May 5, 2022 - Yukon Delta Wildlife Refuge

Yukon Delta
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Despite springtime’s lengthening daylight, most of Alaska’s Yukon Delta
National Wildlife Refuge retains a late-winter appearance as the major
rivers, lakes and wetlands remain coated with ice in early May 2022.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA's Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of an icy spring day
on the refuge on May 3.

Nighttime low temperatures have been staying below freezing in late
April and early May this year, but with daylight temperatures
consistently rising about 10˚F above freezing across most of the
refuge, ice breakup across the refuge will soon begin. In most years,
ice breakup begins in late April or May and is completed by late May.

The Yukon River originates in British Columbia, Canada, and flows
through Yukon Territory before entering the U.S. state of Alaska. As
the Yukon River nears the Bering Sea, it spreads out in braided
meanders, creating a vast delta in the low-lying coastal tundra plain.
In the south, the meanders of the Kuskokwim River add to the wetlands
of the Yukon Delta. The meanders of the two major rivers feed a
multitude of channels, coastal ponds, lakes, and wetland, creating a
unique environment that is important and vital habitat for waterfowl,
migratory, and breeding birds as well as provides critical spawning
habitat for Pacific salmon species. The coastal waters are home to a
variety of marine mammals, including whales that swim through the
Bering Sea during migration. In the drier uplands, animals such as
bear, caribou, moose, wolves and muskox thrive.

The Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge spans 19.16 million acres
(77,500 square km), making it the second-largest National Wildlife
Refuge in the United States (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the
largest). The importance of preserving this delta and adjacent lands of
southwestern Alaska was first officially recognized when President
Theodore Roosevelt first created refuge lands in the area in 1909. In
1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act into law, which consolidated existing refuges, added
more protected lands, and created the Yukon Delta National Wildlife
Reserve.

Not only is the Yukon Delta an important home for wildlife, it is one
of the most populated rural areas in Alaska, with over 50 Indigenous
communities. As the ancestral home of the Yup’ik, Cup’ik, and Deg
Xit'an people of Alaska, this is a region rich in culture, where
residents depend on the wildland, waters, and wildlife to support an
active subsistence way of life. Unlike many wildlife refuges, which
focus solely on the wildlife and habitat within their boundaries, goals
of the Yukon Delta Wildlife Refuge focus not only on conserving fish
and wildlife populations and their habitats in their natural diversity,
but also to provide the opportunity for continued subsistence uses by
local residents.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 5/3/2022
Resolutions: 1km (191.6 KB), 500m (591.9 KB), 250m (1.6 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-05-05

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