This post has been updated.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a land-swap agreement Monday to allow a small, remote Alaska town to construct a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wilderness area that has been protected for decades.
The signing ceremony at Interior headquarters, which proceeded despite the government shutdown, marks a pivotal development in a political fight that has raged for more than 30 years. Alaskan politicians have argued the road would provide a route in poor weather for medical evacuations from King Cove to the closest regional airport, while environmentalists counter that it would fragment a pristine stretch of tundra and lagoons otherwise off-limits to motorized traffic.
