Greetings from Baker City, OR!

I am writing this as I finish up my final day of my internship. For the 5 past months I have had the opportunity to work in Baker City doing forestry work. I have always missed the trees when I move from Michigan for the summer so I was excited about working in the trees. After completing my internship I am still excited about that. It has helped me to define more of my career goals and help me to realize that I would love to get a job working with forestry. It also would be a way for me to hopefully find a job closer to my home state. While I greatly enjoy being able to more to new places and experience new ecosystems, I miss my family and friends.

I finished up my forestry duties with about 2 weeks left so that gave me the opportunity to do other things and expand my learning and experience. Since we had a week of rainy, wet weather that was not great for field work I had the opportunity to visit a project that will be started next summer. I got a chance to see some of the early planning that goes into setting up this specific project. With our projects complete I also got the chance to go out with the new forestry person and pick her brain for knowledge. She transferred over from the west side of Oregon where the forestry program is run differently and their methods vary. We set up a day where we went out in the woods and I just asked her questions. I was able to see how other areas of the country practice forestry and gain a lot of useful knowledge. I also got the opportunity to go out with other people in the office to see what they do and get some experience with other areas of work.

Overall, my internship has allowed me to gain some valuable real life experience that will be beneficial for anybody wanting to work in the federal government. You also have the freedom to tailor your internship to your liking. If you have an interest in something you can go out with an employee who works in that area. Its a great way to help narrow down your career goals without getting stuck in something you end up disliking for the whole summer.

Farewell,

AZ

Baker City BLM

Hello Folks and Welcome to Oregon!

This summer I am excited to be starting my third CLM internship working with forestry in Baker City, OR. I’m super excited to be working with forestry, as trees were the thing that I always missed most from home. 

I have been working for about a month already and while I have been doing a lot of forestry work I also have been getting a lot of important training in. Some of the training include 4-wheel drive and utv/atv training. These were fun hands on trainings as I got to take vehicles out and drive them through various terrain, including an OHV area and a sand dune. There has also been the many not as fun videos and computer trainings.

After the obligatory training was done I got to start working on forestry related stuff. Most of the stuff I am working on is related to timber sales and timber cruising. Timber cruising is a way of evaluating what is present in a timber stand and an estimate of the merchantable lumber. This can be done by establishing a number of plots within a sale unit, collecting data and then using that data to estimate for the rest of the sale unit. However, instead of doing plots we are using the 100% method. With this method we measure the diameter of every tree and the field computer that we use makes calculations for us and gives us strike trees. These strike trees get more extensive measurements including diameter, height, the number of 16 ft. merchantable logs we can cut from the tree, and the defect present in each log. The field computer then uses those numbers to estimate for the entire sale unit. This helps to make sure that our error is not too high and ensures that we do not have to go back into a sale unit to insert more plots. The data tells us the species and density which can be used to make an appraised value of the timber stand. This information is used in the sale of the stand. I got the opportunity to witness a timber sale of an already cruised stand and it was neat to see what the final result of all my work will be.

I also have had the opportunity to participate in other projects not related to forestry. The two main ones being installing a fence to assist with fire rehabilitation in a burned area and helping reflag a fuels reduction project.

I look forward to seeing what other new and different thing I get to do throughout the summer.

AZ

Greeting from Rawlins, WY!

Things has begun to change here for me in terms of work. It is hard to believe that I only have 5 weeks left! We have finished most of our campground maintenance and have moved on to Wilderness Study Area (WSA) monitoring. Our field office has 5 WSAs that we are responsible for. When out monitoring our WSAs there are a few things that we are looking for. We are mostly looking for trespass and vehicles that are driving where they are not supposed to. Another thing that we are looking for is carsonites and stickers to replace along the boundary. We also want to know the condition of our WSAs so we are on the lookout for dreaded invasive species! When monitoring, we also record any people recreating in the area as well as wildlife or wild horses.

Another thing that we have been monitoring is the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail. The trail is a 3,100 mile trail that travels between the Mexico border and the Canadian border. It runs through 5 states with Rawlins being about the halfway point on the trail. This mostly involves making sure that the trail is clearly marked so hikers know where they have headed. We have been seeing lots of hikers on the trail while doing field work.

With only 5 weeks remaining in my internship and most of our recreation duties met for the summer, I am taking this time to expand my experience and go out with others in the office. Last week I had the opportunity to go out with the fisheries biologist and his techs and remove some beaver dams for a project coming up. This week I am going to go out with the forester and learn more about what she does in preparation for a timber sale. I am also hoping to make it out with the Hydrologist at one point before the summer is over. I really enjoy that the CLM internship gives me the chance to get experience in other fields then just the one my internship is focused on.

AZ

BLM Rawlins Field Office

Greetings again from Rawlins, WY!

The weather has finally warmed up here, which means that camping season has begun. Being a recreation intern means that it is my co-intern and I’s responsibility to get the campgrounds up to snuff, which has meant a lot of painting. We repainted most of the bathrooms either due to graffiti that needed to be covered up or just general updates. We also have been replacing and repainting many of the picnic tables at our campsites. Some picnic tables either needed tops or benches replaces while some just needed a sanding and to be repainted. We have also been working on getting bear-proof trash cans installed at one of our campgrounds, as there has been signs of bears digging through the trash.

