Southwest Alaska

Southwest Alaska includes a huge swath of terrain 500 miles (800 km) from the western Bering Sea coast to Cook 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.

Southwest Alaska encompasses, roughly from west to east: the Pribilof Islands, Nunivak Island and other Bering Sea islands lying west of the Alaska coast and east of the Russian coast; the immense combined delta of the Yukon River and Kuskokwim River; hundreds of miles of interior highlands, including the lower and middle Kuskokwim drainages; the entire watersheds of Goodnews Bay and Bristol Bay and other parts of the southern coast, including mountain ranges and great interior lakes including the Wood-Tikchik Lakes, Lake Iliamna, and Lake Clark; the western heights of the Alaska Range, and its continuation southward as the Aleutian Range along the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands.

Southwest Alaska consists roughly of the Aleutians East, Bristol Bay, Kodiak Island, Lake and Peninsula boroughs, plus the portion of the Kenai Peninsula Borough that lies west of Cook Inlet; along with the Aleutians West, Bethel, Dillingham, and Kusilvak census areas.

Volcanic eruptions and mountain-building are active along the Ring of Fire, while in far western Alaska lava fields only a few thousand years old are common.

The Calista 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.

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.

In the summer, many species of migratory birds nest on the tundra here, and there are many large seabird rookeries in the Aleutian Islands.

Alaska Airlines 737 passenger jets serve Bethel, King Salmon, Dillingham, Adak, Dutch Harbor, and Kodiak.

Aniak, Iliamna and some other communities are accessible via scheduled flights from Anchorage on PenAir and smaller air carriers.

Snowmachine travel is a critical component of winter transport; an ice road for highway vehicles is used along portions of the Kuskokwim River.

roughly from west to east Southwest Alaska contains numerous state and federal protected areas.