Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s staff is highlighting the irony in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife profile of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Among other things, the profile says that Izembek’s hunting opportunities are “world famous.”

“Fall waterfowl hunting is spectacular,” in Izembek, the agency says.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is within the Interior Department, which recently denied citizens in the region a potentially life-saving, 11-mile gavel road connecting two villages which would go through the refuge. Among other things, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell cited concern for waterfowl in denying the road.

Murkowski staffer Robert Dillon said that this is just another example of Interior’s flawed logic. “We can’t build an 11-mile, one-lane, gravel road because it might disturb some birds – but if you want to go out and shoot them, by all means, it’s ‘spectacular,’” he said.

Murkowski has taken the lead in the fight to push the Interior Department to approve the road, has vowed to continue to do so.

“In addition to my role as mediator, and ambassador, and all that, I can also be a hell-raiser. And I am going to be a hell-raiser on this. I am going to channel my inner Ted Stevens, and we are going to get this road,” she told the state Legislature in an annual address last month.

She also suggested that the citizens in the area engage in civil disobedience to protest the denial of the road.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com