Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is located only 26 miles west of New York City’s Times Square. It is a 12-square-mile natural oasis in an area that is mostly suburban, making the refuge an outstanding area for migrating waterfowl to stop, rest and feed on their migration.

One of the easiest ways that anyone can support bird habitat conservation is by buying duck stamps.

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge contains some of the most important wildlife habitat in the mid-Atlantic region. At near 113,000 acres, the refuge is the largest intact remnant of a vast swamp that once covered more than one million acres.

This year marks 40 years that the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge has conserved and protected thousands of acres in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. The refuge is the largest intact remnant of a vast habitat that once covered more than one million acres of the area.

Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge contains some of the most important wildlife habitat in the mid-Atlantic region. At near 113,000 acres, the refuge is the largest intact remnant of a vast swamp that once covered more than one million acres.

Just 26 miles as the crow flies from New York City, Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge attracts an estimated 185,000 visitors a year to its 7,855 acres. The refuge hosts a four-day muzzleloader and shotgun deer hunt and a one-day youth deer hunt each year, in accordance with state and refuge-specific regulations.

Nov 4, 2024 · At the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey, a group of five youth from GWE and five veterans from the Lenape NWRC and Friends of Great Swamp NWR planted native flora in a newly created pollinator meadow adjacent to the refuge Visitor Center.

In 2011, a lightning bolt touched down in Great Dismal Swamp, igniting a fire that sizzled for 111 days. The Lateral West Fire burned through 6,500 acres of the refuge and deep into the peat. Even a foot of rain, dumped by Hurricane Irene, couldn’t put it out.

Today, Great Swamp provides a home to mice, moles, skunks, raccoons, otters, foxes, white-tailed deer, the endangered Indiana bat, and other mammals. Migratory birds see Great Swamp as a place to nest and rest.

He would work at several refuges, before returning to Great Swamp, where he only planned on staying three to five years, but turned into thirty. Mr. Koch would also be the first recipient of the National Wildlife Refuge System Wilderness Legacy Award.