The Julia Butler Hansen Refuge was established in 1972 specifically to save the Columbian white-tailed deer — a subspecies distinct from the common white-tailed deer and one of the most endangered mammals in the Pacific Northwest. By the time the refuge was created, the population had collapsed to a few hundred animals. Today roughly 300 deer live within the refuge boundaries, with another 300–400 on adjacent private farmland, and the species has recovered enough that biologists recommended downlisting it from endangered to threatened in 2015.
The refuge covers over 5,600 acres of Columbia River bottomland — pastures, forested tidal swamps, brushy woodlots, and sloughs — spread across Wahkiakum County in Washington and parts of Oregon. Drive Steamboat Slough Road west of Cathlamet in the early morning or around dusk and you are very likely to see deer in the fields. Bald eagles, osprey, Roosevelt elk, and river otters also frequent the area.
The refuge is named after Julia Butler Hansen, who represented this district in Congress from 1960 to 1974 and championed the original legislation to protect the deer.