The White River National Wildlife Refuge is a 160,000 acres (650 km2) wildlife refuge located in Desha, Monroe, Phillips, and Arkansas counties in the U.S. state of Arkansas. The refuge is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
White River National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1935. The refuge is 3 to 10 miles (4.8 to 16 km) wide and encompassing 90 miles (140 km) of the lower 100 miles (160 km) of the White River. It also includes 3 miles (4.8 km) of the Arkansas Post Canal which is part of the Army Corps of Engineers' McClellan-Kerr Navigation System on the Arkansas River.
The refuge has the largest concentration of wintering mallard ducks in the Mississippi Flyway. It also has large concentrations of snow and Canada geese. The refuge is home to a population of black bears and four active bald eagle nests. It is believed by some to host one of the last populations of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird variously considered extinct or nearly so.
The refuge lies with the Mississippi lowland forests ecoregion. Within the refuge, the Sugarberry Natural Area includes a 973 acres (394 ha) old-growth bottomland hardwood forest of varied composition. The area contains four forest types: American Sweetgum, Nuttall's Oak, Willow Oak; Sugarberry, American Elm, Green Ash; American Sycamore, Pecan, American Elm; and Baldcypress.
The refuge has 356 natural and man-made lakes which make up 4,000 acres (16 km2) of the refuge. There are 154,000 acres (620 km2) of forestland, 900 acres (3.6 km2) of agricultural land, and 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of grassland.
The refuge is classified as a Wetland of International Importance.
Famous quotes containing the words white, river, national, wildlife and/or refuge:
“the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer,”
—Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
“The mountain may be approached more easily and directly on horseback and on foot from the northeast side, by the Aroostook road, and the Wassataquoik River; but in that case you see much less of the wilderness, none of the glorious river and lake scenery, and have no experience of the batteau and the boatman’s life.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Curiosity, easily frightened, takes refuge in puzzles, murder mysteries, and spectator sports.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)