King Cove is a village of under 1,000 souls, perched on a slender finger of land near the tail of the Alaskan Peninsula. Even for Alaska, this is remote wilderness, ringed by volcanic mountains and forbidding seas. In bad weather, which is much of the time, it is blanketed with fog, engulfed by whiteout snowstorms or lashed with the bitter winds off the strait. King Cove’s residents, some 70% of whom are native Aleuts, endure or embrace its isolation because of the superb commercial fishing, the sense of community and the landscape’s stark beauty. But they have found that the federal government can intrude even here, at the edge of the world.
For about three decades, the village has been fighting to build a new 11-mile, one-lane gravel track connecting King Cove to nearby Cold Bay. Cold Bay is a speck-sized hamlet with little more than a dock, an old Army base, a collection of hunting lodges and an all-weather airport. But the airport is crucial, because the King Cove airstrip—which is short, surrounded by craggy peaks, and inaccessible to night flights—is closed due to bad weather an average of 100 days per year, according to the local flight-service station.
King Cove officials say they desperately need the road so that residents requiring medical treatment can travel quickly to Cold Bay for flights to Anchorage, some 625 miles northeast. Alaska’s Congressional delegation, along with state officials, have been pressing the Department of the Interior to approve the ground link, thereby easing emergency evacuations that can be as hazardous for the rescuers as for people they transport. ”This is tough country out here,” says Chris Babcock, the King Cove fire chief. “We don’t have to be putting guys’ lives at risk.”
But on Dec. 23, they got bad news: after a four-year analysis, the Department of the Interior announced it would decline a proposed land swap that would allow the road to be built. A decision released by the department cited the environmental impact on the Izembek national wildlife refuge, a protected habitat for grizzly bears and caribou as well as shorebirds and indigenous water fowl like the Pacific black brant, which rely on the local eelgrass.
“Building a road through the Refuge would cause irreversible damage not only to the Refuge itself, but to the wildlife that depend on it,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “Izembek is an extraordinary place – internationally recognized as vital to a rich diversity of species – and we owe it to future generations to think about long-term solutions that do not insert a road through the middle of this Refuge and designated wilderness.”
The decision incensed local leaders, who say the Department was exhibiting more concern for birds than people. Over the past three decades, at least 19 people have been killed due to the lack of a land route between King Cove and Cold Bay, according to a spokesman for Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican. The dangers associated with flying into King Cove for medical emergencies were highlighted on Valentine’s Day, when a Coast Guard helicopter braved 70 m.p.h. winds in a snowy blizzard to ship an elderly woman with heart trouble to Anchorage. “You couldn’t even see the helicopter,” says King Cove mayor Henry Mack. “We just need safe, reliable access to the airport. It’s ridiculous.”
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