This unique area in Skagit County, in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, is the winter home of hundreds of bald eagles. From November to March, they journey here from the northern Cascades and Canada to feed on the salmon remains they find in abundance in the Skagit River. Illabot Creek, a tributary of the Skagit, is vital to the river's health as a salmon-spawning stream because sedimentation from the steep upper slopes can smother delicate salmon eggs. To protect this watershed, The Nature Conservancy acquired 133 acres along Illabot Creek from the Hancock Timber Resource Group in 1993. This acreage supplements the 5,000-acre Skagit River Bald Eagle Natural Area established in 1976 by the conservancy and the Washington State Department of Wildlife.