Anchorage, Alaska - Alaska Native Villages and conservation groups have sued the federal government over a land swap they say threatens a wildlife refuge and Indigenous subsistence rights.

The Native Village of Hooper Bay, the Native Village of Paimiut, Chevak Native Village, and the Center for Biological Diversity launched a lawsuit challenging the exchange of around 500 acres of lands in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge for 1,739 acres of King Cove Corporation lands.

The land swap is aimed at enabling the construction of a road from King Cove through the refuge to the Cold Bay airport.

The US Department of the Interior announced it had approved the construction during at event in Washington last month dubbed "Alaska Day."

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The complaint – filed in the US District Court for the District of Alaska – states that the road would harm migratory birds some Alaska Natives rely on for food. It argues that federal defendants under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to eliminate or minimize adverse impacts to the subsistence resources of Native Villages.

"As Yup’ik people from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, we are already living with the front-line impacts of climate catastrophe," Angutekaraq Estelle Thomson, traditional council president of the Native Village of Paimiut, said in a statement.

"Izembek’s eelgrass wetlands are a lifeline for emperor geese, black brant and other birds that feed our families and connect us to Indigenous relatives across the Pacific. Trading away this globally important refuge for a commercial corridor devalues our lives and our children’s future."

"We are joining this lawsuit because defending Izembek is inseparable from defending our subsistence rights, our food security and our ability to remain Yup’ik on our own lands."

A separate lawsuit filed Wednesday by Trustees for Alaska, on behalf of Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and other groups, alleges the Interior Department violated the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Administrative Procedure Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.

Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges President Marilyn Sigman warned, "Trading the ownership of refuge lands that Congress designated for conservation is a terrible precedent for the privatization of public lands."

"Building a road will have tremendous impacts on fish and wildlife habitat and could also greatly increase both disturbance and sport hunting pressure on vulnerable species."

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Yet another lawsuit on Wednesday, initiated by Defenders of Wildlife, accuses the Trump administration of violating the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act and the Wilderness Act.

"Secretary Burgum has no authority to transfer refuge and wilderness lands out of federal ownership to pave the way for a road," said Nicole Whittington-Evans, senior director of Alaska and Northwest programs at Defenders of Wildlife.

"We stand with the many Alaskan tribes opposing this unnecessary and destructive project, and the multitude of Americans who are invested in protecting the ecological future of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness."