Features
Welcome
Yukon Flats Refuge is a remote 8.6 million acre wetland complex nestled between the White and Brooks Mountain Ranges in Interior Alaska.
Welcome to the Refuge
Celebrate Wilderness!
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act! Alaska refuges contain more than 18 million acres of these spectacular lands.
Alaska Wild 50 Facebook Page
Commercial Permit Application Periods
Yukon Flats Refuge has established application periods for commercial special use permits. See the link below for more information.
Permits
Refuge Highlights
The Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity including nesting waterfowl, other migratory birds, dall sheep, bears, moose, wolves, wolverines, other furbearers, caribou, and salmon; to fulfill international treaty obligations; to provide for continued subsistence uses; and to ensure necessary water quality and quantity.
Read more about the Refuge
About the NWRS
The National Wildlife Refuge System, within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, manages a national network of lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fish, wildlife, and plants.
Learn more about the NWRS
Items of Note
The Service Publishes a Final Rule on the Non-Subsistence Take of Wildlife for Alaska National Wildlife Refuge Regulations. The rule was developed in response to public interest and concern about predator control and recent liberalization of predator harvest within the State of Alaska. The final rule will become effective on September 6, 2016.
Read more about the Final RuleNative Alaskans living within and near the Yukon Flats are primarily Gwich'in Athabascan Indians. Until fairly recent times, Athabascans were highly mobile people, moving in family groups throughout a home territory. Following contact with Europeans, Athabascans started settling in more permanent villages that evolved around trading posts and, primarily, newly constructed schools.
Read more about the local culture
Loons
More than 150 species of birds dominate the landscape during spring and summer on the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge
Page Photo Credits All photos courtesy of USFWS unless otherwise noted.
Last Updated: Aug 15, 2016