Hello again everyone. It seems my internship is coming to an end here in wonderful Kemmerer, Wyoming. I have had a wonderful time and I have been able to gain so much knowledge; I would have never had the chance to learn without the CLM program and my mentor. Having a chance to work in the wildlife field is something I will never forget and hopefully I will have the chance to do again. Much of my time this winter was spent doing paper work, although paper work can be very boring, I was able to gain understanding of what NEPA work really is. Also, I was able to spend much of my time this winter working in the ArcGIS program.  This program seems to very valuable, but can be very complex. When field season finally did role around I spent time mapping springs and reservoirs for habitat functionality. I was able to complete Sage Grouse lek surveys, which by the way is really cool, if any of you reading this ever get the opportunity to do lek surveys make sure you jump at the chance.

Although I did have a wildlife internship, all of my background and degree have been focused in the Range Ecology aspect of land management. Having the Range background, my mentor let me also spend some of my time with the Range Management Specialists in the office.  This time was spent learning how to do important tasks, such as grazing permit billing, grazing permit transfers, learning the BLM filing systems, and working in the computer programs RAS and RIPS.  With the aspect of understanding Range Ecology and Wildlife Biology I feel I have a better understanding of the relationships these two fields have with each other.

With the ending of my internship I will be taking a week off over the 4^th of July week, and returning to the Kemmerer BLM office as a seasonal Range Technician on Monday the 7^th. With my return to work I will have the opportunity to continue working with others at the office, and continue my learning process working in both, range and wildlife.  Hopefully after this summer technician position I will have gained enough experience to find a permanent job with the BLM. If I haven’t by then, hopefully I will be back as an intern next winter.  Have fun, and be safe!

Jeremy Sykes

Bureau of Land Management

Kemmerer, WY

Hello again fellow interns! Well it seems summer is in full swing. The temperature reached over 80 degrees this week in wonderful Kemmerer, Wyoming.  The temperature seems to be getting hot too quickly, but it’s nice not waking up to below freezing weather.  Work has been great; I have spent much of my time last week in an optional training.  The class was a week-long class located in Twin Falls, Idaho.  Class consisted of training on how to use the Seventeen Indicators of Range Health.  The training will be very valuable in my future career.  Much of the class was spent on soils, and how to identify specific ecological sites. Much of the information that was covered during training was review for me.  It was nice to have a refresher course. It amazes me how much a person can forget when they don’t use something that was learned in the past.

Being from Wyoming, I have not spent much time in Idaho.  The state goes from mountains in the east to a flatter grass/shrub community in the eastern part of the state.  The one thing that really surprised me was the huge amount of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum).  I knew the invasive grass was a problem, but I didn’t realize it was a problem to this extent.  In fact, where I currently work, and have worked in the past, cheatgrass is a problem, but it is located in sporadic areas and does not cause a huge problem.  It was nice to learn how much the grass really creates a problem for native grass species. After leaving Idaho, and returning to Wyoming, I have a new profound appreciation of my work location.  I hope everyone has a great field season, and remember to stay safe!

Jeremy Sykes

Bureau of Land Management

Kemmerer, Wyoming

Hello again! I hope everyone is having a wonderful time being a CLM intern and enjoying the chance to expand our knowledge in the field that we are interested in.  I sure am enjoying my internship with the BLM, in Kemmerer, WY. 

It’s now the end of April and field season has started for most everyone. Last week I was able to drive a UTV up into a cattle allotment I managed last summer. The weather was gorgeous, highs in the mid 60’s and just a small breeze, in my opinion the mid 60’s is the perfect temperature.  Although lots of snow still exists, it was a real treat to see what the area looks like in early spring.  After enjoying the beautiful spring like weather for a week it’s back to snow and cold this week. Being from Wyoming myself, I should be used to getting teased with spring, then going back to winter; but I am not and I don’t think I will ever be used to it.

I also found out we will be having another CLM intern (Cody) joining us at the office starting next Monday. He will be assisting in grazing permit renewals, monitoring efforts, and helping me with unauthorized cattle use and many other associated tasks. I think Cody will benefit in so many ways joining the CLM team.  I hope everyone enjoys their spring, and until next time, try to have fun!

Jeremy Sykes

Bureau of Land Management

Kemmerer, WY

Hello everyone, weather has started to become spring-like, with a 60 degree day yesterday. Almost all of the snow has melted; Robins and Blue Birds have made their return. It is only a matter of time until all the snow is gone in the lower elevations and the ice melts off the rivers and lakes that surround us. It has been a pretty fun month in the high desert of Wyoming. Sage grouse have started their mating rituals on their leks. For those of you that don’t know what a lek is, I will give a brief description. 

