I’ve had the pleasure of spending my internship on the Cosumnes River Preserve in central California. This week, I learned how to properly install a barbed wire fence, which sounds much easier than it is in reality. It’s interesting, though. I hail from Kansas, and everybody automatically assumes that capable farm boy has come to town, but in actuality I come from small town Americano. I have worked on farms before, but just as a hand during hay season. I’m just a hayseed… not a rancher.  Now, through the BLM, I have learned to operate many of the equipment used for land management, such as 90 hp tractors, chainsaws, UTV’s, et al. It is ironic that the perception people have of me is now mostly true, but they are unaware of the means by which I acquired these skills. I guess it goes to show that people have assumptions about the lifestyles of peoples’ from different states, especially the assumptions Californians make. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people of California thought that California was half the country, and this is not a preconception, but a conclusion made after meeting Californians. I consider myself well traveled, and there is definitely a self-centralism in this state. That is not to say that I don’t consider California “unworthy” or “irredeemable” in any way. On the contrary, I absolutely love the state of California and all it has to offer. I’m very grateful that CLM was able to extend my internship (and my mentor for making it possible), but I do feel that people here take a whole lot for granted. One thing that the CLM Internship program offers is a way for young people such as myself, who are interested in this sort of job field, to get away and see if indeed the grass is greener on the other side of the fence; to go places far from their realm of comfort and gain exposure that they would not otherwise have the opportunity. I hope the other interns involved in this program feel the same way and don’t take it for granted. Thank you, Chicago Botanic Garden, for creating opportunities, especially in the current economic atmosphere.

I have never blogged before, so this might be interesting. Where to start… I moved from Kansas to California for my internship. I work at the Cosumnes River Preserve just south of Sacramento, CA. As far as land goes, it is not that large, but it has a lot of substance. Habitats from vernal pools, to grasslands, to Riparian woodlands occupy most of the space. The preserve itself is unique in the fact that many agency co-manage the land. BLM, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, local easement land owners, and some water organization which I cannot remember at the time all work together cooperatively to run the preserve and act as stewards for the land. In this aspect, this internship is really good, because I have the opportunity of working with, and observing, many different organizations and their differing methods. This will give me ample information to help me in determining my next life stage.

I enjoy the weather California has to offer. It gets hot here, or will soon, but not as hot as I am used to, and the evenings are gorgeous. I hear the winters are mild, so I will be looking forward to that. I haven’t done a lot of field work around trees before, so the added shade is very nice. Drawback: my allergies have been acting up, and there are lots of ticks here, but I knew what I was getting into, so no biggy.

I like my coworkers. Everyone is real nice and more than willing to offer a helping hand when needed. I get the opportunity to achieve independently, but also work cooperatively to overcome challenges. The only area of contention I have had so far is the fact that my boss has been emphasizing getting the seed collection for Seeds of Success started, but doesn’t really know a whole lot about the process (as neither do I). Since he wants me to get started on that stuff before the field training at the Grand Canyon, I have pieced together as much as I can on how to go about doing this. That’s okay, though, because its probably good to start early, and I will have everything figured out by the time I need.

I have not really had any problems adjusting to a different culture from where I moved. I have always heard about culture shock, but I guess I just don’t get it. I love the wildlife out here. There are lots of birds that I know, but never have been able to see before, and I can’t wait to see a bunch of trees I have on my list of things to see (like redwoods, giant sequoias, sugar pine). I don’t even care if that’s nerdy.