These public lands provide recreational opportunities including hunting, fishing, bird watching, and camping.

[2][3] Native Americans used the Warner Valley's lakes and wetland for thousands of years before the first white explorers arrived.

The Greaser Petroglyph Site, in the South Warner Valley, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[6] In 1867, General George Crook decided to build a fort in the Warner Valley to prevent Indian raiding parties from passing through the area.

Known as the Stone Bridge, it was actually a quarter mile long causeway constructed by hauling basalt boulders and smaller rocks from nearby Hart Mountain and dumping them into the marsh.

[11] This includes 52,033 acres (210.57 km2) designated by the Bureau of Land Management as the "Warner Wetlands Area of Critical Environmental Concern".

Most of the water from Twentymile Creek flows into Greaser Reservoir or into irrigation canals in the South Warner Valley.

As field drainage, some of its water eventually merges with Deep Creek and flow into Pelican Lake.

[2][13] In addition to the fresh-water creeks that flow into the Warner Lakes, there are a number of hot springs that drain into them.

[2] The Warner Lakes provide a unique habitat for wildlife including common high desert mammals, resident birds, and migrant waterfowl.

[12] Species that nest in the areas around Crump Lake and Hart Lake include sandhill cranes, American white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, willets, Wilson's phalaropes, gadwalls, northern shovelers, black-crowned night herons, Canada geese, and numerous varieties of ducks and terns.

In addition, white-faced ibis, great white egrets, and American avocets are found in the marshes and along the lake shores.

At the Warner Wetlands Interpretive Site, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, there are observation blinds where American bitterns, black-necked stilts, cinnamon teal, tundra swans, Brewer's blackbirds, western meadowlarks, swallows, and nighthawks are commonly seen.

The valley around Warner lakes also hosts mountain chickadees, Cassin's finches, black-headed grosbeaks, green-tailed towhees, yellow-rumped warblers, MacGillivray's warblers, mountain bluebirds, white-headed woodpeckers, burrowing owls, and flammulated owls.

These public lands offer numerous recreational opportunities including hunting, fishing, bird watching, boating, and camping.

There are also public restrooms, sheltered picnic tables, and hiking trails at the Warner Wetlands Interpretive Site at Hart Bar.

A gravel road continues north along the Warner Lakes to headquarters of the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, 19 miles (31 km) beyond Plush.