Interning for the Chicago Botanical Gardens has been and is continuing to be an amazing experience for me. I have been hiking ridge tops in order to survey a rare plant, the tufted twinpod (Physaria condensate), that lives within Fossil Butte National Monument.  Not much is known about this special plant so it is rewarding to be the one to collect this baseline data. This data will be compared with elk data that is also being collected, in order to see if rising elk populations are affecting these small plants.  Due to this internship I have decided that I want a career relating to fieldwork, whether it is baseline data collection or monitoring and follow-up.  Being in the field gathering data is a gratifying experience because it really feels like I am making a difference. With the data I collected this summer and fall, along with data that will continued to be collected in the following summers, an EIS might be needed to control the rising elk population and my data will be part of that decision.

My adventures include wandering the park all by my lonesome looking for the tufted twinpod, with a GPS, antenna, and 2x.5m long PVC rectangular pipe. I often find myself off in the middle of no ware with no idea which way I was supposed to be going and where I came from. It’s a good thing I have my GPS, though it always says I’m going north even when I’m defiantly not.  The hardest part of my job is actually located my plants and plots where my plants are not supposed to be. I have been stuck 3 times because I have to drive this really poor two-track roads in a little 2-wheel drive ford ranger. It doesn’t have very good clearance and it doesn’t like mud.

Due to the fact that I am mostly working by myself, I have gained great self discipline. It is very important to be focused and organized in order to get everything completed in a timely fashion, especially with the consent threat of snow these days. This internship has allowed me to incorporate the knowledge I gained from college into an actual job.  I have been able to achieve greater understanding of GIS (using ArcInfo) as well as becoming a pro at the Magellan GPS units.  I have been learning how to identify plants and other key elements in the surrounding areas.

Over all I have to say that has been great getting to know all the amazing people that work at Fossil Butte. Throughout the summer other interns have come and gone and it has been nice to make new friends and feel like I am a part of something bigger then myself. I also got to go on many different field trips like this one to big spring. Being able to spend my summer doing worthy work and hiking in the natural environment is a wonderful experience. Given the change I would do it all over again and who knows maybe I will.

Lea Shaw-Messina, Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming

Sarracenia flava, yellow pitcher plants are just a few of the carniverous plants we see daily

When I was told I was going to be stationed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I had no idea what to expect. I had never been to North Carolina before and knew little of it beyond the fact that UNC was pretty darn good at basketball. My main responsibilities here at the North Carolina Botanical Garden involve traveling around the state and collecting native plant seeds for the Seeds of Success program. Collecting has been somewhat of a challenge because BLM doesn’t own any land out east. As a result, we have had to get permission through The Nature Conservative, The Natural Heritage Program (NC), National Forest Service, and the National Park Service (when collections were done for Park Service). Experiencing this has been so interesting because it not only has given me an opportunity to work with so many different conservation programs, but it has allowed me to see the struggles in communication between them-each working towards a similar but slightly different goal, each with a different protocol. We have also had the opportunity to help them with some of their own projects, putting our seed collecting skills to good use.

Uniola paniculata, sea oats are one of the dominant sand dune species on Masonboro Island

Masonboro is an island off the coast of North Carolina. It is eight miles long and a much needed reserve for birds, crab and sea turtles. Maintained by the North Carolina Coastal Reserve (http://www.nccoastalreserve.net/), the island is just south of one of the most traveled and touristy beaches in North Carolina. As a result, it is frequently visited by boaters and recreationalists who create some impact on the creatures that need it, including the plants. Sometime in the near future a large dredge pipe will need to be put in on the island in order to clear out some of the sediment in the inland channel. We have been working with the NC Coastal Reserve to pick out and collect important sand dune species in the hopes that the sand dune ecosystem lost to the pipe will eventually be restored.

Beyond the Seeds of Success protocol, Quentin and I have also gotten to participate in a plant rescue, collecting

Quentin observing the greatness of the trees.

seeds and rescuing plants on an Environmental Protection Agency site that is currently becoming Durham’s first toll road (ironic?). We have also gotten to participate in rare plant monitoring all over the state, my favorite being Geum radiatum which only grows on cliff sides in the mountains. National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife, and National Forest Service were all involved, many of whom had employees that had taken courses in repelling for the sake of monitoring this plant. The monitoring itself required a hike on the Appalachian Trail accompanied by amazing views of the Blue Ridge Mountains (tough life, right?). So here’s my big “Ah-Ha” moment. I even got a short lesson in repelling and while doing so, Chris, the Park Service botanist says to me, “Now stop for a second and turn around and think about what we’re doing. Pretty incredible, right?” and I turned around slowly as to not lose footing, and there they were. The mountains were spectacular! And I instantly loved everything…the mountains, the people that do this for a living…the cause. In watching conservationists struggle to get their message through to the public, I often wonder how it is that people can be so lacking in any sense of responsibility for the environment. For me, it just takes small moments of experience like this for it to make sense and for it to be something that I want to work towards.

