Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge

Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1992 to preserve waterfowl habitat and hardwood forest of the lower Mississippi river. The refuge is located in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, southwest of Vidalia, Louisiana. It is named for the state-designated scenic river of Bayou Cocodrie. The Nature Conservancy purchased an core tract in 1991 from the Fisher Lumber Company, a subsidiary of General Motors Corporation. The Conservancy then sold the land to the US Fish and Wildlife Service over a span of five years. The bottomland hardwoods at Bayou Cocodrie have been noted as some of the last remaining, least disturbed timber of what historically was once a vast hardwood forest along the Mississippi River from Illinois to Louisiana.