The City of Washington was developed along the Pamlico River , with its downtown and Main Street running parallel to the river . Many local businesses , along with the educational North Carolina Estuarium , are located nearby the Pamlico River . The river carries hundreds of boats per year and is a popular fishing spot .
Goose Creek State Park is a state park southeast of the City Washington . It covers 1,672 acres and is home to a wide variety of wildlife , featuring salt water marshes , inlets and creeks on the northern side of the Pamlico River . Goose Creek State Park is open for year‐round recreation , and is a top tourist destination for guests visiting the City of Washington and Beaufort County . It is open for year‐round recreation offering camping , boating , fishing , hiking , swimming , picnicking , and environmental education .
Goose Creek State Park also offers refuge to a wide variety of plant and animal species that thrive in the various habitats in place at the park . Sedges , sawgrass and black needle rush can be found in the brackish marshes near the Pamlico River . These tall grasses provide cover and nesting sites for the many wading birds of the park , including , marsh wren , rails , herons and egrets .
The marshes of the park recede in swamps . These swamps are home to bald cypress , loblolly pine and red cedar trees . Many of the trees are covered in Spanish moss . The swamps are home to a wide variety of wildlife including barred owls , frogs , turtles , snakes , minks , turkeys , muskrats and raccoons . Larger animals include white‐tailed deer , bobcats , black bear and gray foxes . The waters of Goose Creek and the Pamlico River are visited by a wide variety of migratory birds . Tundra swans and Canada geese winter at the park as do bufflehead , mallard and wood ducks .
In addition to the Goose Creek State park , Goose Creek Gameland , managed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission , is a series of waterfowl impoundments , each about 200 acres in size . It is located on a peninsula on the south side of the Pamlico River nearby the T and Pamlico counties .
Bertie County The Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge is lo County . It was established in 1989 to protect and consisting of bottomland hardwoods and swamp along the Roanoke River . Refuge lands cover 20 , bottomland hardwood forest interspersed with c include forested wetlands . The refuge includes p ecosystem that contains several southeastern pl types . These include levee forest , cypress‐gum s hardwoods , oxbows , beaver ponds and blackwat
The refuge includes valuable wetlands for fish an waterfowl , neotropical migrants , and anadromo species of birds , including 88 breeding resident s heron rookery in the state . It is also home to wh largest natural wild turkey populations in North population of black bear .
Dare County Dare County is home to 122,063 acres of the Alli Refuge , which occupies a majority of the peninsu addition to the upland in Dare County , 13,000 ac County and 6,000 acres lie in Tyrrell County , tota acres . The refuge provides a variety of habitats of wildlife . It has been estimated that about 200 portion of time on the refuge . Endangered and t the refuge include the American alligator , Ameri falcon , red wolf , and the red‐cockaded woodpec to one of the largest remaining concentrations o Atlantic coast . In 1986 , after becoming extinct in
Background Report