Black Bayou Lake is studded with cypress and tupelo trees, and surrounded by swamps that graduate into bottomland hardwoods and then into upland mixed pine/hardwoods.

Common wildlife seen include alligators, wood ducks, bird-voiced treefrogs, banded water snakes, red-eared sliders, green herons, coyotes, skunks, and white-tailed deer.

Biology professors and students from the University of Louisiana at Monroe have partnered with Black Bayou Lake refuge in research projects on fishes, reptiles and amphibians.

The alligator snapping turtle, a species that has declined drastically across most of the south, nests along the shores of the lake.

An area of 800 acres (3.2 km2) of former agricultural fields has been reforested with eleven bottomland hardwood tree species.

The small upland area on the east side of the refuge is home to a remnant red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) cluster.