Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge
The Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge is a 77,551 km ² protected area of the National Wildlife Refuge System in the southwest of the U.S. state of Alaska in the Yukon - Kuskokwim Delta in the Bering Sea. The Refuge also includes the two islands Nelson and Nunivak.
The delta of the two rivers form a criss-crossed by rivers, lakes and ponds tundra plains, which covers 70 % of the protected area and reaches a maximum elevation of 30 m. In the hinterland of the wetland landscape goes on with a height of up to 1200 m in the hills with tree and shrub vegetation and mountains.
Wildlife
The Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge provides nesting areas for wading birds one of the largest in North America. The rivers provide spawning and refuge areas for 44 species of fish, including all five North American Pacific salmon species. In the highlands live brown and black bears, moose, caribou, wolves and musk oxen. Off the coast of the protected area there are occurrences of marine mammals. Whales pass by on their walks on the Refuge.
History
The area of present-day Yukon Delta NWR was until about 10,000 years ago part of the land bridge Beringia, probably about the first humans migrated from Asia to North America. Even today, the region is for Alaskan conditions with 35 villages and about 25,000 inhabitants, many Yup'ik, densely populated.
The first protective measures in the region took place in 1909, when U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt auswies a sanctuary for native birds. Nunivak 1929 Iceland became a protected area for birds and wildlife, the following year the surrounding islands have been added. In 1937, the reserve with the creation of the Migratory Waterfowl Refuge Hazen Bay by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt has been further extended. In 1960 the Kuskokwim National Wildlife Range, which was expanded in 1961 and renamed Range in Clarence Rhode National Wildlife and reported in 1968 as a National Natural Landmark.
On December 2, 1980 Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which provided, among other things, that these existing Refuges and rank summarized the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge and have been extended to 54,000 km ². Also as part of the Conservation Act and the Andreafsky Nunivak Wilderness Areas emerged in the field of Refuges.