[5] The lake is about 5 kilometres (3 mi) north of Esperance, between the two main access roads to the town, the South Coast and Coolgardie-Esperance Highways.

Other trees include stout paperbark and red-eyed wattle blending into low woodland of showy banksia or mallee eucalypts.

Higher parts of the marsh are dominated by the grass Stipa luncifolia while austral seabite occurs in areas fed by springs.

The Recherche Cape Barren goose, listed as vulnerable under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, was recorded at Lake Warden Nature Reserve in surveys undertaken in 1981–85.

[6] The lake has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it has supported over 1% of the world populations of hooded plovers, musk ducks, and sometimes banded stilts.