Hello all! I am writing from a town of roughly 3,000 people in Kemmerer, WY. Kemmerer is settled in south western Wyoming about 7,000 ft above sea level and less than a half hour from the borders of Utah and Idaho. It is known as the “Fossil Fish Capitol of the World.” I have only been here for about a week and a half and I have been through a decent amount of culture shock due to the different environment (this is coming from someone from outside of Philadelphia, PA and had never been past Cleveland, OH). I came during an “unusual” wet period which included an inch of snow in June and 4-5 storms that produced decent sized hail! Luckily, it seems to have moved on from this unusual weather and gone back to the normal dry, 70 degree temperatures.

My first week at the BLM started out on Monday meeting everyone, filling out paperwork, and important safety information. Tuesday included a full day of CPR and First Aid training. I finally got my first taste of the field on Wednesday. It was a long day filled with riparian studies in a small portion of the allotments for the ranchers. A rather large crew had gotten together to start to tackle some of the many streams located in the Kemmerer field office range. These streams had not been assessed since 1997. The riparian studies had included taking multiple GPS points, recording green line inventories, many pictures for future references, and finally, proper functioning conditions (rating the overall health of the streams). I really didn’t know why all of this information was important until the last stream of the day. This stream was in the worst condition. It had been affected by rail road tracks, a new bridge, and the highway that was down stream. It had horrible formation and no riparian vegetation growing on the banks. This was a perfect example of a poorly functioning stream. Thursday was supposed to be a continuation of Wednesday. This was not the case due to rain followed by an inch of snow on the ground in the morning. Instead, I had gone to a seminar and learned about the GPS unit I will be using throughout my internship. Once the seminar was over, my mentor handed me 3 maps, names of certain landmarks and towns, and told me to find them. When I found them on the map, he handed me the keys to his truck and told me, “Now, use the maps and go find them in person.” This gave me a chance to use my map reading skills and to get used to the area covered by the field office. After a day of the trails drying out, I was on my way back out in the field on Friday to locate some of the green line areas. I was aiding one of the range management specialists with the GPS unit to take points so we could come back at a future day. It was almost like finding a needle in a haystack due to massive growth of vegetation around the posts. Eventually, we had found all but two of the green line posts-which is pretty good considering they hadn’t been checked in 13 years!

This is one of the streams we assessed.

Wheat Creek Meadows, BLM Land-One of the places I was sent out to find.

Me at the top of Fossil Butte National Monument, the Fossil Fish Capitol of the world.

Although I have only been working for one week, I have a feeling I will be enjoying my 5 month stay with the BLM. Once I adjust to the high altitude and the time change, I might not want to go back! For now though, I will take it day by day.

Larry Ashton
Kemmerer, WY
BLM

“You haven’t experienced Wyoming until you have lived through a Wyoming winter.” That is the message that everyone in my field office kept telling me last year. Well, I got the chance to do so. A few weeks before my internship had ended last fall, the lead wildlife biologist had offered me to come back to the Kemmerer Field Office as a wildlife intern from February through July. He had explained to me that I would have a variety of projects, but most importantly, the office needed more data on the winter habitat for the Greater Sage Grouse. I would be out in the field during the winter mapping pockets of sage brush that were above the snowline along with mapping perimeters of the leks (areas where the grouse group together to mate) and lek surveys in the field office. There would be cold temperatures and 3:30 am wake ups. (Sounds enticing doesn’t it?) Still, I couldn’t pass up another amazing opportunity like this. I got used to the extreme cold temperatures (mornings of -15 degrees) and the gorgeous early morning sunrises. I had a great time snow shoeing and snowmobiling in the back country of Wyoming-things people pay to do…and I was getting paid to do it. After many cold days outside and long days at the computer, I have recently finished the GIS analysis of roughly 3 months worth of data and I helped the office go from 0 acres to over 130,000 acres of mapped winter sage grouse habitat. I am glad it is finally warming up. When the landscape dries out I will be mapping Mountain Plover habitat, conducting Mountain Plover and Burrowing Owl surveys, as well as checking up on raptor nests. I cannot wait! I am thoroughly pleased that I came back!

