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Alaska senator pushes for wildlife refuge road

Friday - 2/22/2013, 2:46pm  ET

This undated photo released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services shows geese swimming in Izembek Lagoon in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. Izembek Lagoon is 25 miles of Alaska ocean sheltered from the Bering Sea by long barrier islands, but it's what's beneath the water that makes it special for environmentalists. The shallow lagoon is home to the largest known bed of eelgrass, a plant that grows like green ribbons from the ocean floor and every autumn provides a nutritious buffet for waterfowl that spend summers in Alaska or Russia and head south for warmer climates. (AP Photo/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Chris Dau, File )

Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Thin barrier islands five miles off the tip of the Alaska Peninsula shelter Izembek Lagoon from the Bering Sea, but it's what's beneath the surface that makes the lagoon special and part of a brewing, cross-continent fight.


Murkowski and her allies say a road would be safer than what's happening now. Local residents of King Cove have died trying to fly to Cold Bay and a hospital in Anchorage. Murkowski isn't backing down, and has threatened to block President Obama's choice to head the Interior Department, Sally Jewell, unless the administration agrees to a land exchange that will lead to construction of a road.

"I'd like to think that I'm not going to have to use that tool, but it's available to me and I am going to do everything that I can within my power as a United States senator to make sure that the safety of the people in the King Cove/Cold Bay region is not compromised," she said.

The political battle is far from the peaceful heart of the lagoon, where the world's largest known bed of eelgrass grows upward in green ribbons from the shallow ocean bottom. Every fall, the eelgrass provides a buffet for millions of geese and other waterfowl as they leave Alaska or Russia for warmer climates.

Almost the entire population of Pacific brant descends on Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, foraging a mile or so offshore. The small sea geese watch for bald eagles launching attacks from bluffs. Endangered Steller's eiders feed on tiny invertebrates. Tundra swans, emperor geese and countless shorebirds make appearances.









"The hovercraft successfully transported, safely, many people from King Cove to Cold Bay," he said.


Salazar likely took seriously his responsibility to balance the needs of the people of King Cove with protection for the refuge, Matson said, and Murkowski's threat to put a hold on Salazar's replacement is not appropriate.

"It's unfortunate that she's politicizing this issue," he said.
