As promised earlier, This is a continuation of my summer updates here in Burley, Idaho! So much time has passed, I figured it would be more effective to split my updates into two different posts (the last one is called “Did you know there’s a town named Idahome in Idaho?” if interested, if not – that’s cool too.)

Since leaving the Chicago Botanic Garden, this internship has continued to train me in all sorts of subjects. One subject I did not expect training in the dry, sagebrush steppe of southern Idaho was riparian habitat assessment! The training was brief and only lasted about two days, but was very eye-opening nonetheless. The training revolved around a set of questions meant to make you think and look closely as you assess the chosen riparian habitat. The questions can seem very subjective at first, but when you see the thought process of those with more experience go through the questions, it becomes more clear. This experience was different in that I had to look closely at the world around me in order to spot any clues about the stream’s health and history, instead of relying strictly on collected data alone. I almost felt as if I were a riparian detective! Little clues such as plant species, stream direction and stream bank variation can all play a part in telling you what is going on with that habitat. Even though I am used to a different set of wetlands in the southeast, it was exciting to learn about how to assess the streams and seasonal riparian habitats of the west.

Hera buckmoth we found the other day in the field (not near our riparian assessment training site)

Another critter we stumbled upon in the field – Horny toad!

Another training session that gave me life and enough excitement for at least an entire week, or more, was the salmon redd count training that occurred in early August at the Sawtooth fish hatchery! This was a highly anticipated event not only for the fact that we got some salmon training in, but also there would be camping involved. The region around the Sawtooth fish hatchery is just stunning and this was a really great experience overall. There were so many people from all over the state and all sorts of departments and organizations that came for this training. One of the best parts was getting to know those well-seasoned biologists who have already been counting and identifying redds for many years now. Listening to their experiences during their surveys and how they complete them was inspiring. I can’t even imagine having to do some of the things these folks accomplish when trying to collect data. Sure, rafting sounds fun, but having to identify if you pass a redd while floating down a river? Well, I certainly don’t have enough experience to be confident enough to do that successfully on my own. Now, I see I have failed to explain what a “redd” is, and seeing as this is mostly a botanical internship program, I will. So, a redd is a term used to describe the nest made by female salmon once they have migrated up the streams to spawn. These redds can be, in my novice opinion, extremely inconspicuous if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Even if you do, it still takes a lot of practice, if you ask me. The redds consist of a “pillow” which is a noticeable pile of rocks and gravel that the females have formed by using their tails in order to push the gravel in place and lay their eggs in. These pillows normally have small to medium rocks and the size selection can be quite noticeable when comparing them to the surrounding area. Redds will also have trenches and a pit near the pillow. The pit is indicative of the work the females had to put in to select and move the gravel chosen for her pillow. The trenches are also indicators of all the work the females have pushed through despite nearing the end of their lives. These “trenches” are dug by the females and usually on either side of the “pillow”.  They are created in order to direct more stream flow over the pillow full of eggs. This gives the eggs more oxygen and diminishes the chance of the eggs asphyxiating, thus failing to hatch. The act of creating these trenches in order to ensure their eggs get as much oxygen as they need is honestly mind-boggling to me. It’s been truly an honor to receive this training in a field I already had a lot of interest in, especially as a future career. I knew salmon were incredible creatures already.Their resilience and willpower to push through and spawn up streams, far away from the ocean they grew up in, despite the fact that their bodies are starting to fall apart and essentially shut down, is so inspiring. If you have doubts on what animal deserves our admiration for their grit and willpower, I believe salmon are a worthy contender for that admiration.

Chinook salmon at the hatchery.. some seriously huge and beautiful fish!

Part of a trail we managed to fit in after training

Near our campsite

In order to wrap up this blog post, I’d like to end with a summary of another exciting activity that happened at work just this past week. We had the opportunity to work with those in the Shoshone BLM office in order to explore Gypsum Cave, one of the longest lava tubes in the lower 48! It has certainly been a while since the last time I was in a cave, but I believe this was my first time ever entering a lava tube. The entire experience was thrilling. Just being able to feel the temperature difference between the cave entrance and inside the cave was so cool (in an eerie sort of way), that I got goosebumps! If you can’t handle small spaces, even for a short amount of time, I wouldn’t recommend it however, as there were a few times we had to crawl our way through the next large, open pathway. The moment we crawled through the entrance where the cave opened up into a large, rocky hallway, I felt as if I had entered another world. The underground realm still contained some familiar sites, such as rats and frogs and all the excrement that come with them, but the further I walked in, the further away I felt from our world above. There were sections of the cave where the floor and ceiling sparkled with minerals, as if someone had glitter-bombed the cave before we entered. Feces left behind by some unknown guests in the past were covered in fluffy, alien fungi that shone white in the light of our headlamps. We passed by bones of rats that have long since perished and carcasses of rabbits that still appeared intact, untouched by time. My only regret is not having enough time to explore the side passages as we only had enough time to hike straight to the end of the cave. By the end of trip, I definitely felt tired but it was exhaustion in the most rewarding kind of way. We had the opportunity to experience something so unique and after that day, I definitely felt a flame spark within me, urging me to keep this experience in mind and to pursue this new found fascination for caves in the future.

