Crabs, herons, otters, and oysters. Those are just a few of the creatures that live in estuaries, where fresh water meets salt water near the ocean.
Oregon's South Coast is home to an estuary protected by the federal government, the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. It not only attracts the kinds of critters that live in estuaries, it also attracts human visitors and their dollars, in amounts quantified in a recent report.
Bree Yednock manages the South Slough Reserve; she visits with details of both the natural and human processes that take place in and around the reserve.