Migrating ducks and geese on the Pacific Flyway stop for rest. Bald eagles nest nearby. Mink, river otter and other mammals dart through the brush in search of a day's meal.

Ancient Sitka spruce trees—some more than 300 years old—grow slowly in the swampy environment. Red-osier dogwood, willow and a variety of other shrubs form a dense thicket below.

This is Grays Bay, a rare type of wetland where the Grays River empties into the mighty Columbia.

When Lewis and Clark explored the lower Columbia River in 1805, the Sitka spruce/shrub swamp community like the one at Grays Bay extended along parts of the coast from Oregon to Alaska. On the lower Columbia surgeplain, 19,000 acres of spruce swamp once thrived in Washington and Oregon. Now only 700 acres remain in Washington.

Fortunately, The Nature Conservancy of Washington was able to purchase an important part of this rare ecosystem to establish the Grays Bay Wetland Preserve. The Conservancy purchased the preserve with funds from its Washington Wildlands campaign.

Nearly 100 acres of undisturbed swamp and adjacent tidelands make up this recent addition to the Conservancy's preserve system in Washington. Through its long-term stewardship, future generations will be able to experience a place virtually unchanged since the days of Lewis and Clark.