Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has decided to reevaluate a Fish and Wildlife Service decision to prevent construction of a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
The Interior Department will send its next secretary and undersecretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn to King Cove.
They’re expected to meet with local leaders who want the Interior Department to reverse the Fish and Wildlife decision.
Senator Lisa Murkowski says this is the first step to overturning that ruling:
“Fact of the matter is, this process that the secretary has laid out, doesn’t get the residents of King Cove their road tomorrow. But it was does allow for is a reassessment, a re-look, of what Fish and Wildlife did with their assessment.”
And this new assessment could take months, if not years, to complete.
