AMBLER, Alaska (AP) — In Northwest Alaska, a proposed 211-mile mining road has divided an Inupiaq community already devastated by climate change. The Western Arctic Caribou Herd has plummeted 66% in two decades while salmon runs have collapsed from record rainfall and warming waters. The Trump-approved Ambler Access Road would unlock copper deposits and other minerals that could be used for green energies. But the road also threatens the fish and caribou that Indigenous communities depend on. Some, like hunter Tristen Pattee, support the road, and argue mining jobs offer the only way to afford subsistence hunting as costs soar. Others fear it will destroy what little remains of their way of life. By Annika Hammerschlag, Associated Press Banner image: Caribou antlers rest on the banks of the Kobuk River at Onion Portage near, Ambler, Alaska, where caribou traditionally migrated in late summer but had yet to arrive, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)This article was originally published on Mongabay

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