Boosting Alaska’s energy sector was a priority among President Donald Trump’s executive orders on his first day back in office. The list of projects he supported included opening drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reinstating support for the Ambler Road. But one item seemed out of place among the energy projects: a road from King Cove to Cold Bay’s all-weather airport.
The proposed road has long been a point of contention. King Cove, a remote fishing community on the Alaska Peninsula, can only be reached by air or water. But the community’s harsh weather and short gravel airstrip mean it’s often impossible to fly in or out.
Residents argue that an 11-mile road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge — linking them to Cold Bay’s longer, all-weather runway — would save lives by ensuring access to Anchorage’s medical services.
“It was a little bit of a surprise, but a pleasant surprise,” said King Cove City Administrator Gary Hennigh, reacting to the executive order. “He has it somewhere in his brain, or with his people, that there's something about a road in rural Alaska that the right thing to do is to build it, and you got a bunch of environmentalists jumping up and down that don't like it, and that's probably all the more reason why President Trump says, ‘Let's do it.’”
For decades, conservationists have fought the road, arguing it would set a dangerous precedent by undermining conservation laws. The road would require a land swap between the federal government and King Cove’s Native corporation. King Cove would give up land adjacent to the refuge in exchange for the land required for the road.
Opponents see a dangerous precedent
Rob Rosenfeld, a consultant for dozens of tribes opposing the project, says allowing the land swap would weaken the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, a landmark law that has protected Alaska’s wildlands for more than 40 years.
“This means that all refuge lands, all ANILCA lands, all designated wilderness and even national park lands are vulnerable to the whims of changing administrations,” Rosenfeld said.
A road has never been built through conservation lands under ANILCA, and land exchanges typically require congressional approval.
Ian Dooley is an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit group that represents some of the opposition. He, too, says the King Cove road could open the door to similar projects across the state.
“This would be the first land exchange under ANILCA that allows for divesting protected lands out of a conservation system unit for the purpose of putting a road through it,” Dooley said. “That has never happened before.”
Statewide subsistence concerns
King Cove residents say the road is crucial for more than just medical access. Dean Gould, president of the King Cove Corporation, says many residents in the largely Unangax̂ community struggle to reach their hunting and fishing areas without it, making subsistence difficult.
“We just can’t get there,” Gould said. “If the road to Cold Bay was there, we’d be able to use them a lot more often.”
But protecting subsistence is also at the heart of the opposition. A coalition of 78 western Alaska tribes has filed a lawsuit to stop the project, arguing that it threatens Pacific black brant and emperor geese, both key subsistence species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2013 environmental impact statement concluded that constructing a road through the refuge likely would cause significant impacts on the brant and emperor geese.
Dooley represents the Native Village of Hooper Bay in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, which has taken a leading role in the fight. The Izembek refuge supports one of the largest eelgrass beds in the country, a critical habitat for the geese.
“Nearly the entire globe’s population of these two species of birds rely on both Izembek and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for different parts of their life cycles,” Dooley said. “Disrupting these species in Izembek can have population-level effects that extend to the Y-K Delta as well.”
That could create significant challenges for subsistence communities like Hooper Bay, which are already dealing with the decline of salmon populations.
Edgar Tall Sr., the tribal chief of the Native Village of Hooper Bay, says most people there rely on subsistence species like the brant and emperor geese.
“We can save those, you know, during the winter, where we can freeze them and then eat them while we’re trying to look for other things to survive,” he said.
Despite the opposition, King Cove residents remain hopeful the project will move forward. Gould, the president of the Native corporation, noted that even former President Joe Biden’s administration endorsed the road near the end of his term.
“Seems like we’re more on a positive note, but we’ve been there before too,” he said. “One second you’re smiling, and the next one you’re holding your breath.”
The decision now rests with the Department of the Interior, as King Cove officials await word on the next steps.
