Becharof National Wildlife Refuge

The Becharof National Wildlife Refuge is a 4857 km ² large protected area of the National Wildlife Refuge system on the Alaska Peninsula on the coast of Shelikof Strait in the U.S. state of Alaska. The eastern part is as Wilderness Area ( Becharof Wilderness), the most severe class of natural protected areas of the United States, reported. The Wildlife Refuge is located in a chain of protected areas on the peninsula that includes the Katmai National Park, Becharof National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge, Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve and Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

The Refuge includes Coastline, tundra, glacial-fed rivers and mountains, such as the 1474 m high volcano Mount Peulik. In the center of this area is up to 180 m deep eponymous lake Becharof, which is 1200 km ², the second largest lake in Alaska and the largest in the entire National Wildlife Refuge System.

Wildlife

The Becharofsee is the world's second largest spawning area of sockeye salmon, the staple food for one of the largest brown bear populations in Alaska is. The Bristol Bay facing western part of the protected area, which consists of lowland tundra, also a habitat for large mammals such as reindeer, elk and wolves. The moose population reached an appreciable extent only in the 1950s. The reindeer herd Northern Alaska Peninsula, one of the 13 largest herds of Alaska, winters in the region of the Refuges.

Raptors such as bald eagle, hawk or falcon nest in Becharof NWR as well as waterfowl such as the Bewick's swan.

History

On 1 December 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter dismissed the Becharof area together with 16 other protected areas of Alaska on the basis of the Antiquities Act of 1906 as a National Monument. As part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of December 2, 1980, the status was downgraded to a wildlife refuge for political criticism.

1983 put the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to manage the Becharof NWR, the Ugashik and Chihnik sections of the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuges and the Seal Cape section of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuges together.