Izembek Wilderness is a 307982 acres (124,636 ha) wilderness area in a coastal region of the U.S. state of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 panhandle, facing Bristol Bay. Located within the 315000 acres (127,476.1 ha) Izembek National Wildlife Refuge

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge

The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is the smallest of the National Wildlife Refuges located in the U.S. state of Alaska. It lies on the northwest coastal side of central Aleutians East Borough. Most of the refuge was designated as Wilderness in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands...

, all of the land has been designated Wilderness, with the exception of that along a gravel road system and several private holdings. The area was designated wilderness in 1980 with the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Wildlife

Izembek Wilderness hosts a quarter-million migratory birds every fall, including the entire world's population of black brants

Black Brant

The Black Brant or Pacific Brent Goose, Branta bernicla nigricans, is a sub-species of the Brent Goose that breeds in Alaska and winters in Baja California. There are an estimated 115,000 black brant in the world and about 14,000 are taken each year by hunters. Fox predation of eggs is thought to...

 and thousands of Canada and emperor geese

Emperor Goose

The Emperor Goose is a species of goose. It breeds around the Bering Sea, mostly in Alaska, USA, but also in Kamchatka, Russia...

, Steller's eiders

Steller's Eider

The Steller's Eider is a medium-large sea duck that breeds along the Arctic coasts of eastern Siberia and Alaska. The lined nest is built on tundra close to the sea, and 6-10 eggs are laid....

, and various species of duck and shorebird. Izembek Lagoon contains one of the largest eelgrass

Zostera

Zostera is a small genus of widely distributed seagrass, commonly called marine eelgrass or simply eelgrass . The genus Zostera contains sixteen species.-Ecology:Zostera is found on sandy substrates or in estuaries submerged or partially floating...

 beds in the world, providing food and shelter for the birds. Tundra swans live on the Refuge year-round and thousands of gray

Gray Whale

The gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and breeding grounds yearly. It reaches a length of about , a weight of , and lives 50–70 years. The common name of the whale comes from the gray patches and white mottling on its dark skin. Gray whales were...

, minke

Minke Whale

Minke whale , or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales. The minke whale was given its official designation by Lacepède in 1804, who described a dwarf form of Balænoptera acuto-rostrata...

, and orca whales migrate along the coast. Hundreds of thousands of salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

 spawn in the Wilderness. Other common wildlife in the Wilderness include brown bear

Brown Bear

The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...

, seal

Pinniped

Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...

, walrus

Walrus

The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...

, Steller's sea lion

Steller's Sea Lion

The Steller sea lion also known as the northern sea lion, is a threatened species of sea lion in the northern Pacific. It is the sole member of the genus Eumetopias and the largest of the eared seals . Among pinnipeds, it is inferior in size only to the walrus and the two elephant seals...

, sea otter

Sea Otter

The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg , making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals...

, and caribou from the Southern Alaska Peninsula herd.

External links

• Izembek National Wildlife Refuge - US Fish & Wildlife Service
• Izembek Wilderness - Wilderness.net
• Izembek National Wildlife Refuge - The Wilderness Society