Another thing that we have been working on is replacing many of the road/information signs in our field office. Many of our signs have become faded and hard to read. We have many signs that had been ordered before we arrived and we are hoping to get them put up. We are also working on finding other signs that need replacing that we might not know about.

I am hoping in the coming weeks we can start to work on some monitoring of our Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs).

During the holiday break my co-intern and I had the opportunity to go to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. I had been to Arches in January, but I only had half a day to spend there. This trip I was able to go on some of the longer hikes that I was not able to do in January. Being my first trip to Canyonlands it was neat to see how different the two parks were even though they are only about 25 miles apart. One of my favorite parts of the trip was the guided tour through Fiery Furnace. Our tour guide was amazing and so knowledgeable.

So long for now,

AZ

Rawlins BLM Field Office

This past week I had the opportunity to attend a Recreation Management Conference for the state of Wyoming Outdoor Rec Planners. I attended this instead of the training at Chicago Botanic Garden, as I had previously attended it. Also, since my internship is not botany based, this gave me an opportunity to attend a related training.

The conference had speakers from within the BLM as well as outside speakers. The BLM speakers talked about a variety of subjects including cave management, wilderness study areas (WSAs), law enforcement, recreation management information system (RMIS), and other recreation practices. The outside speakers spoke about subjects such as the Tread Lightly program, off-highway vehicle use and trail design, as well as the socioeconomic effect recreation has on the surrounding community. It was great to see how people from within the government as well as outside sources come together to improve recreation for everyone.

Another part of the conference that was beneficial was when all of the field offices had a chance to share some of their accomplishments as well as some of their challenges. This gave me an opportunity to see some of the real-life things affecting rec planners. As a person not having a lot of recreation experience, this was a way for me to understand more of what a rec planner does. Many of the rec planners in the state of Wyoming are fairly new at their position, so many of their questions were the same questions that I had and it was a great way to learn from the rec planners who have been in their position a lot longer.

Overall, this was also a great way to get a crash-course education in many of the tools I will be working with this coming summer. It will help me be able to do my job more efficiently as I will not have to have so much time training. It also gave me a great way to network with other rec planners that I can connect with if I have questions or need help with anything. I also got to explore a part of the state that I had never been to before, which is a neat experience.

That’s all for now, hoping to get out and do some field work soon, but that might be difficult as they are forecasting 7 inches of snow for today!

AZ

BLM Rawlins Field Office

 

Hello Readers!

I have just started my CLM internship in Rawlins, WY. My internship is different from most other CLM internships as mine is Recreation focused, instead of botany focused. This is my second CLM internship, so I am excited to see how the work differs as my previous internship was botany based. Most of the projects that we will be working on this summer are related to general maintenance/upgrades of recreation sites as well as Wilderness Study Area (WSA) monitoring. Our office is about 3.5 millions acres, so there is lots of space for recreating. There also are 5 WSAs in the field office that we will be working in.

I have been working for about 2.5 weeks now and most of the time has been spend in training. I have been getting myself familiar with the BLM’s recreation management procedures as well as a few other required trainings. Unfortunately, due to the fact that it could snow here until June, I have not been able to do much field work. I did make it out to a few of the recreation sites and see some of the projects that are being planned for the summer.

Coming up in the next few weeks I do have the opportunity to attend a Recreation Workshop that is a week long. I feel like this would be a great learning experience as well as an unofficial kick off to field season in my mind.

Having done a CLM internship before I was aware of how the environment would different from the environment I am used to back home in Michigan. However, I did not anticipate that we could get snow until June! When I left Michigan to travel here spring had arrived. All of our snow had melted and the temperatures were warming up. That was not the case here and it took me a bit to get back into the “winter” mentality. Another thing that I did not anticipate is the wind…..it is always blowing here. However, the town and area does have many promising features that I look forward to exploring this summer. The area is a lot wetter than my previous internship location so I hoping to get to do a little aquatic recreating in my off time. More water also equals a different plant ecosystem and I look forward to seeing how those compare to my previous internship location. The town is also a bigger than the town my previous internship was in and I look forward to exploring it.

Overall, I am looking forward to the exciting new opportunities that my CLM is offering me this summer!

AZ

BLM Rawlins Field Office

My CLM internship in Cedarville, CA has come to an end. It has been a very enjoyable and educational 7 months spend with the BLM Surprise Field Office. Moving to northern California was definitely a change and provided me a great opportunity to learn a lot.

One of the first things that was a major change was the town itself. It is a small town consisting of only 500 people and one of everything….one grocery store, one gas station, one bar, and so on. It took a while to get used to the idea that Wal-Mart was 2 hours away and in a different state. Because of this fact, excursions to the store involved some planning. However, needing to get groceries gave me the perfect opportunity to do some exploring of nearby nature. During 2 separate trips to the store, my co-intern and I were able to explore Lava Beds National Monument and Crater Lake National Park.

