After spending a month away from Wyoming, I am glad to finally be back and busy at the BLM. Work activities resumed immediately, as the full-time field season is rapidly approaching. For now, I spend my early mornings getting out to sage grouse leks (strutting grounds for mating displays) before light hits the horizon to count the number of grouse present at each lek. Once the sun has been up for an hour or two, the sage grouse tend to disperse and go about their business while I go about mine. My other activities include checking eagle nests for signs of activity, prowling around for plant populations to collect seed from later in the season, planting sagebrush seed collected last year, fence type inventories, and a variety of office work.

Nowadays the weather is mostly conducive to outdoor work, which makes staying in the office a bit restless for a field worker like me. Still, I realize the value of the indoor stuff too, and it’s cool to see how all the field-collected data comes together to benefit wildlife. Sage grouse counts, for instance, are used to determine the response of grouse to vegetation treatments like mowing and prescribed burns, or to disturbance like human development and mining. As a Candidate Species for listing under the Endangered Species Act, this could be valuable policy-making information to prevent the listing of sage grouse by protecting it before its numbers decline further. Fence type inventory involves driving around and recording what type of fences are where so that the BLM can prioritize projects for replacing netwire and installing smooth wire to facilitate pronghorn migration, or installing let-downs to lower the fence height during elk migration. The field collected data comes back to the office to be input into our GIS mapping system, or to be analyzed in Excel, and decisions are made based on the results that go back out to the field to create on-the-ground benefits to wildlife. Remembering this makes it easier to keep my butt glued to the office chair when I start to hanker for the outdoors. Field season will be here soon enough, so it’s important to get this work done before it gets neglected while I roam the field office in the late spring and summer.

A bit of wisdom from my supervisor on how be a great vs. good biologist: “Follow through on all data collected. Be sure that data is downloaded and summarized appropriately, organized and timely. This will make all your work worthwhile.” Good advice to keep handy on one’s path towards a permanent career.

It’s been a long year this past year, but in a good way. I’ve had a lot of time for learning, working, improving, and growing up, and I’m extremely pleased to be able to look back on the past 365 days with satisfaction.

It’s hard to say what precisely has been going on since my last blog. Having just returned from a Christmas vacation at home, the previous weeks seem to have slipped from my memory. Next week I look forward to some archaeological survey work in the Little Mountain area of the Bighorns. It seems strange to me that we would be able to do this in the middle of January, when theoretically the mountains should be covered with snow, but it’s been so warm lately that perhaps as much of the snow has melted up there as it has here in the Basin. Nice though the weather has been, it is still a depressing reminder of climate change, and I worry about the effects, both here and at home. Every place seems to be having a very weird winter this year. What’s one little intern to do? It seems this is a prime opportunity to re-educate myself on conservation practices to reduce my impact on the environment. What could be more fitting for the end of the first chapter of my Conservation and Land Management internship?

Well, I am still here. It’s been snowing from time to time, and field work for me is scarce. Mostly I spend my days on GIS mapping projects and summarizing sage grouse count data, but occasionally I get to help out with a field project controlling invasive Russian olive and salt cedar with herbicides. There’s just nothing like good old fashioned manual labor in zero degree temperatures! Then again, although it’s hard work carrying around a backpack sprayer that’s almost half my body weight and made to be carried by broader shoulders over uneven terrain in the winter, after about 20 minutes of walking around that way we’re all toasty warm. Sore shoulders aside, it’s good to earn your supper once in a while.

Another work activity has been sending out letters to past volunteers for the Mid-Winter Eagle Survey to see who is game for participating in the survey next month. Responses keep rolling in, and soon it will be time to send out route maps and information and contact the people who haven’t responded yet. The survey will be on the last day of the first part of my internship, and I can’t believe it’s coming up so fast.

Volunteer activities with the Greater Yellowstone Raptor Experience program and the local animal shelter continue, which make me all the more excited to come back next year after my 2 month break in January. I anxiously await the arrival in the mail of my very own raptor glove for working with the birds at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center here in town. That has been one of the coolest things I’ve ever done, and I have the CLM program to thank for placing me here for this internship where I get to do all these cool things! (at work and beyond) It’s been a completely satisfying, valuable, and irreplaceable experience.

