An update for resource development in northern Alaska: the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) released findings from a new scientific review asserting that the proposed 211-mile Ambler Road would pose minimal threats to the Western Arctic Caribou Herd (WAH). The announcement, made on December 23, 2025, highlights the road’s potential to access rich mineral deposits while safeguarding wildlife, amid ongoing debates over environmental and subsistence concerns.
The report, authored by biologist Matthew A. Cronin, Ph.D., and completed on October 28, 2025, analyzes caribou data in relation to the Ambler Road project. It estimates the road’s footprint at less than 0.005% of the WAH’s 92.2-million-acre range, with only 3-4.8% of collared caribou crossing the alignment in fall and winter from 2010-2022. The study emphasizes that primary migration routes lie west and north of the route, over 150 miles from calving grounds.
The last major caribou assessment related to the Ambler Road prior to this was in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2020 Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which incorporated data up to 2018-2019. That EIS projected potential migration delays and habitat fragmentation affecting 0.0005% of the WAH range, drawing from surveys dating back to 1982-2017. A 2023 Draft Supplemental EIS updated some analyses with data to 2022, but the 2020 version remains the core federal reference.
Key differences include the current report’s use of fresher data showing a sharper WAH decline—to 152,000 animals in 2023 from 259,000 in 2017—and reduced road crossings in recent years, attributing declines more to predation and weather than infrastructure. Earlier reports, like the 2020 EIS, focused broader on subsistence impacts, estimating high reliance (20-45% of harvests) in affected communities.
Predation and winter weather are primary threats to the WAH, without the road in existence, Cronin wrote in the report.
AIDEA’s release underscores mitigation measures, such as no public access and predator control requests.
If built, the road could generate over $1.1 billion in state revenues from taxes and royalties, while creating 2,730 construction jobs and boosting rural economies.
The Anchorage Assembly may not be too pleased about more colonialism occurring under their watch. You can only take so much minty fresh breath and high credit scores. And some might say, what does Anchorage have to do with remote Alaska? Too much success in the villages will cut into their profit margins on the homeless. Public Sector unions ain’t cheap. Well, not in the context of money, anyway. I can only imagine what the pay off will be to these clowns?
None of this matters. An obama appointed judge in Maryland will file an injunction halting the project because the Somalis who originally discovered and built Alaska have not gotten bribed yet.
Just wait. Someone will discover someone from the lost Hekawi tribe stopped and
Camped there thousands of years ago and they need to do a new study that will drag it out until the next time the democrats take power and they will cancel it again.
I wonder how much money was wasted on concluding what everyone already knows. I could’ve done it for one-half the price.
I was going to post a sarcastic comment, but I see that I don’t even have to. I’m proud of you guys!
Same results as the Jakimchuk study for the trans-Alaska pipeline. The predictions by the Sierra Club and others were caribou-cide should the haul road or pipeline be built. Caribou completely ignore the pipeline and north slope facilities. This reminds me when Bruce Babbit toured Pump Station 1. After two hours of walk-arounds and briefings to learn the environmental and safety protection that was planned into the facility, he had to jump back as he turned a corner near the manifold building as a herd of caribou blasted by. The smart aleck in him couldn’t resist saying, “I bet you guys dropped a bunch of caribou chow on the ground to make that happen.”
Babbit was an idiot
Rollo; How long have you lived in Alaska?
I worked on the north slope for 24 years and what I saw was a big benefit for the caribou. They got on the roads to try to avoid the mosquitoes. Under the pipelines and modules to get some shade. And under the modules it created a breeze to keep the mosquitoes off of them. If you ever saw a caribou trying to eat on the tundra and trying to keep the skeeters off, you too would feel sorry for them. So, don’t try to tell me that that little bitty road will decimate the caribou herd.
“…….don’t try to tell me that that little bitty road will decimate the caribou herd………”
Watch: they’ll demand a “corridor” like the Dalton Hwy that you can’t cross with a snowmobile to hunt in order to protect the resource for the locals. You know it’s coming…………
Let’s build the road already. I’m tired of the talk. That goes for south Susitna road as well. And let’s throw a gas line in there to power this development up.
Dennis & Glen , I fell the same as you both, as study has now has anecdotal evidence by three Alaskans that have witnessed the evolution of construction since statehood . It’s reasonable to slay a skeptic in any case but Alaska can’t support it’s self anymore on study after study, period. Resources are needed Nationwide and Alaska has them. any attempt to stop the freight train of development is nonsensical at this time in Alaska’s history & future.
Well ,some would say, I have a bias because my generation of construction workers made a living constructing most all of the current infrastructure ,well it’s serving a growing current generation…let’s look ahead to our children’s future too!. We did it right then we can do it even better NOW. It’s time for more roads to resources & use them wisely. !
Thanks guys for your import. Liberty Ed Martin Jr
The jobs sound good.. but the legislature will blow through the $1.1B in no time.
No Public access?
Wow, what a slap in the face.