Beginning of Gypsum Cave as it slowly begins to open up

Tiny footprints left behind some cave residents – most likely pack rats

If you leave a cave without a cool picture of yourself, did it really even happen?

Until next time – stay curious

-Izzy

As short as it was awesome, my time in Lander with the BLM has come to a close.  I will always remember Lander fondly and hope to visit again this great little town with a wonderfully welcoming and helpful BLM staff.

My final week here I finally packed away the seed collections with my mentor and entered the remaining data.  Not the most glamorous part of being an intern but at least they are on their way to Bend and the feeling of knowing the seeds are bagged is very satisfying.

As I leave, there is a now somewhat familiar bite in the air at night I only felt my first week in Lander when the final waves of winter rolled through Wyoming.  The heat of summer is becoming less pronounced as the seasons change.  I feel a sense of unfinished business as winter has not yet pushed me from my home away from home. But as i went out for one last evening drive through sinks canyon state park a beautiful storm held ominously over the mountaintops.  A sight I had grown to appreciate regularly in Wyoming.

The experiences I had in my time here from the incredible weather to wildlife encounters I will cherish always and I hope that all the other interns in this program have the same level of experiences I have.

Memories of Wyoming’s remarkable landscapes will stay with me forever as I am sure they have with many before me.

Farewell Wyoming, and thank you to all the wonderful people at the Lander Field Office for the opportunity and making Lander feel like home.  Thank you to Krissa and the staff at the Chicago Botanical Garden for the opportunity and for making it all possible.  And thanks to my fellow interns who I have come to consider good friends for the companionship.  I hope you all enjoy the remainder of the season and find the next step just as enjoyable as I did this one.

It’s nearing the end of August, which means I’m over halfway through my time here at the Roseburg BLM (this realization has of course hit me like a ton of bricks… I really do like working here). It also means that seed collection season is nearing its end. By now, most of the native grass seed we want has dropped; we still collect seed from shrubs and forbs every so often (actually, my desk is currently covered in rapidly-rotting snowberries), but for now our focus has shifted to invasive plants.

Rotting snowberries…. yum

Pacific ninebark seed pods

Here’s one bit of knowledge that I’d been taught in college classes but never really fully processed until now: invasive species don’t just magically appear in an area, they are brought in through various (human related) means. I know, I know, it seems like common sense, but I hadn’t ever really seen this in action until I worked for the BLM. Interestingly enough, the ways in which we’ve been tracking invasive species have allowed me to sleuth out how an invasive species moves from one area to another.

For example:

One pretty awesome project that one of our bosses has us working on right now is a survey of some of the tributaries flowing into the Umpqua river. The goal is to determine where false-brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), an invasive grass, was introduced on the watershed. Knowing how far up the watershed it exists/what tributaries it exists in and mapping the extent of this infestation will be useful in obtaining funding to hire contractors to eliminate the grass. We began with the knowledge that false-brome exists on a large portion of the Umpqua, as well as a couple of data points from a previous contractor who had reported that the devious little stinker was living very high up on the watershed in Canton Creek.

Brachypodium sylvaticum (false-brome)

Trusty river wading boots

After checking these points and coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t false-brome (it was actually a very similar looking species, Bromus vulgaris–an understandable mistake because the two are nearly indistinguishable at certain points in their life cycle), we proceeded to conduct spot checks along Canton to determine if and where it exists on that tributary. We ended up finding false brome along the creek but, thankfully, much further down than previously thought. Since then we’ve been working on mapping the grass along other tributaries in the area. Combined with road surveys, we’ve been able to see that the species is usually carried in through motor vehicles and, after invading the road, establishes itself in nearby riparian areas. The whole project is a daunting task, but we’ve been making lots of progress, and it’s nice to be able to wade in the river on hot days.

