Missoula, Montana

Posted on 6 August, 2014 by VinceFasanello

Hello from Missoula,

It has been another busy month here at the Missoula BLM office. While temperatures have been pretty consistently in the 90’s, fire season smoke has not seemed to hit us too badly yet. My fellow interns and I have continued to conduct forest inventory on an almost daily basis, but we have had some chances to search for Whitebark pine (an infrequently spotted species on our lands), and I was able to camp with several other seasonal employees to conduct integrated vegetation monitoring for a week. I continue to have a great time here in Missoula both at work and outside of work, and I am still learning new skills and techniques each week. I have taken many pictures over the course of the month, a few are below!

– Vince Fasanello

Missoula, Montana

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Hello All,

This past month I have continued my work for the Missoula Montana BLM office, and I have had the opportunity to visit many interesting areas around the city of Missoula. I attended a training session along with several of my coworkers in order to better understand the habitat types of Western Montana. The training session was both informative and interesting, and I feel that my habitat typing skills have improved vastly over the last month. My day to day activities have included forest inventory as well as searching for five needle pines and special status plants. To follow are some pictures from our work sites!

– Vince

Missoula, Montana

Posted on 12 June, 2014 by VinceFasanello

Hello from Missoula,

I arrived in Missoula Montana just over two weeks ago, following a three day drive from Rochester New York. The driving portion of the trip took just over 34 hours in total and I passed through many states and saw many landscapes that were unfamiliar to me. Upon arrival I rushed to get set up before starting work just three days later at the Missoula BLM field office.

I met many of the permanent and seasonal employees of the office on my first day, and I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness and youthfulness of everyone that I met. After a full day of training and preparatory paperwork, I was excited to begin field work. By 7:30 a.m. on my second day of work we were on the road to a field site near Garnet, MT to conduct a series of habitat typing surveys. Through analysis of information regarding tree species types, sizes, and prevalences, understory species types and prevalences, and several other factors, the habitat typing surveys frequently conducted by the Missoula BLM make it possible to predict the future conditions of a site as well as create plans for the proper management of such sites. For the next week and a half I participated in habitat typing surveys, rare plant searches, and preparation of a field site for prescribed burning.

I have found my first two weeks with the Missoula BLM field office to be more interesting and fun than I ever thought possible. I have met many great people, had the opportunity to explore the wilderness of the rocky mountains, and had time to explore the city of Missoula. I look forward to spending the next five months here in Missoula working with the BLM

– Vince Fasanello, BLM Missoula Montana