The Road to King Cove

A Lifeline for Safety, Health, and Heritage

King Cove and Cold Bay are separated by less than thirty miles, however, there is currently no road connection between the two communities due to Izembek. All lands surrounding these two communities fall either within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge or the Alaska Peninsula Wildlife Refuge.  However, there are 40 miles of existing road in Izembek today and on the King Cove side, there is a gravel road leading up to the Izembek boundary. Only 11 miles are needed to connect to existing roads on either end.

Latest Update: October 2025 Secretary’s Decision

On October 23, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Interior signed a landmark land exchange with King Cove Corporation (KCC), paving the way for a single-lane gravel road connecting King Cove to Cold Bay through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. This decision follows decades of advocacy by the King Cove community and the Unangax̂ people for safe, reliable, year-round access to emergency medical care and essential services.

Why the Road Matters

King Cove is a remote Unangax̂ community in southwest Alaska, separated from the all-weather Cold Bay airport by 18 miles of rugged terrain and federally protected wilderness. For decades, hazardous weather has made air and sea travel unreliable, resulting in over 217 medical evacuations since 2013, many requiring dangerous U.S. Coast Guard rescues.

The road is not just about transportation, it is a matter of human rights, Indigenous self-determination, and environmental justice.

The Land Exchange: What’s Changing

The federal government will transfer approximately 490 acres of land (including 336 acres of designated wilderness) to KCC for the road corridor.

In return, KCC will convey 1,739 acres of high-value conservation land to the Izembek Refuge and relinquish selection rights to an additional 5,430 acres, resulting in a net increase of federally managed conservation lands.

The road will be a single-lane, 13-foot-wide gravel road, designed to minimize environmental impacts and avoid sensitive lagoon shorelines.

Key Features and Safeguards

The road will be constructed and maintained to strict environmental standards, with extensive mitigation measures to protect wildlife, wetlands, and fish habitat. Mitigation includes:

• Avoiding lagoon shorelines and sensitive habitats
• Special design for stream crossings and culverts to protect fish passage
• Strict protocols to prevent the spread of invasive species
• Vessel operation rules to protect marine mammals and birds

The land exchange does not itself authorize road construction—KCC must still secure all necessary permits and funding.

Balancing Conservation and Community Needs

The decision recognizes the unique conservation value of the Izembek Refuge, home to globally significant eelgrass beds, migratory birds, caribou, and brown bears. However, it also acknowledges the federal government’s responsibility to balance national conservation goals with the health, safety, and economic needs of Alaska Native communities.

The exchange will result in a net gain of wilderness and refuge lands, while providing King Cove with a vital link to emergency medical care and food security.

Environmental and Legal Review

The decision is grounded in a comprehensive Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and a rigorous ANILCA Section 810 subsistence analysis. Mitigation measures and ongoing monitoring are required to minimize impacts to wildlife, wetlands, and subsistence resources.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have concluded that the project, with mitigation, is not likely to jeopardize endangered species or critical habitats. To learn more, visit the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s online Izembek library.

For decades, the community of King Cove has pleaded for safe and reliable road access to the nearby Cold Bay airport. The road is a much-needed vital link for the preservation of public health, access to medical care, and essential services, especially during emergencies when adverse weather conditions often render air and sea travel hazardous or impossible.

The Unangax̂/Aleut people have been the custodians these lands since time immemorial.  The road is not simply a practical solution to access essential services, but also a fundamental matter of human rights and environmental justice.

When the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (Izembek) was created by Congress, the government appropriated customary and traditional lands without the consent of the Unangax̂ people.  This action followed generations of ruinous federal actions toward Native people, which ignored Native sovereignty and essential needs. For the Unangax̂ people, this included forced displacement during World War II, boarding schools starting in the late 19th century, and the exploitation of labor in the Pribilofs during the fur seal trade (from the late 1800s to the mid-20th century), a system often likened to modern-day slavery due to its harsh conditions and lack of freedom.

The Unangax̂ people rely on the land in the Izembek area for subsistence, cultural practices, and survival. The establishment of Izembek restricted access to these resources, complicating the ability to hunt, fish, and gather in Unangax̂ ancestral lands.  The traditional custodians of these lands were excluded from the decision-making process — their knowledge of the land and needs were not adequately considered when Izembek’s boundaries were drawn and land use restrictions were unilaterally imposed. This reinforced feelings of marginalization and mistrust toward federal land management policies.

The creation of the Izembek without the consent of the Alaska Native people on whose land it appropriated exemplifies the historical tension between federal “conservation” priorities and Indigenous land rights. This issue is at the heart of debates over the proposed land exchange to facilitate road construction, with the King Cove community framing the road as both a practical necessity and a correction of past and ongoing injustices.

Since 2013, King Cove has been forced to endure an over 257 medevacs. Most occurred in dangerous weather conditions, and many had to be carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard, risking the lives of crews and patients alike. 

Geographical Context

King Cove, Alaska (population 750) is located in the Aleutians East Borough (AEB) in southwest Alaska. The area is remote and is located where the North Pacific Ocean meets the Bering Sea. The area is known for harsh weather — high winds, rough seas, and fog or persistent clouds occur frequently.

These conditions are not unusual for other small, rural communities in Alaska, but King Cove is different in one key respect: it lies 18 miles from the Cold Bay Airport, which has a 10,000-foot jet-capable runway originally built by the military and now maintained as an emergency landing location on the great circle routes between North America and Asia. Several plane crashes, many harrowing tales, and near misses trying to get patients evacuated to Anchorage for medical emergencies by small plane or by boat from King Cove to Cold Bay have highlighted the difficulty of travel in the area, particularly under emergency circumstances.

King Cove and Cold Bay are separated by less than thirty miles, however, there is currently no road connection between the two communities due to Izembek. All lands surrounding these two communities fall either within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge or the Alaska Peninsula Wildlife Refuge.  However, there are 40 miles of existing road in Izembek today and on the King Cove side, there is a gravel road leading up to the Izembek boundary. Only 11 miles are needed to connect to existing roads on either end.

The legal obstacle to road construction is the “wilderness” status of the lands within the Izembek Refuge where the road would be built, where motorized traffic is prohibited.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has informed the Aleutians East Borough and the Alaska Native village corporation, the King Cove Corporation, that legislation to authorize the road through the Refuge is required, even though the majority of the road would be routed through lands currently owned by the King Cove Corporation.

Conservationists oppose the proposed road due to concerns over marine estuary and eelgrass habitat. Residents of the Aleut and Pribilof Island region strongly support the road construction and believe that the benefits to the public outweigh the concerns.

There is precedent for road construction through public lands, and the State of Alaska has demonstrated that roads can be built in a manner which minimizes and mitigates the impacts on marine and wildlife habitat. The following is a discussion of the safety, social, economic, and ecological considerations relating to the proposed road project.

Additional Resources

1. Aleut’s Video Essay: “The Road”
2. Lisa Murkowski’s essay on King Cove for the American Bar Association
3. FWS Izembek NWR Land Exchange Road Corridor