There are two CLM interns here at the Safford, AZ BLM field office this Summer, myself and Rosalee. We will be working together on multiple projects for our two mentors, Heidi and Jeff. Between now and the July monsoon rains we will be working mostly with Heidi on native fish monitoring as well as some non-native fish removal in local stream, rivers, and pools. In the fall, we will switch gears and begin helping Jeff out and utilizing our Seeds of Success training as we aim to complete over 30 collections for the SOS program. In between these major projects, we will work on some restoration projects both here in the Safford area, and in the Patagonia, AZ area. Once construction is complete on the common greenhouse for the Safford BLM/Gila Watershed Partnership/Eastern Arizona College, we will also be helping out there with the propagation of native plants for various restoration projects. Additionally, when we are not in the field we will be completing data entry for both mentors and helping to create digital herbarium specimen for the BLM Office.

I can’t believe 3 weeks of the internship is already gone! It has been such a whirlwind! After arriving and moving into my housing on the 1st of May and settling in, work began on Monday May 6th. That first week was mostly paperwork, meetings and trainings, with a small amount of field work thrown in. For some reason I find it highly ironic that probably the only job for which I will ever have a cubicle, is for a field-work based internship! After our first Monday-Thursday, we then had Friday and Saturday off before we began our roadtrip up to Boise, ID for the Seeds of Success – Seed Collecting for Conservation and Restoration course. The training was very fun and informative and I had a great time. Idaho is a beautiful state with great people! Our third week was very fun. We caught up on reimbursement paperwork and surveys for our training courses as well as more data entry. Wednesday was extremely cool. We got to complete Utility Terrain Vehicle training and are now certified to drive UTVs!

I find that I am still just as excited about the vast number of learning opportunities this internship offers as when I signed on to come to Safford 3 months ago. I can’t wait to see how much more I can learn not only about the ecological communities in which I am working, but about the agency in which I work. I am definitely looking forward to the next 4 months! And now I am off to relax and explore the area during the long Memorial Day weekend!

Gila Chub from Bonita Creek