It was disappointing and upsetting to see Gary Ferguson speak against our efforts to build a life-saving road between King Cove and the nearby Cold Bay airport ("Izembek road won't help King Cove, will hurt refuge," June 27). It may be easy for him to pass judgment from his comfortable Anchorage home – a mere 20 minutes, by car, from the best hospital care in the state – but that hardly excuses his attempt to keep nearly 1,000 other Alaskans in harm's way.
We know it can be hard to understand our plight, given how few actually face it. Mr. Ferguson is certainly among those who don't have to worry about gale-force winds or dense fog that could prevent him from reaching the hospital. Instead, he has access to paved roads and ambulance service, and can take his emergency medical transportation for granted.
Even when Mr. Ferguson is in Cold Bay, he still has far more reliable access to emergency care than anyone in King Cove. That's because Cold Bay has the second-longest runway in the state. Should he ever need to reach emergency care in the event of an accident or illness, his odds of reaching it are far higher than anyone in King Cove.
Instead of thinking about why we would wage a multi-decade fight for an 11-mile road, Mr. Ferguson instead filled his piece with inaccuracies. He completely dismisses the value of the road ("all harm, and no good") while dramatically overstating its likely costs. He repeats myths about Alaskans being unable to drive in winter weather, claims a hovercraft that failed miserably (inoperable much of the time due to weather) was somehow a success, and insinuates that a short, one-lane, gravel road would somehow wipe out entire species of birds and other wildlife.
None of those could be further from the truth. But his piece is all the more revealing based on what he decided to leave out.
What Mr. Ferguson does not tell the reader is that his Cold Bay-based business is somewhat dependent on the sport hunters, federal employees and a few others who use the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Nor does he mention that Cold Bay has only about 100 residents, primarily transients who come and go with the good-weather hunting seasons. King Cove has nearly 10 times more people, most of whom are lifelong, year-round residents and members of the local Aleut tribe, who, it should be mentioned, have coexisted with the wildlife in the region for thousands of years.
The truth is that Mr. Ferguson wants to keep out anyone who isn't adding to his bottom line. He claims, like U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, to be speaking for the animals, but he's really just looking out for his own self-interests. Mr. Ferguson has enjoyed hunting in the Izembek Refuge for years, as do many hunters who flock to the area from all over the world. If Mr. Ferguson was so concerned with the well-being of the birds in the refuge, killing those very birds would seem a very odd way to demonstrate that.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates the Izembek refuge, actively promotes the area's "spectacular" hunting opportunities, particularly for brown bear and waterfowl. The refuge has some of the highest daily sport hunting bag limits anywhere – 31 birds per day, per hunter, including the very birds that were at the basis of the federal government's rejection of the King Cove road. The ptarmigan limit is another 20 birds per day.
We don't object to hunting, but we reject the hypocrisy of those who claim to speak for the animals while making a living or collecting fees for their harvest.
We also object to the implication that we would harm the land and its resources. We are the Aleut and our ancestors have lived on the Alaska Peninsula for thousands of years. We have proven ourselves to be good stewards.
We feel as strongly about protecting the lives and safety of our people. And the harsh reality is that too many of our friends and neighbors have had to suffer for hours and sometimes days to reach emergency medical care because of the challenges of flying into King Cove. We have a wonderful health clinic, but it cannot treat trauma or handle delivering babies – for that, patients must fly 600 miles to Anchorage.
Mr. Ferguson also failed to mention that since Secretary Jewell rejected the life-saving road in December 2013, there have been 25 additional medevacs, many of them requiring the intervention of the U.S. Coast Guard at taxpayers' expense. She has done nothing to help, which is why Sen. Lisa Murkowski has decided to take responsibility out of her hands, once and for all.
Mr. Ferguson claims that "other transportation options exist" aside from a road to Cold Bay – but, not surprisingly, he didn't bother to name them. That's because there is no viable alternative that is superior to a road, particularly in terms of effectiveness or cost.
It's unfortunate that Mr. Ferguson shows so little empathy for the people he claims to be a neighbor of. He appears to care more for protecting his semi-exclusive hunting grounds around his Cold Bay business than he does for the lives of his fellow Alaskans.
Henry Mack is the mayor of King Cove, an Aleut and a lifelong resident and commercial fisherman. He is serving his fourth term as mayor. Many of Mack's relatives and friends have been medevacked over the years.