Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge

The Ouachita River bisects over 40,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forest, upland pine, and shrub swamp in Union and Morehouse parishes—one of the last strongholds for Louisiana black bear and the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Established in 1978, the refuge spans eighteen miles long and up to ten miles wide: over 14,500 acres of bottomland hardwoods, 5,000 acres of upland forest, 3,000 acres of shrub and wooded swamp, 16,000 acres of reforested farmland, and 2,000 acres of open water. Eighty percent of the refuge floods December through May. The river's wide floodplain, characterized by alluvial soils, now shelters tens of thousands of wintering ducks and geese, concentrations of wading birds and raptors, and a small population of bald eagles. On the western uplands, prescribed fire and selective thinning maintain the open pine understory the woodpecker requires. Managers install artificial cavity inserts, band birds, and occasionally transplant individuals to sustain breeding colonies. The refuge manipulates water levels in nearly a thousand acres of moist-soil wetland to produce wild millets, grasses, and sedges—high-quality natural foods for waterfowl and shorebirds. Cooperative farming occurs on rotation to supplement what the land grows on its own. Wood ducks use nest boxes. Alligators, deer, turkey, squirrels, and beaver occupy territories throughout. Go in winter when the bottomlands flood and the sky fills. The refuge is one of four in the North Louisiana complex. On the east side, reforestation has returned bottomland hardwoods to former farmland, with emphasis on the species that grew there historically. You're watching habitat recover—the forest coming back to what the floodplain once carried.