At last, field season is winding down, and I am sad to see it go. Still, there are plenty of important things to be done in the office that will keep me plenty occupied until mid January. There are maps to be updated, monitoring data to be summarized, and letters to be sent out and people to be contacted in preparation for the winter eagle survey. There are still tasks that will take me out in the field occasionally: weed spraying, fence mending, fencing inventory, tagging along with the release of a rescued golden eagle, and possibly assisting Trout Unlimited rescue fish from the irrigation canals before they freeze. It’s nice to know I will not be bored, but I will be useful.

A couple of weeks ago we had a Montana Conservation Corps crew that came to help collect seeds and remove netwire. They were a great group, very positive and enthusiastic about the projects. We collected big basin sagebrush, wyoming sagebrush, greasewood, Utah juniper, and curlleaf mountain mahogany. The purpose of the netwire removal project was to facilitate the passage of pronghorn, who go under fences rather than over them. The netwire goes all the way to the ground, which blocks the pronghorn’s passage, so we changed the fence to have 2 strands of barbed wire and a bottom smooth wire so that the pronghorn can go under the fence without getting injured from barbs. It was especially important on the YU Bench area where we were working because it is part of a major pronghorn migration path. It’s extremely satisfying to know that there will be a direct benefit to wildlife from this project, as the problem fence has been an obstacle for the pronghorn for many years.

With 2 months to go for the first half of my internship, I have finally gotten involved in volunteering around here. One volunteer job is with the Park County Animal Shelter, and the other is with the Greater Yellowstone Raptor Experience at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. So far I’m still in training with holding the birds, which include a great horned owl, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture, and peregrine falcon. During the summers they will have more programs where we may actually get to assist in flying and feeding the birds. I’m now even happier that I get to come back in March for another 6 months or so! You just can’t beat work and volunteer experiences like these here in Cody. I’ve probably said it for every blog entry I’ve posted, but I feel very fortunate to be here and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

I am very excited that my internship has officially been extended for an extra 2 months! To “pay for” the extension, I have been working on seed collections of 6 species for the Seeds of Success (SOS) program. So far they include winterfat, showy milkweed, rabbitbrush, wild licorice, and shadscale saltbrush. The sixth species is to be a sagebrush, which the Cody Field Office will probably use for reseeding projects on prescribed burn areas.

Other work activities have included documenting aspen regeneration progress in a riparian project area, building buck and rail  fence around a historical structure to protect it from livestock, and painting wood stain on fences around open mine shafts to prevent rotting. It’s always nice to have a break in routine to try something different, and hopefully I will be able to assist more people around the office to get a taste of what they do.

Other than that, it’s the marvelous business of field work as usual and this intern is quite happy to keep on keeping on.

Work continues, with different tasks practically every day. I love variety.

As the weather continues to transition into Fall and my amphibian searching season is winding down, I will increasingly be doing things like fence type inventories, re-spacing fence wires, making a last minute seed collection, other office work involving GIS mapping and sorting through eagle and vegetation data, and helping other people in the office with their work. Some of the work with other people has included trail assessments, evaluating streams for proper functioning condition, and weed spraying.

Yesterday I was fortunate to accompany the wild horse specialist on her quest to see if a mustang mare had foaled yet. We saw lots of horses and a few foals, though not from the particular mare we were checking up on. I was surprised to learn that all the BLM horses have names. Most are named by the USGS (US Geological Survey), but I guess I had expected that they would all have code numbers or something so as to remain distanced and objective with their management. Talking to the wild horse specialist has been very educating; I have always wondered about the management methods of the mustangs and what exactly the controversy over their presence on the land and their management was all about. I never really knew how I felt about the matter, but now that I have an understanding of the various viewpoints and issues involved in it, I have developed an informed opinion. What that opinion is I think I will keep to myself for this entry, but this realization does highlight the value of learning from a diversity of people in the office. You never know what kinds of useful stuff you’ll pick up on, and it’s great networking for future jobs and references, not to mention friends.

I am still waiting to hear whether or not there will be funding to extend my internship, so I have been trying to plan for my next job, but if they can find funding I would like to stay in Cody a while longer. It’s been a great a experience, and I like the place and people. I already feel that the end is quickly approaching, and it makes me a little sad. I know that I will be reluctant to leave, but for now I can’t do anything but press on and learn everything I can squeeze out of the whole experience. There is still plenty of interesting work to be done, and an intern couldn’t ask for more.

