The rivers, wetlands, and beaver ponds create feeding and breeding grounds for many species including herons and bitterns, wood ducks, mallards, black ducks, teal, mergansers, Canada geese, osprey, northern harrier, and many other raptors and songbirds. Woodcock benefit from habitat management including fallow field maintenance and regeneration of alder-willow thickets.

Willoughby Falls Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is comprised of 610 acres of land owned by the State of Vermont and managed by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. The WMA is part of a group of lands that includes streambank fishing access property, a waterfall site, and contiguous parcels forming one large tract. The lands lie north of the village of Orleans, at the confluence of the Willoughby and Barton Rivers, in the towns of Barton, Browington, and Irasburg in Orleans County.

There is a parking area at Willoughby Falls itself. Additionally, two other parking areas give access to the main part of the WMA.

The Willoughby and Barton Rivers form the western boundary of this WMA. The terrain consists of a meandering river floodplain, various wetlands and beaver ponds, and a hillside slope on the east side of the Barton River valley. The lowlands are a diverse mix of open wetlands (oxbows, cattail marsh, sedge meadows), alder, black willow, red maple, and white cedar swamps. Mowed and fallow fields, a pine stand, scattered patches of spruce-fir-hemlock, and northern hardwoods complement the wetlands to provide a mosaic of productive habitats.

The Department is actively restoring the riparian habitat through the establishment of buffer strips, tree planting, and streambank stabilization.