Izembek

Overview

Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and State Game Refuge lie along the Bering Sea coast of the Alaska Peninsula. They protect a coastal lagoon that holds the largest beds of eelgrass on earth, a magnet to migratory birds, making it one of the most important waterfowl staging and wintering sites in the U.S. The area supports 98 percent of Pacific Brant that use the Pacific Flyway, more than half of the world population of Emperor Geese, and a significant proportion of the global populations of endangered Steller’s Eider and Taverner’s Cackling Goose. Izembek Lagoon is recognized under the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Significance, and as an Important Bird Area of global significance by BirdLife International and the National Audubon Society. More than two-thirds of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is federally designated wilderness.