Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge

Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, Aleutian Island Unit
Map of Alaska, United States
Location	Alaska, United States
Coordinates	52°00′N 174°00′W / 52.0°N 174.0°W / 52.0; -174.0Coordinates: 52°00′N 174°00′W / 52.0°N 174.0°W / 52.0; -174.0
Area	4.9 million acres (20,000 km²)
Established	1980
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Website	Alaska Maritime NWR

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 4.9 million acres (20,000 km²), of which 2.64 million acres (10,700 km²) is wilderness. The refuge stretches from Cape Lisburne on the Chukchi Sea to the tip of the Aleutian Islands in the west and Forrester Island in the southern Alaska Panhandle region in the east. The refuge has diverse landforms and terrains, including tundra, rainforest, cliffs, volcanoes, beaches, lakes, and streams.

Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is well known for its abundance of seabirds. About 75 percent of Alaskan native marine birds, 15 to 30 million among 55 species, use the refuge. AMNWR also provides a nesting habitat for an estimated 40 million seabirds, representing 80 percent of all seabirds in North America. The birds congregate in "bird cities" (colonies) along the coast. Each species has a specialized nesting site (rock ledge, crevice, boulder rubble, pinnacle, or burrow). Other animals present in the park include sea lions, seals, walrus, whales and sea otters.

The administrative headquarters and visitor center are located in Homer, Alaska.

Administration

The refuge is divided into five units. Clockwise around Alaska, starting in the southeast, their component territories include:

Gulf of Alaska unit

Saint Lazaria Wilderness (formerly Saint Lazaria National Wildlife Refuge) (Saint Lazaria Island)
Hazy Islands Wilderness (Hazy Islands)
Forrester Island Wilderness (Forrester Island, Lowrie Island, Wolf Rock)
Barren Islands (East Amatuli Island, West Amatuli Island, Ushagat Island, et al.)
Tuxedni Wilderness (Chisik Island, Duck Island, and Egg Island)
Middleton Island
Chiswell Islands
Trinity Island (Sitkinak Island)

Alaska Peninsula unit

Sutwik Island
Semidi Wilderness (Semidi Islands: Aghik Island and Chowiet Island, et al.)
Simeonof Wilderness (Simeonof Island, part of the Shumagin Islands)

Aleutian Islands unit

Includes most of the land area of the Aleutian Islands, from Unimak in the east to Attu in the west

Bering Sea unit

Hagemeister Island
Pribilof Islands (St. George Island, St. Paul Island, Otter Island, Walrus Island)
Bering Sea Wilderness (St. Matthew Island, Hall Island, Pinnacle Island)
Besboro Island
Sledge Island
King Island

Chukchi Sea unit

Gallery

Big Hazy Islet - Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
Gull Island, a small rocky outcropping on Kachemak Bay is the summer home to an estimated 10,000 seabirds
Thick-billed murres in the refuge
East Amatuli Island, Barren Islands, Gulf of Alaska Unit
Castle Cape, Alaska Peninsula Unit
Cape Thompson

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Official website
Islands and Oceans Visitor Center, the official visitor's center for the Refuge
AMNWR field camp photos Unofficial site
The short film The Tiglax - Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (2009) is available for free download at the Internet Archive

Protected areas of Alaska

Federal

National Parks	Denali Gates of the Arctic Glacier Bay Katmai Kenai Fjords Kobuk Valley Lake Clark Wrangell–St. Elias

National Historical Parks	Klondike Gold Rush Sitka

National Monuments	Admiralty Island (USFS) Aniakchak Cape Krusenstern Misty Fiords (USFS) World War II Valor in the Pacific

National Preserves	Bering Land Bridge Noatak Yukon–Charley Rivers

National Wildlife Refuges	Alaska Maritime Alaska Peninsula Arctic Becharof Innoko Izembek Kanuti Kenai Kodiak Koyukuk Nowitna Selawik Tetlin Togiak Yukon Delta Yukon Flats

National Forests	Chugach Tongass

Forest Service units	Mendenhall Glacier

U.S. Wilderness Areas	Aleutian Islands Andreafsky Becharof Bering Sea Bogoslof Chamisso Chuck River Coronation Island Denali Endicott River Forrester Island Gates of the Arctic Glacier Bay Hazy Islands Innoko Izembek Karta River Katmai Kenai Kobuk Valley Kootznoowoo Koyukuk Kuiu Lake Clark Maurille Islands Misty Fjords Mollie Beattie Noatak Nunivak Petersburg Creek–Duncan Salt Chuck Pleasant/Lemusurier/Inian Islands Russell Fjord Saint Lazaria Selawik Semidi Simeonof South Baranof South Etolin South Prince of Wales Stikine-LeConte Tebenkof Bay Togiak Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Tuxedni Unimak Warren Island West Chichagof-Yakobi Wrangell–Saint Elias

National Conservation Area	Steese

State

State Parks	Afognak Island Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Baranof Castle Hill Birch Lake Chena River Area Chena River Site Chugach Deep Creek Denali Kachemak Bay Totem Bight Wood-Tikchik

State Forests	Haines Southeast Tanana Valley

Alaska Department of Natural Resources

National Wildlife Refuges of the United States

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.