Hardly a day goes by that I am not impressed with the scenery in the Rawlins, Wyoming Field Office. I am fortunate to have a project that allows my partner, Dan Rapp, and me to traverse all over this extensive field office. We have sunk waist deep in mucky wetlands, climbed steep, rocky mountains, slid down sand dunes, waded into cool, clear streams, and hiked through sweet-smelling pine and aspen forests. Truly Wyoming is a beautiful and diverse place. It is a far cry from home (Michigan) and I have loved tumbling around this new, exciting landscape.
Not to mention all the bizarre things we have been finding along the way.

Tony Stark

Bicycle on a tree?

Our job is rather droll in comparison to some other projects allotted to CLM interns, but it is very important. Dan and I are conducting aquatic organism passage assessments on stream-road crossings. The passage of fish and other aquatic organisms is critical to their survival and dispersal throughout a watershed. The information we collect will be used to replace, remove or repair barriers to movement. The work we do will have a profound effect on the ecosystems with which we are working.

This is a problem

We spend most of the day driving around to various stream-road crossing sites. We document bridges and fords as passable, for the most part, and typically only are required to evaluate culverts. When we find a culvert the first thing we do is take a look at the structure shape and size as well as some minor details that can affect the ability of a fish to swim. Small things like the depth of the corrugations can make a huge difference to a little sculpin trying to make its way upstream. Other important characteristics such as the amount and depth of the sediment, whether it is accumulating in the culvert or if there is a large amount of debris collecting at the inlet and whether there is a drop at the outlet are also noted. A significant drop disallows upstream passage for many species. The size of the culvert is very important, we have found that most of the culverts are much too small based on the bankfull stream measurements we have taken. Basic physics will allow you to reason that this can cause an incredible increase in velocity through the structure and can make it impossible for a fish to power through that flow without exhausting its energy and ending up back downstream. We use engineering equipment to create a longitudinal profile of the stream. The length of the profile varies from stream to stream. The most crucial information gathered from this are the slope of the culvert, any sort of sediment accumulation at the inlet and the existence of a pool at the outlet. A pool basically provides a “running start” for a fish to jump up into a structure. We take all this information and first run it through a coarse filter to determine passability for Cyprinids (minnows), Salmonids (salmon and trout), Percidae (perch) and Cottidae (sculpins). If the coarse filter is unable to determine passability, we run the data through FishXing software- so far we have not had to use this as all of our locations have been clearly passable or impassable; most have proven to be barriers for at least one of the families with which we are concerned. In the upcoming years there is going to be plenty of work replacing fish barriers based on the information collected by me and Dan.

Dan in a culvert (measuring, I swear!)

Additionally, we have been able to work with other seasonal employees on other projects. I am glad to have been able to do a variety of different thing while I have been here. I have learned everything from engineering-based survey work, limnology assessment techniques, fish and amphibian sampling methods, stream treatments, electrofishing, GIS everything and a slew of menial yet necessary office tasks. We have worked with other departments within our office and also with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Amber Masters

Rawlins Field Offfice, Rawlins ,Wyoming