Quillayute Needles National Wildlife Refuge

Along with Copalis and Flattery Rocks, Quillayute Needles was set aside by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 as one of the earliest National Wildlife Refuges in an effort to protect and enhance habitat for struggling seabird populations. Together these Refuges have been designated wilderness and include approximately 800 off-shore rocks, reefs and islands stretching from Cape Flattery in the north to just south of Copalis Head, excepting those that are part of designated Native American reservations.

Today the islands swell with raucous flocks of migrating seabirds including Caspian terns and sooty shearwaters during fall and spring migrations. In summer the vast majority of Washington’s breeding seabirds jostle for space on these remote rocks. Black oystercatchers tend pebbly nests at the water’s edge, common murres lay gravity defying eggs on barren ledges, and tufted puffins burrow their nests deep into the loamy bluffs.