Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1937 in southwestern Louisiana, protects nearly 35,000 acres of freshwater marsh, open water, managed habitat, farmland, and restored prairie across Cameron and Evangeline Parishes. Created as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife, it became a key bird refuge of coastal Louisiana, especially for wintering ducks and geese. Its habitats support abundant marsh wildlife, including nesting wading birds, alligators, otters, and several threatened or endangered species. Intensive water management, farming agreements, prairie restoration, wilderness protection, and efforts to limit oil and gas disturbance have shaped it as both a conservation landscape and a public recreation area.