Healthy Wildlife Populations
Geese, ducks, swans & loons by the tens of thousands make use of superb nesting habitat within the Innoko Refuge. They are joined by a host of songbirds and around 20 hardy year-round resident bird species. A full suite of mammals and abundant fish populations round out the healthy wildlife community that the refuge works to conserve.
Wildlife at Innoko RefugeAbout the Complex
Innoko National Wildlife Refuge is managed together with Koyukuk and Nowitna refuges as a complex. A complex is an administrative grouping of refuges with a shared staff and resources. The complex is headquartered in Galena.
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
Rich in History and Culture
Alaska refuges contain more than 18 million acres of wilderness and the year 2014 marks the 50thanniversary of the law that protected these spectacular areas-the 1964 Wilderness Act. Check out Alaska Wilderness celebration events.
Alaska Wild 50 Facebook Page
Although no communities lie within the boundaries of the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge today, this land has been important to people for generations. Athabaskan people have lived along the rivers for centuries, in historic villages and seasonal campsites. Miners and merchants built towns and roadhouses which were abandoned after the gold rush played out. Cultural traditions of hunting, fishing, and gathering plants live on for today’s residents.
More about Local CultureIn the early 1900s, Alaska was a wild frontier in the midst of a gold boom, and the Iditarod Trail was established as a supply route connecting Seward to Nome and the many mining camps in between. Much of the route followed older traditional trails connecting Native Alaskan villages. Today a major portion of this historic trail crosses the Innoko Refuge. Much excitement ensues every year as the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race passes through the region.
More about the historic trail
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...
Bull Moose
The Innoko National Wildlife Refuge hosts a wide variety of wildlife ranging from tiny shrews to the Alaskan moose, (the largest member of the deer family), from small song birds to the symbol of our nation - the bald eagle.
Page Photo Credits — Swan pair taking off: Robin Corcoran/USFWS, All photos courtesy of USFWS unless otherwise noted.
Last Updated: Jan 10, 2017