Established in 1989, Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge protects 130 miles of wetland landscape along the lower Roanoke River in eastern North Carolina. It preserves a large, relatively intact floodplain ecosystem of bottomland hardwood forests, cypress-tupelo sloughs, levee forests, swamps, oxbows, beaver ponds, and blackwater streams typical of the southeastern coastal plain. This broad wetland mosaic supports especially rich fish and birdlife, including waterfowl, neotropical migrant birds, anadromous fish, the endangered shortnose sturgeon, and the largest inland heron rookery in North Carolina. It is also important habitat for white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and black bear, making it a major protected center of biodiversity on the Roanoke floodplain.