Canton Creek

Other invasive species related projects we’ve been working on is conducting road surveys for Himalayan blackberry and scotch broom. The purpose is to map the extent so future contractors know where to spray the roads. For this task, we’ve been visiting a lot of roads shared by BLM employees and logging trucks. It’s been pretty amazing to get a look at the logging activity that goes on out there. The towering green Doug-fir trees from uncut bits of forest contrasts dramatically with recently clear-cut logging lots… It’s kind of impressive and unsettling and sad all at once. Generally, blackberry and scotch broom seem to be brought into the immediate vicinity of the road by logging trucks. From there, they take over roadsides and spread out into the rest of the area.

The view of logging operations (looks very smoky ’cause it’s fire season)

Giant stacks of logs

Anyway, I hope everyone else is having a good time at their CLM positions. I’d like to round out this blog post with a few really awful botany jokes that I’ve pilfered from the internet:

Why couldn’t the botanist see very well?
She had a-stigma-tism

How do botanists send mail?

Through the compost office

What does a botanist do when she finds a new species of orchid?

Labellum

What did the stamen say to the stigma?

I like your style

(Sorry…..hahahahah)

The bulk of July and August have just flown by. I can’t believe that August is already nearly over!

A beautiful sunset at the Wild Rivers Recreation Area

Over the past couple of months, I have found that being an SOS intern comes with a serious learning curve. I think nostalgically back on the days when I naively assumed that a population of plants would all go to seed at the same time. Instead what we’ve found is that often populations will consist of a mix of plants with either mature and immature seeds, or a mixture of both. The most notable population that presents this problem in my experience is Heterotheca villosa, a small yellow aster. In many of the populations that we have found, many of the individuals will have mature and immature seeds, buds, and flowers all at the same time! This can make timing collections a little confusing sometimes.

Me pressing some herbarium specimens in the field

It can also be a little rough estimating how much seed you can expect to get from a population. In order to do so, we look at plants throughout the population, and estimate the average number of seeds per fruit as well as the average number of fruits per plant. From these numbers, we can calculate about how many plants we’ll need to collect from in order to reach the SOS goal of 10,000 seeds. We underestimate a bit in our calculations to account for seed loss due to factors like insect damage or unfertilized ovules.

A collection of Elymus elymoides sitting out to dry

Up until a couple weeks ago, my co-worker and I had been having a rough time finding plant populations that were ready for collecting. Instead we ended up with a list of future collections, and very little to actually collect. By the beginning of August, we had accumulated a list of about 20 populations that we were focused on monitoring. We were having some trouble estimating when populations would be ready to collect, which resulted in us really fixating on the 20 plant communities on our list, checking them more often that was probably necessary for fear of losing the seeds in the population.

The meadow that we affectionately named The Meadow of Dreams is one of my favorite places that we have scouted out for plant populations. There are about 5 populations that we are monitoring there, and the scenery is absolutely gorgeous!

We spent quite a bit of July out at Ute Mountain, where we really felt the effects of the monsoon season rains that this area experiences. Nearly every afternoon that we went to Ute Mountain, we were rained out. It sometimes became a race against time where we tried to hurry to get off of the dirt roads surrounding Ute Mountain before they became too sloppy to escape. Once as we were trying to leave in a hurry, we were stopped short where a chunk of road had collapsed due to rain runoff. One half had crumbled into itself, and the other half was covered by a large puddle. Luckily there was another road out, but it definitely added a bit of excitement to our escape.

One of the infamous Ute Mountain afternoon storms rolling in

So all in all, there was a bit of metaphorical floundering in the beginning of the collecting season, but we started to get the hang of things and stayed pretty organized as time went on. During the month of July, we made about 3 or 4 collections. Unfortunately, this isn’t anywhere near our target number of 35 collections by the end of September. Clearly our techniques needed some refining.

Help came to us in the form of Ella, one of the SOS interns from Santa Fe. This is Ella’s second year of being an intern, so she is super organized and has some pretty good strategies. She came and worked with us for several days, and during that time, we made 4 collections. She recommended several useful strategies, including dedicating one day each week to office work and planning, and trying to plan scouting trips that cover the most amount of ground possible. The idea of having a really well thought out and organized plan set in place each week really appeals to me, and my co-worker and I plan on implementing the one day in the office per week technique. It was also nice to hear that in most cases, it’s alright to collect off the side of the road, something that my co-worker and I had thought was a big no no in all circumstances except for gravel back roads. Additionally Ella gave us some good advice on prioritizing, and how sometimes you have to let less important collections go for the sake of having time to make more important ones. It was a little embarrassing at first to admit that we needed some help and tips, but I’m  glad that I was able to overcome those feelings and be receptive to Ella’s teaching. I’m very grateful to Ella, because she definitely changed the way that we are going to focus our efforts in the future. I’m excited to try out some of her techniques, and try to get as close to our target collection goal as possible by the end of next month.