Another thing that was a major change and an opportunity to learn new skills was the fact that I was now living and working in a whole new ecosystem. Coming from the Midwest to here I had to learn a whole new set of plants. Luckily, I was able to learn the predominant species fairy quickly. It is really neat to see how plants are adapted to living in this area and compare that to how plants in my area adapted to living there. While the 2 ecosystems are vastly different, they each have their own special qualities.

While working in my office I also had a chance to work on a variety of projects.  I had a chance to work on wildlife, botany, archaeology, and range projects. It really was a great opportunity to help narrow down my career goals. It also gave me experience working within the federal government. It helped me to understand the process and why things are done the way they are. This will help me easily transition into another office.

I greatly enjoyed my CLM internship and the experience and knowledge that came with it. I would definitely suggest this internship to anybody thinking about working in the federal government. It is a great way to earn valuable experience, network with professionals in the field, and possibly experience a different ecosystem then they are used to.

Farewell,

AZ

Greetings again from Cedarville!

Over the past few weeks me and my co-intern as well as the interns from “over the hill” have had the opportunity to see the Seed of Success program in action. We got to visit the Lutz’s farm, where they grow native seeds to be used by the BLM for reseeding projects. On their farm they have Needle and Thread (Hesperostipa comata), Thurber’s Needlegrass (Achnatherum thurberianum), Bluebunch Wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), Basin Wildrye (Leymus cinereus), and a type of sage growing. The Basin Wildrye was started from seeds that were collected by CBG interns in 2010!

The first week that we were there we got to help in some of the routine maintenance that is required to keep the farm going. The Lutz irrigate and fertilize their plants, which helps them gain optimal yield. But before irrigation can happen the plots need to be rogued, which entails removing the unwanted plants with either a hoe or a hand hoe. They do not want unwanted plants taking away nutrients from the desired species. After we were finished with that we got to watch them irrigate. Water is pumped from a well using solar power and stored in a reservoir. When it is time to irrigate the water is pumped through pipes using a gas pump to the desired plot. The plot is flooded and the water is slowly absorbed by the plants and the soil.

The next week that we were there we got a chance to help transplant some Thurber’s Needlegrass seedlings that they were grown in a greenhouse. The first thing we did was get the plot all set up for the seedlings, it had been irrigated a few days before we got there to ensure that the soil contained enough water. The seedlings are planted 18 inches from one another in rows that are 4 feet apart. We could get about 20-25 seedlings per row and there were 5 rows per plot. We had pieces of wood to help us make sure that our spacing was right and the seedlings would be uniform. We planted the seedlings in holes with a slight berm around it . We also put a rabbit cage around the seedlings and then added some more water. We returned the next week and almost all of the seedlings in the 2 plots we planted survived the transplant and were growing!

The last week that we were there we were able to help with some collecting of their Basin Wildrye and Bluebunch Wheatgrass. Since most of the Basin Wildrye was ready we were able to cut the seed stalks off with scissors and put them in garbage cans. The Bluebunch Wheatgrass we collected in the more traditional way of removing the seeds from the seed stalks by hand. We were only able to collect half of the Basin Wildrye before we ran out of time, but even that produced a lot of seeds. Last year they collected about 45 pounds of seeds from their plots.

Overall, I had a great time at the Lutz. It was really awesome to see how seeds collected by interns 5 years ago have been taken and grown. It was also really interesting to see the whole process of native plant growing from beginning to end. We are hoping to be able to go back in the future when they are going their soil sampling to learn about what that entails and the test that need to be done.

Greetings from Cedarville, CA!

I have just completed my first month working with the BLM Surprise Field Office and it has been a very exciting month. Much of my first month has been spent getting adjusted to a new environment. Coming from Michigan means that I have to learn a whole new set of plant species and adjust to the terrain, which is very different than what I am used to. I also have to get used to living in a different state. We did end up getting lost in our resource area one day, but it was a great chance to test out my gps and map reading skills. I am glad to say we did make it to our destination after a slight delay. It has been a great experience and I love being able to compare the two areas and have found great things about both.

Most of the work that me and my co-intern have been doing has been post fire vegetation monitoring. We have been collecting lots of data to see how the area has responded after a huge wildfire burned through last year. We look at the species found on different plots as well as how stable the soil is in an area. Eventually, after all the data is collected, the goal is to compare our data to data of similar plots not affected by the fire. Hopefully, this will give us a good idea of how the resource area is doing as a whole. This has been a great tool to help in learning many of the species found in our resource area.

We have also started collecting seeds for the Seeds of Success program. We have done 5 collections so far. It has been a struggle to get our timing down. If we have been off with our timing we have had to come up with a back up plan while in the field. We have to decide whether it is worth our time to collect or not. If it is not worth our time, we have to decide if we should go back to the office empty handed or if there is a different plant population that we could collect. Also, on our first couple collections we learned that we have been under prepared. We needed to do more research in the office before we head out to collect. Hopefully, that will make future collections go more smoothly.

Overall, my first month has been fantastic and I can not wait to see what is in store in the coming months!

AZ