Izembek harbors some of the biggest eelgrass beds on the planet, which is why this marine wetland complicated used to be the primary American web site designated below the RAMSAR Conference | Gerrit Vyn / Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Division of the Internal lately introduced that Secretary Deb Haaland rescinded a 2019 proposed land alternate within the Izembek Nationwide Natural world Safe haven that approved a highway to be built in the course of the center of this pristine Alaskan panorama. The Nationwide Natural world Safe haven Affiliation has labored for many years to offer protection to the Izembek NWR from this danger and celebrates this essential step against safeguarding The united states’s maximum ecologically vital nationwide flora and fauna safe haven.
In its remark, the Division identified that this land alternate procedure used to be improper and no longer in keeping with Departmental coverage. They now intend to resume the method to check different proposals for a land alternate that will permit a highway. Those severely essential wetlands will have to be secure for long term generations, as Congress meant. Building of a highway would have devastating affects on greater than part 1,000,000 Pacific brant, emperor ducks, swans, and different flora and fauna, leading to habitat fragmentation, disturbance, and air pollution.
We are hoping the withdrawal of this land alternate settlement indicators a dedication to protecting the conservation values of the safe haven and the remainder of Alaska’s conservation lands. The Safe haven Affiliation will proceed to paintings against everlasting coverage of the Izembek Nationwide Natural world Safe haven.