As I am quickly approaching my last day here at the BLM in Roswell, NM, I am feeling grateful and reflecting on all the interesting experiences I have had here.

Eight months ago, if you were to ask me anything about rangeland ecology, I would have not known how to answer you.  Now I can rattle off a wealth of knowledge I’ve acquired about rangeland ecology with confidence.

Another interesting aspect of this internship was what I learned about the Oil & Gas industry.  Oil & Gas is a large part of my office and a vital part to the economy in New Mexico.  I learned that the local economy heavily relies on the industry and it is obviously necessary if we wish to continue to drive cars around.  With the proper protocol set in place and cooperative attitudes, this industry will continue to be important  and efficient in this area.

I am happy I decided to take this internship in such a random place.  It has opened my eyes to another way of life in America.  The pace of life here is slower than where I grew up, and I will gladly take that with me.  Because of this internship, I am increasingly marketable for other jobs.  I can now say I have 8 months of vegetation monitoring, GIS mapping, data entry, report writing, etc.

Leaving here in a few days will be bittersweet.  I will miss my friends I made here, but I am excited to see what lies next.

I have experienced and seen things through this internship that I otherwise probably never would have. I’ve also formed lasting relationships–I could not have asked for more! In my exit interview I admitted to my mentor that even if I had the ability to stay on in this position, as much as I would want to, I would never want to deprive another young biologist of this wonderful experience. I have not only learned and been trained in many areas, beefed up my resume, and had a great time doing it–I’ve also visited some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, on and off the clock. Some of my favourite memories to date are because of CLM–thanks for everything!

It is unreal that this year has passed.   The newness of the office, projects, and my co-workers I felt last February has settled into familiarity and appreciation.  It’s hard to believe that soon I will never sit at this desk again or type on this noisy keyboard.  Thinking back, I am amazed at how much knowledge I gained and how much my team accomplished.

There are many things I learned this year that I never expected.  I am so lucky to have attended all the trainings I did, from Identification of Grasses to Ecologically-Based Integrated Pest Management to Wetland Delineation.  The classes were both challenging and helpful to my daily work and career development.  Along with official trainings were conferences like the Nevada Rare Plant Workshop and ESR Lessons Learned, where I gained insight into the decision-making of the land management world.  I know it’s special to receive so much training in any job, and I appreciate my mentor advocating for the learning aspect of the internship.

On top of formal trainings, I advanced greatly in my botanical and computer software knowledge.  It’s easy to identify Poa secunda and Eriogonum nummulare, Latin names I had never seen before.  It’s easy to dissect a seed pod and estimate the number of seeds on a plant; I find myself doing it on hikes outside of work.  It’s easy to run a query in Access, and not-so-easy to perform data analysis in R.  The skills I learned this year will be valuable to me for the rest of my career.

Eriogonum diatomaceum, the Churchill Narrows buckwheat, the little plant that defined much of my internship.

It’s great to think about next year’s interns having learning experiences similar to mine and how far they will come over their months here.  I hope they take advantage of the opportunities offered to them.

On top of the education, I am proud of the projects my team accomplished.  We made 208 seed collections, monitored 6 rare plant species and 7 fires, helped restore 3 riparian areas, and attended 10 outreach events.  More than the numbers, however, I am proud of our perseverance and effort in accomplishing the tasks we were given.  The year was not without challenge or mistake, and we have continued to work hard up until the very end.

Interns in the sagebrush, a typical day-in-the-life.

Over the year, my appreciation for the beauty of Nevada has grown.  I arrived here from the tropical rainforest of Australia and was shocked by the dryness of the landscape.  Soon, I realized the uniqueness of the mountain range-valley, mountain range-valley landform pattern across the state.  The plant community is resilient and has secrets hiding in the canyons.  And when snow falls, the tan hills become shining white statues.  It is a gorgeous state I would not have truly gotten to know without this internship.

What a valuable year this has been.  The CLM program is extremely beneficial to young professionals like me and I hope it continues for many years.  As much I would like to linger here and develop my skills even further, I am happy to pass the torch to another botany intern here in Carson City.