Access is mainly via air, although boats, snowmobiles and dogsleds are also used in specific seasons. Travelers to these areas should be aware that there are no roads, facilities or services. Avoid trespassing on private land. Headquartered in Kotzebue, but also accessible from other Northwest Alaska villages, are Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Kobuk Valley National Park, Noatak National Preserve, and Selawik National Wildlife Preserve. In addition, Gates of the Arctic National Park, National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have headquarters in Fairbanks.
Many residents rely on subsistence hunting.
Avoid private lands unless permission to use is given. The refuge contains one of the most diverse combinations of plants, wildlife, habitats and landforms in the world. It is separated from Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve only by a wide corridor of undeveloped state-selected land. ANWR, the subject of extensive debate over proposed oil exploration, is home to Free-roaming herds of musk ox, Dall sheep, and packs of wolves, plus wolverine, and polar, black and brown bear. Three national wild rivers, the Ivishak, Sheenjek and Wind, arise on and flow through the refuge.