Well, the fuzzy little eaglets I’ve been watching since May have now grown up to full-sized juveniles and flown the coop. It’s sad to see them go, but I wish them luck. It’s strange to suddenly have time to do other things now, but staying busy is no difficult task. I’ve finally begun collecting hawksbeard and dune scurfpea for the Seeds of Success program, which takes longer than I had expected it would by myself, and at last have been getting out into new portions of the field office searching for reservoirs in which to document reptile and amphibian species. Primarily I’ve been looking for tiger salamanders and spadefoot toads, but have also found chorus frogs and a species of garter snake that seems to like swimming. I’ve also found triops, which is a crustacean whose form has apparently remained unchanged for millions of years and is considered a living fossil. I never would have expected to find a creature that looks like a little horseshoe crab way out here in a vernal pool in Wyoming, yet here it is! Wyoming is full of surprises.

One definite geographic benefit of working here is being in such close proximity to amazing places like Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, the Shoshone National Forest, and other relatively protected areas. It’s so nice to be able to get out of town and spend a weekend camping or hiking and just seeing new places. And who knows– all that hiking and camping could become an asset in applying for future jobs that may require backcountry experience. It’s also just an opportunity to do things I couldn’t do at home in Nebraska, where there aren’t any mountains to hike in or ski on, and camping in bear country is certainly an eye opener! I’m afraid I’m getting spoiled here. Home amongst the cows and cornfields and small cities is still home, and I’m sure I will enjoy plenty of my future jobs, but life as an intern in Cody is pretty darn good. I hope the last few months will go by slowly so I can take it all in.

It’s hard to even separate the last few weeks from the preceding ones– it’s all been a blur. I can’t believe I’ve already been here for 2 months. But the job is moving right along, mostly monitoring golden eagle nests and watching for plant populations to collect for the Seeds of Success program. The 2 eagle chicks I’ve been watching are almost ready to fledge (leave the nest), which I am excited to hopefully see. I am also hopeful that I will be involved in banding one of them once it leaves the nest and is on the ground for a few days. The seed collection project may have a minor setback, as a significant chunk of the scurfpea population I was planning to collect was washed out and covered with sediment in a heavy rainstorm. Mayhap there will be enough plants left for a collection, but perhaps it is time to go to Plan B and identify alternative collection sites.

Apart from work, I’ve had my first visitors from home this past weekend. My mom and sister came to visit, and I took them to work with me to monitor the eagle nests. We also went to Yellowstone for a day of ecotourism. Last week I watched the 4th of July parade through town and some fireworks. It’s lovely in the Cody Field Office right now; the blue delphinium is blooming and the occassional short but impressive thunderstorm rolls through from time to time, which keeps cooling things off so the summer heat hasn’t been terrible. All in all, it’s still the best job I’ve ever had and I feel very fortunate to be in this place among these people and enjoying working outdoors.

I can’t believe I’ve never been to this state before. The scenery is spectacular– it’s staggering to even imagine how long geology has been at work in this place. I love being able to see mountains everywhere I go, even though most of my work is in sagebrush steppe country.

I arrived in Cody on May 11, 2011, and began my internship on May 12th. I confess to one or two days of homesickness at first, but thanks to a nice temporary home and a great work environment I am now quite comfortable here in Cody, and at the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). So far my work activities have included monitoring golden eagle nests, mending and respacing wire on fences, vegetation surveys, monitoring sage grouse leks, assisting in a hike with the public for National Trails Day, and planting native shrubs in an area previously cleared of an invasive species. Soon I will also be collecting seed for the Seeds of Success program, monitoring other raptor (birds of prey) nests, and surveying other wildlife species such as rabbits and amphibians. For now, my primary responsibility is to monitor golden eagle nests. The chicks are currently around 5 weeks old, and it’s amazing how fast they grow and change. I wouldn’t have guessed they would start out as little fluffy white fellers, but they do. At this age, they are starting to get black markings on their wings and bodies, which will eventually fill in until they are pretty much all dark brown.

Overall, I’ve had a great experience so far, and learned more than I can say or remember. It’s a very refreshing change after graduating from college to be learning in such a hands-on, practical way. There really is no replacement for an education in the field. That being said, field work does have its drawbacks and setbacks. It has been unusually rainy in Cody this year, which delayed many field activities. Most of the roads we take to get to our field sites are dirt roads or two-tracks, which have been largely inaccessible due to the rain. It’s unfortunate since this is a very important time of year for things like bird surveys and monitoring, but the rain also has some benefits. An unprecedented number of mushrooms have been popping up, and (in theory) it should be a good time to look for amphibians. In the end, you do the best you can under whatever conditions arise.