Alaska Native leaders are pressing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland not to advance a land swap that could lead to a road across the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
Specifically, representatives from 77 Alaska tribal groups are pressing Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, to cancel a supplemental environmental impact statement that the Fish and Wildlife Service has said will “focus on thoroughly assessing the impacts of the potential exchange and road” through the refuge.
The FWS is expected to release a draft supplemental EIS in the coming weeks.
But the FWS will almost certainly not complete a final supplemental EIS before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20, leaving the decadeslong debate over a road through the refuge in the hands of an incoming administration.
