Basic Refuge Facts

• Established: March 14, 1984.
• Size: 152,000 acres lying on the mainland portions of Dare and Hyde Counties, North Carolina.
• Roughly 28 miles north to south and 15 miles east to west. Bordered on the west by the Alligator River and the Intracoastal Waterway; on the north by Albemarle Sound; on the east by Croatan and Pamlico Sounds; and on the south by Long Shoal River and corporate farmland. Administers Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge as a part of complex; Alligator River Manager supervises the Mackay Island, Currituck, and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Managers.
• Refuge staff and planners have finished the Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for Alligator River NWR. For more information visit the Comprehensive Conservation Plan Page.
  
  Financial Impact of the Refuge:
  
• Serves as a gateway to other eastern North Carolina refuges, encouraging visitors to venture inland into the counties with fewer economic advantages.
• 33-person staff (For both Alligator River and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuges)
• 35,000 visitors annually.
• Budget $4 million.
• Attracts visitors worldwide for red wolf howling programs.