I can’t believe how fast the time has gone; 5 months are almost up already.  Things have slowed down a bit; we had populations scouted out, but we realized the seeds will take too long to mature.  It is an in between period right now; the early blooming plant seeds are already dehisced and the later blooming plants won’t seed until after we’re gone.  There are only a few populations that we are waiting on, the rest of the time we’re filling with monitoring for rare plants.  We got to read some EAs (Environmental Assessments) in order to know about what areas we were surveying and why.  It was really interesting to learn more about EAs and how they’re used.

I also got to do some rangeland health monitoring this month, backpack herbicide spraying, and I floated down the Green River.  All 3 were great experiences but floating down the river was obviously my favorite!  We were supposed to be checking the campsites down the river to make sure that they were free of trash, debris, and see if they had toilets that they were clean; however, most of the sites had been checked the day before so we basically just got to float!  It was a gorgeous day for the trip too.  The rangeland health monitoring was helpful to me because it allowed me to see how sites were determined to be healthy or not.  Also, we got to see 2 moose that day (my first ever in the wild) so that was pretty exciting. And finally, backpack spraying was backpack spraying…nothing new there, but I was glad I was able to help out the weed guys.

So in the 4 months that we’ve been here our truck had 1 ply tires…which with the roads around here was not very fun.  We ended up having 6 flat tires, which finally encouraged our supervisor to put in a request for better tires.  So with 1 month left we got 6 ply tires! Yay!  Hopefully no more flats for the rest of our internship.

I think that’s pretty much it for the month of August, I’ll leave you with a picture of the moose and floating the river.

The moose we saw while doing rangeland health monitoring

Scouting out which way to go down the rapids

Field season is just about wrapped up here in northeastern Wyoming, and it’s a bittersweet parting. As much as it may have seemed like we were hanging out in an oven replete with stinging insects and UV radiation, working out in the field is always fun and rewarding. There’s nothing quite like standing in the middle of nowhere with a pencil and a yardstick, using your knowledge and experience to play a major role in deciding the future of the land around you. It seems that these parts (at least the BLM parts) are destined to remain sagebrush grasslands for the foreseeable future in order to provide essential habitat for the Sage Grouse.

Yep, I said it. Sage Grouse. You might call it something of a “hot topic” around here. Sage Grouse conservation is a primary concern of our BLM office, a fact that is not lost on land owners in the area. These animals require sagebrush throughout their life cycles, so naturally sagebrush removal is typically not allowed on BLM land. Many land owners have come to terms with this fact, and seem to grudgingly accept the restraints in return for renting BLM grazing pasture at a low cost.

A few, however, are extremely irritated by “sage chicken” conservation efforts, and are not afraid to let people know it! Another touchy subject with some people is the mere mention of being affiliated with the U.S. government, which can lead to some deft maneuvering through racy commentaries on current and past administrations. However, for every cantankerous land owner we come across, we’ve encountered at least three others who are really understanding and willing to help us get to where we need to go and do what we need to do. Negative experiences leave an impression, but the positive has certainly won out throughout the course of my internship.

Alas, now it’s time to start transforming this mound of field data we’ve collected into something that people can use for land management decisions. I’m trying not to think too much about my internship being over halfway complete, and having to eventually leave behind all the cool people I’ve met *sniff*, so I’ll leave that for my next blog. Until next time.

Daniel

So… apparently summer doesn’t last forever in the desert-like environment of Wyoming. Somebody once told me it had to do with the way the Earth tilts and rotates around the Sun, yet, according to some groups, that theory is still up for debate. I’m not here to choose sides, I’d just like to let my devout followers know that the times they are a changin’.

My intern counterpart, Dan (along with some assistance from our friends Nick and Kelley), and I have knocked out around 50 grazing allotments, photo-points, and range improvements. Not too shabby for less than 3 months with a mixture of other projects. Feeling pretty happy about that, the question comes to mind, “what happens when the grass ain’t grass no more?” There is but one answer: DATA ENTRY! I understand you might have just jumped back in your seat. That’s a perfectly normal reaction. Really, its not that bad. You find your own system. Mine is the occasional standing stretch to get some uninhibited blood flow and a monitor break.

While our office time has been looming, we’ve also been involved in some recreation projects. One of which: all four of the interns were invited along to clean fishing access trails and stream beds of trash that may have been forgotten about. This was quite the exciting adventure with mule deer, evidence of mountain lions, large centipedes, and an abundance of aquatic plants. To top the 2 day trip off, we were able to see some of the local caves (or as far as a head lamp could shine down steep, light-less drop-offs). Quite the rewarding trip to know you’re helping clean a beautiful area and see parts of it most locals my not have ventured. This was one of the coolest trips we’ve taken through the recreation program.

With more projects through range, recreation, and possibly other fields, I’m looking forward. For now, back to our collected data.