Welcome to the Farallon NWR!

Southeast Farallon Island looking toward San Francisco Photo by Jesse Irwin/USFWS

The Farallon Islands often conjure up images of unimaginable bounty of avian and mammalian wildlife. These rocky islands located 28 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge in California can be described through numerous superlatives. It contains the largest seabird nesting colony south of Alaska; it holds the largest colony of western gulls in the world; and it supports half the world's population of Ashy storm-petrels.

Created in 1909 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge was established to protect seabirds and marine mammals. Three groups of small islands comprise the refuge. Southeast Farallon Island is the largest island at 70 acres and was added to the refuge in 1969.

The Farallon National Wildlife Refuge is one of seven National Wildlife Refuges in the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and is just one of 540 refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Press Releases:
Service Releases Draft Farallon National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan and Environmental Assessment for Public Review and Comment (Dec 22, 2008)

New Film Explores Farallon Refuge’s Human History and Conservation Future (Dec 9, 2008)

Download the Brochure (Requires Acrobat Reader) 4.8MB

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For more information contact:
San Francisco Bay
National Wildlife Refuge Complex
9500 Thornton Ave
Newark, CA 94560

Phone: 510-792-0222
or e-mail us at San Francisco Bay NWRC