A Y-shaped lagoon with fresh and salt water marsh, barrier sandbar, and back dune pickleweed flat, steep bluffs with dense coastal scrub, pocket beach, dune, lagoon slope and dense willow thicket. Programs operate in cooperation with the Long Marine Laboratory personnel.
Worst problems are poison hemlock invasions and agricultural runoff.
Bird nesting and feeding area. Preserve as remnant of natural coastal community. Research of environmental impacts of isolation and neighborhood effects. Approximately 25 species of water and land birds breed at Younger. From 60-70 species of migratory birds, including waterfowl, waders, and insectivores such as warblers and orioles use Younger for overwinterring or for resting and feeding while migrating.