Southwest Alaska is aregion of theU.S. state ofAlaska. The area is not exactly defined by any governmental administrative region(s); nor does it always have a clear geographic boundary.
Southwest Alaska includes a huge swath of terrain 500 miles (800 km) from the westernBering Sea coast toCook Inlet. Although much of the region is coastal, it also includes tens of thousands of square miles of interior boreal forests, swamps, and highlands, and the immense mountain barrier of the southern Alaska/Aleutian Range. The Aleutian Range, part of theRing of Fire, includes many of Alaska's volcanoes includingMount Katmai,Novarupta and theValley of Ten Thousand Smokes,Mount Redoubt,Mount Iliamna, andAugustine Volcano.
Southwest Alaska encompasses, roughly from west to east: thePribilof Islands,Nunivak Island and otherBering Sea islands lying west of the Alaska coast and east of the Russian coast; the immense combined delta of theYukon River andKuskokwim River; hundreds of miles of interior highlands, including the lower and middle Kuskokwim drainages; the entire watersheds ofGoodnews Bay andBristol Bay and other parts of the southern coast, including mountain ranges and great interior lakes including theWood-Tikchik Lakes,Lake Iliamna, andLake Clark; the western heights of theAlaska Range, and its continuation southward as theAleutian Range along theAlaska Peninsula andAleutian Islands. TheKodiak Archipelago, in the Pacific east of the Alaska Peninsula, is the most eastern part of Southwest Alaska.
Southwest Alaska consists roughly of theAleutians East,Bristol Bay,Kodiak Island,Lake and Peninsula boroughs, plus the portion of theKenai Peninsula Borough that lies west ofCook Inlet; along with theAleutians West,Bethel,Dillingham, andKusilvak census areas. These areas have a combined area of 170,732 square miles (442,190 km2), slightly larger than California.
Volcanic eruptions and mountain-building are active along theRing of Fire, while in far western Alaskalava fields only a few thousand years old are common. In between lie an incomplete record of rocks from as old as 2.07 Ga years to theHolocene. A sequence of continental fragments, seafloor, andisland arcs, torn, rafted, and assembled byplate tectonics, form theProterozoic,Paleozoic andMesozoic basement for more recent Mesozoic andCenozoic rocks deposited on top of, andintruded into, them.
Southwest Alaska had a population of 53,349 as of the2000 census, less than one-tenth of Alaska's inhabitants. The population is in large partAlaska Native, with 58.1% identifying as entirely or partly "Native American" in the 2000 census. About 121 towns and villages, generally far apart and with populations in the hundreds, exist in the region.[1]
Southwest Alaska can be considered to be the areas assigned to 4 of the 12 land-holdingAlaska Native Corporations in 1971 for selection of land and for corporate organization of villages underANCSA.
TheCalista Corporation region is in the Yukon/Kuskokwim delta, the lower and middle reaches of the Kuskokwim River drainage, and the Bering Sea coast from the Yukon to Cape Newenham. It contains 56 villages with a total population of about 23,000 people;[2]Bethel (5,471), is the largest and is the commercial hub for the Kuskokwim region. The Calista region is outlined by the combined Kusilvak and Bethel Census Areas. Calista owns 4,997,263 acres (20,223 km2) of the 41,713,612 acres (168,809 km2) in the region, almost all the rest is owned by the state or federal government.[3]
In theBristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) regionDillingham (2,466), is the largest town. The BBNC region has 29 villages[4] and a total population of about 8000.[5] The Corporation region includes part of the Alaska Peninsula, the Bering Sea coast west to Cape Newenham and the lands draining onto that coast, as well as parts of the Alaska and Aleutian Ranges. The combined areas of theDillingham Census Area, the Bristol Bay Borough, and the Lake and Peninsula Borough are almost coincident with the BBNC area.
