National Wildlife Refuges are federal lands managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Two refuges are in or along the West Virginia state boundary. The primary source for boundary information is the USFWS Realty program (status maps, legal surveys). An effort by the USFWS Region 5 (northeast states - ME, NH,VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, PA, NJ, MD, DE, WV, VA) Realty Division, Cartography and Spatial Data Services Branch has resulted in digital refuge boundaries for all refuges in the northeast at a scale of 1:24,000. Canaan Valley NWR is fully within the West Virginia state boundary, while the Ohio River Islands NWR is a chain of islands in the Ohio River, bordering the West Virginia state boundary.

The West Virginia GIS Technical Center downloaded interchange files for both NWR's from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Region 5 Cartography and Spatial Data Services website (link below in supplementary information). The boundary for the Canaan Valley NWR is current as of 10/11/2006 and the boundaries for the Ohio River Islands is current as of 11/07/2000.