from a usual work day.
A refuge, too, from a typical school day for the third graders I accompanied to the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge. And one also, most importantly, for the plants and animals that live there.
It's just across the San Francisco Bay from my home, but I'd never visited until today. It's quite lovely. The views are spectacular.
The natural history is rich, as is the history of humans there.
The area was first used by the native Ohlone, then by duck hunters and then to evaporate salt. You can see an old, abandoned duck blind in the center left of the picture below.
It's now owned by the public, and administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Perhaps most significantly, it's a vital refuge for the elusive and highly endangered Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, one of the world's tiniest, which loves to eat the intensely saline but delicious pickleweed.