Larry Ashton
Kemmerer, WY BLM

Hello All!

It has been about 2 ½ months and over 800 pictures since my first blog. A lot has happened since. I have gotten to know almost everyone in my field office. They’re some of the best people I have ever worked with! I have seen parts of Wyoming not many people in Kemmerer have ever seen before. That is thanks to the 160 miles of hiking (and counting). My G.I.S. project is rolling and I have digitized over 560,000 acres of the field office. The crazy part about it is that I am only about 1/3 of the way finished! I have already finished one of my projects and I am very proud about it too. We had to go to 30+ oil pad sites and collect data for the final reclamation. In the beginning it took my partner and I about 2 hours per site. By the time we finished, she and I had each site finished in 50 minutes (thanks to our growing knowledge of western flora).

The amazing view from inside Raymond Canyon in the Smithsfork Allotment in the Kemmerer BLM Field Office.

Myself digitizing the perimeter of the disturbed area with a Trimble geoXT at one of the sites for the oil reclamations.

Myself at Shoshone Point for the Grand Canyon Workshop

The days are now getting shorter, I have to wear my winter jacket in the morning (only to work in shed layers throughout the day), and everyone is telling me snow will start soon. But, as for the rest of my time here in Kemmerer, Wyoming, so far September is booked solid….I don’t mind at all.

Larry Ashton
Kemmerer, WY
BLM

Hello all! I am writing from a town of roughly 3,000 people in Kemmerer, WY. Kemmerer is settled in south western Wyoming about 7,000 ft above sea level and less than a half hour from the borders of Utah and Idaho. It is known as the “Fossil Fish Capitol of the World.” I have only been here for about a week and a half and I have been through a decent amount of culture shock due to the different environment (this is coming from someone from outside of Philadelphia, PA and had never been past Cleveland, OH). I came during an “unusual” wet period which included an inch of snow in June and 4-5 storms that produced decent sized hail! Luckily, it seems to have moved on from this unusual weather and gone back to the normal dry, 70 degree temperatures.

My first week at the BLM started out on Monday meeting everyone, filling out paperwork, and important safety information. Tuesday included a full day of CPR and First Aid training. I finally got my first taste of the field on Wednesday. It was a long day filled with riparian studies in a small portion of the allotments for the ranchers. A rather large crew had gotten together to start to tackle some of the many streams located in the Kemmerer field office range. These streams had not been assessed since 1997. The riparian studies had included taking multiple GPS points, recording green line inventories, many pictures for future references, and finally, proper functioning conditions (rating the overall health of the streams). I really didn’t know why all of this information was important until the last stream of the day. This stream was in the worst condition. It had been affected by rail road tracks, a new bridge, and the highway that was down stream. It had horrible formation and no riparian vegetation growing on the banks. This was a perfect example of a poorly functioning stream. Thursday was supposed to be a continuation of Wednesday. This was not the case due to rain followed by an inch of snow on the ground in the morning. Instead, I had gone to a seminar and learned about the GPS unit I will be using throughout my internship. Once the seminar was over, my mentor handed me 3 maps, names of certain landmarks and towns, and told me to find them. When I found them on the map, he handed me the keys to his truck and told me, “Now, use the maps and go find them in person.” This gave me a chance to use my map reading skills and to get used to the area covered by the field office. After a day of the trails drying out, I was on my way back out in the field on Friday to locate some of the green line areas. I was aiding one of the range management specialists with the GPS unit to take points so we could come back at a future day. It was almost like finding a needle in a haystack due to massive growth of vegetation around the posts. Eventually, we had found all but two of the green line posts-which is pretty good considering they hadn’t been checked in 13 years!

This is one of the streams we assessed.

Wheat Creek Meadows, BLM Land-One of the places I was sent out to find.

Me at the top of Fossil Butte National Monument, the Fossil Fish Capitol of the world.

Although I have only been working for one week, I have a feeling I will be enjoying my 5 month stay with the BLM. Once I adjust to the high altitude and the time change, I might not want to go back home! For now though, I will take it day by day.

Larry Ashton
Kemmerer, WY
BLM