Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is located seven miles west of the city of Boynton Beach in Palm Beach County, Florida. The refuge was established in 1951 under the authority of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act and is managed through a license agreement between the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In total, the refuge includes 145,800 acres of northern Everglades habitat. The refuge contains one of three water conservation areas (WCA's) in south Florida and is maintained to provide water storage and flood control, as well as habitat for native fish and wildlife populations. Water is regulated by a series of pumps, canals, water control structures, and levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers. These freshwater storage areas and part of the Everglades National Park are all that remain of the original Everglades.

The refuge is composed of 143,874 acres of Everglades habitat. The refuge is part of a large fresh water storage area connected by a series of canals and levees, which were completed by the Corps of Engineers in 1940s. The underlying aquifer provides water into nearby coastal communities.