Dwight Cooley
Project Leader
2700 Refuge Headquarters Rd.
Decatur, AL 35603
(256) 353-7243
FAX: (256) 340-9728
E-mail:wheeler@fws.gov
Welcome
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Sauta Cave NWR is one of eleven National Wildlife Refuges located in the State of Alabama.
Refuge Facts:
- Established: Sauta Cave NWR was purchased in 1978 “... to conserve (A) fish or wildlife which are listed as endangered species or threatened species... or (B) plants... U.S.C. 1534 (Endangered Species Act of 1973).”
- Acres: 264
- Formerly known as: Blowing Wind Cave
- Location: Sauta Cave is located just above the Sauty Creek embayment of TVA’s Guntersville Reservoir, 7 miles west of Scottsboro, AL.
- Annual Visitors: 5,000
- Administered by: Sauta Cave is a satellite Refuge of Wheeler NWR in nearby Decatur, AL. Sauta Cave NWR is currently unstaffed and all management activities are carried out by Wheeler NWR staff.
- Wildlife: It serves as a minor hibernation cave for federally endangered gray and Indiana bats and historically a major maternity cave for gray bats. The most recent a summer emergence count documented more than 300,000 - 400,000 gray bats. In addition to the rare fauna within the cave, the federally threatened Price's potato bean occurs on the Refuge.
- Habitats: Sauta Cave NWR consists of 264 acres of hardwoods. There are two entrances into the cave on the Refuge but they are closed to the public.