Quentin and I pause to enjoy the view while looking for Geum radiatum on Mount Leconte in Smokie Mountains National Park

I have enjoyed reading about all your internships and experiences.  I like this quote because it is perhaps what many of us think when we step out the door each morning, coffee in hand:

John Muir writes in My First Summer in the Sierra, “Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue.”

This has truly been an amazing experience!

-Jill Pyatt (North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill)

As Hannah just mentioned in her blog post, the BLM Buffalo Field Office is one of the largest field offices in the country employee-wise—so big that we can’t even fit in one building! So I live in a cozy little cube in the Annex, a short walk from the happenin’ main building of the BFO. My position as a hydrology intern here has introduced me to a side of the BLM that most CLM interns don’t get to delve too deeply into: the energy development side. In my case, coalbed methane (CBM) development is what I’ve gotten very, very familiar with, since that’s what the Hydro crew spends all its time on.

The Powder River Basin (PRB), which comprises most of the Buffalo Field Office, produces a large percentage of the country’s natural gas. In the PRB, methane is relatively easy to extract because it is adsorbed in coal formations near the surface. To access this gas, operators must dig wells and pump out very large quantities of water, which releases the gas from the coal. The methane can then be extracted. Most of the gas in the PRB is found in federal mineral deposits that underlie privately (or, in some cases, federally) owned land. The BLM is thus in charge of permitting and monitoring this development. The Buffalo Field Office was given a mandate by President Bush to—dare I say—drill baby drill, so that is what we facilitate.

A CBM water reservoir

There are a lot of issues with CBM development water-wise because of the huge quantities of water that must be pumped out to access the methane. Some of this water is high-quality and could be used, with no or minimal treatment, for irrigation, livestock, or drinking water. A small percentage of the produced water is used in these beneficial ways. However, much of the produced water is saline, alkaline, or has other characteristics that make it less suitable for beneficial use. While a lot of this water could be treated and used, or re-injected into the ground, such methods would be more expensive for the operators, so the vast majority of produced water gets stored in small reservoirs, where it is supposed to infiltrate or evaporate as much as possible. Basically the water is thought of as a waste product. Ultimately, the operators try to get permits from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to discharge the water into streams. The DEQ monitors the quality of this discharged water with an eye towards human health and agriculture, not so much towards aquatic or riparian ecology. The timing and magnitude of the discharges also cause worries about effects on fluvial morphology (basically, the shape of the river).

CBM water being disharged down a drainage and into a reservoir. The rocks are supposed to collect iron from the water.

The BLM doesn’t deal with discharge issues much. We monitor water levels in deep aquifers that are affected by methane production (these aquifers have been drawn down to various extents), and water quality in shallow aquifers that are recharged by water from CBM reservoirs. My job for the last 4 months has been to organize and analyze the latter dataset (water quality) which, despite having been added to quarterly for the last 8 years, has never been looked at or filed in any coherent way. This internship has made me alternately frustrated with and sympathetic towards the BLM—they are just so short-staffed! Hopefully I’ll get to detect some trends before I leave, so we can see what’s going on in the groundwater around the CBM reservoirs. Right now I’m still sorting and graphing. I’ve gotten to be a whiz at Excel!

Some lovely halophytic (salt-tolerant) weeds downstream of a CBM reservoir. This site is designated as a secondary reservoir, so this water is allowed to be here.

I have no field work assigned to me, but occasionally I get to tag along on adventures doing well maintenance or reservoir inspections. Once or twice I’ve even snuck off to help with some sage-grouse business. (Ssshh! One very interesting thing I’ve learned during this internship is how divided a single BLM office can be over certain conservation issues. In the Annex I’ve heard the sage-grouse referred to as “that stupid chicken”). That being said, and despite all of the issues I’ve mentioned, and lots more chicken-related ones that I haven’t, methane has its pluses as an energy source. It is much lower carbon-emission-wise than oil and coal. So there are definitely two sides of the CBM coin. I’ve been lucky to see both of them during my internship, as well as some beautiful parts of Wyoming. Everyone in Buffalo is incredibly nice, and the town is great. I’ll miss it when I leave!

