Buffalo is situated at the base of the Big Horn Mountains in Northeast Wyoming, at the point where the Northern Great Plains rise into the Northern Rockies.   Compared to the vast land area loads of other field offices, the Buffalo Field Office (BFO) manages what is comparably a small land area (780,291 acres) but is the largest office in Wyoming (personnel- wise) due to development of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) in the Powder River Basin, where the BLM manages almost 7 times as much mineral real estate as the surface acreage mentioned.  As such, the primary and overwhelming focus of the BFO is related to approving and regulating development of CBM.   As a Range and Wildlife Intern at the BFO, my work has inherently been linked into the very controversial issues surrounding the effects of energy development on sensitive wildlife.  It has been fascinating to observe (and avoid getting involved in, as much as possible) the tension created between the realistic  need to decrease our foreign energy dependence (through extracting more fossil fuels, in this case, and thus trying to responsibly approve development of these resources) and simultaneously protect wildlife, especially sensitive wildlife.  Trying to strike this balance, at least from my sidelines observation point, is always controversial, nearly impossible, and keeps all 100+ employees of this office neck deep in work!

Biologist Bill Ostheimer perched in the back of the pickup with the sage-grouse net gun.

One major upcoming news item that will truly affect the BFO is the potential that the greater sage grouse will get listed by US Fish and Wildlife (as an endangered species) within the next few months.  Sage grouse populations in the Powder River Basin are struggling, at best, and a listing is likely to create massive chaos for the BFO in their energy development balancing act.  Thinking towards the necessary conservation of the Greater Sage Grouse, BFO Biologist Bill Ostheimer (with his trusty intern and seasonal sidekicks) has launched a one year study to investigate whether the two declining Sage Grouse populations in the Powder River and Big Horn Basins (on either side of the Big Horn Mountains) are actually connected by a more robust population that summers in the Southern Big Horns.  We have spent a significant part of our time here helping to trap and collar 17 additional Sage Grouse, and locating the birds with radio telemetry to learn where they overwinter, and eventually, where they lek in the spring.  In addition to becoming pretty attached to a bunch of birds we hardly ever see, we’ve had great wildlife sightings (Badger Badger), enjoyed some spectacular scenery, succeeded and failed at finding dead/stationary collars, met some local characters, avoided running into top-10 most wanted One-Eyed Ed, run up behind sheep on trail (see photo) and listened to a lot of low-quality radio. 

Fitting a radio collar to an adult male sage grouse

In all, this has been a great opportunity to learn the challenges of public land management, see a spectacular part of the country, gain some valuable field and office skillz, inform my “life-direction” ponderings and add to my already-very-long personal list of things I care strongly about (which can be overwhelming).  But as my co-intern would say, “Don’t worry ‘bout it.”

Hello there Badger!

To leave you with one factoid- Buffalo, WY:  NOT named after Bison bison as might make sense, but, rather, the town is named after Buffalo, NY- and the name was drawn out of a hat.

-Hannah Specht, BLM Field Office, Buffalo, WY

Driving hazard! Photo courtesy of former CBG Intern Charlotte Darling

Truly, that is the most accurate way to describe my job.  I am the fence girl.  My job is to walk fence lines.  Miles and miles of barbed wire, the top wire now bedecked with small white plastic clips, is the only evidence of my presence in those nether regions of our field office.  The purpose behind it all is to collect data on the quantity of wildlife, particularly the ever important sage-grouse, that are colliding with the almost invisible barbed wires that bisect so much of their habitat.  My job, while it may seem extremely simple, has taken a lot of time to perfect.  For example, I have gotten very good at quickly picking out feathers from dead grass (a lot more difficult that it may seem when the sun makes them all the same color) and identifying the difference between a prairie dog and a sage-grouse skeleton (think rotisserie chicken).  These are just a few of the skills that I have mastered but never guessed I would ever need to.

I do actually enjoy my time with the fences and the sagebrush.  I am alone 90% of the time but this does not bother me.  Instead I use that extra space to feel better connected to my environment.  I also feel like my job is truly making a difference.  This is the first time this project has been undertaken and my whole office is often asking me for updates on how much I have found so far.  (I just hit 100 sage-grouse strikes yesterday, a number much higher than people hoped I would find.)  I’m under the impression that this project promotes the idea that our office is progressive in its management strategies, something that is not very common within the Bureau as far as I can tell.  This gives many people a new sense of pride in how they view the office, and I really enjoy being part of that source.

