From Washington To You
Shorebirds and visitors at Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge.
Photograph by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Public domain.

From Washington to you

Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge

Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge · Grays Harbor County · authorized 1988

Two percent of Grays Harbor's intertidal flats can hold up to half the harbor's spring shorebirds, especially western sandpipers and dunlin.

Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge occupies Bowerman Basin in Hoquiam. FWS says about 2 percent of the harbor's intertidal habitat can host up to 50 percent of the spring shorebirds. Western sandpipers and dunlin make up about 80 percent of that spring flight.

Congress authorized the refuge in 1988. The first land, 68 acres, was acquired on August 29, 1990. FWS says 1,408 of 1,851 authorized acres have been acquired, about 1,500 acres in all.

The basin is a short stop on a long migration. The source below is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge page.

  • Wildlife & Ecology

Sources (1)

Last reviewed: September 20, 2026

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