– Ariel Patashnik, BLM, Buffalo, WY field office

I remember the very first time I came to Eastern Washington; I was only 10 en rout to a soccer camp in Moscow, ID.  I had planned on sleeping on the long 3 hour shuttle ride to the pseudo-Russian city just across the border of Washington, but after we left the city and my body was ready to relax, my eyes were widened by the site of endless rolling hills with lush emerald waves.  I was mesmerized by the continuity of the grass, growing and swaying in sync.  The consistency of the land was nothing like I had ever seen before.  Growing up in the sagebrush and short grass prairies of Wyoming made me accustomed to seeing a variety of textures and colors in the landscape.   Not until thirteen years later did I realize that this beauty that had once enthralled my tired ten-year-old eyes was wheat; rolling gold, and again my eyes where opened, but in a different way.  I learned that wheat fields make the earth “sterile”.  The land and its inhabitants become displaced and the continuous plowing, that makes those fields so beautiful and regular, dissipates the survival of even a rodent.

Works well in fragmenting habitat...

I have watched the progression of the wheat fields over their growing season traveling to and from what called the “channeled scablands”.  The names “Channeled” because of the massive Missoula flood that swept across all of eastern Washington and “scab” because of the little tufts of rock left from the raging waters that rushed through the land after a considerable ice dam broke in Montana.  (I got the story from at least five different people of different disciplines in the office).  Thanks to the interdisciplinary BLM office, I have been lucky enough to work with and hear the views of a variety of people, thus allowing me to learn, not only about the history of the land, but the different ways that it can be used, maintained, and monitored.

The majority of my time has been spent on north-facing slopes looking for likely the best camouflaged plant of all time, the infamous Silene Spaldingii.  This sticky little forb is so well hidden that even my mentor, a well seasoned “SISP” locator, may step on it in mid search from time to time.  (This makes me wonder if our monitoring causes more detriment to the plant and its surrounding veg than the grazing cows themselves—also a hot topic discussed regularly between Range and Botany) 

Massive Silene plant -- 7 stems!

I became so able to locate the Silene I was literally doing it in my sleep.  Many people I have met wonder what the significance of this “random” plant is in the whole scheme of things, my response… “everything is connected”, which often leaves them with an A-ha moment and me with great satisfaction knowing that I am making an itty bitty difference.

Checking out our National bird while putting up duck boxes

I have found that I like it best when I get to experience the serenity of the land and monitor on my own, at my own pace.  Although, being able to pair up with a few coworkers to go play in a stream, er… monitor stream health, couldn’t get much better.

100% PHAR3 "Same as above"

Also, catching bats in the middle of the night, or riding my mountain bike across the Scablands in search of Silene, flying gracefully over the bikes handlebars and face planting into the sage, discovering old mines in moss covered forests, seeing roving painted turtles, praying mantis, hummingbirds, dragonflies that too closely resemble helicopters, snakes, frogs, deer, coyotes, elk, flushing grouse, comparing enclosures with pastures that have been too heavily grazed, and observing the unexpected changes in the land.

"It's a Female!"

I think the most challenging part of this internship, besides picking cheat grass out of my boots, is life outside the office and field.  This is my first time living without a built-in community or classes with people my age who have similar interests.  This has made me realize how easily one can get lost in a big city and how important it is for me to interact.  I am lucky because there is so much to do here as far as arts, music, culture, plays, etc. but I have yet to find someone to do it with.  I have volunteered as a U-14 Boys soccer coach, a trail builder, taken dance classes, gone to bands and bars and even Portland, striving to live up the city life all by my lonesome.  I am finally feeling more at home and am beginning to spend quality time with my coworkers.  I am looking forward to a Frisbee golf t-time of 11am Monday, where the likely topic of conversation will be conservation.

