The Innoko National Wildlife Refuge is a national wildlife refuge of the United States located in western

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. ...

. It consists of 3,850,481 acres (15,582 km²), of which 1,240,000 acres (5,018 km²) is designated a

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

. It is the fifth-largest national wildlife refuge in the United States. The refuge is administered from offices in Galena. The refuge was established in 1980 by the

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) is a United States federal law signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. ANILCA provided varying degrees of special protection to over of land, including national parks, n ...

. The northern part of the refuge, called Kaiyuh Flats, is adjacent to the Yukon River southwest of Galena. It contains 751,000 acres (3,040 km²). The southern part contains approximately 3,099,000 acres (12,540 km²) of land surrounding the Innoko River. The land is swampy and is the nesting area for hundreds of thousands of birds including

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

northern hawk-owl The northern hawk-owl or northern hawk owl (''Surnia ulula'') is a medium-sized true owl of the northern latitudes. It is non-migratory and usually stays within its breeding range, though it sometimes irrupts southward. It is one of the few owl ...

trumpeter swan The trumpeter swan (''Cygnus buccinator'') is a species of swan found in North America. The heaviest living bird native to North America, it is also the largest extant species of waterfowl, with a wingspan of 185 to 250 cm (6 ft 2 in to 8 ft 2 ...

s, bald eagles, common ravens, short-eared owls, and

red-tailed hawk The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members wit ...

s. Mammalian species that habitat this refuge are

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

and

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

, Canadian lynx, marten, porcupine, beaver, caribou, river otter, red fox,

wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

, muskrat, and mink. The refuge has no road access from outside and contains no roads. Air access can be arranged in McGrath.

Gallery

File:Cloudy Mountains Innoko NWR.jpg, Mountains File:Meandering River 2 Innoko NWR.jpg, River File:Innoko Refuge Wetlands.jpg, Wetlands File:Kaiyuh flats alaska aerial.jpg, Aerial view

References

External links

*
Wood Bison Restoration in Alaska: Status of the Herd Updates
Alaska Department of Fish and Game {{authority control ANILCA establishments National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska Protected areas established in 1980 Protected areas of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska Yukon River Wetlands of Alaska Landforms of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska Bison herds