Today the area is a renowned sanctuary for a variety of birds, harbor seals, river otters, bald eagles, and a colony of bats, as well as serving as an important great blue heron rookery.

The 600 acres (2.4 km2) features a maturing second-growth forest edging five miles (8 km) of shoreline at Woodard and Chapman bays on Henderson Inlet.

"[5] Harbor seals rest on old log booms outside of Chapman bay, in addition to the pigeon guillemots, cormorants and a purple martin colony who roost in the area.

A new kind of marine conservation effort began at Woodard Bay when The Nature Conservancy signed a 10-year lease with the Washington Department of Natural Resources to restore 10 acres (40,000 m2) of sub-tidal land in Henderson Inlet near the mouth of Woodard Bay to bring back the once-abundant Olympia oyster.

A camp car once used as a cookhouse and later an office has been refurbished to represent its former uses, much of the work done by the Washington Conservation Corps as well as labor by prisoners from the Cedar Creek Correctional Center.