Alaskans Battle for Survival Against Feds’ Protection of Migratory Birds

For Della Trumble and others in her town of King Cove, Alaska, the Obama administration chose bird feed over their health and safety.

Washington’s refusal to allow a 10-mile gravel road between King Cove and the airport at Cold Bay is a matter of life or death for Alaskans who rely on quick access to airports and hospital flights as much as migratory birds rely on the eel grass that the Interior Department would rather preserve.

The most terrifying day of Ms. Trumble’s life was in 2010 when a small plane carrying her daughter slammed into a makeshift airfield near their home in the remote fishing village.

“It was one of the most frightening things you’ll ever watch in your life. I saw it happen, and I ran down the runway at about 100 miles per hour to get to the plane,” said Ms. Trumble. “Fortunately, everybody was OK. They had sore necks from the impact.”

Not everyone who flies between King Cove, population 965, and the all-weather airport at Cold Bay is so lucky. Nineteen people have died there in airplane crashes, some of them emergency responders and patients attempting to reach the regional hospital in Anchorage.

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