Road through Izembek Wildlife Refuge

[bobpbx]

Speaking of wilderness, this is a tragedy about to happen, but it should not happen. You can read this. I created the road map. It does not matter who approves it in the end, this should not happen, so let's not bring politics into it at all.

Opinion | Will the Future of Alaska’s Wild Lands Hang on a Dispute Over a Gravel Road? (Published 2023)

A federal court will rule soon on whether the Interior secretary can swap government land so a road can be built through a wilderness wildlife refuge.

www.nytimes.com

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Bob, why do you feel it would be a tragedy?

 

[bobpbx]

Bob, why do you feel it would be a tragedy?

I spent 3 mesmerizing weeks driving and camping in Alaska. It's such a bad ass wilderness it shocks your senses, and it also thrills you that there are still places like that. Places you can see that remind you that we are just late-comers to this awesome planet. So here, because one small fishing plant of 800 people wants to move their fishing catch closer to an airport, they are going to mar up a pristine wilderness that (from the article) "is a federal wilderness considered one the world’s most important migratory bird stopovers. Allowing the road would threaten not only the refuge’s delicate wetlands that beckon and sustain the birds but also the legal foundation that protects more than 100 million acres of federal land in the state....If the Ninth Circuit permits the Izembek road, this calamitous precedent will invent from whole cloth a new, open-ended power for future Interior secretaries to decide to allow any commercial project on protected Alaska land simply by arguing that its economic value exceeds any ecological loss."