St. Catherine Creek-Bayou Cocodrie

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Effective immediately, this page is no longer maintained or monitored. Please follow us on Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge Complex’s page at: https://m.facebook.com/100064402070503/

2022-23 Permits and the new online check-in/out process will be available August 1, 2022 at https://TRComplex.RecAccess.com

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Our Alligator Snapping Turtles continue to be active and growing. While Alligator Snapping Turtles are not typically a basking species, especially as adults, our little ones love congregating under the UV lamps and will on occasion bask on their feeding/ structure ring and each other!
Photo: Several juvenile Alligator Snapping Turtles are grouped together under a ring built to hold their feed in one place and to give them some structure for “hiding”. Credit: Lindsey Adams, USFWS

Here are the long-awaited chart of dates for the upcoming permit year!

Permits for 2022-2023 will be available on August 1, 2022, only on TRComplex.RecAccess.com. See our new rules, maps, and date chart at:https://recaccess.blob.core.windows.net/ab19ac79-fa89-4cee-b4a2-404f932ecff1/TRComplexVirtualHunt2022-508.pdf

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Egrets keeping it cool on a hot July day in the Miss-Lou (Photo credit: USFWS/Kreisler).

Birds are enjoying another sunny day fishing in the shallow water on St. Catherine Creek NWR (Photo credit: USFWS/Kreisler)

Get your fishing gear and your Refuge permit ready! Gilliard Lake Rd is OPEN to vehicles, Butler Lake/Salt Lake Roads are OPEN to vehicles, Swamp Road is OPEN to vehicles. Enjoy! (31 ft on the Natchez River gage and falling).

The Swamp is open for fishing.

Butler Unit is now open to Salt Lake boat launch.

Swamp Rd is still too wet and is closed to vehicles just before the rock crossing, but foot travel is possible almost to The Swamp parking lot. Please be careful parking on the shoulder and don't block in other vehicles. Pintail Ln is still closed before Wood Duck Ln.

The Swamp and Pintail Ln are both still flooded, with Natchez gage at 41.1 ft and falling slowly.

Good news! The high water boat launch in the Butler Unit is now accessible for trailer launching. State of Mississippi fishing license and a refuge permit are required if fishing. https://lowermiss.RecAccess.com. 2021-22 permits are valid through July 31, 2022 only.

St. Catherine Creek and Bayou Cocodrie NWRs are now part of Theodore Roosevelt NWR Complex. Keep a lookout out for some new and improved trail maps for both refuges in the upcoming rules & regs brochure!

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The river is holding steady and taking its time to drop. The roads are still closed to vehicles for now, but there is an end in sight! Handlaunch boats only except from on-refuge designated boat ramps.

The Swamp tonight, with Natchez gage at 43’ and holding steady. Not dry enough to drive yet, and no where to turn around, but we’ll keep checking daily!

Who saw that amazing sunset tonight? Here’s an update on Pintail Ln to Gilliard: The water is receding slowly, but road is still flooded before Wood Duck Ln.

So close yet so far! Here is Butler Lake Road today, with the Natchez gage hovering for the next two weeks ~44-45 ft.

With the Natchez river gauge still up around 47 feet, Swamp Road and Pintail Lane are still flooded today. We’ll keep you posted once they re-open! (Photo: USFWS/Kreisler)

Kingfisher (Megaceryie spp.) in action outside of a beaver exclosure on Bayou Cocodrie NWR (Photo credit: USFWS/Ozment)

Spring is in the air at Bayou Cocodrie NWR in Vidalia, Louisiana. Pollinators and decomposers are emerging everywhere, to benefit people through ecosystem services. This Buck moth (Hemileuca maia) caterpillar is ready to go, unless it gets eaten by a bird first! Spotted in an oak (Quercus spp.) stand at the refuge. (Photo credit: USFWS/Ozment)

Bayou Cocodrie NWR - Forest tent caterpillars are the larval form of a native moth (Malacosoma disstria). Unique amongst other tent caterpillars, this species does not make tents, just a silky sheet where they cluster together like this (Photo credit: USFWS/Ozment).

Somewhere on your favorite national wildlife refuge… (Photo credit: USFWS; April 29, 2022)

Happy Earth Day 2022 - St. Catherine Creek NWR

Hutchins Landing Road inside the Butler unit is impassable by vehicle before the high water boat launch.

Sunrise over Pintail Lane on 4/21/2022, with Natchez gage at 46’ - St. Catherine Creek NWR