Grand Cote National Wildlife Refuge

Infobox Protected area
name = Grand Cote National Wildlife Refuge
iucn_category = IV


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location = Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana
nearest_city = Marksville, Louisiana
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area = 6,000 acre (24 km²)
established = 1989
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governing_body = U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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: "For the coastal region of Senegal, see Grand Côte"

The Grand Cote National Wildlife Refuge ( _fr. Réserve Naturelle Faunique Nationale du Grand- Côte) was established in 1989 as part of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. It is a convert|6000|acre|km2|sing=on reserve located in Avoyelles Parish, near Marksville, Louisiana, in the United States.

Natural History

Grand Cote National Wildlife Refuge was once part of the large contiguous Mississippi River bottomland hardwood forest. Topography of the refuge is characterized by a large depressional basin that fills with shallow water from winter rains and backwater flooding.

During the seventies, the area that would become Grand Cote Refuge was cleared and leveed for agricultural purposes. The area was poorly suited for farming, but provided ideal shallow flooded habitat preferred by many waterfowl and shorebird species.

Habitat management objectives are centered around providing shallow flooded habitats for waterfowl, shorebirds, and wading birds during August through March. A special emphasis is placed on providing shallow flooded rive; native moist soil plant fields preferred by northern pintails.

Habitat found on the refuge include: convert|420|acre|km2 forest, convert|2485|acre|km2 reforestation, convert|2040|acre|km2 cropland, convert|830|acre|km2 moist soil and convert|300|acre|km2 of permanent water.

Underlying soils are the typical poorly drained, nutrient-rich, clays associated with a large river floodplain. These soils are capable of supporting large numbers of resident and migratory wildlife.

ee also

*National Wildlife Refuge

References

External links

* [http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=43696 Grand Cote at the US Fish and Wildlife Service] , Department of the Interior
* [http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPACT/2004/February/Day-19/i3491.htm U.S. Environmental Protection Agency site on Grand Cote]