Izembek Road: 2025 Land Exchange, Lawsuits, and Funding

The Izembek Road is a proposed 11-mile single-lane gravel road that would connect the remote Alaska community of King Cove to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay, cutting through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and its congressionally designated wilderness. As of mid-2026, a land exchange signed in October 2025 has transferred nearly 500 acres of refuge wilderness to a Native village corporation for the road corridor, but three federal lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska are challenging the deal, and no ground has been broken.

Why King Cove Wants the Road

King Cove sits on the Alaska Peninsula, about 18 miles from the Cold Bay airport but separated from it by the Izembek refuge. The town of roughly 750 residents has no hospital and no resident physician. Patients needing emergency care must fly or boat to Cold Bay and then catch a flight to Anchorage, about 600 miles away. The local airstrip is hemmed in by volcanic mountains, and fog, high winds, and winter storms regularly cancel flights. When commercial air travel is impossible, residents rely on U.S. Coast Guard helicopter rescues or fishing boats.¹

Road proponents have documented over 257 medical evacuations from King Cove since 2013. In 2014 alone, 16 people were medevaced, with some patients waiting more than 14 hours at the local clinic for weather to clear.²¹ Supporters describe the project as a lifeline and frame it as an issue of environmental justice, arguing the federal government appropriated ancestral lands in 1960 to create the refuge and then imposed restrictions that now endanger residents. Only about 11 miles of new construction would be needed to link existing road segments on each end; roughly 50 miles of historic military-era roads already exist within the refuge.³

What the Road Would Cross

Congress established the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in 1960 and redesignated it under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980, when nearly all of its roughly 300,000 acres were designated wilderness.⁴ Under the federal Wilderness Act, that designation generally prohibits motorized vehicles, permanent roads, and mechanical transport.

The refuge centers on Izembek Lagoon, which contains one of the world’s largest eelgrass beds and supports over 90 percent of the Pacific black brant population, more than half of the world’s emperor geese, and roughly 70 percent of the threatened Steller’s eider. The lagoon was named a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1986 and a globally significant Important Bird Area in 2017.⁵ The proposed route would bisect the isthmus between Izembek and Kinzarof lagoons, a corridor also used by caribou, brown bears, and wolves.

Federal environmental analyses have concluded that road construction would cause “significant degradation of irreplaceable ecological resources,” fragmenting habitat, disrupting migratory bird staging and nesting, and introducing contaminated runoff, dust, noise, and invasive species.⁶

How the Dispute Got Here

The push for a road dates to the 1980s. In 1998, Senator Ted Stevens secured over $37.5 million for alternatives, including clinic upgrades, airstrip improvements, and a hovercraft service. The hovercraft ran from 2007 to 2010 before the Aleutians East Borough suspended it, citing roughly $3 million in annual operating costs and weather limitations that left it inoperable about 30 percent of the time.⁷⁸

In 2009, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to evaluate a land exchange and prepare an environmental impact statement. After four years of analysis, Secretary Sally Jewell declined the exchange on December 23, 2013, finding that the road would cause “irreversible damage” and that reasonable alternatives existed.⁷

The Trump administration reversed course. Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a land exchange in January 2018; U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason struck it down in March 2019, finding Interior had not adequately justified its reversal.² Secretary David Bernhardt signed a second agreement in July 2019. In June 2020, U.S. District Judge John Sedwick vacated that deal as well, holding among other things that the exchange circumvented ANILCA Title XI, the statutory process Congress established for authorizing transportation systems through Alaska wilderness.⁹

Secretary Deb Haaland then withdrew from the 2019 agreement on March 14, 2023, citing procedural flaws and inadequate analysis of subsistence uses and habitat impacts.¹⁰ A pending Ninth Circuit appeal was dismissed as moot that June, wiping the legal slate.

The October 2025 Land Exchange

On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” directing the Secretary of the Interior to facilitate expedited development of a road corridor between King Cove and Cold Bay.¹¹ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement in November 2024, with public comments accepted through February 13, 2025.¹²

On October 21, 2025, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the King Cove Corporation signed a new land exchange. The federal government conveyed approximately 490 acres of refuge land (including 336 acres of designated wilderness) to the corporation for a road corridor. In return, the corporation transferred 1,739 acres of its own land to the refuge and relinquished selection rights under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to an additional 5,430 acres of high-value wetlands within the refuge.¹³ A patent (No. 50-2026-0001) was issued transferring the 484-acre corridor’s surface and subsurface estates to the corporation.¹⁴

The agreement does not by itself authorize construction. The King Cove Corporation still needs permits and funding. The Alaska Department of Transportation has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a Clean Water Act permit; the 19-mile road would require filling approximately 8.9 acres of freshwater wetlands with 60,000 cubic yards of gravel. The Corps is also evaluating effects on the Steller’s eider and northern sea otter and consulting with the State Historic Preservation Office and federally recognized tribes.¹⁵

