Habitat

Credit: USFWS Wooded Area

Great Swamp was established as an area to provide migration, nesting and feeding habitat for migratory birds. The western half of the Refuge is intensively managed to maintain optimum habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. Water levels are regulated; grasslands and brush are mowed periodically to maintain habitat and species diversity; nesting structures for wood ducks, bluebirds, and other birds are provided; other habitat management practices are employed; and research studies are conducted.

The eastern half of the Refuge was designated by Congress as a National Wilderness Area in 1968. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service worked hard to remove remaining traces of man such as roads, old house sites and dumps. The wilderness area contains bottomland floodplain forest and about 100 ha of open water that provides quality habitat for a great variety of plants and animals.

The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is actively involved in acquiring property from private and public landowners. Once these properties are acquired, the Great Swamp NWR restores the land to upland habitat. This process includes demolishing the structures on the property, removal of the cement foundations, clearing of impermeable ground covers and reseeding the land with native grasses. Habitat restoration and management is an ongoing process throughout the management area and is not restricted to newly acquired properties.