On Friday the Bureau of Land Management released the final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Ambler Industrial Road that would have stretched 211 miles through the Brooks Range of Alaska to access a copper deposit worth an estimated $7.5 billion. The BLM\u2019s decision of \u201cNo Action\u201d indicates the agency\u2019s intent to deny the permit for the Ambler Road, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s news is exactly what hunters and anglers have been hoping for in terms of being one step closer to preventing the Ambler Road from being built,\u201d TRCP\u2019s vice president of Western conservation Joel Webster tells Outdoor Life. <\/em>TRCP is one of 40-plus members of Hunters & Anglers for the Brooks Range<\/a>, a coalition formed last year to oppose the Ambler Road. \u201cIf it were to be built it would bisect migratory habitat for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd<\/a> \u2014 which is the largest caribou herd in Alaska \u2014 as well as result in nearly 3,000 stream crossings. The Brooks Range is one of the wildest places on earth and it\u2019s also one of the most amazing hunting and fishing destinations. And if this road were built it would only increase tension between users<\/a> [particularly over caribou] and result in decreased hunting and fishing opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n State director of Alaska BLM Steven Cohn wrote<\/a> in the agency\u2019s most recent environmental impact statement<\/a> that all three of the proposed Ambler Road routes \u201cwould significantly impact resources, including important subsistence resources and uses, in ways that cannot be adequately mitigated.\u201d\u00a0In addition to the do-nothing approach that the BLM ultimately selected, the agency considered the environmental impact of these three routes:<\/p>\n The 211-mile version of the road that received the most public attention would have crossed 11 major rivers and risk, as TRCP notes, \u201cdegrading habitat and potentially impeding fish passage for species such as Arctic grayling and sheefish.\u201d The road in any of its versions would\u2019ve been constructed as a two-lane (32-foot wide) all-season gravel road, with bridges, culverts, stations every 50 to 75 miles, vehicle turnouts, material sites, water source access roads, and airstrips.<\/p>\n \u201cBrooks Range rivers are beautiful, wild, and there are few other places like them in the world,\u201d fly fishing guide Greg Halbach told TRCP. Halbach offers guided wilderness floats on the Kobuk River, one of the few places fishermen can target sheefish in North America. \u201cA single road can fragment habitat, disrupt wildlife migrations, and introduce chemical pollutants on a scale much wider than the narrow strip of gravel that we see. A float down the Kobuk River that included passing under bridges and listening to the hammering of engine brakes from tractor-trailers would be a radically different recreational experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s official release of the environmental impact statement follows leak that led the New York Times<\/em><\/a> and Politico<\/em><\/a> to break news of the decision earlier this week. In response the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority said Tuesday<\/a> that the move to block the Ambler Road would \u201cviolate several federal laws and promises made at statehood to allow development of state lands.\u201d AIDEA, which proposed the Ambler Road and finances economic development projects in the state, estimates the project would have created 14,000 jobs and $1.3 billion in tax and royalty revenue.<\/p>\n \u201cAllakaket wants a future of jobs and economic opportunities for our people; a legacy and future for our kids,\u201d first chief of Allakaket PJ Simon said in the AIDEA press release. \u201cWe deserve the same opportunities as the billion-dollar donors and conservation groups trying to lock us into a state of poverty with the highest food and energy prices in the nation. Without access to running water or sewer, how are we supposed to be healthy people? Projects like the Ambler Road help us to develop skills and secure jobs that empower our people, much like [the] Trans-Alaska Pipeline did in the 1970s. \u201d<\/p>\n Read Next: <\/strong>Welcome to the New, Uncertain Era of DIY Sheep Hunting<\/a><\/p>\n While many Alaskans worried about the Dalton Highway<\/a>\u2018s construction to build the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and service oil fields on the North Slope half a century ago, hunters and anglers have since embraced the access<\/a> it eventually provided to state and federal lands. (The Haul Road was opened for public use in 1994.) In contrast, the Ambler Road would\u2019ve neither been designed for nor open to the public despite the fact that 61 percent of its proposed route crossed state lands and 24 percent crossed federal lands (the remaining 15 percent was routed through Native corporation lands). Only industrial traffic related to mine exploration, development, and operations in the Ambler Mining District would\u2019ve been permitted, according to the BLM.<\/p>\n \u201cThough I believe that Alaska needs to be able to reasonably develop its rich mineral resources, I\u2019d be lying if I said there wasn\u2019t a small part of me that\u2019s relieved this bit of Alaska isn\u2019t going to be touched for now,\u201d says OL staff writer and Fairbanks resident Tyler Freel. \u201cThis road would not allow public access, and even if it eventually did, what would we have to give up to get it? The price for the Dalton Highway was ANILCA <\/a>\u2014 the largest loss of hunting access that Alaskans have ever seen. We don\u2019t know the ultimate cost of the Ambler Road.\u201d<\/p>\n The BLM won\u2019t issue its record of decision \u2014 the agency\u2019s final say on the Ambler Road \u2014 for at least 30 days. While conservation groups are hopeful it will be consistent with today\u2019s \u201cNo Action\u201d determination, Webster of TRCP urges hunters and anglers to remain engaged<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel very optimistic that the administration is going to do the right thing and prevent this road from being built or permitted,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know that this is the final chapter in this debate. We\u2019re excited to see this decision, we want to see it stick, and we\u2019re going to work to see it stick. Hunters and anglers have a lot at stake here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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