The Three Pending Lawsuits

Three cases were filed on November 12, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, each challenging the October 2025 exchange. All are before Chief Judge Sharon L. Gleason.¹⁶

Native Village of Hooper Bay v. Burgum (3:25-cv-00316) was filed by the Native Village of Hooper Bay, Native Village of Paimiut, Chevak Native Village, and the Center for Biological Diversity. The complaint alleges Interior violated ANILCA’s subsistence-protection requirements by failing to evaluate the road’s impact on communities that depend on migratory birds from Izembek, and raises claims under the Endangered Species Act and NEPA. It also argues the exchange unlawfully bypassed ANILCA Title XI.¹⁷

Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges v. Burgum (3:25-cv-00318) was filed by a coalition including Alaska Wilderness League, Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, the Sierra Club, and Wilderness Watch. It challenges the exchange under ANILCA, NEPA, and the Administrative Procedure Act.¹⁸

Defenders of Wildlife v. Burgum (3:25-cv-00319) argues the exchange violates the Wilderness Act’s prohibition on permanent roads in wilderness and the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act’s requirement that refuge lands be “suitable for disposition.” It seeks to vacate the exchange and restore the land to the refuge.¹⁴

The State of Alaska intervened as a defendant in all three cases in February 2026.¹⁹ Plaintiffs moved for summary judgment on February 20, 2026; federal defendants, the King Cove Corporation, and the State filed oppositions in April, and plaintiffs replied by April 20.²⁰ No preliminary injunction has been sought. Plaintiffs asked for a decision by July 15, 2026, citing concern that construction could begin as early as August 2026. The State responded that an expedited ruling is unnecessary because it is “committed to providing the Plaintiff with the negotiated and mutually agreed upon advance notice prior to any possible construction.”¹⁶

One feature of the opposition is worth flagging. Seventy-six federally recognized tribes and one village corporation have submitted 19 formal resolutions opposing the project, many from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region. These tribes rely on migratory birds that stage at Izembek before traveling hundreds of miles to subsistence hunting grounds, and they argue degradation of the lagoon’s eelgrass beds would diminish the populations they depend on for food.²¹

Cost and Funding

The projected price has varied widely. The 2013 environmental impact statement put construction at $21.7 million and total life-cycle cost at $34.2 million.⁶ A more recent estimate from Audubon Alaska puts construction at $127 million, with annual maintenance of $975,000.⁵ The land exchange does not provide construction money, and who would pay remains unresolved. The federal government has already spent significant sums on alternatives, including a $43.3 million grant in 2023 for a new dock at Cold Bay to serve commercial and emergency marine traffic.²²

What to Watch

As of late June 2026, the three lawsuits are fully briefed on summary judgment and awaiting a ruling from Judge Gleason. The Army Corps permit is still under review, and no construction has started. If the court vacates the exchange, the land returns to the refuge and the corridor disappears again. If the court upholds it, attention shifts to the Corps permit, funding, and the State’s commitment to give plaintiffs advance notice before any construction begins.

1
Aleutians East Borough. Sixteen Medevacs Follow One-Year Anniversary of Interior Secretary’s Rejection of King Cove’s Life-Saving Road
2
Aleut Corporation. Road to King Cove
3
Anchorage Daily News. King Cove Still Waits for Road to Save Lives
4
Wilderness.net. Izembek Wilderness
5
Audubon Alaska. Contested Road Through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness
6
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Record of Decision, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Land Exchange
7
U.S. Department of the Interior. Secretary Jewell Issues Decision on Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Land Exchange and Road Proposal
8
U.S. Department of the Interior. Assessment of Non-Road Alternatives, King Cove-Cold Bay
9
Center for Biological Diversity. Order on Summary Judgment, Friends of Alaska Nat’l Wildlife Refuges v. Bernhardt
10
U.S. Department of the Interior. Secretary Haaland Issues Statement Regarding Land Exchange, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
11
The White House. Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential
12
Federal Register. Notice of Availability, Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for a Potential Land Exchange
13
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Proposed Land Exchange Between Secretary of the Interior and King Cove Corporation
14
Defenders of Wildlife. Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, Defenders of Wildlife v. Burgum
15
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Public Notice, POA-2010-00286
16
Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program. The Izembek Refuge Road
17
Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Native Village of Hooper Bay v. Doug Burgum
18
CourtListener. Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges v. Burgum, Docket
19
State of Alaska Department of Law. State of Alaska Files Motions to Intervene in King Cove Road Lawsuits
20
CourtListener. Native Village of Hooper Bay v. Doug Burgum, Docket
21
Anchorage Daily News. An Avalanche of Tribal Resolutions Oppose the Izembek Land Exchange
22
Audubon Alaska. Izembek: Incredibly Critical Migratory Bird Habitat at Risk