The Trump administration has resurrected a plan to carve a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska, less than four months after a federal judge struck down an earlier plan as illegal.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the chief executive of a native Alaskan corporation signed an agreement to trade land in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Alaska to allow construction of an unpaved road through what is now designated wilderness, Bernhardt's office said on Wednesday, providing a summary of the agreement.
"I choose to place greater weight on the welfare and well-being of the Alaska Native people who call King Cove home. It is not a decision I take lightly," Bernhardt said in a statement.