Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center {Alaska}

Right off the Seward Highway, near Girdwood Alaska, is the Wildlife Conservation Center. This non-profit organization is dedicated to the care of orphaned or injured animals and then helping to get them back to their natural habitat. Visiting the center is an incredible experience. To get to see such beautiful animals up close such as moose, elk, caribou, bison, fox, bears, and eagles is amazing. But also to know that these animals are only here temporarily with the ultimate goal to put them back in the wild where they belong. Animals are given lots of space to run and roam, but there are also shelters where the workers can care for them. For those animals that would unable to survive on their own in the wild because of injury or never learning to fend for themselves, then the center becomes their permanent home. One of the big efforts that the center is involved in is reintroducing the wood bison to Alaska-where previously the bison was very prevalent to the area it has been almost 100 years since they have roamed these lands. They have brought in wood bison from parts of Canada and are working to repopulate their numbers in Alaska. Now in a joint effort between the conservation center and other groups including the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the wood bison is coming back to the wilds of Alaska. The center offers a number of different education programs for any age level and they want visitors to feel like they can go through no matter their ability level. Visiting the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center brings visitors up close to the beautiful animals set against the wild Alaskan mountains and you can’t help but be inspired by it all.