The combination of basalt outcrops, channeled canyons, and ponderosa pine forests infused in a diverse landscape of over 130 marshes, wetlands, and lakes creates an environment of aesthetic beauty as well as high quality wildlife habitat.

Refuge ecosystems represent an ecological transition between the dry, sagebrush-dotted grasslands of the Columbia Basin up toward the timbered Selkirk and Bitterroot mountain ranges that rise up to the east.

The area provides a high quality wildlife habitat that combines scablands, basalt outcrops, channeled canyons, ponderosa pine forests, and meadows in a diverse landscape with over 130 marshes, wetlands and lakes.

[2] The refuge was established in 1937 by an Executive Order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide productive breeding and nesting grounds for migratory birds[3] and other wildlife.

The ecological transition between the dry, sagebrush dotted grasslands of the Columbia Basin up toward the timbered Selkirk and Bitterroot Mountains provides excellent wildlife habitat.