Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge

National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the world's premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants...

 on Oregon's coast

Oregon Coast

The Oregon Coast is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It runs generally north-south along the Pacific Ocean, forming the western border of the state; the region is bounded to the east by the Oregon Coast Range. The Oregon Coast stretches approximately from the Columbia River in the north to...

. It is located in southern Tillamook County

Tillamook County, Oregon

Tillamook County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The county is named for the Tillamook, a Native American tribe who were living in the area in the early 19th century at the time of European American settlement. In 2010, the county's population was 25,250...

, on the state's northern coast. It is one of six National Wildlife Refuges comprising the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex

Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex

The Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex consists of six National Wildlife Refuges along the Oregon Coast. It provides wilderness protection to thousands of small islands, rocks, reefs, headlands, marshes, and bays totaling 371 acres spanning 320 miles of Oregon's coastline...

 and supports one tenth of the world's Dusky Canada Goose population. The refuge contains at least seven types of habitat, including tidal marsh, tidal mudflats, grassland, woodland, pasture, forested lagg—a transition between raised peat bog and mineral soil—and freshwater bogs, including the southernmost coastal Sphagnum

Sphagnum

Sphagnum is a genus of between 151 and 350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat bogs and mires. A distinction is made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog on one hand, and sphagnum peat moss or sphagnum peat on the other, the...

 bog habitat on the Pacific Coast.

The Sphagnum bog provides habitat for many interesting and unusual species, such as the insect-eating Sundew

Sundew

Drosera, commonly known as the sundews, comprise one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surface. The insects are used to supplement...

 plant and the bog cranberry

Cranberry

Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. In some methods of classification, Oxycoccus is regarded as a genus in its own right...

. Scientists have discovered many layers of sand and peat under Neskowin Marsh indicating a long history of tsunami

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

 activity which carries sand from the coastal sand dunes. These might be the best record of tsunami activity within the Cascadia subduction zone

Cascadia subduction zone

The Cascadia subduction zone is a subduction zone, a type of convergent plate boundary that stretches from northern Vancouver Island to northern California. It is a very long sloping fault that separates the Juan de Fuca and North America plates.New ocean floor is being created offshore of...

.

Chinook

Chinook salmon

The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, is the largest species in the pacific salmon family. Other commonly used names for the species include King salmon, Quinnat salmon, Spring salmon and Tyee salmon...

 and Coho

Coho salmon

The Coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". It is the state animal of Chiba, Japan.-Description:...

 salmon, cutthroat trout

Cutthroat trout

The cutthroat trout is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. It is one of the many fish species colloquially known as trout...

 and steelhead

Rainbow trout

The rainbow trout is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species....

 are all native to the Nestucca Bay and River system. November through April, the refuge’s short grass pastures provide winter habitats for the previously mentioned Dusky Canada Goose and the Aleutian Cackling Goose

Aleutian Cackling Goose

The Aleutian Cackling Goose , formerly known as the Aleutian Canada Goose , is small subspecies of Cackling Goose averaging 1700 to 2100 grams....

. Notable winged residents include a variety of migrating shorebirds, peregrine falcon

Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon , also known as the Peregrine, and historically as the Duck Hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-gray back, barred white underparts, and a black head and "moustache"...

s and bald eagle

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...

s.

The refuge was established in 1991, and is located on Nestucca Bay

Nestucca Bay

Nestucca Bay is a small S-shaped inlet of the Pacific Ocean located in northwest Oregon in the United States. It is located near the town of Pacific City in southwestern Tillamook County, approximately 12 mi south of Cape Lookout. The Nestucca and Little Nestucca rivers enter the bay from the...

 at the confluence of the Nestucca

Nestucca River

The Nestucca River flows for about through forests near the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States. It drains a timber-producing area of the Northern Oregon Coast Range west of Portland....

 and Little Nestucca

Little Nestucca River

The Little Nestucca River is a river, approximately 20 mi long, on the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of the Central Oregon Coast Range west of the Willamette Valley....

 rivers, ranging 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 km) south of Pacific City

Pacific City, Oregon

Pacific City is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States. The population was 1,027 at the 2000 census...

. Across the bay to the west is Nestucca Spit and Robert W. Straub state parks.

The refuge is closed to all public use, except during two special events: one in February and one in October. A viewing area is planned for construction, probably in 2008.