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Article: Alaska: a great land for wildlife.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Endangered Species Update
- Article date:
- March 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Alaska, the name given our largest state, comes from an Aleut word, Alashka, meaning "great land." Alaska's national parks are indeed a great land for wildlife. More than 54 million acres (21.8 million hectares) support most of the state's native species at incredible levels of abundance. Alaska contains 65 percent of the National Park System's total land area but only about one percent of the species listed under the Endangered Species Act.
While many of Alaska's parks still have not been inventoried for wildlife and plants, surveys to fill the gaps have begun under the National Park Service's Natural Resource Challenge. (See "Endangered Species and the National ...