Legal filing challenges Trump and Interior approvals of the Ambler mining road 

ANCHORAGE, AK —Ten groups filed an amended and supplemental complaint today  challenging the Trump administration’s 2025 decisions to reinstate unlawful permits for the  proposed Ambler road. These groups, represented by Trustees for Alaska, have spent years in  court fighting the proposed Ambler road because of the profound threat this 200-mile-plus  industrial road would pose to the people, water, and wildlife of Northwest Alaska. 

“The Ambler road will lead to irreparable harm to fragile landscapes in Alaska, the local  communities that rely on them, and the Western Arctic Caribou herd,” said Dan Ritzman,  director of conservation for the Sierra Club. “The Trump Administration dismissed local voices  and flouted its obligations to enable the construction of this industrial corridor through intact  forests. We are taking the administration to court, because they can’t ignore the law to benefit  their wealthy friends.”

“Protecting Interior and Arctic Alaska requires thoughtful, lawful decision-making grounded in  conservation and sustainable stewardship,” said Krystal Lapp, president of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. “This administration’s decisions on the Ambler road proposal do  the opposite by advancing an industrial project with lasting environmental consequences  without fully addressing the risks to public lands, wildlife habitat, and the subsistence resources that local people have relied on and stewarded for millennia.” 

The industrial gravel road would cut through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve and slice  through one of the longest wildlife migration paths in the world, cross nearly 3,000 rivers and  streams, dam tundra wetlands, and interrupt traditional Alaska Native ways of life. The road  would fragment caribou habitat, and diminish food security, water quality, and access to  hunting, fishing, and traditional activities. 

Groups originally sued the Trump administration in 2020 for illegally approving the proposed  road. Trustees filed their opening brief with the court in December 2021, but the court never  ruled on the merits of the case. Instead, the Department of the Interior asked the court to allow  it to address several legal errors and prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement.  The lawsuit was paused during that process. 

In 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management determined the impacts of the proposed Ambler  road to communities, food resources, and the land would be too significant and denied the requested right-of-way across Bureau lands. The agency took into account the numerous  communities and community members along the road corridor who expressed their concerns  and strong opposition to the project. 

Despite those concerns, the Trump administration reinstated the permits in October 2025, with  agencies making no effort to fix the original legal problems or address the major harmful  impacts. Instead, the President focused on access to critical minerals, though critical mineral  resources in the area remain largely unproven. When reinstating the permits, Trump also  announced that the federal government was buying a 10 percent share of Trilogy Metals, one  of the mining companies operating in the region. 

The project proponent, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency,  continues to throw millions of dollars at this project. The road is projected to cost over a billion  dollars or more and require regular maintenance, yet AIDEA has yet to put forward a viable  financial plan for mining companies to pay back the state. Alaskans could be on the hook to  fund a private industrial access road for a foreign mining company. 

“Ramming through approvals for this destructive industrial road without even trying to address  the harms it will do to communities, and the lands and waters across a vast stretch of the  Arctic shows just how reckless this administration is,” said Suzanne Bostrom, senior staff  attorney with Trustees for Alaska. “This administration prioritizes the bank accounts of foreign  mining companies over standing up for local communities and Alaskans. We’ll continue doing  everything we can to protect clean water and air, local ways of life, and the health of the  region.” 

Today’s supplemental complaint raises arguments that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management,  U.S. National Park Service, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acted beyond their legal authority and broke numerous laws, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Claims Act, National  Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management  Act. It also raises an argument that President Trump acted beyond the bounds of the law in  directing the agencies to reapprove the project. 

Trustees for Alaska represents the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Alaska Community  Action on Toxics, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Alaska Wilderness League, Center for Biological  Diversity, Earthworks, National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, The Wilderness  Society, and Winter Wildlands Alliance.  

Group statements

“The Ambler Road isn't just a path of gravel; it is an industrial knife through the heart of the  Brooks Range and the migratory paths of thousands of caribou,” said Nicole Schmitt, executive  director of Alaska Wildlife Alliance. “The plan involves thousands of river and stream  crossings, risking irreversible pollution to the watersheds that fuel our state’s fisheries. We  cannot allow the short-term profits of foreign mining companies to sacrifice the long-term  survival of Alaska’s most iconic wildlife and the people who depend on them.” 

“We are opposed to the illegal action by the Trump administration to steamroll permitting for  this industrial mining road,” said Pamela Miller, executive director of Alaska Community  Action on Toxics. “We cannot allow the destruction of the lands, fish, and wildlife in one of the  most fragile and culturally rich places in the world. The Administration has an obligation to  protect the food security, sovereignty, health, and human rights of the Alaska Native  communities that call this place home.” 

“The Ambler road project is a perfect example of the Trump administration getting Alaska land  and water policy backwards, and we are proud to continue this effort to  hold them accountable,” said Maddie Halloran, Alaska state director for the Alaska  Wilderness League. “Now that the federal government has directly invested in a mining  company that depends on this road to profit from public lands, it’s clearer than ever  that this venture prioritizes polluters over people.” 

“The fact that the president has taken an unprecedented action to overturn a scientifically  based decision protecting the region from a destructive road, which was supported by tens of  thousands of public comments, including many from Alaska Native voices, undermines the  whole public process," said Anneka Williams, Winter Wildlands Alliance policy director. "The  Ambler road will threaten sensitive Arctic landscapes and Native livelihoods, destroying public  lands for the benefit of foreign mining interests. This action is completely unacceptable and  that's why we're going to court.” 

“We are opposed to any attempt to undermine the protection of Gates of the Arctic National  Park and for the Alaska Native communities that rely on the Western Arctic caribou herd for  their sustained way of life here,” said Jim Adams, Alaska regional director for the National  Parks Conservation Association. “Overturning these rules upends half a century of  commonsense protection and management of America’s public lands in Northwest Alaska that  exist for all Americans. We’re in this fight to ensure this protected park landscape and all that  depend on it, remain intact now and for generations from now.” 

"This administration used taxpayer funds to buy shares in a mining corporation that wants  public lands for a road to their nonexistent mine,” said Aaron Mintzes, deputy policy director  with Earthworks. “These permits are not just unlawful, they reveal decision making that smacks  of conflicts of interest and risks taxpayer money on a speculative investment." 

“Trump is trying to bypass the law to get the Ambler road built in one of the largest and most  remarkable roadless areas left on Earth,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By reinstating these permits, the Trump administration is ignoring the  catastrophic harm the road would inflict on the untrammeled Brooks Range and majestic  wildlife like the Western Arctic caribou herd. We’re fully committed to ensuring our public  lands aren’t sacrificed for speculative corporate mining.” 

"This administration’s actions on the proposed Ambler road have exceeded its authority and  are recklessly and illegally intended to push this destructive project forward despite thousands  of Alaskans and dozens of local Tribes voicing strong opposition,” said Matt Jackson, Alaska  senior manager for The Wilderness Society. “Future generations of Alaskans should have the  same freedom to hunt for caribou, fish for salmon and experience the wilderness as we do. We  have no choice but to fight for them and the wild landscape of this region.”