Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge protects a vast wetland landscape on North Carolina’s Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula, including the former Pungo refuge and extensive pocosin peat wetlands. Established in 1990, it has become a major conservation area along the Atlantic Flyway, supporting more than 200 bird species, large winter concentrations of waterfowl, and animals such as black bear, alligator, bobcat, river otter, mink, and the endangered red wolf. The refuge also preserves a deep human past, from ancient dugout canoes and Algonquian peoples to later canal-building projects that altered the wetlands. Today it remains important for habitat, restoration, and the protection of eastern North Carolina’s wetland ecology.

North Carolina · United States