Aleutian Islands Wilderness

This Aleutian Islands Wilderness area was established in 1980 and encompasses 1,300,000 acres and includes the peaks of 57 submarine volcanoes (27 of which are considered active) rising from near sea level to more than 9,000 feet.

Bering Sea Wilderness

The Bering Sea Wilderness was established in 1980. At 81,340 acres, this Wilderness Area encompasses St. Matthew Island, Hall Island, and Pinnacle Island and is part of the larger Bering Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Bogoslof Wilderness

This incredibly active volcanic 175 acre island north of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor provides habitat for thousands of seabirds and marine mammals. Bogoslof Wilderness area was established in 1970.

Chamisso Wilderness

This Chamisso Wilderness area was established 1975. At 455 acres, Chamisso Wilderness is comprised of Chamisso and Puffin Island in the Northwest Arctic.

Forrester Island Wilderness

During the day, you'll ask yourself how more than one million birds of 13 species could be nesting here. But at night vast populations of Leach's storm petrels, fork-tailed petrels, Cassin's auklets, and rhinoceros auklets leave their underground burrows to feed in the ocean around the isolated islands of Forrester, Lowrie, and Petrel. Forrester Island Wilderness area was established in 1970 and encompasses 2,832 acres.

Hazy Islands Wilderness

Far offshore in the Gulf of Alaska, beaten by wind and wave, Big Hazy Island and her four smaller sisters stick out of the frigid sea, providing predator-free nesting areas for large populations of common murres, pigeon guillemots, glaucous-winged gulls, horned puffins, and tufted puffins. Brandt's cormorants nest here, one of only two islands they inhabit in Alaska. Hazy Islands Wilderness area is 32 acres and was established in 1970.

St. Lazaria Wilderness

Rising no more than 180 feet above the surging ocean at the entrance to Sitka Sound, Saint Lazaria has two low summits, forested with mature Sitka spruce, which are connected by a bare saddle that is washed by waves at high tide. Cliffs topped with lush grasses fall to the sea. The 65 acre St. Lazaria Wilderness area was established in 1970.

Semidi Wilderness

Aghiluk Island alone, the largest of the Semidis, is home to more than half a million birds. About 370,000 horned puffins nest in the Semidis along with almost all of the unit's northern fulmars and jaegers, and one million-plus murres. Ancient murrelets and parakeet auklets are among the other species found here. Semidi Islands Wilderness area is not great in land mass but includes approximately one-quarter million acres of surrounding seabed. It was established as a Wilderness Area in 1980.

Simeonof Wilderness

One of 30 named islands in the Shumagin Group, Simeonof Island was first established as a refuge for sea otters in 1958. Protected "lands" include the water, shoals, and kelp beds within a mile of the island. Learn more about the 25,855 acre Simeonof Wilderness area.

Tuxedni Wilderness

Established 1970, most of the 5,556 acre Tuxedni Wilderness area lies on Chisik Island (tiny, six-acre Duck Island is a rocky dot with almost no vegetation). Chisik slopes upward out of Cook Inlet from sandy beaches on the southern end to 400-foot cliffs on the northern end.

Unimak Wilderness

Huge Unimak Island, which gives this Wilderness its name, extends west from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. The 910,000 island is within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge but managed by Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. Unimak Wilderness area was established in 1980.