Selawik River

The Selawik River in the homonymous National Wildlife Refuge

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Selawik River is a river in northwest Alaska. It rises south of the Brooks Range in the Purcell Mountains and flows approximately at the level of the Arctic Circle westwards through the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge. The river flows north-west of the village of Selawik Selawik in the Lake, which is in communication with the Kotzebue Sound.

The Selawik and Kobuk River running north were used by the indigenous peoples of Alaska as transport routes from the coast to the more mountainous regions of the island. Even today, the waterways transport routes into roadless back country.

The region around the Selawik River forms the transition zone of boreal forests to open arctic tundra. Along the river there are tundra, taiga, lakes and wetlands, river deltas, open sedge meadows and formerly glaciated mountains.

Thermal springs at the headwaters of the Selawik keep the river in winter ice. The Inupiat of the coast and the Athabascan from inland used the healing powers of the springs.

The Selawik River in 1980 reported by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act from the headwaters to the confluence with the River Kugarak over a distance of 255 km as a National Wild and Scenic River.

National Wild and Scenic Rivers System Boreal ecosystem Inupiat people Alagnak River Alatna River Andreafsky River Aniakchak River Beaver Creek (Alaska) Birch Creek (Alaska) Charley River Delta River Fortymile River Gulkana River Ivishak River John River (Alaska) Koyukuk River Noatak River Nowitna River Sheenjek River Tinayguk River Tlikakila River Unalakleet River Wind River (Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska)
721839
de