Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Monroe, Louisiana, was established in 1997 through a partnership with the city and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under a free 99-year lease. Centered on Black Bayou Lake, it includes swamp, bottomland hardwood forest, and upland pine-hardwood habitats that support alligators, wood ducks, green herons, white-tailed deer, migratory waterfowl, and neotropical songbirds. Conservation work includes reforesting former farmland, managing wetlands, surveying alligator snapping turtle nests, maintaining habitat for a remnant red-cockaded woodpecker cluster, and controlling invasive species. Research, education, and visitor facilities further connect people to the refuge’s landscape and wildlife.