Lake Mason National Wildlife Refuge in central Montana protects wetlands, grasslands, lakes, and marshes that provide important nesting habitat for more than one hundred bird species. Its three separate sections serve different habitat needs: the Lake Mason area includes seasonal wetlands, the North section is mainly uplands, and the Willow Creek section was reserved to protect the mountain plover. Wildlife includes bald eagle, northern harrier, burrowing owl, and mammals such as coyote, beaver, raccoon, and badger. Managed from the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, it is valued chiefly for conserving prairie and wetland habitat rather than for developed recreation.