Hatchie River

The Hatchie River is remarkable for a number of reasons. It is the longest free-flowing tributary of the lower Mississippi River, beginning in northern Mississippi and traveling northward more than 200 miles through western Tennessee. Because it has never been impounded nor channelized, natural floods still sustain the river and wetland habitats along its course.

The rich ecological diversity supported by those habitats includes more than 100 species of fishes, 35 species of mussels, 50 species of mammals and many reptiles, amphibians and invertebrate species. Among these are a suite of rare species, such as the blue sucker, northern madtom, naked sand darter, alligator snapping turtle and the endemic Hatchie burrowing crayfish, that have declined elsewhere in their ranges. The Hatchie perhaps contains more species of catfishes – eleven – than any other North American river. Annually, some 250 species of birds use the Hatchie’s forests in varying seasons for migration, breeding and wintering.

The Nature Conservancy’s Lower Mississippi River Program has designated approximately 1.5 million acres along the Hatchie’s length as a priority conservation site. Substantial tracts currently under public ownership include the Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge (11,556 acres located south of Brownsville, Tenn.) and the Lower Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge (9,451 acres conserving much of the remaining bottomland hardwood forests along the Hatchie’s last 17 miles).

Strategies and Progress

Contaminants and considerable loads of sediment enter the meandering Hatchie from most of its 36 tributaries primarily during and following major rainfall events. Many of the tributaries previously have been channelized and are no longer bordered by forested wetlands sufficient to filter the sediments from surface flows entering the streams. The tributary channelizations have also altered water flow patterns in the Hatchie’s basin and habitat fragmentation is occurring as wild lands are converted to other uses.

The Nature Conservancy has created a five-year plan designed to reduce the sediments flowing into the river and to protect key bottomland forest habitat. Building on recent success in restoring stream sections, the Conservancy, working with a coalition of partners, is embarking on even more ambitious stream restoration to reduce sedimentation of the Hatchie. The Conservancy is also working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an effort to more than double the size of the Lower Hatchie refuge.

Other Conservancy strategies being pursued with regard to the Hatchie include the implementation of sustainable water management practices and scientific research to monitor species populations and better understand the Hatchie ecosystem, thereby ensuring the effectiveness of conservation measures.

What's to Gain?

Because of good stewardship by local landowners, citizen conservationists and its two national wildlife refuges, the Hatchie River, along with its associated habitats, remains an ecological treasure sheltering exceptional biodiversity. Its conservation will ensure the survival of approximately 60 species that are considered globally rare.

Cypress trees at Hatchie River
© Byron Jorjorian

LMR Program

The LMR Alluvial Plain
Economics and the Diversity of Life

Priority Sites

Atchafalya River
Bayou Bartholomew
Big Woods
Cat Island Tunica Hills Complex
Cypress Island
Dahomey
Donaldson Point
Hatchie River
Horseshoe Lake
Lower Black River
Lower Yazoo Basin
Mingo Basin
Obion Creek and Bayou de Chien
Pine City Natural Area
Rodney
Sand Ridge Lands
St Francis National Forest
Tensas River Basin

Quick Links

Learn more about The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee.

The Nature Conservancy and its partners work at sites along the entire length of the Mississippi River, from its headwaters in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.