Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Black Bayou Lake lies inside the city limits of Monroe, off US 165 on the north side. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created the refuge in 1997 through a partnership with the city, which owns the lake; the Service holds a free 99-year lease to manage it. The refuge's own page gives the lake as 1,600 acres. About 800 acres of former farmland have been replanted with eleven species of bottomland hardwood.

Most visits start at the visitor center and conservation learning center, a restored planter's house on a 40-acre environmental education center. It has exhibits, an amphitheater, a pavilion, an observation deck with a spotting scope, and a boat launch. A raised boardwalk a mile long winds through the bottomland, and a 400-foot wildlife pier reaches out over the lake. The grounds also have an arboretum of more than 100 native Louisiana woody plants and a prairie demonstration area, and the refuge counts more than 7 miles of trails for hiking and biking.

The refuge lists American alligators, anhingas, great blue herons, green herons, wood ducks, prothonotary warblers, broad-banded water snakes and white-tailed deer. Alligator snapping turtles nest on the shore, and staff run nest box programs for wood ducks and prothonotary warblers. Email blackbayoulake@fws.gov for current hours and fees; a portable toilet at the boat ramp is available even when the buildings are closed.