What We Do
Wildlife conservation is at the heart of the National Wildlife Refuge System. It drives everything on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands and waters managed within the Refuge System, from the purposes for which a national wildlife refuge national wildlife refuge
A national wildlife refuge is typically a contiguous area of land and water managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the conservation and, where appropriate, restoration of fish, wildlife and plant resources and their habitats for the benefit of present and future generations of Americans.
Learn more about national wildlife refuge is established to the recreational activities offered to the resource management tools used. Using conservation best practices, the Refuge System manages Service lands and waters to help ensure the survival of native wildlife species.
Wildlife habitat is managed on Black Coulee National Wildlife Refuge using tools such as prescribed fire, cooperative agriculture, and water control structures.
Management and Conservation
Refuges deploy a host of scientifically sound management tools to address biological challenges. These tools span active water management to wilderness character monitoring, all aimed at ensuring a balanced conservation approach to benefit both wildlife and people. At this field station, our conservation toolbox includes:
Fire Management
Grazing
Water Management
Our Services
Services for Black Coulee National Wildlife Refuge are administered by staff station at Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge.
Our Projects and Research
Research, inventory, and monitoring are at the backbone of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. With science, we can actively learn and adapt management strategies for the betterment of the wildlife and habitat that make up Refuge lands.
Black Coulee National Wildlife Refuge has premier native prairie along with the wetlands, thus providing critical habitat to prairie species. Concern over encroachment of non-native plant species across the tall to mixed grass prairies started the Native Prairie Adaptive Management Study. Black Coulee has one unit enrolled in this study. Each year belt transects are surveyed for vegetation composition, and once the data is entered and analyzed, management actions (grazing, fire, or rest) for the following year are given. With both monitoring and implementing management actions Service employees are learning the impacts on vegetation composition and if certain management actions do indeed improve native habitats.