NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE ASSOCIATION
ACTION ALERT (www.refugenet.org)
Next week, on May 7, 2008, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is expected to vote on a bill that would carve a road through the heart of vital wildlife habitat in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Urge your two U.S. Senators to oppose S. 1680!
Problem:
Members of the Alaskan Congressional delegation have introduced legislation that will result in a road carved through the biological heart of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, the first wetlands area in North American to be recognized under the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Importance. As such, the impacts to migratory bird species will affect global populations.
Congress rejected this ill-conceived plan in 1998, but Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) didn’t get the message. In October 2007, these Senators introduced S. 1680, a bill that would authorize a land exchange paving the way for the state of Alaska to build a nine mile road right through the refuge, a designated wilderness.
Established in 1960 to protect habitat for the Pacific black brant, the 417,000-acre Izembek NWR is located on the Alaskan peninsula – with 95% designated as wilderness. Wildlife here is abundant, from brown bears, caribou and wolves to seals, seal lions and sea otters. At the heart of the refuge lies the 150 square mile Izembek lagoon, containing some of the largest eelgrass beds in the world, which the Pacific brant and other avian species depend upon for survival.
On paper, the land exchange proposed in the legislation sounds good – the FWS would add over 61,000 acres to the Izembek NWR and nearby Alaska Peninsula NWR with over 45,000 of those designated as wilderness. In exchange, the FWS would grant a 206-acre easement to the state of Alaska to build the road.
However, these 206 acres are the biological heart of the refuge and its destruction would have a severe impact on the birds and wildlife that depend on the refuge. More than 98% of the world’s Pacific brant population fuel up on the eelgrass in the lagoon prior to their nonstop, 3000 mile trip to Mexico! And the nearby wetlands offer nesting sites for thousands of birds. A road through these sensitive lands will have profound impacts on wildlife and the proposed exchange lands would not provide comparable habitat value to compensate for this irreversible impact to fish, wildlife, and wetlands.
It’s not about quantity – it’s about quality.
The proposed road would connect the two small villages of King Cove (population 807) and Cold Bay (population 80). In 1998, advocates argued they needed a road through the fragile wilderness, but Congress ruled that such a road was not in the public interest. They instead gave the Alaskans $37.5 million to address their concerns with funding to upgrade medical facilities and the airport, and to buy a state of the art hovercraft that would be able to transport people in a medical emergency. More than $25 million has already been spent on construction of a road connecting King Cove to the hovercraft terminal.
Steep slopes and unstable volcanic soils have forced re-routing and contributed to construction delays and escalating costs. Extending the road, in some of the harshest weather conditions in America, is expected to cost you, the American taxpayer, countless additional millions for construction and maintenance.
Furthermore, the hovercraft, which travels on a cushion of air up to 58 MPH across water, ice and land is up and running and has so far transported over 1090 passengers, 110 vehicles and conducted over 27 successful medevacs.
Solution:
This absurd proposal, already voted down by Congress once, must be stopped in its tracks! Your U.S Senators might think this is a good deal – UNLESS they hear from YOU!
Action Needed:
Contact your U.S. Senators TODAY, time is of the essence with a committee vote expected as soon as Wednesday, May 7th, and urge him or her to oppose the Izembek and Alaska Peninsula Refuge and Wilderness Act of 2007, S. 1680.
Deadline for responding: Please take action by May 30, 2008.
