Welcome to the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge

Located in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge (CSNWR) encompasses nearly 46,000 acres and is one of over 500 refuges within the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System. The refuge was established in 1939 to restore and maintain the rapidly diminishing longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem. On the refuge, rolling beds of sandy soils, extensive longleaf pine forest, thirty man-made lakes, and numerous small creeks and tributaries serve as habitat to support more than 190 species of birds, 42 species of mammals, 41 species of reptiles, 25 species of amphibians, and over 750 plant species. The refuge employs various management techniques, including prescribed burning, to maintain this ecosystem, and also supports the largest population of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker on service-owned lands. To learn more about CSNWR, click on any of the links on this page or explore our brochures located under the Publications tab to the left.

 

Management of the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem

The Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge is one of the southeast's premier sites for viewing the rapidly diminishing longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem. Learn more about this important forest resource and how Refuge personnel are using prescribed burns and other management techniques to grow and maintain these forests.

 

What's New

Click on the links below to find out about refuge events and current happenings:

• Read the latest edition of Sandhills Refuge News
• Hunter Education at Carolina Sandhills NWR
• Hunt dates, regulations, and hunter information
• News Releases
• Sandhills Seasons

Learn More...

• South Carolina's wildlife
• Prescribed Fire Season Begins on Refuge
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's cost sharing opportunities to restore longleaf pines to private lands.