Reuters: The Department of the Interior, after a four-year environmental analysis, on Monday rejected a deal proposed by the state of Alaska and an indigenous group to swap 61,000 acres for conservation in exchange for the right to build an emergency road through a wildlife refuge.
Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said she sided with the conclusion of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reject the proposed land exchange and prevent the construction of a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge....