Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge in north-central Montana protects Lake Bowdoin, surrounding wetlands, and nearby plains as a major habitat for migratory and nesting birds. Shaped by natural spring flooding and earlier U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water-conservation efforts, the area became a refuge in 1936 under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Because Lake Bowdoin lies on both the Central and Pacific flyways, it has supported some of Montana’s largest concentrations of migratory birds. By 2008, 263 bird species had been recorded there, and the refuge also sheltered mammals such as pronghorn, whose numbers rose sharply after hunting pressure ended.