Dewey W. Wills Wildlife Management Area
Dewey W. Wills Wildlife Management Area, also just called Dewey Wills Wildlife Management Area and formally known as the Saline Wildlife Management area, is a 63,901-acre tract of protected area located in LaSalle Parish, Catahoula Parish, and Rapides parish, in Central Louisiana. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) owns 63,901 acres, the LaSalle Parish School Board owns 1530 acres, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USCOE) owns 265 acres, managed by the LDWF. A 2006 class-action lawsuit (Crooks v. State) resulted in a 2017 court decision and reclassification of Catahoula Lake as being a seasonally flooded river and not a lake. The end result is that a change in the definition changes the ownership of the land involved between the low water mark and high water mark around the waterway that would also change the boundaries of the WMA affecting 30,000 acres. History Dewey Wills WMA was known as the Saline Wildlife Management Area until changed to the current name and the size was increased from 60,275 acres to the current size in 1978. Location The WMA is approximately twenty miles northeast of Alexandria, east of Catahoula Lake, in LaSalle Parish, Catahoula Parish, Rapides parish, and LA