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Nansemond National Wildlife Refuge

Photo by John Ross, USFWS, public domain, via fws.gov. (opens in a new tab)

Verified

Confirmed against an official or primary source as of the date shown.

Included deliberately as a second, differently-shaped 'don't infer permission' example from Back Bay's: here the refuge is closed but immediately adjacent public water is not, which is a genuinely easy real-world boundary mistake to make. Directly confirmed via a live WebFetch of the refuge's own hunting page. This is Suffolk's first seeded waterfowl-hunting-adjacent area, closing a real municipality gap. Excluded from huntableAreas() by its accessStatus, matching Back Bay's own pattern.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — Nansemond National Wildlife Refuge, Hunting · Last checked 2026-08-10

Closed / Sanctuary AreaClosed to Hunting

Waterfowl hunting is not permitted here. Directly confirmed via USFWS's own refuge page: Nansemond NWR does not offer a public hunting program — the refuge itself is closed to hunting. This is distinct from the Nansemond River adjacent to the refuge, which is ordinary public water where waterfowl hunting can occur under general state/federal rules — that access is not granted or managed by the refuge in any way, and should not be confused with refuge-authorized hunting.

Managing authority: Nansemond National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS)
City / county: Suffolk
Location precision: A specific named place, as published by the source below — not a precise coordinate.
Boat access only: No — some or all of the area is reachable without a boat

Habitat & species context

A small refuge (about 858 acres) of tidal marsh and bottomland forest along the Nansemond River, a tributary of the James River, in Suffolk. The refuge itself has no public hunting program; the adjacent Nansemond River, a public waterway outside the refuge boundary, does see waterfowl hunting under ordinary public-water rules unrelated to any refuge authorization.

Major restrictions

No waterfowl hunting is authorized anywhere on refuge land or refuge-managed water.
The adjacent Nansemond River is public water outside the refuge boundary — hunting there follows ordinary statewide/federal public-water rules, not any refuge program, and boundary awareness is the hunter's own responsibility.

Last reviewed 2026-08-10.

Boundaries, permit systems, and closures can change. Confirm current rules directly at the managing authority's own page before hunting, and see Licensing & Regulations →