Kotzebue residents and tribe oppose Ambler road at AIDEA meeting, minutes show

Eleven people spoke during public comment at the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority's Sept. 22 board meeting in Kotzebue, and every one who addressed the proposed Ambler road spoke against it, according to draft minutes. Saagulik Elizabeth Hensley said the region has no consensus for the road, unlike the Red Dog road and the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which she said had regional support.

The board had listed the Ambler road among projects for closed-door discussion at the meeting, at the Nullagvik Hotel, as Alaska News reported Sept. 21.

The 211-mile industrial road would link the Dalton Highway to copper and zinc deposits in the Ambler Mining District. A federal analysis estimated it could delay Western Arctic caribou migration by an average of 33 days. The Bureau of Land Management reissued AIDEA a 50-year right-of-way grant on Oct. 21, 2025, after President Trump approved an AIDEA appeal directing federal agencies to issue permits.

Jim Dowl, the Department of Fish and Game's lead biologist for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd for 15 years before retiring in 2016, strongly opposes the road, the minutes say. Tracking near Red Dog from 2000 to 2015 showed caribou delayed an average of about a month in years when more than 5% of the herd migrated through, he said. Dowl attributed the herd's probable loss of two-thirds to three-quarters since 2003 to climate change, not Red Dog, and said the mining complex the road would open has never been publicly weighed.

Cyrus Harris, a Native Village of Kotzebue council member and co-chair of the Western Arctic Caribou Working Group, said the Red Dog road turns caribou back and that this past year was the first time he got no caribou. He read part of the tribe's resolution: "Be it resolved that the Native Village of Kotzebue opposes the road."

Susan Georgette said Protect the Kobuk has more than 700 members who live in the region or are tribal members from the borough. NANA shareholder David Leslie said the mines will not pay for the road and that forcing it through when harm is known is racist.

Executive Director Randy Ruaro acknowledged there is no consensus but said state law charges AIDEA with developing resources and jobs. He cited resolutions of support from nearby communities and a subsistence committee that backs the road, and said 25% to 50% of what AIDEA earns from projects like Red Dog goes back to the state. He called Leslie's remark "very offensive" and unfounded and asked him to retract it.

The board met behind closed doors three times and took no action on what it discussed in those sessions.

The minutes summarize the meeting rather than transcribe it. They are on the agenda for approval at the board's Oct. 21 meeting.