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← Mission 38 · Arctic Mine Development Project, Upper Kobuk River: Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
MTJP CORPS · MORE THAN JUST PARKS ·38
Mission 38 · Gates of the Arctic (Ambler Road), AK

Gates of the Arctic (Ambler Road)

The agency files it as “Arctic Mine Development Project, Upper Kobuk River: Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement”

4 days left

Anyone can write to the agency about this until November 2, and it has to answer. What you send before then joins the file a judge is allowed to look at later.

Southeast Alaska: short days and heavy rain in the off season. Check access and tides.

The sentence we think is wrong

“Dolly Varden spawning has been confirmed in the upper reaches of Subarctic Creek”

The agency wrote that in its own document, under BLM's 2024 Ambler Road Final Supplemental EIS, Vol. 1, p. 3-110. Nobody has been out to check it. A dated photograph either backs it up or ends it.

How you settle it

Walk the upper reaches of Subarctic Creek where the pit and waste piles would go and photograph the open water, looking for live char, pale swept-clean gravel nests, or spent fish. A dated photo of fish, fresh gravel nests, or spent fish in upper Subarctic Creek shows the water slated for fill is alive.

The decision

The Army Corps of Engineers has started its environmental review of the Arctic mine, the first mine the Ambler Road would serve, an open-pit copper, zinc and lead mine at the headwaters of Subarctic Creek in Alaska's Brooks Range foothills. Scoping comments filed by November 2, 2026 decide what the review has to study, from the rest of the mining district to water treatment that runs after the min

Read the whole thing, and write to the agency about it

How to record it so it counts

  1. 01Photograph the crossing from the road, then from upstream and from downstream.
  2. 02At a culvert, photograph the outlet from downstream so the drop from the pipe to the water shows. Put a pole or a person beside it for scale.
  3. 03Photograph the water: is it flowing, standing, or dry. Note the time.
  4. 04Photograph any fish, fish sign, or aquatic life you can see. Don’t enter the water to chase it.
  5. 05Write down what you saw and how the crossing looked to you.
What would count
  • The drop from the pipe to the water, with something for scale. A pipe left hanging above the water is one a fish cannot swim up, and that is a fact on its own.
  • Up and downstream, dated. Flow is the claim most often wrong.
All of it, with the phone settings, in the field guide
Are you going?

Say yes or no. It tells the next person whether anyone has this ground covered, and it is the only way we know a request was answered rather than just read. You can change your mind any time, and nobody follows up.

Join, then say you’re going

Nobody has answered yet

Before you go
  1. Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
  2. Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
  3. Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
  4. Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
  5. If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

More Than Just Parks doesn’t direct where you go or what you do. Terms.