The average visitation is 60,000 visitors per year. Activities include environmental education, interpretive foot trails, hunting, fishing, trapping and wildlife observation. West Sister Island NWR is located in the western basin of Lake Erie. It is jointly owned by the U.S. Cost Guard and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Ottawa NWR manages the area as a wilderness area.
Public use is restricted to research and education.
Tall hackberry trees with an understory of abundant poison ivy 12 feet tall dominate most of the island. Great solomon's seal reaches 7-9 feet in height and a great variety of ferns, wildflowers, mushrooms and other plant life abound. The island is composed of glacial fill over a limestone shelf.