Your Guide to Hunting at National Wildlife Refuges cover. Credit: USFWS

Comprehensive Hunting Information Available at Click of  a Computer Mouse

There are hunting programs available on 33 National Wildlife Refuges in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Additionally, there are over 300 hunting programs available nationwide. National Wildlife Refuges present a diversity of hunting opportunities from deer and big game, to waterfowl and turkey, to upland birds and small game.

Finding these terrific hunting opportunities is easy with, Your Guide to Hunting at National Wildlife Refuges, the first comprehensive compilation of all hunting programs within the National Wildlife Refuge System.

By using the guide, hunters can learn what species are available to be hunted at individual refuges, The Guide also provides directions to each wildlife refuge, permit requirements and information about special hunts for youth hunters and hunters with disabilities.

Refuge hunts are carefully managed to give hunters a quality experience according to four guiding principles: 1) to manage wildlife populations consistent with approved management plans, 2) to promote visitor understanding and appreciation for America’s natural wildlife resources, 3) to provide quality recreational and educational experiences and 4) to minimize conflicts with visitors participating in other wildlife-dependent recreational activities.

View the Guide

Find a Refuge Near You

Arizona Refuges
New Mexico Refuges
Texas Refuges
Oklahoma Refuges

Refuges thoughout the nation

Fish & Wildlife Service Partners with Private Landowners to Protect Prairie Chickens

Male lesser prairie-chicken. Photo credit:  Nancy Riley, USFWS

April 2008
Because of the dramatic decline in lesser prairie-chicken numbers over the last fifty years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has identified the lesser prairie-chicken as a Candidate Species for Federal listing under the authority of the Endangered Species Act. Researchers studying mortality factors for the birds in the southwestern United States found that collisions (mainly with fences) account for 35 percent of the hen mortalities in New Mexico. During the 7th Annual Prairie Chicken Festival in Milnesand, New Mexico, this April, the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program installed three miles of fence markers on private landowners’ fences in the heart of the New Mexico lesser prairie-chicken population in an effort to reduce adult hen mortality and improve nesting and brood-rearing success. Read the complete article by Nancy Riley.

Climate Change

October 2008
Climate change is already affecting fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats around the globe. The Service's Southwest Region has been working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the academic community, and other natural resource management agencies and interest groups to translate available and emerging science into concrete actions that reduce the impacts of a changing climate on the broadly diverse ecosystems in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. In the coming months, we will be initiating innovative climate change projects in several key southwestern habitats. Visit our Climate Change in the Southwestern U.S. page to find out more!

Habitat Restoration Project Yields More Pecos Sunflowers

October 2008
The Pecos sunflower is a rare wetland annual plant that grows on wet, alkaline soils at spring seeps, wet meadows and pond margins in New Mexico and Texas.  New Mexico State Forestry Division purchased and restored 116 acres near Santa Rosa, New Mexico to protect the rare Pecos sunflower.  The Service gave a grant of $75,000 under their Recovery Land Acquisition program and the New Mexico Dept. of Transportation granted the other $75,000 to purchase the cienega.  The attached report illustrates with ‘before and after’ photos how a natural area is restored to achieve the desired effect – lots of sunflowers.

"Natural cienega wetlands are very rare and threatened habitats in New Mexico,” said State Forestry Division’s Rare and Endangered Plant Program Manager Bob Sivinski.  “A cienega is like an oasis in a desert that provides habitat for many unique native plants and animals. By preserving Blue Hole Cienega, we’re protecting a rare habitat and providing a way to help the Pecos Sunflower recover its population. Our goal is to be able to remove this plant from the endangered and threatened lists.”

Blue Hole Cienega

Wildlife Refuges Severely Impacted by Hurricane Ike:
Some Facilities Completely Lost, Remain Closed to Public

September 2008
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is reporting that due to impacts caused by Hurricane Ike, four National Wildlife Refuges (Refuge) on the Texas Gulf Coast remain closed to the public. The Texas Chenier Plains Complex, which includes Anahuac, Texas Point, Moody, and McFaddin Refuges, sustained a direct hit from the hurricane and almost total destruction of all facilities.

Until further notice, all public activities on these four refuges are being suspended. This includes public visitation, and all previously scheduled events and hunts.

Read More

Scientists, Land Managers Grapple with Effects of Climate Change on Southwest Wildlife

August 19, 2008
Scientists and land managers will gather in Tucson this week at a climate change workshop. Sponsored by the Southwest and California/Nevada Regions of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Region, the workshop will address the effects of a changing climate on habitat and wildlife in arid and semiarid ecosystems.
Press Release
What else the Fish and Wildlife Service is Doing to Address Climate Change
A Message from Service Director H. Dale Hall on Climate Change

Please see our National Fish and Wildlife Service Web site for more information on our activities in other areas of the country.

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