On a sunny morning, 17 students from a preschool here in Marin County huddle as close as possible to furloughed interpretive park ranger Adrian Boone of the Muir Woods National Monument.
But this is no field trip. Instead, Boone has come to the outdoor classroom at the Ross Preschool, a half-hour drive from the park. He’s part of a special program to bring furloughed rangers into local schools during the shutdown of the federal government, which caused Muir Woods to close its gates.
Their small faces are riveted as he passes around a leaf from a California bay laurel tree. “What do you think it smells like?” he asks them…