ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A proposed road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska, rejected by President Barack Obama, is getting new life in the Donald Trump administration.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, announced Monday that the U.S. Interior Department has granted Alaska permission to survey wilderness within Izembek National Wildlife Refuge for a possible road between two rural communities, King Cove and Cold Bay, near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula.

The refuge portion of the road would be 12 miles long.

Flights into King Cove are notoriously unpredictable because of strong winds and mountains. Izembek, an internationally recognized haven for migratory waterfowl, stands between King Cove and Cold Bay, which has an all-weather airport.

“For far too long, King Cove residents suffering from medical emergencies have had to brave harsh elements just to get health care,” Walker said in the announcement. “They travel by boat or helicopter — often in inclement weather — to access the Cold Bay airport in order to be medevaced out. Our fellow Alaskans deserve better than that.”

Environmental groups say the rural community has other, better alternatives, such as boats.

“Under previous administrations, the Interior Department has twice conducted exhaustive, science-based studies of the proposed road and determined it to not be in the public interest,” said Nicole Whittington-Evans of The Wilderness Society in a statement.