In June, the BLM released the Final Supplemental Impact Statement (FSEIS) Record of Decision (ROD) for the proposed Ambler Road. In the ROD, they finalized their Environmental Impact Statement and selected a “No Action Alternative'' on the road. By selecting “No Action”, the federal government has effectively agreed that the proposed 221-mile Ambler Road, which would have stretched across federal lands and opened up remote mines in Western Alaska, will not advance as planned. This marks an enormous win for Alaska's Native communities, landscape, and wildlife.
With this ROD, the BLM has clearly stated that the Brooks Range is no place for the Ambler Road. The No Action Alternative was identified as the preferred alternative because all of the action alternatives would significantly impact resources, including subsistence resources and uses, in ways that could not be adequately mitigated. The ROD recognized that the harm to subsistence uses would involve “high-likelihood, high-magnitude, long- or permanent-duration impacts over an expansive area for all alternatives.”
Beyond subsistence uses, ROD emphasized the impacts that the Ambler Road would have on fish populations and habitat, water flow and water quality, habitat fragmentation, permafrost, recreation, and one of the greatest caribou herds in the world.
All in all, the BLM ruled that the road’s significant adverse short- and long-term impacts substantially outweighed other relevant factors.
As a result, the Ambler Road right-of-way grant was retroactively terminated, back to when it was issued on January 5, 2021; AIDEA will receive a refund of any rentals they paid during that period for the right of way.
A monumental effort has gone into getting this far; during the most recent comment period,135,000 Americans, dozens of communities, nonprofits, and companies, and 88 individual Indigenous governments across the region spoke out against the proposed Ambler Road. Alaska Wildlife Alliance thanks each and every person who joined the cause, and celebrates this huge win for Alaskan communities and wildlife.
““On behalf of Alaska’s wildlife and the communities who steward and depend on wildlife, we thank the administration for protecting almost 3,000 streams and 11 rivers, and the migratory routes of three caribou herds, including the Western Arctic Caribou herd,” says AWA Executive Director Nicole Schmitt. “Wildlife are facing incredible changes from climate change – keeping these threatened migratory routes intact is arguably the most important conservation action of this generation.” ”
However, while we celebrate, the fight against the Ambler Access Project and Ambler Road is not yet over. The BLM’s ROD only relates to the portion of the road that crosses BLM lands; the decision does not relate to the Park Service right-of-way or the Corps’ Clean Water Act permit. AWA hopes that both the Park Service and the Corps follow the example set by the BLM. Help support us as we continue to speak up against Ambler Road by donating or purchasing one of our Roadless sweatshirts.