Aliina Lahti, BLM Field Office, Spokane, WA

Buffalo is situated at the base of the Big Horn Mountains in Northeast Wyoming, at the point where the Northern Great Plains rise into the Northern Rockies.   Compared to the vast land area loads of other field offices, the Buffalo Field Office (BFO) manages what is comparably a small land area (780,291 acres) but is the largest office in Wyoming (personnel- wise) due to development of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) in the Powder River Basin, where the BLM manages almost 7 times as much mineral real estate as the surface acreage mentioned.  As such, the primary and overwhelming focus of the BFO is related to approving and regulating development of CBM.   As a Range and Wildlife Intern at the BFO, my work has inherently been linked into the very controversial issues surrounding the effects of energy development on sensitive wildlife.  It has been fascinating to observe (and avoid getting involved in, as much as possible) the tension created between the realistic  need to decrease our foreign energy dependence (through extracting more fossil fuels, in this case, and thus trying to responsibly approve development of these resources) and simultaneously protect wildlife, especially sensitive wildlife.  Trying to strike this balance, at least from my sidelines observation point, is always controversial, nearly impossible, and keeps all 100+ employees of this office neck deep in work!

Biologist Bill Ostheimer perched in the back of the pickup with the sage-grouse net gun.

One major upcoming news item that will truly affect the BFO is the potential that the greater sage grouse will get listed by US Fish and Wildlife (as an endangered species) within the next few months.  Sage grouse populations in the Powder River Basin are struggling, at best, and a listing is likely to create massive chaos for the BFO in their energy development balancing act.  Thinking towards the necessary conservation of the Greater Sage Grouse, BFO Biologist Bill Ostheimer (with his trusty intern and seasonal sidekicks) has launched a one year study to investigate whether the two declining Sage Grouse populations in the Powder River and Big Horn Basins (on either side of the Big Horn Mountains) are actually connected by a more robust population that summers in the Southern Big Horns.  We have spent a significant part of our time here helping to trap and collar 17 additional Sage Grouse, and locating the birds with radio telemetry to learn where they overwinter, and eventually, where they lek in the spring.  In addition to becoming pretty attached to a bunch of birds we hardly ever see, we’ve had great wildlife sightings (Badger Badger), enjoyed some spectacular scenery, succeeded and failed at finding dead/stationary collars, met some local characters, avoided running into top-10 most wanted One-Eyed Ed, run up behind sheep on trail (see photo) and listened to a lot of low-quality radio. 

Fitting a radio collar to an adult male sage grouse

In all, this has been a great opportunity to learn the challenges of public land management, see a spectacular part of the country, gain some valuable field and office skillz, inform my “life-direction” ponderings and add to my already-very-long personal list of things I care strongly about (which can be overwhelming).  But as my co-intern would say, “Don’t worry ‘bout it.”

Hello there Badger!

To leave you with one factoid- Buffalo, WY:  NOT named after Bison bison as might make sense, but, rather, the town is named after Buffalo, NY- and the name was drawn out of a hat.

-Hannah Specht, BLM Field Office, Buffalo, WY

Driving hazard! Photo courtesy of former CBG Intern Charlotte Darling

Truly, that is the most accurate way to describe my job.  I am the fence girl.  My job is to walk fence lines.  Miles and miles of barbed wire, the top wire now bedecked with small white plastic clips, is the only evidence of my presence in those nether regions of our field office.  The purpose behind it all is to collect data on the quantity of wildlife, particularly the ever important sage-grouse, that are colliding with the almost invisible barbed wires that bisect so much of their habitat.  My job, while it may seem extremely simple, has taken a lot of time to perfect.  For example, I have gotten very good at quickly picking out feathers from dead grass (a lot more difficult that it may seem when the sun makes them all the same color) and identifying the difference between a prairie dog and a sage-grouse skeleton (think rotisserie chicken).  These are just a few of the skills that I have mastered but never guessed I would ever need to.

I do actually enjoy my time with the fences and the sagebrush.  I am alone 90% of the time but this does not bother me.  Instead I use that extra space to feel better connected to my environment.  I also feel like my job is truly making a difference.  This is the first time this project has been undertaken and my whole office is often asking me for updates on how much I have found so far.  (I just hit 100 sage-grouse strikes yesterday, a number much higher than people hoped I would find.)  I’m under the impression that this project promotes the idea that our office is progressive in its management strategies, something that is not very common within the Bureau as far as I can tell.  This gives many people a new sense of pride in how they view the office, and I really enjoy being part of that source.

However, I would have to say that my favorite thing about being in the field and covering so much ground on foot is all the little oddities that I have stumbled on along the way.  Some examples of natural wonders that I have found are dozens of fossils, raw gemstones, amazingly intact skeletons of just about every creature that exists out here, antelope antler sheds, and even what was left over of a hawk that an eagle apparently had for lunch.  On the more random side, people leave their mark in strange ways as well.  I have found broken dishes, cowboy boots on fence posts, a well-abused old computer monitor (Office Space style destroyed), my very own mud-encrusted GPS unit (wa-hoo!), and my personal favorite: fence-impaled deli sandwiches.

