ten years ago, a proposal was put before Congress to build a road connecting two communities near the Izembek refuge.  The road would cross sensitive habitat and designated wilderness, and Congress decided against such a road. But, with the recent introduction of two new bills (H.R. 2801, and S. 1680), Congress is being asked to decide the issue again. Both bills propose a land exchange that would add some 61,000 acres of land to the refuge in exchange for the removal of 206 acres from wilderness designation in order to build a gravel road between the communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.

On the surface, the land exchange seems like a positive proposal, both for the King Cove residents who say they are seeking safe, dependable access to the Cold Bay airport, and for the Izembek refuge.  In fact, the exchange lands would add no substantial value to the refuge, while the road would cut through the refuge’s ecological heart, reducing the value of critical habitat for the very species the refuge was established to protect.  In 1998 Congress passed the King Cove Health and Safety Act, which provided for $37.5 million to upgrade King Cove’s medical facilities, improve the airstrip in King Cove, purchase a hovercraft, construct marine terminals in King Cove and Cold Bay, and build an unpaved road between the town of King Cove and the connecting marine terminal. A proposal for a road now would cost taxpayers millions more, without improving the speed or safety of the existing hovercraft transportation, and access to medical facilities and the outside world.

The southern Alaska Peninsula caribou herd has shrunk from 10,000 to less than 1,000 animals in the last 20 years. A road through Izembek wilderness is likely to further stress this diminishing herd. Photo by John Sarvis.

Costs to Wildlife

In addition to spectacular scenery, and world-renowned bear habitat, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge supports virtually the entire Pacific Flyway Brant population each spring and fall when these birds gather to rest and feed during migration. The refuge is also heavily used by the Steller’s eider, a species listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and by many other migratory birds whose habitat around the world is dwindling, including emperor geese, tundra swans, cackling Canada geese, rock sandpipers, and dunlins.  Other rare species found in the refuge include caribou, a population of sea otters listed at Threatened under ESA, and the Steller sea lion, which is also Threatened.

A road poses a serious threat to all of these species as a result of habitat degradation and fragmentation, and increased disturbance and disruption of natural processes.  A road would also eliminate any wilderness value identified by Congress and currently protected in the refuge because such impacts will extend miles beyond the road itself.

Costs to Taxpayers

After passage of the King Cove Health and Safety Act, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens sponsored a rider on an appropriations bill that directed a 17-mile road be built from King Cove to a new hovercraft terminal, north of the existing harbor near King Cove. Construction for this road began in March, 2004, and the road remains unfinished. More than $25 million dollars have been spent, and construction costs continue to escalate as crews confront numerous obstacles, including unstable volcanic soils and steep slopes.  Avoiding the unstable soils has meant rerouting the road onto the sensitive shores of Cold Bay, where winter ice scouring will mean increased maintenance costs.

The road now being proposed to connect King Cove and Cold Bay would be an additional cost to taxpayers that does not make sense.  Congress already determined that such a road was not in the American public’s best interest but is now being asked to consider that road, along with the additional millions it would cost taxpayers, and the cost the road would incur by diminishing the value of internationally significant wetlands and valuable fish, wildlife and wilderness resources that are fully protected today.