Paving Tundra is the culmination of a five-year long journey spearheaded by Jayme Dittmar to document the proposed 220-mile industrial access road in Alaska’s Brooks Range, and what is at stake if the tundra is paved. The proposed road to facilitate construction of a massive open pit copper mine would dissect and fracture 6 indigenous communities, cross 161 rivers and streams, and pass through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve wilderness. It would become the 2nd largest road in Alaska’s history and destroy one of the last remaining wild places in North America.
Over 2 months, an all-volunteer film crew packrafted 450 miles in the Koyukuk and Kobuk rivers of Alaska adjacent to the proposed Ambler Road to hear from the communities impacted by this unprecedented environmental destruction. Paving Tundra was named a Vimeo Staff Pick and has received accolades around the world. North Exposure Studios and Q Stories continue the fight alongside the Brooks Range Council & NPCA partnerships to protect this unprecedented environmental destruction in North America’s most rugged wilderness.
