Kenai National Wildlife Refuge

The Dena'ina people call this special place "Yaghanen" — the good land. It is also known as the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. From ice fields and glaciers to tundra, forests, and coastal wetlands, the Kenai Refuge is often called "Alaska in miniature." Biodiversity is unusually high for this latitude because of the juxtaposition of two biomes: Sitka spruce-dominated coastal rainforest and the western-most reach of boreal forest in North America. The refuge is known for its moose, brown and black bears, lynx, wolves, trumpeter swans, and more. The Kenai River, which originates in the refuge, is renowned for its wide variety of sport fish including Chinook (king), sockeye (red), and coho (silver) salmon, Dolly Varden and rainbow trout. This refuge, including the Kenai Wilderness, is an anchor for biodiversity on the Kenai Peninsula in a time of change — development downstream, changing climatic conditions, and change through fire.