Refuge Highlights

About the Refuge

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.

About the NWRS

National Wildlife Refuge System

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.

Items of Note

• Final Regulatory Changes

  

  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 Rule

• Local Culture

  

  Native 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