Koniag, Incorporated has a region which covers the Kodiak Archipelago and part of the Alaska Peninsula.Kodiak (6,334) onKodiak Island is the largest town and the commercial hub of the area. The Corporation region is very similar to, but not exactly the same area as theKodiak Island Borough, which has a population of about 14,000 people in 11 communities.
Aleut Corporation's lands are on the Aleutian Islands and the western end of the Alaska Peninsula. The Corporation area is exactly the same as the Aleutians East Borough and the Aleutians West Census Area combined.Unalaska/Dutch Harbor (4,283), is the largest town. About 8000 people live in the region, in about a dozen towns, and several military towns.
Natives in Southwest Alaska are mainly CentralYup'ik 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 fewDena'inaAthabaskans near the western shore of Cook Inlet.
Land in Southwest Alaska is owned and managed mainly by the federal government, the state of Alaska, andAlaska Native Regional Corporations including Calista, Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, Aleut, and Koniag. There is little private land, other than that owned by the Native Corporations.The economy rests on resource extraction, subsistence, and government spending.[6]
Fishing, bothcommercial andrecreational, is the mainstay of the economy. Much of the commercial fishing is conducted by non-residents.[6] Kodiak and Unalaska are among the most productive fishing ports in the United States. Thesalmon,trout,king crab, andhalibut fisheries are extremely lucrative.Bristol Bay's commercialsockeye salmon industry is the largest in the world. Approximately 80% of that catch is taken by non-locals.[6] A part of the fishery is processed locally. Only a small share of the value of the harvest is captured in the region, mainly as wages, and taxes and royalties levied by local governments and Native Regional Corporations.
Hunting and othertourism industries are dependable, although small and seasonal, parts of the economy.
Mining, mainly for gold, platinum, and mercury, has been a consistent part of the Southwest Alaska economy since purchase from Russia. Although mining is currently occurring only on a small scale, a controversy rages over a number of proposed resource extraction projects. These include the proposedPebble Mine, which would put a large open pit gold and copper mine at the headwaters of theNushagak andKvichak rivers in theBristol Bay watershed. Also, the federal government is seeking to lift the moratorium onoil drilling leases inBristol Bay.
Most of the smaller settlements rely onsubsistence activities. Most of the area's residents are shareholders in a Native Corporation.
Southwest Alaska is one of the richestsalmon areas in the world, with the world's largest commercial salmon fishery inBristol Bay. It also has one of the highest concentrations of brownbears, feeding on the salmon, as well as berries and other vegetation. Bear watching is a popular tourist attraction atKatmai National Park and Preserve. This area is also home to a number ofcaribou herds - the Mulchatna herd is the third largest in the state.[7] The western limit for bothcaribou andbears is onUnimak Island, first in the Aleutian chain. More westernAleutian Islands have no mammals larger than afox. In the summer, many species of migratory birds nest on the tundra here, and there are many large seabird rookeries in theAleutian Islands.
Only small local road systems exist in Southwest Alaska. Only a few closely adjacent villages are linked by roads. The area is easily accessible only by air, sea, or river.Alaska Airlines 737 passenger jets serveBethel, King Salmon, Dillingham, Adak, Dutch Harbor, and Kodiak. Bethel is also a link between arriving ocean barges carrying freight or fuel and the smaller barges which continue up the Kuskokwim. Aniak, Iliamna and some other communities are accessible via scheduled flights fromAnchorage onPenAir and smaller air carriers. The small carriers provide essential links onward to smaller communities.Alaska Marine Highway ferries connect Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska Peninsula, and a few Aleutian Island communities to the ports ofSouthcentral Alaska.[8] A combination of ocean and riverbarges are important to the communities along the Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers. Snowmachine travel is a critical component of winter transport; an ice road for highway vehicles is used along portions of theKuskokwim River.
roughly from west to east
Southwest Alaska contains numerous state and federalprotected areas. These include:
56°48′00″N162°14′00″W / 56.8000°N 162.2333°W /56.8000; -162.2333