However, I would have to say that my favorite thing about being in the field and covering so much ground on foot is all the little oddities that I have stumbled on along the way.  Some examples of natural wonders that I have found are dozens of fossils, raw gemstones, amazingly intact skeletons of just about every creature that exists out here, antelope antler sheds, and even what was left over of a hawk that an eagle apparently had for lunch.  On the more random side, people leave their mark in strange ways as well.  I have found broken dishes, cowboy boots on fence posts, a well-abused old computer monitor (Office Space style destroyed), my very own mud-encrusted GPS unit (wa-hoo!), and my personal favorite: fence-impaled deli sandwiches.

I really don’t think there are words for this. And no, that is not my lunch.

This moth was impaled on the barbed wire by a bird called a shrike. It hangs them up and then comes back to eat it later.

Did you know that school buses can go on two-tracks? This one full of 4th graders was headed out to an old garnet mine. Also, that road it’s on is part of the Oregon Trail, just to make it a little better.

So far this has been an absolutely wonderful experience.  I have learned so much about this part of the country that I never really knew was out here having never traveled west before this internship.  (I truly didn’t have any idea how dominant of a plant sagebrush was!)  This internship has also given me the opportunity to work on all sorts of other projects as well and I have learned something new from every one of them.  In addition to my intricate knowledge of fences, I have learned about seed collecting, snake hunting, pocket gopher trapping, and even a new portfolio of GIS knowledge that I know will be forever useful for my later career.  Thank you CBG for setting up this marvelous living and learning experience for us all!

-Katie Ellis, BLM field office, Rock Springs, WY

I’ve been stationed at the Vale BLM in Oregon since the middle of May.  The town of Vale is known for its murals depicting the Oregon Trail.  Driving around the 5.5 million acres that make up the Vale District, you often come across historical markers of the Oregon Trail.  There is even one place where you can apparently see the wagon ruts still present from when people came to the west.  I haven’t stopped to see whether that is actually true or not. 

Erigeron linearis population I found when I accidently took a wrong turn

I am in charge of organizing and establishing the Seeds of Success program in Vale.  This is the first year that the program has been in this district so I have spent a lot of time trying to find stands of plants that are big enough to collect.  I’m originally from Pennsylvania where the diversity of plants is quite obvious.  Previously, I had not spent any significant amount of time in the desert so I was skeptical about the diversity of plants that can grow in desert conditions.  Well, I now know that there is an overwhelming amount of plants that can grow in the desert and have been challenged to try to learn as many as possible over the past 5 months. 

View along the fence line

Besides seed collecting, the first week that I was here I worked with the botanist to do a fence clearance that will be used to keep wild horses out of a spring that they have demolished.  We mapped the special status plant sites that we found and moved the proposed placement of the fence accordingly.  While walking the proposed fence line, we came to the spring and saw around 40 wild horses.  The whole experience was such a great introduction now only to Vale and my internship but the West as well.

Riding to the stream for riparian monitoring

Most of my time has been spent out in the field finding and collecting seeds, but as the seed collecting season has slowed down I have gotten the opportunity to help and learn about riparian monitoring.  Last week I went on a two day horseback trip to take pictures at monitoring points and assess whether the stream was properly functioning.  Grazing has not occurred along the stream we were monitoring for 6 years.  It was incredible to look at pictures from just three years before and see how much the stream has improved. 

Maggie Eshleman, BLM, Vale, Oregon

The Rock, known commonly as Rock Springs, Wyoming, has been an interesting place to live for the last four months.  I have been here since early June working on a fish passage inventory project with the Rock Springs Bureau of Land Management.  I have learned quite a bit about all sorts of new things, had many memorable experiences, and abrubtly began my transition to post college life…

At work, I am responsible for checking stream/creek crossings for passability by fish.  Basicly I need to visit all locations where a road crosses a stream,perform a survey, and document the visit with photos.  If you have ever spent time in South Central Wyoming, you will understand just HOW MANY roads there really are. 

Aiko Weverka poses for a photo on the Little Sweetwater

 There are BLM roads that go everywhere and anywhere you want, most of which seem like they haven’t been traversed for hundreds of years.  Nonetheless, I am responsible for checking each crossing.  Each site is one of three crossing types; a culvert (big metal pipe that funnels stream under road), a low water crossing (the stream just runs across the road), or a bridge (you know what that is).  The survey I perform is very basic, taking measurements of stream width, culvert diameter, width of crossing, etc.  The hardest part of my job has proven to be actually FINDING where it is I need to go.  Quite a few locations are 20+ miles from the nearest paved road, and I rely on my trusty BLM maps to get me there.  Each day in the field is an adventure, and on rare occasions a misadventure (I have only got stuck and had to call in for help once…knock on wood).

