Why A Road through
Izembek Wilderness is a Bad Idea
·
The proposed road
would cut through the biological heart of the Izembek National Wildlife
Refuge.
Izembek's cold-water lagoons and internationally significant wetlands are
critically-important resting places for migrating waterfowl. Virtually all of
the world's Pacific black brant and Emperor Geese stop at Izembek to feed and
rest. The refuge also is home to tundra swans, ptarmigan, bald eagles, and
hundreds of thousands of geese, as well as threatened species, such as Steller's
eiders. Plenty of mammals use the refuge too - including caribou, brown bears,
wolves and wolverines.
·
The proposed road is
not needed. The Alaska
congressional delegation claims the road is necessary to address the health and
safety needs of King Cove. In fact, those needs were met by Congress in 1998,
when it passed the King Cove Health and Safety Act. That legislation provided
$37.5 million to upgrade King Cove's medical facilities, purchase a hovercraft
to provide regular ferry and emergency medical service between King Cove and
Cold Bay, construct new marine terminals, and build a road between the town of
King Cove and the hovercraft terminal. This law specifically prohibited a road
through Izembek's federally protected Wilderness.
·
The hovercraft is
working. Hovercraft service for
medical evacuation began full-time operation on August 7, 2007. By all accounts,
the hovercraft service has quickly and safely met every medical evacuation need
of the King Cove community, transporting people and ambulances between the two
communities in an average of 20 minutes which is must faster than 1 - 2 hours it
will take to drive the proposed road in good weather.
·
The land swap
required to build a road would sacrifice quality—206 acres of critical,
internationally recognized wildlife habitat—for quantity. Izembek and Kinzarof
lagoons contain some of the largest eelgrass beds in the world which attract
tens of thousands of migratory birds annually. The narrow isthmus between the
two lagoons is an important nesting area for tundra swans, and provides a
migration corridor for caribou and foraging grounds for brown bears. The 61,000
acres of proposed exchange lands do not offer comparable protection or
habitat.
·
A
road through Wilderness is not compatible with the purposes for which Congress
created the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge was created
to conserve fish and wildlife populations and their habitats; to fulfill the
United States' international treaty obligations (such as the four migratory bird
treaties and the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance); to provide
for continued subsistence by local residents; and to ensure water quality and
quantity within the Refuge. The wildlife values of Izembek National Wildlife
Refuge are globally significant, and should not be compromised.
o
Impacts from the
proposed road including: road construction, sediment run-off and watershed
impacts, pollution, road avoidance and habitat fragmentation, among others;
o
Current and projected
Impacts to the region from climate change and how these impacts will be
confounded by the development of a
road;
o
Threats to eel grass
beds;
The US Fish and Wildlife
Service must also complete a compatibility determination as required in the
National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act . A road through Wilderness is not
compatible with the purposes for which Congress created the Izembek National
Wildlife Refuge. The Refuge was created to conserve fish and wildlife
populations and their habitats; to fulfill the United States' international
treaty obligations (such as the four migratory bird treaties and the Convention
on Wetlands of International Importance); to provide for continued subsistence
by local residents; and to ensure water quality and quantity within the Refuge.