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Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge and Management Area is located in southwestern Indiana within the historical north-south flyway of the Wabash River Basin. The refuge is strategically located to provide important resting, feeding, and nesting habitat for migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, and neotropical songbirds. Established in 1994, the refuge currently contains 5,813 acres. Its proposed boundary stretches for 20 miles as the crow flies in an east-west direction along the lower third reach of the 162-mile-long Patoka River. It includes 30 miles of river channel, 19 miles of cut-off river oxbows, and 12,700 acres of existing wetland habitat. The area represents one of the most significant bottomland hardwood forests remaining in the Midwest. This portion of the Patoka River bottoms is often referred to as the biodiversity factory with a potential new species of fish similar to the mud darter and a verified new species of burrowing crayfish discovered in 2001. This is in addition to 380 species of wildlife, including nesting bald eagles, the Federally endangered Indiana bat and the proposed threatened species, the northern copperbelly watersnake. At least 20 plant species and 62 animal species considered as threatened, endangered or of special concern by the State of Indiana live within the river valley.
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