I’m interested to see what becomes of my work, as Im told that my inventory will be the basis for deciding which sites need funding for repairs or replacement. 

Apart from work, living here has been both extraordinarily exciting, while sometimes exceptionally boring.  Being an avid fly fisherman, I have taken every opportunity possible to get out on the water.  Fly fishing here is incredible, to say the least.  I have also been introduced to hunting, which has become an exciting new hobby for me.  I got an antelope tag and went out with a few guys from work for my first big game hunt.  Since then I definately caught the hunting itch and have been out hunting for cottontail rabbits and grouse up in the mountains.  Bunnies taste good fried.

On the other hand, It has been a big shock to leave a life of familiarity to one of complete uncertainty.  Coming from college, a fantasy land of friendly people your own age, I am adjusting to life in the real world.  I suppose this transition occurs anywhere one goes after college, but for me,I made my transition in Rock Springs.  

Este es pancho

It has certainly been a period of growth for me as an individual.  Thus far, living in a mecca of great trout fishing and hunting has kept me busy enough to stay sane.

Greetings from northeastern Wyoming! Most of you have likely never heard of Newcastle, much like myself when I accepted my internship to work at the Bureau of Land Management for a wildlife biologist. Newcastle lies on an ecotone between sagebrush grassland and the westernmost fringes of the Black Hills. It is a tiny town about 12 miles west of the Wyoming/South Dakota state line, populated largely by coal miners, oil field roustabouts, and oil and gas refinery workers. I never once imagined myself working in a place like this.

Our field office is miniscule. There are a whopping fourteen employees, two of which are currently on detail assignments to other field offices. But don’t take the small stature as an indication of a small amount of land. On the contrary, the twelve people here at the Newcastle BLM are responsible for managing 260,000 acres of public land, spread out across almost 3,125 square miles. Additionally, most of the public land in this part of WY is in tiny parcels, usually only 40 to 200 acres in size, which are typically surrounded by private land with few access roads. Imagine my surprise when I found that I’d often be driving into South Dakota and Montana in order to get onto BLM land in Wyoming!

Devil's Tower- one of the more scenic locations in northeastern Wyoming

As you can imagine, resources here are spread thin, so I am on my own in the field. I unfortunately haven’t had the opportunity during my internship to work with others during fieldwork. To say that I am not occasionally terribly lonely would be untruthful, but I’m naturally independent and often find the solitude enjoyable.

I’ve been tasked with a variety of things over the course of my internship. I started off by surveying for northern goshawk in the Black Hills, traversing surprisingly steep hillsides and gorgeous canyons, then followed that up by checking on known raptor nests in cottonwoods growing along drainages to see if they were utilized this season. At various times I’ve deployed a nifty system called Anabat, which records bat echolocative calls. The patterns of the calls can be used to determine the species in an area.

I’ve surveyed prairie dog colonies for burrowing owl and mountain plover (dismayed to find many colonies nearly devoid of dogs… mostly due to

THIS little guy, however, seemed to be doing pretty well for himself.

poisoning and hunting, although somewhat as a result of sylvatic plague). And for the past few weeks, I’ve been completing sage-grouse habitat vegetation surveys, much like Nelson and Michelle in Cedar City, UT.

In July, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in an environmental education program held by the Newcastle BLM for local middle school students. For three weeks, small groups of students were hosted at a campsite in the Black Hills in South Dakota, and I was in charge of teaching the kids about various wildlife species in the Hills, their habitats, and pertinent conservation issues, all of which mandated hikes in the forest and evening sessions watching bats feed over a pond.

By far, however, my favorite experience has been tracking radio-collared sage-grouse in Thunder Basin National Grassland. We have only four collared grouse, three females and a male, but I go out and find them all at least once a week, every week, and over the last four months they’ve grown to seem like close, familiar friends. (As a tragic side-note, I used to have five collared grouse, with a fourth female, but she was killed last week by a hunter : (  What are the odds, really?)

