Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge

Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge is a 3.5 million acre property in northwestern Alaska. The southern boundary is parallel to the Yukon River, the northern boundary is in the Purcell Mountains and the foothills of the Brooks Range. The heart of the property is the floodplain centered around the meandering Koyukuk River. This is an area rich in wetlands, excellent for the raising of moose and waterfowl (in season).

The rivers here support sheefish, arctic grayling, Dolly Varden, northern pike and three species of salmon. The northern pike are so well fed they often grow to record size. In the wetlands around the rivers, summer will find hundreds of thousands of migratory waterfowl nesting, feeding and raising their young. The summers tend to be short and lush with very long days, so the waters support plentiful water plants and hordes of protein-rich insects... hint, hint.

The Koyukuk River is a major tributary of the Yukon River. This is in the huge roadless area of northwest Alaska, where most travel is done by air or boat. Access to the Refuge usually means flying into Galena from either Fairbanks or Anchorage, then chartering either a small plane or a boat to reach the property (most moose hunters travel by boat, it's a lot easier to get their game back out that way). Local folks mostly travel by boat in the summer and snow machine in the winter.

The Koyukon Athabascans have lived in this area for centuries and still have six main villages on and around the refuge: Galena, Nulato, Koyukuk, Kaltag, Huslia and Hughes. Around these villages there are significant amounts of private property to be aware of. There are other private parcels spread throughout the refuge, especially around mining operations. Because the Koyukuk NWR has become so popular in recent years with commercially guided fishing and hunting outfits, land use and game controversies are heating up.

The 400,000 acres of the Koyukuk Wilderness and its unique Nogabahara Sand Dunes are in the western portion of Koyukuk NWR. Koyukuk NWR is administered as part of the Koyukuk/Nowitna NWR Complex.