Now that Congress has passed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-11), federally protected Wilderness in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is in great peril. The bill would allow internationally significant Wilderness lands to be removed from federal protection in order to construct an unnecessary road between the Alaskan communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.
This fact sheet examines the threats of the proposed road to the refuge.
Opponents of a proposed road through Alaska's Izembek Wildlife Refuge have enlisted the help of an environmental heavyweight: former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
Babbitt, who served as the Interior secretary under President Bill Clinton, has signed a letter asking the current occupant of the office, Ken Salazar, to find that a road through the refuge is not in the public interest.
OTAY MESA, CA — With little advance notice, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun bulldozing a road inside a federally-designated wilderness area on the U.S.-Mexico border. Apparently not wishing to attract national attention to the controversial project, DHS made the construction start-up announcement through its contractor on Christmas Eve. According to DHS, the road-building project is necessary to build a border wall within and immediately to the south of the 18,500-acre Otay Mountain Wilderness Area on the U.S.-Mexico border east of San Diego.
Now that Congress has passed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-11), federally protected Wilderness in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is in great peril. The bill would allow internationally significant Wilderness lands to be removed from federal protection in order to construct an unnecessary road between the Alaskan communities of King Cove and Cold Bay.
