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The Scatter Creek Wildlife Area is located in Thurston County, 20 miles south of Olympia. West of Interstate 5 and east of Rochester, it lies in the Puget Sound Trough lowlands with the Cascade Mountain Range to the east, the Willapa Hills to the southwest, and the Black Hills to the northwest. Scatter Creek Wildlife Area lies on a glacial outwash plain, rimmed by low-lying hills formed by the last continental ice sheet 12,000 years ago.
An uncommon vegetative community has developed on these prairies, in part because the soils are extremely well-drained and contain very little organic matter. As a result, Scatter Creek supports an Idaho fescue/balsamroot short-grass prairie with uniquely-associated wildflower, moss, lichen, fern, shrub, and tree species. A wide variety of wildflowers, some of which are rare or uncommon, bloom through spring and summer on the prairie. Another vegetative feature occurring on the open prairie is Scot's broom, an invasive non-native shrub species. Scatter Creek Wildlife Area includes riparian and wetland communities that offer an interspersion of habitats dominated by ash, Oregon white oak, shrubs, and grasses. The rest of the acreage is in forested communities dominated by Oregon white oak and Douglas fir. Associated with the prairies, the Oregon white oak community is uncommon on the west side of the Cascade mountains and north of the Columbia River. This oak community is valuable to wildlife because of the acorn crop it produces. The forests that occur in areas not associated with the prairie soils are upland conifer or mixed conifer/red alder communities.
There are records of a winter coho salmon run up Scatter Creek, and there is local knowledge of native cutthroat trout, as well as observations of sculpins and crustaceans, but no recent surveys have been completed to support or disprove the presence of these species. Active beaver dams exist on the creek within the Wildlife Area which contribute to the overall habitat quality in the riparian and wetland zones. The wildlife species that occur on the area are those common to western Washington lowland habitats as well as those species specially adapted to agricultural, riparian, and prairie habitats. It is not uncommon to find evidence of deer, fox, bobcat, coyote, hare, raccoon, river otter, beaver, muskrat, small rodents, and shrews on an average scout of the area. Bird species seen vary by season, but common year-round residents are the great blue heron, kingfisher, mallard, common merganser, black-capped chickadee, red-breasted nuthatch, Stellar's jay, varied thrush, American robin, dark-eyed junco, song and savannah sparrows, killdeer, western meadowlark, northern flicker, sapsucker, hairy and downy woodpeckers, American crow, red-tailed hawk, northern harrier, American kestrel, barn owl, and many others. A variety of butterflies can be seen during their adult life stage which coincides with the flowering period of many wildflower species throughout the spring and summer. Other rare and unusual species that have been noted at one time on the area are purple martin, western bluebird, mink, black bear, and the western gray squirrel, a state "threatened" species. The relatively dry situation also favors the few reptiles and other cold-blooded species that manage to survive in western Washington.
Hunting, dog training, field trialing, and exercising the family pet are dominant uses as well as horseback riding, botanical studies, and educational field trips, bird and wildlife watching, picnicking, and fishing. Three parking lots and two toilets exist on the area.
