The Saint Lazaria Wilderness (formerly the Saint Lazaria National Wildlife Refuge) or St. Lazaria Island is a nesting bird colony located west of

Sitka russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 , image_size ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

and is a part of the Gulf of Alaska unit of the

Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (often shortened to Alaska Maritime or AMNWR) is a United States National Wildlife Refuge comprising 2,400 islands, headlands, rocks, islets, spires and reefs in Alaska, with a total area of , of whi ...

. It is located in

Sitka Sound Sitka Sound is a body of water near the city of Sitka, Alaska. It is bordered by Baranof Island to the south and the northeast, by Kruzof Island to the northwest and by the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. During the early 19th century it was a ...

, just south of

Kruzof Island Kruzof Island (russian: остров Крузов) is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska at . It is about west of Sitka, and is part of the City and Borough of Sitka. It was named in 1805 by Captain U.T. Lisianski as C ...

, and within the limits of the

City and Borough of Sitka, Alaska russian: Ситка , native_name_lang = tli , settlement_type = Consolidated city-county, Consolidated city-borough , image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg , image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984 ...

. The island's name is Kanasx'ée in the

Tlingit language The Tlingit language ( ; ''Lingít'' ) is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to rev ...

Island geography

St. Lazaria is a very rugged looking island with limited and difficult access. Its direct exposure to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

makes it ideal for birds to inhabit. Most likely the island is a

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged mag ...

— the remnants of an old and eroded

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

— which would make St. Lazaria an older volcanic cousin to the adjacent Mount Edgecumbe on

. The island itself is low with broken terrain due to its volcanic origins. Its highest point is above sea level and there are two small summits on the island with a low, treeless saddle connecting the two that can often be overcome by waves during storms and at high tide. There are many

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s that can get up to tall and shoot strait into the ocean as well as sea-level

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

s that can be explored on a calm day by thrill-seeking individuals in small craft.

Refuge history

St. Lazaria Island is just one of the 2,500 islands throughout Alaska that comprise the Alaska Maritime Wildlife Refuge. It was originally designated as a "refuge for seabirds" in 1909, but received official wilderness designation from congress in 1970. It was added to the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge in 1980.

Flora and fauna

Just about all the wildlife on St. Lazaria is birds. On the island there are: *250,000 breeding pairs of

fork-tailed storm-petrel The fork-tailed storm petrel (''Hydrobates furcatus'') is a small seabird of the storm petrel family Hydrobatidae. It is the second-most abundant and widespread storm petrel (after Leach's storm petrel) and is the only bird in its family that is ...

s and

Leach's storm-petrel Leach's storm petrel or Leach's petrel (''Hydrobates leucorhous'') is a small seabird of the tubenose order. It is named after the British zoologist William Elford Leach. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek. ''Hydrobates'' is from ...

s. *4-5,000

common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

and

thick-billed murre The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' i ...

s. *1,500-2,000 breeding pairs of

tufted puffin The tufted puffin (''Fratercula cirrhata''), also known as crested puffin, is a relatively abundant medium-sized pelagic seabird in the auk family (Alcidae) found throughout the North Pacific Ocean. It is one of three species of puffin that make ...

s. *1,000 breeding pairs of rhinoceros auklets. Other less populous species include:

pigeon guillemot The pigeon guillemot (''Cepphus columba'') () is a species of bird in the auk family, Alcidae. One of three species in the genus ''Cepphus'', it is most closely related to the spectacled guillemot. There are five subspecies of the pigeon guille ...

glaucous-winged gull The glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens'') is a large, white-headed gull. The genus name is from Latin ''Larus'' which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird. The specific ''glaucescens'' is New Latin for " glaucous" fro ...

ancient murrelet The ancient murrelet (') is a bird in the auk family. The English term "murrelet" is a diminutive of "murre", a word of uncertain origins, but which may imitate the call of the common guillemot. Ancient murrelets are called "ancient" because th ...

Cassin's auklet Cassin's auklet (''Ptychoramphus aleuticus'') is a small, chunky seabird that ranges widely in the North Pacific. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Ptychoramphus''. It nests in small burrows and because of its presence on well studied ...

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (Bird of prey, raptor) in the family (biology), family Falco ...

s, and black oystercatchers. In nesting areas on the island, the bird density can reach 7000 birds per acre. The only trees on the island are

Sitka Spruce ''Picea sitchensis'', the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to almost tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth-larg ...

which are located at the highest points of elevation.

Visiting

It is a popular day boat-trip for Sitkans or a place to cruise around for fishermen already in the area. St. Lazaria is not supposed to be visited by foot from anyone other than permitted scientists as every square foot of ground contains burrows for nesting birds and can be easily crushed, disturbed, or destroyed. However, over 2,000 people a year visit the island by boat circling around the volcanic hulk — admiring its birds, cliffs, caves, and other volcanic landforms. Small and large-scale tour operators alike make St. Lazaria a popular and well-known tourist destination in Sitka.

References

External links

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service websiteWilderness.net writeup
{{Protected Areas of Alaska Alexander Archipelago IUCN Category Ib Protected areas of Sitka, Alaska Volcanic plugs of the United States Wilderness areas of Alaska Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge