Michael
Chouinard
Refuge Manager
6772 Highway 76 South
Stanton, TN 38069
(731) 772-0501
FAX: (731) 772-7839
E-mail: hatchie@fws.gov
Directions
to Refuge
Fact
Sheet
Hunt
& Fish Regulations
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 Refuge
Facts:
- Established: 1964.
- Acres: 11,556.
- Located entirely within
Haywood County, TN.
- Other management: Conservation
Easement: one in Hardeman County, TN totaling 359.93 acres in two tracts.
- Location: one mile south
of Brownsville, TN on the south bank of 23.5 miles of the state— designated
Hatchie Scenic River. Bisected by I-40 and TN Highway 76 about
50 miles east of Memphis and 130 miles west of Nashville, TN. Headquarter's
office is located at Oneal Lake, 1.5 miles North on Hwy 76 from
Exit 52 or 3 miles South on Hwy 76 from Exit 56.
- Permanent staff: five
- Budget FY05 $451,000.
Natural History:
- About 90 percent of the
Refuge lies within the floodplain of the Hatchie River. The Hatchie
is the last unchannelized river of its type in the Lower Mississippi
River Valley and still functions under near normal wetland cycles. About
9,400 acres of bottomland hardwoods are located on the refuge and are
flooded by headwater flows of the Hatchie.
- The headwaters of the Hatchie
in Mississippi are channelized as are 33 major tributaries.
- Alterations are causing
drastic changes in flooding patterns and deposition of innordinate amounts
of silt and sand in refuge timberlands. Wind deposited soils on the
surrounding highlands with intensive farming practices (cotton) combine
causing erosion rates to soar to as high as 120 tons/acre/year. Current
timber losses amount to about 100 acres per year.
- Concentrations of ducks
(primarily mallards), shorebirds and wading birds.
- Open water 270 acres, wetland
10,000 acres, woodlands 9,800 acres, cropland 1,000 acres, and grasslands
31 acres.
Refuge Objectives:
- Provide forested habitat
for migratory waterfowl and other birds.
- Provide nesting habitat
for wood ducks and hooded merganzers.
- Provide recreation and environmental
education for the public.
- Maintain represenative flora
and fauna characteristic of bottomland hardwood forests of Western Tennessee.
Management Tools:
- Water management for migratory
waterfowl, wading birds, shorebirds and other birds.
- Cooperative farming.
- Prescribed fire.
- Mechanical / chemical control
of noxious plants.
- Deer management with public
hunting.
- Education / interpretation.
- Law enforcement.
- Partnerships.
Public Use Opportunities
- Wildlife observation.
- Hunting, including youth
hunts.
- Fishing, including a prototype
accessible fishing project.
- Photography.
- Boating access to the Hatchie
River.
- Auto tour route.
Calendar of Events
April: spring turkey
hunting.
September-February:
small game hunting.
September-October:
archery deer hunting.
September and December-January: waterfowl hunting
October-November: quota
gun deer hunting
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