Signs of active leks include feathers, droppings, and tracks. A Lek is a traditional courtship display which is attended by male sage-grouse in or adjacent to sagebrush dominated habitat. These strutting males attract female sage-grouse by the brilliant feather colors and sounds made by the male sage-grouse. Leks are counted at 7-10 day intervals over a 3-4 week period after the peak of mating activity. Some leks in the KFO can have as many as 150 birds at any given time, others only contain 30 or less birds. The BLM is not able to count every lek in the Kemmerer Field Office, we receive help from the Wyoming Game and Fish and other volunteers. Even with all this help some leks will go uncounted.

I have spent much of my morning hours driving around doing lek counts, to give wildlife managers an educated idea of sage-grouse populations. It’s been great being able to get out into the field and take a break from writing NEPA papers. Until next time, I hope everyone has fun!

Jeremy Sykes

Bureau of Land Management

Kemmerer, Wyoming

Hello again from wonderful Kemmerer, Wyoming. Winter still has its grasp on this high desert town. Even with winter’s grip still holding strong, we were finally able to make two field visits in preparation for Sage Grouse Lek season that will be starting soon. I was able to get a quick tour of some grazing allotments that I didn’t get to visit while working with the BLM last summer. Getting out was sure a nice change of pace. We did some hiking to look for some geophagy locations; these locations are where grouse gather during the winter, to basically eat dirt. The BLM is not entirely sure why this occurs, hypotheses include eating for mineral supplements, or to help buffer the tannins in the sage brush that is consumed. This practice could also occur during the summer months, but with the lack of data on the particular phenomenon it is unknown if geophagy occurs in the summer months or why Sage Grouse even eat the soil.  We were unable to identify any of these locations on our first trip to actually look for them.

Our second trip to the field was to Pinedale, Wyoming on February 24^th . This little town is about two hours north of Kemmerer situated along the Wind River Range. It is a beautiful town where I was able to spend much of my childhood.  We met up with wildlife staff from the Pinedale field office.  The plan was to go look at some of these geophagy sites to help our field office in the identification of these sites. We were able to visit 7 of these locations. We looked at soil type, vegetation type, and amount of bare ground visible. I have to say I should have remembered my camera because the ride into those locations was epic. We didn’t get stuck, but the amount of snow we had to drive through was amazing. After this second trip, the wildlife biologists at the KFO are certain geophagy sites do exist in our field office; it will just be a daunting process of finding them.

All the hiking that has occurred in the past two weeks makes a person start to think about how out of shape they are.  With that realization of being horribly out of shape I decided to start exercising. I am hoping to be in decent shape in time for the full onset of field season. I will hopefully be posting pictures next month of Sage Grouse strutting on their lek locations. I am very excited to see this phenomenon. Till next time, I hope everyone has fun.

Kind Regards,

Jeremy Sykes

Kemmerer Feild office, Wy

Bureau of Land Management

Hey all,

I would like to introduce myself and give a short background of my work. My name is Jeremy Sykes and I have lived in Wyoming all of my life. I graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor’s degree in Range Ecology and Watershed Management with a Minor in Forestry.  I have always had an interest in the natural resources of Wyoming. It has been my career dream to work with a Government agency such as the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S.  Forest Service, as a Range Specialist. 

My first seasonal job was with the BLM in Rock Springs Wyoming.  It was a job filled with hard work mending fence. Last summer I worked as a BLM Range Technician at the Kemmerer Wyoming field office. This job was important on the basis of working on a cattle and sheep allotment conducting monitoring and compliance that will be used in litigation. I took it upon myself to gain respect from the permitees on this particular allotment, which did not trust government employees. I was also able to work with Anna Moller. She was a CLM intern working in Wildlife. She helped me on the Smithsfork allotment, monitoring riparian areas for move on use indicators. She was a valuable and knowledgeable resource, helping me when it was needed. We also spent many hours working on her CLM project, mapping springs, seeps, and reservoirs. The data we collected will be used in the future, for habitat improvement projects, as well as range improvement projects for wildlife, cattle and sheep.    

So here I am, back in Kemmerer, but this time I’m the CLM intern, working in Wildlife. So far it has been great but nothing too exiting happening in the dead of winter.  With a foot of snow on the ground it’s hard to get out into the field. I have been working on NEPA documents, using some of the information we gathered over the summer.  It will be another two months until field season starts, with the onset of sage-grouse lek surveys.  I am hoping to gain more experience with the CLM internship program, to help guide me in my career path.

Kind Regards,

Jeremy Sykes

Kemmerer Feild office, Wy

 Bureau of Land Management