"The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday issued a right-of-way permit supporting a roughly 200-mile industrial road through the Northwest Alaska wilderness to a region that the state says could support several mines.

In its 320-page record of decision, written jointly with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency said the road will serve the public interest, including boosting revenues to the state of Alaska and employing thousands of workers during construction of the road and mines.

Critics have blasted the road as costly and a threat to subsistence resources and the region’s rivers.

The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, the state agency that applied for the permit, lauded the decision in a statement."

Alex DeMarban reports for the Anchorage Daily News July 23, 2020. [2]