The Trump administration’s decision to greenlight a land exchange that paves the way for a 10.5-mile road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska is facing its first legal challenges.
Alaska Native villagers and multiple environmental groups filed three separate lawsuits Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, challenging the agreement signed last month by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
The deal calls for exchanging 490 acres in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge for 1,739 acres owned by King Cove Corp., an Alaska Native corporation that would be added to the refuge. King Cove Corp. would also relinquish future claims to 5,430 acres of federal lands within the refuge under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
The legal complaint led by the Center for Biological Diversity and three local Alaskan Native villages, says the land exchange violates the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), the 1980 law signed by President Jimmy Carter that created the Izembek refuge, and would “cause a significant increase in activities that disturb” federally protected migratory bird species.
