The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is one of the most important migratory bird staging and wintering habitats in the world—and it is under threat.
A pending land swap would allow the construction of an 11-mile road through the heart of the refuge, undermining public land laws and putting critical wilderness and wetlands at risk of long-term degradation.
There are better, more reliable alternatives to building this road. Tell the Department of the Interior to reject the privatized road and support proven, win-win solutions for people and wildlife.
Dear Secretary Haaland,
As someone who cares deeply about our public lands, I urge you to uphold one of our nation's most important legislative conservation achievements, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Please reject the deal made by the previous Administration that would trade away Congressionally designated wilderness lands in Alaska's Izembek National Wildlife Refuge to a private corporation to allow a road to be built through it.
ANILCA protects over 100 million acres of federal land jewels in Alaska as national parks, refuges, forests, wilderness areas, monuments and wild and scenic rivers. The law does not allow for the Secretary of the Interior to privatize those lands in the name of roads or economic development without Presidential and Congressional approval.
In fact, the Alaska district court ruled that this action violated ANILCA because it did not further its conservation purposes as required, and because it ignored the statute's detailed, stringent public process for approving roads in Alaska's wilderness areas. But the Biden administration has inexplicably continued to defend the land trade in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the past two years.
There are better, more reliable alternatives to building the road that will not irreparably harm the Izembek Refuge or undermine the integrity of our nation's most important conservation and public land laws. Please reject the land trade and protect the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and the people, wildlife, and birds that depend on it.
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Thank you for your consideration.
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