Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge

Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge was established in 1997 to conserve, protect and enhance the abundance and diversity of native plant, fish and wildlife species and the ecosystems on which they depend throughout the 7200000 acre Connecticut River watershed. The watershed covers large areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. It contains a great diversity of habitats, notably: northern forest valuable as nesting habitat for migrant thrushes, warblers and other birds; rivers and streams used by shad, salmon, herring, the endangered shortnose sturgeon and other migratory fishes; and an internationally significant complex of high-quality tidal fresh, brackish and salt marshes.

The refuge works in partnership with a wide variety of individuals and organizations to provide environmental education, to encourage and support appropriate habitat conservation and management on public and private lands, and to protect additional habitat.

The refuge has three cooperative visitor centers: in Colebrook, New Hampshire; at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vermont; and Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls, Massachusetts.

The refuge is named for Silvio O. Conte, a late, longtime member of the United States House of Representatives for Massachusetts who worked to preserve and protect the environment.

Areas
The refuge currently consists of nine units (small tracts) and eight divisions (large tracts):

Connecticut

 * Deadman's Swamp Unit - 33 acre of wetlands and a riverine sand spit that hosts a federally listed beetle in Cromwell, Connecticut, closed to the public for resource protection.
 * Roger Tory Peterson Unit - Old Lyme, Connecticut, was once part of the estate of author and naturalist Roger Tory Peterson.
 * Salmon River Division - 425 acre located in the lower Connecticut River valley at the confluence of the Salmon River and the Connecticut River in Haddam, Connecticut.

Massachusetts

 * Third Island Unit - a 4 acre island in Deerfield, Massachusetts.
 * Honey Pot Unit - a 21 acre upland and wetland parcel in Westfield, Massachusetts.
 * Wissatinnewag Unit - 21 acre on the river opposite the Great Falls Discovery Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
 * Mt. Tom Unit - 141 acre on Mount Tom in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
 * Mt. Toby Unit - 30 acre at the base of Mount Toby in Sunderland, Massachusetts.
 * Fort River Division - 260 acre located in Hadley, Massachusetts.
 * Mill River Division - 249 acre located in Northampton, Massachusetts.
 * Westfield River Division - 125 acre on Benton Hill Road in Becket, Massachusetts.
 * Hatfield Unit - 19 acre in Hatfield, Massachusetts.
 * Dead Branch Division - 98 acre in Chesterfield, Massachusetts.
 * Fannie Stebbins Unit - 371 acre in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, named for Fannie Stebbins

New Hampshire

 * Pondicherry Division - 6405 acre in Jefferson, Whitefield, and Carroll, New Hampshire
 * Blueberry Swamp Division - 1,023 acre on the Mohawk River in Columbia, New Hampshire

Vermont

 * Nulhegan Basin Division - over 26000 acre in Brunswick, Ferdinand, Bloomfield and Lewis, with the division headquarters and visitor contact station located in Brunswick.
 * Putney Mountain Unit - 285 acre which host a federally endangered plant, northeastern bulrush, in Putney and Brookline, Vermont.