Basic Refuge Facts

• Established: March 14, 1984.
• Size: 152,000 acres lying on the mainland portions of Dare and Hyde Counties, North Carolina.
• Roughly 28 miles north to south and 15 miles east to west. Bordered on the west by the Alligator River and the Intracoastal Waterway; on the north by Albemarle Sound; on the east by Croatan and Pamlico Sounds; and on the south by Long Shoal River and corporate farmland. Administers Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge as a part of complex; Alligator River Manager supervises the Mackay Island, Currituck, and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Managers.
• Refuge staff and planners have finished the Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for Alligator River NWR. For more information visit the Comprehensive Conservation Plan Home Page or read the FINAL Comprehensive Conservation Plan here.
  
  Financial Impact of the Refuge:
  
• Serves as a gateway to other eastern North Carolina refuges, encouraging visitors to venture inland into the counties with fewer economic advantages.
• 33-person staff (For both Alligator River and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuges)
• 35,000 visitors annually.
• Budget $4 million.
• Attracts visitors worldwide for red wolf howling programs.