Radio telemetry isn’t for everyone, as it requires a special brand of patience, but I find it extremely rewarding. It’s always comforting to me to visit one of my bird’s favorite haunts, tune the receiver to the indented frequency, and her the soft, steady pulsing beeps indicating that the grouse is nearby. Even though a couple have frustrated me to no end by taking off at random intervals, travelling miles, and then moving around sporadically week to week (e.g. I “lost” them), I’ve always had the pleasure of sleuthing out where they ended up, triumphantly finding them again, reassured that at least a few members of this potentially-endangered species are still living the way they should be, wild, in the seemingly endless seas of sage in northeastern Wyoming.

Rachel Wheat, BLM, Newcastle, WY

Completely unrelated to my post, Badlands National Park, in South Dakota, is only about three hours from Newcastle. Absolutely gorgeous.

      I didn’t quite know what to expect when I found out that I was heading to Grand Junction, Colorado for my CLM internship, but I was excited because I had heard so many fantastic things about Colorado. My visions of Colorado mainly included mainly mountains, forests, and snow, but then I found out that Grand Junction is in the desert. The city itself lies in a valley between the Grand Mesa and the Bookcliffs and it is absolutely beautiful! It’s perfectly situated between so many recreational opportunities in the desert to the west and in the mountains to the east, and I have certainly taken advantage of the opportunities in my free time. But back to my work… which to be honest, often does not feel all that different from activities I enjoy on my own time.

     I have spent the majority of my CLM internship working on a Land Health Assessment project to determine whether land health standards in soil/site stability, hydrologic function and biotic integrity are being achieved on BLM grazing allotments. Essentially, we had to determine whether the land is “meeting,” “not meeting,” or “meeting with problems” for each of the land health standards and then overall. We set up a transect at each site and did a line-point intercept analysis to determine species composition as well as a gap intercept analysis to determine sizes and overall percentages of canopy gaps. We then did a soil stability test and looked at indicators like rills, water-flow patterns, gullies, litter movement, soil compaction, invasive plants, plant mortality, and annual production of plants.

     We spent the first half of the summer in the desert and the second half up in the Bookcliffs, working in and out of the canyons and higher country. We got to hike in some beautiful areas and because we had to assess all of the land within each grazing allotment, we had the opportunity to travel to areas that most people never get to see. We also saw some wildlife while we were out working: antelope, deer, coyote, and even several bears. We have completed the field work portion of the project. In total, we assessed approximately 223,000 acres. I am now working on GIS maps of the areas we assessed and entering the data we collected at each point. It has been very interesting to be involved in every stage of the project thus far. My final step will be to total up the percentages of acres for each assessment category and provide explanations for these assessments to my mentor who will write the final report.

     Another cool part of my internship is that I have also had many opportunities to go out in the field with other people in the office. In fact, just today I visited a site with some of the office staff to look at some dinosaur and other vertebrate tracks that have been recently discovered. Earlier in the summer I spent a day on the Colorado River with the weeds specialist looking at the invasive Tamarisk and visiting some of the release sites for the beetle that is being used to control the Tamarisk. Other interesting projects that I have had the opportunity to assist with are a rare plant survey for the Sclerocactus glaucus –a federally listed threatened cactus, an archaeological survey along a proposed fence line, water flow monitoring with the hydrologist, ecological site inventory to determine forage available in grazing allotments, and oil and gas well compliance inspections, among others.

     Overall, I have had a fantastic experience during my CLM internship. I have learned so much about the ecosystems and plant species in this area. It is all so different from where I grew up in Maine! I have also learned a lot about how the Bureau of Land Management operates and what goes into managing all of the public land out here in the west, which again, is so different from back east where there is not much public land at all.

–Nina Pinette, BLM Field Office, Grand Junction, Colorado

this is a brushy loam field site--it is meeting the standards

this is a loamy saltdesert site--it is not meeting the standards

It seems difficult to remember now, but only a scant four months ago I had no idea what to expect from my time as an intern with the BLM in Richfield, Utah. No anticipations for this diminutive, predominantly Mormon town of approximately 10,000 residents – nor any for its surrounding natural environment, which I must have flown over dozens of times on my way to or from college, but never gave much thought to. Now that I’m more than halfway through this experience, I feel almost as if I own the place, or at least feel that my share in collecting seeds for restoration and research entitles me to throwing up a defiant fist at the ever-rampant All Terrain Vehicle riders tearing through local meadows of sagebrush and bee plant, and stirring up the pollen of that awful rabbitbrush which has been assaulting my nose, eyes, and throat for several weeks now.

