Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge is a 2.5 square kilometer nature reserve in Clallam County on the north coast of the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. It includes not only a part cliff above all, a nearly 10 km long and in places only 15 meter wide strip of land that extends into the Juan de Fuca Strait.

History

The explorers George Vancouver named in 1792 the New Dungeness headland after the eponymous coastal region in Kent in the UK.

1857 was built the first lighthouse in the Juan de Fuca Strait of Dungeness lighthouse at the tip of the headland. The existing today lighthouse was built in 1895, but in 1927 reduced to a height of 19 meters. Since 1994 he has been automated.

The National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson to protect the local bird life.

Geology

The headland is a natural gravel and Sandaufschüttung and is similar in structure to the spits of the Baltic Sea. The sea between the peninsula and the mainland falls dry at low tide.

Fauna

The protected area is a habitat for more than 250 species of birds and 41 different mammals. In the Bay and the mouth of the Dungeness River in life and coastal birds, shellfish and seals. In autumn and spring, the sanctuary is a stopover for many species of migratory birds on their way south and back north. From late October to early May is the nature reserve winter quarters of up to 5,000 Pacific brent geese.