Desert grassland meadow in the "Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge", a National Wildlife Refuge located in the Amargosa Desert subregion of the Mojave Desert, directly east of Death Valley National Park in southern Nye County, southwestern Nevada. :The 23,000-acre (9,300 ha) refuge is a unit of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex of springs/wetlands nature preserves having discharge points of a vast underground 'fossil water' aquifer more than 100 mi (160 km) long, that are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. :Ash Meadows provides a unique example of desert oases extremely uncommon in the present day southwestern U.S. The refuge is a major discharge point for the aquifer's water-bearing strata surfacing at more than 30 seeps and springs. The refuge protects habitat for at least 26 endemic plants and animals, a concentration of locally exclusive biota, the greatest localized concentration in the U.S. and 2nd in North America.