Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge is a protected wetland landscape in central Michigan established in 1953 to support migratory waterfowl. In the Saginaw Bay watershed, where several rivers join to form the Saginaw River, it preserves marshes, managed wetlands, croplands, and hardwood floodplain forests shaped by glacial history, river systems, and later drainage works. Long valued by Native peoples including the Odawa and Ojibwa as a rich hunting and gathering area, the region was altered by logging and agricultural drainage before refuge lands were protected. Today it is a major conservation center, recognized for globally significant migratory bird habitat and seasonal concentrations of geese and ducks.