Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge

Hanford Reach National Monument
IUCN category VI (protected area with sustainable use of natural resources)
Location	Benton / Grant / Franklin / Adams counties, Washington, USA
Nearest city	Richland, WA
Coordinates	46°35′00″N 119°31′00″W / 46.58333°N 119.51667°W / 46.58333; -119.51667Coordinates: 46°35′00″N 119°31′00″W / 46.58333°N 119.51667°W / 46.58333; -119.51667
Area	194,451 acres (78,692 ha)
Created	June 8, 2000
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Website	Hanford Reach National Monument

The Hanford Reach National Monument is a national monument in the U.S. State of Washington. It was created in 2000, mostly from the former security buffer surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (Hanford Site). The area has been untouched by development or agriculture since 1943. Because of that it is considered an involuntary park.

The monument is named after the Hanford Reach, the last non-tidal, free-flowing section of the Columbia River in the United States, and is one of only two National Monuments administered by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Ancestors of the Wanapum People, Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Colville, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and the Nez Perce used the land for hunting and resource collecting.

Geographically, the area is part of the Columbia River Plateau, formed by basalt lava flows and water erosion. The shrub-steppe landscape is harsh and dry, receiving between 5 and 10 inches (250 mm) of rain per year. The sagebrush-bitterbrush-bunchgrass lands are home to a wide variety of plants and animals, and the Hanford Reach provides one of the Northwest's best salmon spawning grounds. Forty-eight rare, threatened, or endangered animal species have found refuge on the monument, as well as several insect species found nowhere else in the world.

There are two main habitats in the Hanford Reach National Monument: desert and river.

Islands, riffles, gravel bars, oxbow ponds and backwater sloughs provide support to forty-three species of fish. Large numbers of fall Chinook salmon spawn in the Hanford reach. Federally threatened species such as the Upper Columbia River Spring Chinook, the Middle Columbia River Steelhead and the Upper Columbia River Steelhead use the reach for migration purposes.