This isn’t a scene you’d expect to find in the Nevada desert: pools of Caribbean-blue water supporting a grove of ash trees. Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a unique oasis and an internationally recognized wetland of importance. Nearly 30 species of plants and animals that don’t exist any place else on Earth are found in this isolated wonderland. Springs of fossil water – melted ice buried thousands of years ago – feed the pools. You’ve got to see it for yourself. Photo by Rod Colvin, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service volunteer.