I am stationed in Richfield Utah, a small town of 7,000 (quite large by Utah standards) and I am so grateful  to have been placed here. I had previously never been to Utah and knew little to nothing about the people or the environment here. I have received nothing but kindness from local Utahns, and through my work with Dustin, have discovered that Utah has so much more to offer than just arid desert. We often spend the day winding around switchbacks and putting our jeep through it’s courses scaling mountains in search of the desired plant populations. An hour’s traveling time is sufficient to see multiple markedly different ecosystems that result from changes in altitude and precipitation zone. One second we’ll be checking out prickly pear and claret cup cacti mixed in with the sagebrush, the next we’ll see thick pinyon pine and juniper communities, and those will give way to vast stands of quaking aspen, and more often than not, the mountain peaks are covered in grassland communities spotted with diverse, colorful, and robust forbs. We’ve even seen many mountain lakes that Dustin assures us are full of world class brook trout, “brookies” as he calls them. I had absolutely no idea how much diversity Utah had to offer. I keep a field journal with me every day and write down notes about each new plant species or variety that we encounter. I’m now half way through my 4th week of work and already have detailed notes on 153 plants. Dustin says that by the end of my internship in November I should be familiar with 400-500 Utah species. Every day is different here in Richfield. I have already learned a great deal and accomplished so much in such a short time, I can only hope we continue to be successful with our explorations and collections.