Judge lets first 2.8 miles of King Cove road proceed; land exchange still void

A federal judge declined to block Alaska from beginning work on a 2.8-mile segment of the King Cove road on August 31, clearing the way for construction to start even as the land exchange needed for the full route through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge remains void.

Senior U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland's ruling, in a case filed August 17 by Defenders of Wildlife (No. 3:26-cv-00298), concerned a narrow question: whether to halt work that breaks ground on King Cove Corporation land while Defenders challenges a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service compatibility determination issued August 14, the finding required before an activity may proceed inside a refuge boundary. Defenders announced the same day it would appeal immediately.

King Cove is reachable only by sea or air and has no all-weather airport; Cold Bay does. Court records in the land exchange case show King Cove and its related entities have pushed for a road for decades, citing the need for reliable airport access and particularly for medical evacuations. King Cove Corporation spokeswoman Della Trumble called that access "truly a matter of life and death for us" in a 2019 statement after a court ruling against an earlier land exchange.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason vacated Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's October 2025 land exchange on August 17, finding that the department violated ANILCA Title XI, the law on transportation routes across conservation lands, the Endangered Species Act and the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act in approving the transfer of roughly 490 acres of federal land, including 336 acres of designated wilderness, to King Cove Corporation. That exchange, still vacated, created the corridor for the full 18.9-mile road connecting King Cove to the Cold Bay airport.

Separately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended the Section 404 wetlands permit it had issued July 10 for the 18.9-mile project. A signed Corps letter dated August 26 directed the permittee to stop activities previously authorized by the permit while the Corps evaluates the effect of Gleason's ruling. The State of Alaska had requested the voluntary suspension.

The 2.8-mile segment covers King Cove Corporation land subject to Section 22(g) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which keeps refuge rules in force on Native corporation land inside the boundary, not the federal land transferred in the now-vacated exchange. Fish and Wildlife found construction of that segment, including a bridge and parking area, compatible with refuge purposes. The agency said work could begin as early as September 1.

The compatibility determination does not extend to the full road and does not address construction of the entire route as an effect of the 2.8-mile use. FWS said the segment could be built independently to extend the King Cove road system by 2.8 miles.

The August 14 compatibility determination references mitigation from the October 2025 exchange decision and associated biological opinions, the formal Endangered Species Act findings. Three days later, Gleason vacated the exchange and found legal defects in the biological consultation. Holland's case will decide whether a compatibility finding can rest on a decision a court has since voided.

Alaska had equipment staged and had told the court that road construction would not begin before September 1.

The state maintains that its 2026 work on the 2.8-mile segment does not require a discharge into waters of the United States and therefore does not rely on the suspended Corps permit. That is a legal position, not a finding by either court.

Three separate legal tracks now govern the project: the vacated land exchange before Gleason, the suspended Corps permit in consolidated cases before U.S. District Judge Aaron Christian Peterson, and the 2.8-mile compatibility determination before Holland.