As the 38th Governor of Arkansas, Bumpers helped stop the dredging and channelization of 232 miles of the Cache River and its tributary, Bayou DeView, saving some of the last remaining bottomland hardwood forests in the Mississippi River Valley. As a U.S. Senator, Bumpers was instrumental in the establishment of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in 1986. In 1993, he facilitated an innovative land exchange that swapped government-owned Idaho timberland to add 41,000 acres of wetlands and bottomland hardwood forest to the White River and Cache River National Wildlife Refuges. Ultimately, the two refuges were connected by a corridor of some 80 river miles.

White River Refuge was renamed in his honor on April 18, 2014.