About the Refuge

The Central Kentucky Wildlife Refuge is a 500-acre preserve, located 13 miles from Danville in the Parksville knob land and bordering a stretch of the beautiful North Rolling Fork.

The refuge is open to all as a protected area for the enjoyment and study of nature in its many fascinating forms-a large typical area of Boyle County set aside as a permanent sanctuary for plant and animal forms native to Central Kentucky, to be enjoyed by future generations.

If you like the outdoors, you will discover here a chance to escape the crowds and traffic and find spiritual enrichment in the simple beauty of nature. Birds, animals, plants and other forms of wildlife are seen on each visit, and they vary with succeeding visits. The bird blind near the caretaker's home provides close-up views of feeding birds for study and photography. Birds include Purple Finches and House Finches, Evening Grosbeaks, Cardinals, Towhees, Carolina Chickadees, Flickers and Nuthatches-just to name a few. Hundreds of wildflowers grow in profusion, such as Lady Slippers, Blue Bells, Bird's Foot Violets, Bloodroot, Trilliums, and Trout Lilies;   Ferns, Mosses and Lichens add to the list. Deer, Foxes, Grey and Fox Squirrels, Muskrats, Flying Squirrels, and Woodchucks live in the sanctuary.