“Brooks Range rivers are beautiful, wild, and there are few other places like them in the world,” said fly fishing guide Greg Halbach of Remote Waters in Anchorage, Alaska. (Aaron Hitchins photo)
October 08, 2025
By Fly Fisherman Staff
On October 6, the federal government approved the Ambler Road Project —a 211-mile industrial corridor that will cut through Alaska’s Brooks Range and cross more than 3,000 streams and 11 major rivers, including the Kobuk, Alatna, and Koyukuk. It’s a seismic shift in the potential fate of one of North America’s most remote angling destinations.
These rivers are home to native Arctic grayling, sheefish, Dolly Varden, and lake trout—species that thrive in cold, clear, roadless waters. But with the road’s approval, sedimentation, noise, and increased human pressure threaten to unravel the ecological balance that makes these fisheries so special.
“We respectfully urge the Administration to take a closer look at this project’s costs and consequences,” reads a statement from Hunters & Anglers for the Brooks Range . “A thorough and objective review may lead to a different conclusion, one that better reflects our shared values of conservation, national security, and responsible resource development.”
The Ambler Road project would have crossed 11 major rivers, created some 3,000 stream crossings, and degraded vital the fish habitat for native fish subsistence populations as well as gamefish species like sheefish. (Map courtesy of the BLM) The Ambler Road is designed to connect the Dalton Highway to the Ambler Mining District, providing access to copper, cobalt, and other critical minerals. While proponents tout national security and economic benefits, anglers and conservationists warn of irreversible damage to fish habitat and subsistence traditions. The Western Arctic Caribou Herd, which migrates through the region and influences river health, will also likely be impacted.
Advertisement
Karmen Monigold, an Inupiaq member of Protect the Kobuk —a growing group of Northwest Arctic residents and tribal members who oppose development of the Ambler Road—cried when hearing the news. “And then I reminded myself of who we are, and who our people are and how far we’ve come,'' she said in an Associated Press article . “They tried to assimilate us, to wipe us out and yet we’re still here. We still matter.”
The executive order reverses a 2024 denial by the Biden administration. Legal challenges and environmental reviews are expected, but the bulldozers are closer than ever.
“Bringing the road to fruition may not be as simple as it sounds,” John Leshy, former solicitor for the Interior Department under the Clinton administration, said. “The approval will require the project to go through a new environmental review and analysis by the Bureau of Land Management.”
Advertisement
For now, the Brooks Range remains wild. But for fly anglers, the fight to keep it that way is ongoing.
Remote Waters guide and owner Greg Halbach holds a sheefish from the Brooks Range with his client Frank Brummer. Sheefish, the largest member of the whitefish family, are in danger of losing important spawning habitat if culverts are built for the Ambler Road. As broadcast spawners, they migrate and join together in their spawn. Culverts and river crossings may impede sheefish from congregating, especially along the Kobuk River. (Photo courtesy of Remote Waters)
