Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is a 1259 km ² large protected area of the National Wildlife Refuge System at the southwestern end of the Alaska Peninsula between the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska in the U.S. state of Alaska. With an area of 1215 km ², the major part of the Refuges is as Wilderness Area, the strictest class of natural protected areas of the United States, reported. 2001 received the Refuge by the American Bird Conservancy the status of a globally important bird habitat. 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.
To the northeast lies the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge, the Pavlof Unit is co-supervised by the Administration of Izembek NWR. In the center of the Refuges is located 390 km ², open to the Bering Sea Izembek lagoon, which is protected and its surroundings since 1960 as Izembek State Game Refuge and was designated in 1986 by the Ramsar Convention as the first wetland in the United States of international importance.
Wildlife
To their spawning areas migrating salmon are an important food source for many animals in the reserve dar. mammals such as brown bears, wolves, wolverines, moose and reindeer as the over 5000 animals of the herd Southern Alaska Peninsula live in the Refuge, as well as shorebirds and seabirds.
Marine mammals such as sea otters, seals, walrus or Steller sea lions shear have their habitat in the waters on the coast of the reserve. Orcas, gray, minke and humpback whales migrate during their migration to the lagoons and along the coasts.
At the shallow brackish waters of Izembek Lagoon gather during migration tens of thousands of Canada geese and emperor geese. In the fall of hits on the way to winter quarters almost the entire stock of schwarzbäuchigen brent geese of some 150,000 animals in the lagoon.
Large flocks of ducks check wintered in the southern Alaska Peninsula and in the Izembek Refuge. The listed as endangered species ducks are dependent on an intact ecosystem with rich deposits of the ordinary seaweed, offering the Izembek Lagoon.
History
The reserve is part of the Bering bridge. Archaeological finds from waste cooking suggest in the region of present-day reserve to a population of approximately 14,000 9000 years ago. Was named the region in 1827 by Count Feodor Lutke, a crew member of the first Russian ships in the area, according to the ship's doctor Karl Izembek.
During the 2nd World War the Japanese army occupied some islands of the outer Aleutian Islands, making the region shifted military strategy in the spotlight. In Fort Randell at Cold Bay 20,000 soldiers of the U.S. Army were stationed. After the war, the base was abandoned and today testify only isolated dilapidated barracks of the presence of the armed forces. The military airfield from Cold Bay developed in the postwar period as a stopover station for civilian flights to the islands of the Aleutian Islands and Asia.
In March 2009, a law was passed that, among other various protected areas regulations in question involves a land swap in Izembek NWR with the Public Land Management Act of 2009. For the construction of a year- long controversial, about 30 km long gravel road through previously protected wilderness, which should allow the approximately 800 residents of King Cove easier access to the airport from Cold Bay, gets the reserve as compensation from the State of Alaska awarded additional 174 km ² of land.