I really don’t think there are words for this. And no, that is not my lunch.

This moth was impaled on the barbed wire by a bird called a shrike. It hangs them up and then comes back to eat it later.

Did you know that school buses can go on two-tracks? This one full of 4th graders was headed out to an old garnet mine. Also, that road it’s on is part of the Oregon Trail, just to make it a little better.

So far this has been an absolutely wonderful experience.  I have learned so much about this part of the country that I never really knew was out here having never traveled west before this internship.  (I truly didn’t have any idea how dominant of a plant sagebrush was!)  This internship has also given me the opportunity to work on all sorts of other projects as well and I have learned something new from every one of them.  In addition to my intricate knowledge of fences, I have learned about seed collecting, snake hunting, pocket gopher trapping, and even a new portfolio of GIS knowledge that I know will be forever useful for my later career.  Thank you CBG for setting up this marvelous living and learning experience for us all!

-Katie Ellis, BLM field office, Rock Springs, WY

I’ve been stationed at the Vale BLM in Oregon since the middle of May.  The town of Vale is known for its murals depicting the Oregon Trail.  Driving around the 5.5 million acres that make up the Vale District, you often come across historical markers of the Oregon Trail.  There is even one place where you can apparently see the wagon ruts still present from when people came to the west.  I haven’t stopped to see whether that is actually true or not. 

Erigeron linearis population I found when I accidently took a wrong turn

I am in charge of organizing and establishing the Seeds of Success program in Vale.  This is the first year that the program has been in this district so I have spent a lot of time trying to find stands of plants that are big enough to collect.  I’m originally from Pennsylvania where the diversity of plants is quite obvious.  Previously, I had not spent any significant amount of time in the desert so I was skeptical about the diversity of plants that can grow in desert conditions.  Well, I now know that there is an overwhelming amount of plants that can grow in the desert and have been challenged to try to learn as many as possible over the past 5 months. 

View along the fence line

Besides seed collecting, the first week that I was here I worked with the botanist to do a fence clearance that will be used to keep wild horses out of a spring that they have demolished.  We mapped the special status plant sites that we found and moved the proposed placement of the fence accordingly.  While walking the proposed fence line, we came to the spring and saw around 40 wild horses.  The whole experience was such a great introduction now only to Vale and my internship but the West as well.

Riding to the stream for riparian monitoring

Most of my time has been spent out in the field finding and collecting seeds, but as the seed collecting season has slowed down I have gotten the opportunity to help and learn about riparian monitoring.  Last week I went on a two day horseback trip to take pictures at monitoring points and assess whether the stream was properly functioning.  Grazing has not occurred along the stream we were monitoring for 6 years.  It was incredible to look at pictures from just three years before and see how much the stream has improved. 

Maggie Eshleman, BLM, Vale, Oregon

The Rock, known commonly as Rock Springs, Wyoming, has been an interesting place to live for the last four months.  I have been here since early June working on a fish passage inventory project with the Rock Springs Bureau of Land Management.  I have learned quite a bit about all sorts of new things, had many memorable experiences, and abrubtly began my transition to post college life…

At work, I am responsible for checking stream/creek crossings for passability by fish.  Basicly I need to visit all locations where a road crosses a stream,perform a survey, and document the visit with photos.  If you have ever spent time in South Central Wyoming, you will understand just HOW MANY roads there really are. 

Aiko Weverka poses for a photo on the Little Sweetwater

 There are BLM roads that go everywhere and anywhere you want, most of which seem like they haven’t been traversed for hundreds of years.  Nonetheless, I am responsible for checking each crossing.  Each site is one of three crossing types; a culvert (big metal pipe that funnels stream under road), a low water crossing (the stream just runs across the road), or a bridge (you know what that is).  The survey I perform is very basic, taking measurements of stream width, culvert diameter, width of crossing, etc.  The hardest part of my job has proven to be actually FINDING where it is I need to go.  Quite a few locations are 20+ miles from the nearest paved road, and I rely on my trusty BLM maps to get me there.  Each day in the field is an adventure, and on rare occasions a misadventure (I have only got stuck and had to call in for help once…knock on wood).

I’m interested to see what becomes of my work, as Im told that my inventory will be the basis for deciding which sites need funding for repairs or replacement. 