I could not ask for a more beautiful natural setting in which to be exposed to the absolute horrors of post-college life: paying rent, buying groceries, the laundromat, and OxiClean. That’s part of the reason this internship has been a real godsend; getting away each work day from the apartment, the town, the claustrophobic cubicles that define so many others’ internship experiences – and getting to work among the splendors of the Intermountain West, with all its endless expanses and pristine air, has been a form of daily therapy. Making some dough while doing it has on occasion felt nothing short of criminal.

I am blessed to work with a team of other field botanists that includes two other CBG interns and a former CBG intern from last year. Last year’s intern, a 60-year-old woman whom we have lovingly titled Mormon Mama Melinda, is one of the most amazing taxonomy whizzes the world – or Sevier County, Utah, at the very least – has ever known. She keeps us more than entertained on our often-treacherously long hauls to collection sites (I reckon we are averaging about 3 hours of driving a day), plus keeps our stomachs fat and happy with home-baked wonders. And, perhaps most fortunately for us new interns, Mormon Mama Melinda is capable of keying out species we encounter in about ten seconds flat.

I have to admit, I had a reservation or two when I learned that the majority of my internship would be spent collecting seeds. Surely, it is not as glamorous a job as monitoring the mating habits of gopher tortoises (sadly, not an option for CBG interns in 2009), nor does it elicit many jaw-dropping reactions from family and friends back home, who generally can’t come to grips with the importance of such employment. But the benefits of this internship have been nothing short of extraordinary – and it will be with a very heavy heart that I leave this surrogate home of mine: the incomparable state of Utah.

-Evan Poirson, BLM Field Office, Richfield, Utah

This isn't Massachusetts anymore.

Coming to live and work at Kalaupapa National Historical Park has been a great way to ease back in to mainstream American life. Kalaupapa is a tiny community with a unique history located on a very isolated peninsula on the Island of Molokai, “the most Hawaiian island.” I applied for the Conservation and Land Management Internship while finishing up my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. Having lived here at Kalaupapa for 4 months now, I can’t imagine a better way to transition back to the American culture and workplace.

The history here is special, not least of all because it is a living history. Beginning in 1866 the Kalaupapa peninsula was the site of the forced isolation of Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) patients. Since 1969 patients have been free to come and go; the patients that remain here today do so by choice.

I came to the park to resurvey permanent monitoring plots that were put in place in 1995 to monitor the growth and vigor of native trees and associated understory and overstory vegetation in a remnant tropical dryland forest. Tropical dryland forests are among the most disturbed ecosystems on the planet. In Hawaii only 10% of these native forests remain, and even these are threatened with conversion to other species.

A wiliwili (Erythrina sandwicensis) tree is the center of a permanent monitoring plot.

I am continually amazed at the dominance of non-native invasive species in Hawaii. In the northeastern US, where I call home, invasive plant species in forests are a relatively small concern. Here elevation bands of entire islands

are completely overrun by non-native invasive plants. This is compounded by the loss of pollinator species, and overgrazing by feral ungulates. It makes me appreciate and want to protect the mainland US with its large patches of intact native plant communities.

I’ve had several great opportunities for diversion from my main project. I attended the Hawaiian Conservation Conference in lieu of attending the Grand Canyon Workshop. I was also able to attend NPS wildland firefighter training. On a day-to-day basis I have helped with a variety of other projects at the park including seed collecting and processing, constructing fencing to protect native plants from feral ungulates, and digitizing maps and aerial photos of the park.

Lu'au pig roasting pit with the cliffs of Molokai in the background.

It is a small community down here, but people have been very welcoming. We play volleyball twice a week, and there are very competitive nightly cribbage games- don’t get skunked! We even started a book club. One recent highlight was the community lu’au. I got to help butcher and clean the stomach, intestines, heart, and other inside bits of a pig that was cooked underground overnight. The next night we feasted and danced the night away.

My mentor has been great. He’s very open to suggestions and ideas that I have. He’s been a great help when I need advice and resources at work, but he has also given me the leeway and freedom to explore and do things in my own way. He has opened his home to me and welcomed me to spend time with his family on several occasions. I have gotten a lot of good advice on career options and grad-school options from my mentor and many other people at the park. I’ve also learned a lot about the native Hawaiian perspective on the environment and management of the land. They’ve been here a lot longer than we have and the knowledge they hold could be used in resource management much more effectively.

