The Tensas River NWR, located in northeast Louisiana, is one of the largest continuous blocks of bottomland hardwoods remaining in the nation. Programs on the refuge include cooperative farming, black bear research, neotropical migrant bird research, environmental education, and consumptive and non-consumptive public use programs.

Refuge is in the upper basin of the Tensas River in northeast Louisiana which was the last documented home of the ivory-billed woodpecker.Home to one of the last concentrations of the threatened Louisiana black bear.In 1907, Teddy Roosevelt hunted bear just north of the refuge boundary and the "Teddy Bear" was introduced as a result of an incident during the hunt.Concentrations of ducks, geese, raptors, wading birds and shorebirds.Several rookeries present.