From Washington To You
Wetland and river habitat along the Walla Walla River at McNary National Wildlife Refuge.
Photograph by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2021. Public domain.

From Washington to you

McNary National Wildlife Refuge

McNary National Wildlife Refuge · Walla Walla County · 1956

Fifteen thousand acres of sloughs and shrub-steppe were set aside in 1956 to replace habitat the dam drowned. More than half the Pacific Flyway's mallards winter in this basin.

McNary National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1956 to replace wildlife habitat lost to construction of McNary Dam downstream. It covers 15,000 acres of sloughs, ponds, streams, and islands — riparian and wetland habitat — as well as upland shrub-steppe and cliff-talus.

The refuge extends along the east bank of the Columbia River in southeastern Washington, from the confluence of the Snake River to the mouth of the Walla Walla River, and downstream into Oregon. It sits around rural Burbank, close to the Tri-Cities.

FWS says few areas in North America support such dense concentrations of waterfowl; more than half the mallards in the Pacific Flyway overwinter at some time in this portion of the Columbia River Basin. The refuge also supports raptors, mammals, and as many reptiles and amphibians as can be found anywhere in the Columbia Basin. The source below is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge page.

  • Wildlife & Ecology

Sources (1)

Last reviewed: September 21, 2026

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