"Permitting the Ambler mining road ignores the cost, the wishes of the people of the region, the impact to America’s wildlife and national parks, and the engineering challenges of building a 211-mile road across melting permafrost," -- NPCA's Jim Adams
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA – Today, Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced next steps towards building the disastrous 211-mile Ambler mining road through America’s largest national park landscape. Alongside local, Tribal and national partners, NPCA and Trustees for Alaska have long argued that the ecological, economic and social impacts to the lands and communities of Alaska’s Brooks Range far outweighed any speculative benefits from this proposed mining project.
Interior’s press release states, “…the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service have reissued the necessary right of way permits for the establishment of the Ambler Road Project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit has also been reissued. Additionally, the Department has conveyed nearly 23,600 acres near Ambler to the State of Alaska…”
“The massively expensive Ambler road would be a destructive boondoggle through America’s largest roadless area to speculative mining claims,“ said National Parks Conservation Association Senior Alaska Director Jim Adams. "Permitting the road ignores the cost, the wishes of the people of the region, the impact to America’s wildlife and national parks, and the engineering challenges of building a 211-mile road across melting permafrost. Common sense says this proposal is as irresponsible as it is disastrous. NPCA will not back down and is prepared for the next round of our defense of Gates of the Arctic and America’s largest national park landscape.”
Gates of the Arctic: Scenes from a Park at a Crossroads
By bush plane, canoe and dog sled, a traveler experiences the priceless landscape threatened by the proposed Ambler mining road.
See more ›“Approving a private industrial road proposal and claiming to give away federal lands for an international mining company that lacks a selected route, reasonable analysis of the impacts, or any real plan to pay for itself is irresponsible and ignores the opposition of Alaskans and Tribes from the region,” said Suzanne Bostrom, senior staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska. “It appears the Department of Interior and federal agencies are making decisions in lockstep with the Trump administration and mining industry while ignoring local voices and the agencies’ legal obligations. The government and our Congressional delegation should be focused on ending the shutdown and helping American people, not catering to a foreign mining company and giving away our public lands. All Alaskans deserve better than this, and we will continue to fight this destructive project every step of the way.”
Economic reports related to the viability of the road as well as examinations of the impacts from other large-scale mines in Alaska prove time and again, the Ambler mining road is too costly for the irreplaceable region. And A 2023 national wildlife poll found that 87% of Americans support protecting wildlife such as caribou in national park lands in northwest Alaskan from mining development threats. The Ambler mining road that would slice through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve threatens the Western Arctic Caribou herd.
In June of 2024, following an extensive analysis and after hearing from people across the nation, the Department of Interior halted permitting for the Ambler road, effectively protecting the park landscape, water, wildlife and communities from irreparable harm for generations to come. During the public process, advocates submitted over 116,000 comments opposing the road. In its final environmental review, the agency made clear that threats from the proposed mining road were too great to allow 211-mile private industrial road’s permits to remain in place.
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About the National Parks Conservation Association: Since 1919, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has been the leading voice in safeguarding our national parks. NPCA and its more than 1.9 million members and supporters work together to protect and preserve our nation’s most iconic and inspirational places for future generations. For more information, visit www.npca.org.
