Willapa Expanded

National wildlife refuges

The Willapa National Wildlife Refuge on the Washington Coast has expanded this year with two properties purchased with the help of The Nature Conservancy.

The expansion helps protect critical salmon and shorebird habitat in one of the largest and cleanest estuaries in the country.

The conservancy bought 300 acres of pasture, wetland and forest and transferred it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December.

The Fish and Wildlife Service manages the 13,600-acre refuge, one of the most ecologically diverse sites within the entire national wildlife refuge system.

The new sites mark the first significant additions to the refuge in more than a decade. Willapa Bay is one of the five largest oyster-producing areas in the world.

The Nature Conservancy of Washington owns and manages 37 preserves in Washington and has more than 34,000 members, making it the largest membership-based conservation group in the state.