[4] In the summer, extensive mudflats develop at the east and west ends of the lake providing habitat for a variety of species, including the piping plover.

[5] The IBA, which totals 152.14 km2 (58.74 sq mi), is important to the piping plover as it has one of the three largest breeding concentrations on the Canadian Prairies.

The provincial Wildlife Habitat Protection Act designated the entire Willow Bunch Lake basin as a critical piping plover habitat and the lake's shoreline up to the high water mark is protected from development.

The population and breeding success of the piping plover depends largely on lake water levels.

Being in a semi-arid landscape with no major inflows, Willow Bunch Lake is subject to widely fluctuating water levels and this becomes one of the main threats to the long-term success of the birds.