Apart from work, living here has been both extraordinarily exciting, while sometimes exceptionally boring.  Being an avid fly fisherman, I have taken every opportunity possible to get out on the water.  Fly fishing here is incredible, to say the least.  I have also been introduced to hunting, which has become an exciting new hobby for me.  I got an antelope tag and went out with a few guys from work for my first big game hunt.  Since then I definately caught the hunting itch and have been out hunting for cottontail rabbits and grouse up in the mountains.  Bunnies taste good fried.

On the other hand, It has been a big shock to leave a life of familiarity to one of complete uncertainty.  Coming from college, a fantasy land of friendly people your own age, I am adjusting to life in the real world.  I suppose this transition occurs anywhere one goes after college, but for me,I made my transition in Rock Springs.  

Este es pancho

It has certainly been a period of growth for me as an individual.  Thus far, living in a mecca of great trout fishing and hunting has kept me busy enough to stay sane.

Greetings from northeastern Wyoming! Most of you have likely never heard of Newcastle, much like myself when I accepted my internship to work at the Bureau of Land Management for a wildlife biologist. Newcastle lies on an ecotone between sagebrush grassland and the westernmost fringes of the Black Hills. It is a tiny town about 12 miles west of the Wyoming/South Dakota state line, populated largely by coal miners, oil field roustabouts, and oil and gas refinery workers. I never once imagined myself working in a place like this.

Our field office is miniscule. There are a whopping fourteen employees, two of which are currently on detail assignments to other field offices. But don’t take the small stature as an indication of a small amount of land. On the contrary, the twelve people here at the Newcastle BLM are responsible for managing 260,000 acres of public land, spread out across almost 3,125 square miles. Additionally, most of the public land in this part of WY is in tiny parcels, usually only 40 to 200 acres in size, which are typically surrounded by private land with few access roads. Imagine my surprise when I found that I’d often be driving into South Dakota and Montana in order to get onto BLM land in Wyoming!

Devil's Tower- one of the more scenic locations in northeastern Wyoming

As you can imagine, resources here are spread thin, so I am on my own in the field. I unfortunately haven’t had the opportunity during my internship to work with others during fieldwork. To say that I am not occasionally terribly lonely would be untruthful, but I’m naturally independent and often find the solitude enjoyable.

I’ve been tasked with a variety of things over the course of my internship. I started off by surveying for northern goshawk in the Black Hills, traversing surprisingly steep hillsides and gorgeous canyons, then followed that up by checking on known raptor nests in cottonwoods growing along drainages to see if they were utilized this season. At various times I’ve deployed a nifty system called Anabat, which records bat echolocative calls. The patterns of the calls can be used to determine the species in an area.

I’ve surveyed prairie dog colonies for burrowing owl and mountain plover (dismayed to find many colonies nearly devoid of dogs… mostly due to

THIS little guy, however, seemed to be doing pretty well for himself.

poisoning and hunting, although somewhat as a result of sylvatic plague). And for the past few weeks, I’ve been completing sage-grouse habitat vegetation surveys, much like Nelson and Michelle in Cedar City, UT.

In July, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in an environmental education program held by the Newcastle BLM for local middle school students. For three weeks, small groups of students were hosted at a campsite in the Black Hills in South Dakota, and I was in charge of teaching the kids about various wildlife species in the Hills, their habitats, and pertinent conservation issues, all of which mandated hikes in the forest and evening sessions watching bats feed over a pond.

By far, however, my favorite experience has been tracking radio-collared sage-grouse in Thunder Basin National Grassland. We have only four collared grouse, three females and a male, but I go out and find them all at least once a week, every week, and over the last four months they’ve grown to seem like close, familiar friends. (As a tragic side-note, I used to have five collared grouse, with a fourth female, but she was killed last week by a hunter : (  What are the odds, really?)

Radio telemetry isn’t for everyone, as it requires a special brand of patience, but I find it extremely rewarding. It’s always comforting to me to visit one of my bird’s favorite haunts, tune the receiver to the indented frequency, and her the soft, steady pulsing beeps indicating that the grouse is nearby. Even though a couple have frustrated me to no end by taking off at random intervals, travelling miles, and then moving around sporadically week to week (e.g. I “lost” them), I’ve always had the pleasure of sleuthing out where they ended up, triumphantly finding them again, reassured that at least a few members of this potentially-endangered species are still living the way they should be, wild, in the seemingly endless seas of sage in northeastern Wyoming.

Rachel Wheat, BLM, Newcastle, WY

Completely unrelated to my post, Badlands National Park, in South Dakota, is only about three hours from Newcastle. Absolutely gorgeous.