White River National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge, Established 1935, Renamed The Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge. Around 160,000 Acres Holding One Of The Largest Remaining Tracts Of Bottomland Hardwood Forest In North America, And Part Of A Ramsar Wetland Of International Importance. · St. Charles, Arkansas

The White River refuge protects about a hundred and sixty thousand acres of bottomland hardwood along the lower White, and it is one of the largest surviving pieces of a forest that once ran the length of the Mississippi valley and has been cleared almost everywhere else. The Big Woods, as the Delta calls it, floods for months at a time - the refuge is a river as much as a forest, and in a wet spring most of it is under water and reachable only by boat. That flooding is the point: it is what makes this one of the most important wintering grounds for mallards in North America, with hundreds of thousands of ducks on it, and what kept the trees standing when the surrounding Delta was turned into rice fields. It is also where the ivory-billed woodpecker was reported in 2004, which brought the world's birders here for a season. It is a hard place to visit casually and a remarkable one if you make the effort.

White River National Wildlife Refuge, Arkansas Delta, St. Charles, Arkansas, United States

Open daylight hours year-round with no entrance fee. The visitor centre at St. Charles keeps weekday hours plus limited weekend hours and reduces them in winter. Access changes completely with the water: large parts of the refuge flood from winter into early summer and roads, trails and campsites close for months at a time, while autumn is when the ground is driest and most open. Waterfowl hunting seasons close sections from late autumn into winter. Check water levels and the current closure map before driving out.

White River National Wildlife Refuge on Spottos · Explore more places on Spottos