The Kobuk River in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve is one of the country's 10 most endangered rivers for 2024, according to American Rivers/Nick Jans via American Rivers

A long-running effort to build a road through part of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, crossing the wild and scenic Kobuk River in the process, to reach a proposed copper mine has landed the river on American Rivers' 2024 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®.

Trilogy Metals, Inc., a Canadian company that is working to see the road built, believes the mine will bring high-paying jobs, training, and educational opportunities to a region suffering from high unemployment and lack of economic opportunity. The 211-mile-long road if approved would be built from the Dalton Highway to reach a mine site near Ambler, a tiny village believed to sit near one of the world's richest copper deposits. 

The area encompassing the Ambler mining district provides habitat for salmon, whitefish, and sheefish, and serves as a crucial migration corridor for Alaska's largest caribou herd, the Western Arctic herd. The Kobuk River flows out of the Endicott Mountains and Walker Lake in the Brooks Range and across a broad valley that is one of the largest continuous forested areas in the park and preserve, the National Park Service notes on the park's website. Approximately 20 miles of the proposed road would cross Park Service lands in the Kobuk River unit of Gates of the Arctic National Preserve. The remainder of the route traverses U.S. Bureau of Land Management, state, and Native Corporation lands.

Opponents of the project say the Ambler Road would cross nearly 3,000 streams and 11 major rivers, degrading habitat and potentially blocking fish passage. The BLM is expected this year to release a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the project.

“The Kobuk River is more than a resource to local and Indigenous communities,” said Sarah Dyrdahl of American Rivers, which placed the Kobuk River at No. 8 on its list of the country's 10 most endangered rivers. “It is the lifeblood of local communities, the current and historical homelands of the Iñupiat, and is invaluable to the people, and all life, that depend on it.”

The BLM in 2020 granted a right-of-way for construction of the road, which would be used primarily to access the mining district. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority had been pushing the road as part of the proposed Ambler Mining District Industrial Access Project. However, lawsuits have tied up the project.

Two years ago a legal challenge was brought by the National Parks Conservation Association, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks, the National Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and Winter Wildlands Alliance. In the filing, the organizations said the land-management agencies that approved the road failed to do their due diligence in safeguarding the environment. They said the road, along with crossing streams and rivers, "would permanently fill over 2,000 acres of wetland."

The lawsuit described a litany of issues, noting that the road's construction would require gravel pits to be mined every ten miles to provide roadbed, that "maintenance stations and camps" would be built along the way to support vehicles and crews, and that the path goes through permafrost as well as "areas with sulfide minerals that have the potential to cause acid rock drainage."

While the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act requires that right-of-way access be permitted across Park Service lands for this project, the plaintiffs allege that guidelines set down by ANILCA for such projects were not adhered to. The lawsuit also notes that under Section 206 of ANILCA, all Park Service lands in Alaska created by the act were withdrawn from "all forms of appropriation or disposal under the public land laws, including location, entry, and patent under the United States mining laws, disposition under the mineral leasing laws."

However, a subsection of ANILCA states that, "Congress finds that there is a need for access for surface transportation purposes across the Western (Kobuk River) unit of the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve (from the Ambler Mining District to the Alaska Pipeline Haul Road) and the Secretary shall permit such access in accordance with the provisions of this subsection."

Last fall Hunters and Anglers for the Brooks Range, a project of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership that is a collective of seasoned hunters, anglers, conservationists, and leading outdoor brands, urged the BLM to deny the necessary permit.

American Rivers, which released its annual list Tuesday, said "international mining companies are asking the State of Alaska to fund this $1.4 billion 'road to speculation' without any guaranteed economic benefits."

Among those opposed to the road is Virginia Commack, who lives in Ambler. 

"Our people are dependent on the health of the lands and waters around us,” Commack said in a release issued by American Rivers.

Cyrus Harris, who lives in the Native village of Kotzebue, added in the release that, "Once the road is developed, it’s going to affect our lifestyle — it’s going to basically kill our culture.”

The project has been a financial drain on Triology Metals. In its first quarter 2024 fiscal report the company said it lost $3.6 million during the quarter," with part of the loss tied to the company's share of Amber Metals LLC, the subsidiary working on the road access. At the same time, "[T]he Board of Ambler Metals approved a 2024 fiscal year budget totaling $5.5 million to support external and community affairs, to maintain the State of Alaska mineral claims in good standing and for the maintenance of physical assets."

Amber Metals, however, "is well funded to advance the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects ("UKMP") with $61.3 million in cash and cash equivalents and $61.1 million in working capital as at February 29, 2024," Triology reported. "There are sufficient funds at Ambler Metals to fund this fiscal year's budget for the UKMP and the Ambler Access Project. Trilogy does not anticipate having to fund the activities of Ambler Metals until the current cash and cash equivalent balance of $61.3 million is expended."

The prospect of the road project going forward was portayed by American Rivers as the end for one of the most ecologically pristine corners of the world.

"This region currently has no road connections to the rest of the world, which would make the Ambler Road the first to cut through what has remained a remote and ecologically intact region up until now. The land, fish, and wildlife in the Kobuk River watershed are as pristine as can be found in the modern world, and the Iñupiat have been excellent stewards of the river for untold generations," a release from the advocacy group said. "Developing the Ambler Road would present a food security issue in communities that do not have year-round employment and depend on the land and clean water for their food, culture, and way of life."

“If we build this road there will be no end to mining, only an end to our culture,” said Shield Downey, former First Chief of Ivisaappaat (Ambler) Tribal Council.

According to American Rivers, the upcoming Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement from the BLM will include "numerous new data that detail the massive subsistence, cultural, and ecological impacts to the Kobuk River and the people who live along it."