Trump Just Gutted The Wildest Public Land In America

On October 6, in a typically Trumpian statement full of blustering bullshittery, the Whitehouse issued a statement shocking public lands advocates across the nation: “President Donald J. Trump Approves Ambler Road Project to Unlock Alaska’s Mineral Potential.”1 On the surface, it’s a simple statement with a seemingly straightforward directive, but this is no run-of-the-mill post office naming or local bridge replacement. It’s a massive surprise reversal of a buttoned-up federal permitting decision from 2024 that denied construction of a long-haul mining road after following the legal process, the best science, and mandated agency procedure.

The highly controversial 211-mile Ambler Road, proposed in northwest Alaska, is a massive industrial project that would plow straight through the heart of the Brooks Range, which is among the most ecologically sensitive and culturally important wildlands left on the planet. Trump’s bumbling demand to bulldoze and industrialize this public land despite broad-based opposition is a long, rusty shiv in the side of wildlife, native people, hunters, anglers, and all Americans who value wild places.



The Republican President’s October 6 statement on Ambler is shocking for many reasons, first because the resulting ecological devastation would be so broad. Travis Hall summarized the impacts in his recent article in the outdoor publication Field and Stream:

The rivers and streams that the Ambler Road would cross provide important feeding, rearing, spawning, and overwintering habitat for more than 20 fish species, including Pacific salmon, sheefish, whitefish, northern pike, Arctic grayling, and burbot, the BLM states. In addition to the 11 major bridge crossings, the Ambler Road would bisect hundreds of unnamed tributaries with thousands of culverts—which are known to damage undisturbed fish habitat.