Refuge Facts:

• Established: July 7,1938 by Executive Order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the first National Wildlife Refuge placed on a multi-purpose reservoir.
• Acres: 35,000
• Acres owned by USFWS in fee title: 8,323
• Current year budget (FY 06): $2,307,600
• Location: Wheeler NWR is located between Decatur and Huntsville in the Tennessee River Valley of northern Alabama.
• Annual Visitors: 650,000
• Wildlife: Home to Alabama's largest wintering duck population and supports the southern-most and Alabama's only concentration of wintering Canada geese (Southern James Bay Population).
• Habitats: Bottomland hardwoods, moist soil units, riparian woodlands, back water embayments, pine uplands, and croplands provide habitat for a diversity of wildlife.