THE BETHEL CENSUS AREA LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Subarctic Coastal Plains setting.
Bethel Census Area has 40,654.9 square miles of land in Alaska. 5 mapped landscape regions meet across Bethel Census Area: Subarctic Coastal Plains, Ahklun and Kilbuck Mountains, Interior Forested Lowlands and Uplands, among others.
Coastal plains and broad river deltas contain many lakes and winding channels. Wet tundra landscapes reflect the meeting of maritime and continental influences in western Alaska.
Regional context: Subarctic Coastal Plains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Bethel Census Area intersects 5 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Subarctic Coastal Plains34.1%
- Ahklun and Kilbuck Mountains27.8%
- Interior Forested Lowlands and Uplands19.8%
- Interior Bottomlands9.7%
- Alaska Range8.7%
Ahklun and Kilbuck Mountains in Bethel Census Area
Rugged mountain groups are separated by broad valleys and lowlands in southwestern Alaska. Tundra dominates higher ground, with shrubs and some forest in sheltered valleys.
Read the regional source ↗Interior Forested Lowlands and Uplands in Bethel Census Area
Interior Alaska's lowlands and uplands form a varied mosaic of spruce, hardwoods and wet areas. Local relief, surface water and ground conditions create substantial differences across this broad inland region.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Bethel Census Area
The atlas lists 35 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Bethel Census Area, including Tuntutuliak, Crooked Creek, Nightmute. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Bethel Census Area by land and water
The Census records 4,900.7 square miles of water within Bethel Census Area, or 10.8% of its total area. That share is close to Bethel Census Area’s 10.8%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Bethel Census Area has 13,865.9 times the land area of nearby Tuluksak CDP (2.93 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Dillingham Census Area, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kusilvak Census Area, Lake and Peninsula Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area within Alaska. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.