Alabama National Wildlife Refuges Index
ALABAMA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge
This coastal refuge sits on the Fort Morgan peninsula, 10 miles west of the city of Gulf Shores in Baldwin County.
Key Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Located near the city of Florence in Limestone County, Key Cave NWR was established in 1997 as an outpost of Wheeler NWR to protect critical habitat for the endangered Alabama cavefish, a small, eyeless fish found nowhere else in the world.
Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge
This refuge, located east of West Blocton, Bibb County, protects the largest remaining stand of the rare and showy Cahaba lily and is home to more than 60 endangered or threatened plant and animal species.
Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge
This 9,000-acre refuge near Anniston, in Calhoun County, was established in 2003 on the grounds of the former Fort McClellan army base after the military installation was closed.
Choctaw National Wildlife Refuge
This 4,218-acre refuge lies 80 miles north of Mobile on the Tombigbee River in Mobile County. The refuge was established in 1964 from land associated with the Coffeeville Lock and Dam and is a mixture of lowland lakes, sloughs, and bottomland hardwoods.
Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Sauta Cave, set among 264 acres north of the Guntersville Reservoir in Jackson County, was purchased in 1978 to protect the habitat of resident populations of federally endangered gray and Indiana bats.
Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge
The Eufaula refuge is located along the Chattahoochee River in east-central Alabama and west-central Georgia, with its centerpiece being Lake Eufaula, an impoundment of the Chattahoochee River.
Watercress Darter National Wildlife Refuge
Alabama’s smallest NWR, at 23 acres, is located near Bessemer in Jefferson County and was established in 1980 to protect the endangered watercress darter, a small, colorful fish that measures about two inches in length.
Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge
This 199-acre refuge in Jackson County, near Gurley, Madison County, was established in 1981 to protect federally endangered gray and Indiana bats.
Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge
Alabama’s largest national wildlife refuge is located in north Alabama along the banks of the Tennessee River near Decatur in north-central Morgan County. The refuge was established in 1938 to provide habitat for wintering and migrating birds.
Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Alabama shares this refuge with neighboring Mississippi. Grand Bay’s 10,188 acres straddle the state line and are located along the Gulf Coast. Along with Bon Secour NWR and Mississippi’s Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR, Grand Bay NWR is part of the federal Gulf Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex.