Alaska governor's office will sue feds for Cold Bay-King Cove road

Tired of waiting for the feds to allow a dozen-mile road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge on the remote Alaska Peninsula, state officials on Monday said they plan to sue the federal government to make it happen. A 44-mile route connecting Cold Bay and King Cove -- with a section slicing through the refuge -- has been used historically by local residents since the 1920s, long before the creation of the refuge and the wilderness area by the federal government, the governor’s office said in a media statement. The state is legally entitled to a right-of-way through the refuge based on that historic use, under a provision of the Mining Act of 1866, the statement said. For decades, the residents of King Cove have asked the federal government to allow the road to pass through the refuge, established as a 500,000-acre wildlife range in 1960 and re-designated as a refuge in 1980, with some 300,000 acres named as wilderness so it would receive additional protection...more