Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge is a natural treasure on the northshore of Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans, LA. The refuge has over 18,000 acres of freshwater and brackish marsh, bald cypress-tupelo forest, bayous, hardwood forest hammocks, and pine savannah. The refuge's marshes provide habitat for shorebirds and waterfowl, are critical spawning and nursery habitat for a number of fresh and saltwater species of fish, and help buffer local communities from storm surge. Upland habitat on the refuge provides a stopping place for migratory songbirds and a home for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1994, is located along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain between the towns of Mandeville and Slidell, in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. This refuge is the indigenous homeland of the Acolopissa and Choctaw people, whose descendants are present in the region today. Refuge habitats include lake shoreline, freshwater and intermediate marsh; bald cypress-tupelo forest; bayous; hardwood forest hammocks; and long-leaf pine savannah. These habitats support freshwater and marine fish, shorebirds, wading birds, seventeen species of wintering migratory waterfowl, neotropical songbird migrants and the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
Contact Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge
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Contact Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge
Southeast Louisiana Wildlife Refuges
61389 Hwy. 434
Lacombe, LA 70445
Phone: (985) 882-2000
Service Area
Services provided in:
- Saint Tammany Parish, Louisiana
