YCC worker Iris Blakeslee with Kodiak Brown Bear in background.

Credit: Shelly Lawson / USFWS

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge in the Kodiak Archipelago in southwestern Alaska, United States.

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge includes the southwestern two-thirds of Kodiak Island, Uganik Island, the Red Peaks area of Afognak Island and all of Ban Island in the archipelago. It encompasses 1,990,418 acres (8,054.94 km2).[2] The refuge is administered from offices in Kodiak.

The refuge contains seven major rivers and about 100 streams. It is a spawning ground for all six species of Pacific Ocean salmon, trout and several other fish species, as well as a nesting ground for 250 species of bird, many of which feed on salmon. The refuge has only six native species of mammals: Kodiak brown bear, red fox, river otter, ermine, little brown bat and tundra vole. The non-native mammals Sitka deer, mountain goat, Roosevelt elk, snowshoe hare and beaver were introduced to the archipelago between the 1920s and 1950s and are now hunted and trapped.

The climate of the refuge is that of southern Alaska, mild and rainy. Many areas in the refuge are densely forested with Sitka Spruce at lower elevations. There are grasslands in drier areas and at higher elevations. The refuge contains several small glaciers.