All in all this internship has been a wonderful opportunity for me and I am very grateful. I would never have imagined I would be working on a tropical forest ecology research project in Hawaii, eating papaya and mangos all summer long. Then again I never would have thought I’d live in a rural village in Morocco and learn Arabic and Tamazight. Life is strange- time to embrace it and go play some volleyball!

-Nathan Johnson

meadow at black rock hot spring

Coming from the lush, green, deciduous forests of Kentucky where every step outside reveals another dribbling creek or hanging vine to push aside, I wasn’t quite sure how I would fare in sagebrush country. I remember back to my first day…I met my mentor and fellow intern and we headed out to familiarize ourselves with the surrounding area of northeastern California and into northwestern Nevada. The dirt roads we followed were splashed with the colors of spring wildflowers: deep purple delphinium, violet lupins, and all the colors of the sunset captured in the Indian paintbrush. We saw pronghorn antelope run up and over the mountain mahogany covered hills and Jack rabbits dart out from under the greasewood in front of the rig. But it wasn’t the wildlife that sold me on this strange new place. It was the wildness of the place itself.
It didn’t take long to be mesmerized by the vastness of this place. This desert. Sure, we’ve got “country” in the South, but this is a new definition of the word for me. This is the Wild West and never before had I looked out over a seemingly never-ending landscape. Never before had I been to a place where I can stand on top of a mountain and fail to see one glimmer of human civilization. That is rare beauty.
Just as I was surprised by my new found love and respect of the desert, every day at the BLM Surprise Field Office has been, well, a surprise! Looking back on the last 3 months, I am amazed by the variety of projects I have been able to participate in as a CLM intern here in Cedarville, CA. Each day I anticipate another amazing opportunity awaits…and to think I still have three more months to go!
As a plant enthusiast, I was especially enthused to find that the first couple of months would be spent searching for rare plants in the Black Rock Desert, specifically within the Jackson Mountain range. This has been our longest ongoing project so far. The work week usually consisted of spending 3 to 4 days out in the field at a time.

View from the top--looking down on potential rare plant habitat in the Jacksons.

We most often camped at our favorite canyon, McGill, because of a deep pool of fresh spring water we could bathe in after a long day of work. Once we located and identified the plants, we collected data such as population estimates, habitat type, and exact location using a GPS unit. More recently, we have been analyzing the data by making maps using GIS and preparing reports.
As I said before, I have been part of a wide variety of projects. So far I’ve seen real cowboys round-up horses with a helicopter at a wild horse gathering, was dropped off at the top of a mountain and backpacked for 3 days on an aspen stand monitoring project, and most recently, went to Burning Man 2009!

A rainbow on the playa pre-Burning Man.

Burning Man is held in the Black Rock Desert on the largest playa in North America (the dry bed of ancient Lake Lohontan) and is part of 1.2 million acres of NCA managed by the BLM. For only a week out of the year, Black Rock City, the home of Burning Man, becomes the fourth largest city of Nevada. Burners (attendees of the festival) live by the “Leave No Trace” motto and are encouraged by the event to incorporate green principles into their everyday lives in the “default world”.
One of the many things that impressed and inspired me at the event was the fact that not one trashcan was provided to attendees and yet very rarely would there be a piece of trash on the ground! FORTY-THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE AND NOT ONE PIECE OF TRASH?! I find the implications of this phenomenon to be incredibly powerful. All burners are highly encouraged never to create M.O.O.P. (material out of place) and the community follows these golden rules for the most part.
That’s where my job came in! I worked with a team of volunteers as an environmental compliance officer to ensure that these principles the event holds dear were constantly in practice. Each day we patrolled Black Rock City ensuring that no serious M.O.O.P. violations were occurring. For example, gray water is an issue that all camps/villages have to deal with. Some have elaborate contraptions set up so that their gray water evaporates over the course of the week. However, sometimes there are issues of gray water leakage or dumping on the playa which is prohibited. Our job was to make sure these things weren’t happening.

The Man!

Needless to say, I saw some amazing, bizarre and beautiful things while protecting the environment and educating people on how to be a green burner. And just as I feel I did my part to spread the word on sustainable activity on the playa, I venture to say I was even inspired and enlightened by the event myself.
So here I am with three two months to go and I continue to learn something new every day. This internship has been one of the great experiences of my life and I cannot wait to see what else is in store for me at the BLM Surprise Field Office!

Alecia Brantley, BLM field Office, Pinedale, Wyoming