I started my internship in Safford Arizona two weeks ago and have already gotten much and varied experiences since then. At the BLM office in Safford I am working for two great fisheries biologists and natural resources  experts  on several projects including riparian (streams and rivers) ecosystems in several picturesque canyons, and grassland restoration projects among others. I have also helped remove old fencing along BLM land bordering Mexico and helped build rock structures to prevent erosion in the Turkey Creek area of Aravaipa wilderness. On top of that my mentors and other coworkers are helping me understand what it takes to run some of the projects that they are in charge of.

I started this blog while in Albuquerque where my mentor was giving a talk on her work in Bonita Creek helping to conserve native fish of Arizona. From there we went to northern Arizona near Holbrook where we did some field work inventorying  fish. We hoped to find the native Little Colorado Spinedace in one of the stream areas but unfortunately we did not. However, there were a number of speckled dace which are native, and there were few crawfish, which is always a good thing.

There is much yet to do and still more experiences to be had! I will be here until October doing a lot more work, so… more to come next time. Unfortunately, I have no pictures yet. Half my pictures are on a disposable camera and the others are on my mentors camera, but I will definitely have plenty of pictures next time.