An 89-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason nullified the federal land swap with King Cove Corp., stopping Alaska’s planned road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
Gleason said the Trump administration violated the Endangered Species Act, the Refuge Act and ANILCA, and relied on an incomplete biological opinion later corrected for major math errors.
Those revisions showed a bigger impact on protected Steller’s eiders, leading the court to find the Fish and Wildlife Service’s no-jeopardy determination arbitrary and capricious.
The decision blocks a project Alaska had planned to start after receiving a July permit for a 19-mile single-lane gravel road linking King Cove, population about 800, to Cold Bay’s airport.
Conservation groups and Alaska Native tribes that sued called the ruling a win for Izembek’s 310,000-acre habitat, while supporters including Sen. Dan Sullivan said they would keep pushing the road as a medical lifeline.