APNewsBreak: Agency Rejects Alaska Refuge Road [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

APNewsBreak: Agency Rejects Alaska Refuge Road

By DAN JOLING Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska February 5, 2013 (AP)

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has condemned a federal decision rejecting a road through an Alaska national wildlife refuge that would have linked a remote Aleut village to a community with an all-weather airport.

The Alaska Republican said Tuesday the decision ignores the safety of King Cove residents.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it was rejecting the road through Izembek (EYE'-zem-beck) National Wildlife Refuge because of irrevocable harm it could cause to internationally recognized wetlands and migratory birds.

Murkowski says a dozen deaths have been attributed over 30 years to the lack of a road because people could not get out of King Cove by airplane or boat for medical attention.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/apnewsbreak-agency-rejects-alaska-refuge-road-18409857