Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge is a part of the U.S. system of

National Wildlife Refuge National Wildlife Refuge System is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to ...

s consisting of an area of Northwest Tennessee and Western Kentucky that consists primarily of a buffer zone around Reelfoot Lake,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...

's only large natural lake. It formed after the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–1812 and is one of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

Basin's richest locations for waterfowl, aquatic life, and other wildlife. It covers 10,428 acres (4,220 ha) and comprises primarily lands adjacent to the lake that have not been included in the Tennessee State Park system. The refuge was established in 1941 and has been expanded on several occasions. Some of it consists of

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

land that is leased to farmers, but they are required to use stricter

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

practices than were widespread when the same land was held in private ownership, primarily to lessen the

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

ation of the lake and surrounding bodies of water.

References

Refuge profile

External links

*
Refuge website
Protected areas of Fulton County, Kentucky Protected areas of Lake County, Tennessee Protected areas of Obion County, Tennessee National Wildlife Refuges in Kentucky National Wildlife Refuges in Tennessee Protected areas established in 1941 {{Kentucky-protected-area-stub