Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve spans the Brooks Range of north-central Alaska covering 8.5 million acres of tundra and boreal forest wilderness. The crest of the Brooks Range divides streams that flow north across the North Slope into the Arctic Ocean from those that flow to the south and west into the Kobuk and Yukon rivers. Southerly foothills step into waves of mountains rising to elevations of 4,000 feet that culminate in limestone or granite peaks over 7,000 feet. High in these rugged mountains are bands of Dall’s sheep, an important subsistence species for local residents. As an alpine-adapted and relatively non-migratory species, they are good indicators of local environmental change. Most of the migratory birds that breed in the park are species that winter at North American mid-latitudes. Others fly from as far away as Central and South America, southeastern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
A herd of caribou make their spring migration through the Brooks Range valleys in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.
What We Monitor in Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve
