Southwest Alaska

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Nushagak River

Lake Iliamna

Volcanoes of the Alaska Peninsula

Peulik Volcano

Kvichak River marshes

Nushagak Bay

Southwest Alaska tundra

Lake Clark in Southwest Alaska

Southwest Alaska is a region of the U.S. state of Alaska, part of the Alaska Bush.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 Economy
4 Wildlife
5 Transportation
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Geography

Like all regions of the state, it has no formal boundaries; one rough definition includes the Aleutians East, Bristol Bay, Kodiak Island, and Lake and Peninsula boroughs and the Aleutians West, Bethel, Dillingham, and Wade Hampton census areas, plus the portion of the Kenai Peninsula Borough west of Cook Inlet. By this definition, Southwest Alaska has an area of 442,194 km² (170,732 mi²).

This area, in turn, can be divided into six subregions: the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the Bristol Bay area, the Alaska Peninsula, the Aleutian Islands, the Kodiak Archipelago, and the Pribilof Islands.

Much of Southwest Alaska is part of the Aleutian volcanic arc, and the region contains most of Alaska's volcanoes, including Mount Katmai, Novarupta and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Mount Redoubt, Mount Iliamna, and Augustine Volcano.

[edit] Protected areas

Southwest Alaska contains numerous state and federal protected areas. These include:

Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge
Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve
Becharof National Wildlife Refuge
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
Katmai National Park and Preserve
Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve
Togiak National Wildlife Refuge
Wood-Tikchik State Park
Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge

[edit] Mountain ranges

[edit] Rivers

[edit] Lakes

[edit] Demographics

Kodiak

Southwest Alaska had a population of 53,349 as of the 2000 census, less than one-tenth of Alaska's inhabitants. The largest cities were Kodiak (6,334), Bethel (5,471), Unalaska/Dutch Harbor (4,283), and Dillingham (2,466).

The population is in large part Alaska Native, with 58.1% identifying as entirely or partly "Native American" in the 2000 census. Natives in Southwest Alaska are mainly Central Yupik in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Bristol Bay areas, Alutiiq on the eastern Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island, Aleut in the Aleutians, Pribilofs, and the western Alaska Peninsula, and a few Dena'ina Athabaskans near the western shore of Cook Inlet.

[edit] Economy

Most of the smaller settlements rely on subsistence activities. Fishing, both commercial and recreational, is a mainstay of the economy, along with hunting and tourism. Kodiak and Unalaska are among the most productive fishing ports in the United States. The salmon, trout, king crab, and halibut fisheries are extremely lucrative. Bristol Bay's commercial sockeye salmon industry is the largest in the world.

Southwest Alaska is currently embroiled in controversy over a number of proposed resource extraction projects. These include the proposed Pebble Mine, which would put a large open pit gold and copper mine at the headwaters of the Nushagak River and Kvichak River rivers in the Bristol Bay watershed. Also, the federal government is seeking to lift the moratorium on oil drilling leases in Bristol Bay.

[edit] Wildlife

Southwest Alaska is one of the richest salmon areas in the world, with the world's largest commercial salmon fishery in Bristol Bay. It also has one of the highest concentrations of brown bears, feeding on the salmon, as well as berries and other vegetation. Bear watching is a popular tourist attraction at Katmai National Park and Preserve. This area is also home to a number of caribou herds - the Mulchatna herd is the third largest in the state. The western limit for both caribou and bears is on Unimak Island, first in the Aleutian chain. More western Aleutian Islands have no mammals larger than a fox. In the summer, many species of migratory birds nest on the tundra here, and there are many large seabird rookeries in the Aleutian Islands.

[edit] Transportation

There are no major road connections anywhere in Southwest Alaska, except occasionally between neighboring settlements. All transportation is by air or sea. Alaska Airlines serves the larger population centers; PenAir and, formerly, Reeve Aleutian Airways provide more complete coverage. Alaska Marine Highway ferries connect coastal settlements to the ports of Southcentral Alaska, while river barges are common in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.