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.
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—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)
“I cannot tell how many times we had to walk on account of falls or rapids. We were expecting all the while that the river would take a final leap and get to smooth water, but there was no improvement this forenoon.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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“I confess I was surprised to find that so many men spent their whole day, ay, their whole lives almost, a-fishing. It is remarkable what a serious business men make of getting their dinners, and how universally shiftlessness and a groveling taste take refuge in a merely ant-like industry. Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant. Of course, viewed from the shore, our pursuits in the country appear not a whit less frivolous.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)