Today, in a historic win for Alaska Native Tribes and the Brooks Range, the Biden administration indicated its preferred course of action is the “No Action” alternative in their Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) - protecting the Gates of the Arctic National Park landscape and the communities, wildlife, and ecosystems in the Brooks Range of Northwest Alaska.
You can read our comment supporting this alterative here!
The Ambler industrial mining road, a proposed 211-mile industrial road northwest of Fairbanks, would have extended through the Brooks Range and the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve to an undeveloped and roadless region upstream from the Alaska Native Villages of Ambler, Shungnak, and Kobuk. This road, intended to provide private industrial access to at least four mineral deposits, posed a significant threat to Athabaskan, Inupiat, and Yupik cultural and subsistence resources, Arctic wildlife, and the diverse ecosystems that sustain salmon fisheries and Caribou herds across a 100 million acre landscape.
The impact
If built, this project would cross 2,900 streams, 1,794 acres of wetlands, and 11 major rivers and impact more than 20 million acres of wild and connected national parklands.
Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management identified 66 communities whose subsistence resources, cultures, and traditional ways of life would be permanently impacted by the Ambler Road – from construction, pollution, heavy truck traffic that would alter wildlife migration routes, habitat and land disruption.
People in the region also feared trespassing and increased pressures on subsistence resources if the private road were to become public at a future date, similar to many other industrial roads in Alaska that have been built previously.
Today’s decision to safeguard the Brooks Range of Northwest Alaska is a testament to the collective will of the people. Alaska Native Tribal leaders and tribal members, community members in the region, Alaskan business owners and recreationalists, national park advocates, and people across the country have bravely and tirelessly voiced their support for preserving this landscape for over a decade.
THANK YOU
For years, numerous Alaska Native communities have vehemently opposed this project, with eighty nine Tribes and First Nations passing or signing onto resolutions against the Ambler Road.
135,000 Americans– including tens of thousands of Alaskans– spoke out against the proposed Ambler road during the most recent national comment period. Dozens of nonprofits, companies, brands, and communities spoke out through in-person hearings and online comments.
82% of the public testimonies submitted in 12 separate in-person hearings across Alaska were opposed to the Ambler Road, calling for the Ambler Road permits to be revoked.
The Biden Administration’s announcement in favor of protecting the Brooks Range of Northwest Alaska is grounded in science and public support. We are thankful that the administration listened to Tribal leaders, native communities, and wildlife advocates to protect this special place, wildlife, and Indigenous peoples’ way of life.
