Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge on the Land Conservation Assistance Network

Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge
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last updated: April 2022

Located in Louisiana's “Cajun Country,” Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge conserves over 15,000 acres of once vast lower Mississippi alluvial bottomland hardwood forest and bald cypress tupelo swamp habitats. The Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge’s mix of scenic bayous, owbow lakes, swamps, and bottomland hardwood forest is a great place to hunt, fish, boat, bird watch, paddle, or just plain enjoy the scenery.

The refuge's conservation objective is to sustain representative habitats of this region — bottomland hardwood forests, cypress-tupelo swamps, bayous, and wetlands — to provide high quality and diverse habitat to support neotropical songbirds, the Louisiana black bear, waterfowl, and other native fish and wildlife species.

Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bayou Des Ourses Area combine to form a 44,000 acre tract of wildlands, collectively referred to as the Sherburne Complex. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries owns 11,780 acres, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service owns 15,220 acres, and the remaining 17,000 acres is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The complex is managed as one unit by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Atchafalaya means long river in the language of the indigenous people of the area. Tribes with a history in the Atchafalaya Basin include the Chitimacha, Attakapas, Opelousa, Houma, Choctaw, Coushatta and Alabama, Tunica-Biloxi and Avoyel, and Tensas.

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