A breathtaking view of the Rio Grande Gorge from the area surrounding Ute Mountain

One of the most interesting things we did last month was help out with a butterfly study in the Wild Rivers Recreation Area. The study aimed to look at whether female Anasazi Skippers were making it back into the Rio Grande Gorge to lay their eggs after feeding on nectar from the campground loop on the plateau above. We helped capture the skippers, and mark them with paint along the campground loop. Then we tried to resight skippers down in the canyon and determine if they had been marked up on the loop.

I was super proud of my tent positioning here on the edge of the gorge at Wild Rivers. It was very picturesque.

A view from the bottom of the Rio Grande Gorge

A top view of the Rio Grande Gorge. We hiked down to look for marked Anasazi Skippers.

The reeds in the gorge where the Skippers lay their eggs

A skipper that I marked with paint. The patterns and colors indicated the area where the skipper was marked and the individual’s ID number.

All in all, it has been an incredibly busy month filled with much learning and beautiful scenery. I’m excited to try out some new strategies and try my best to meet our collection goal by the end of September!

Until then!

~Sierra

BLM Field Office

Taos, NM

After being out in the Wyoming backcountry almost every day for the past three months, I have acquired a number of stories that might be described as close encounters. Close encounters to getting the truck stuck at the end of the day, and close encounters with angry wildlife. So here is the account of things I’ve experience that, with any luck, will not get back to my mother.

Let’s begin with a list I made during my first few weeks of anticipated dangers in the Wyoming outback:

1. Cow Mafia (cows constantly blocking the road and potentially stampeding the truck)
2. Shot by Rancher (for accidentally walking on private land)
3. Large Mammals – Bears, Mountain Lions, Wild Horses?
4. Rattlesnakes
5. Raptor Attack (while checking on nest sites)
6. Truck Fire from built up cheat grass (that I cleaned out)
7. Damage to internal organs from sketchy two-tracks
8. H2S gas poisoning

To be fair, I haven’t experienced most of these. On the other hand, none of them are completely out of the question. Understanding the dangers to working in the field, I am thankful for the safety protocols and trainings put in place to keep interns and permanent employees safe, Such protocols have helped me remain unharmed throughout the summer, even during “close encounters”.

The journey of dangerous encounters begins with my beloved and young, but rather disheartened work truck. I was warned that buildup of cheat grass and other grasses from previous owners, or even just through the field season, has caused trucks to briefly catch on fire while driving down the highway. But the truck I was assigned gives all other trucks in this category a run for their money. After some brief mountain driving, my truck began to inch toward hotter temperatures, so I checked under the hood.

What I found was packed in, solidified cheat grass like no other. It was in the engine block, under the engine block, and in parts of the truck that I can’t name. After hours of pulling out cheat grass and mud one handful at a time, and after three very large snow shovel sized chunks of debris, the truck can be deemed drivable, but still really full of mud and plant debris. My truck may have been close to catching on fire, but such a disaster has been avoided and prevented for the future.

On another day in the field, at the end of a long day of mapping cheat grass, I stumbled upon a rattlesnake about 3 feet from my foot.  We were equally surprised by each other. It coiled up, moved into striking pose, and rattled at me. Mind you, I was about 30 minutes of walking from the truck and 2 hours away from the nearest hospital. My field partner backed off and ran down the hill a few meters away.  Luckily, I did not get bitten by a rattlesnake. And luckily, I was confident in my training and my partner’s training had the story gone differently.

On my own time, while exploring the Black Hills National Forest, I decided to camp in a dispersed area alone. Unfortunately, said area was unapproved by the residential mountain lion. As the sun was beginning to set, I heard an odd, repetitive noise about 300 feet away, over the hill. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, being in such a touristy area, I thought it was just from people. As late dusk approached, I heard the noise again. Only, this time, it was 30 feet from my tent, and definitely pacing, and I recognized the sound as a mountain lion. I lay still in my tent until it stopped growling, and my training for mountain lions kicked in despite my fear. I packed up all my stuff, flashed the horn of my car (which was a few meters away), and after scaring it off, I left my tent to sleep in my car.

Luckily, all of these instances, whether serious or minor, ended with unharmed interns and undamaged property. However, being in circumstances like these has made me (and probably, my mom) grateful for the safety precautions in place as I work daily in the wild Wyoming country.  When close encounters have happy endings, they at least make for a good story, but stories that definitely don’t need to get back to my mother.

One fine day here in Wyoming a botany intern lead a range intern and a wildlife intern (that’s me!) off into the wild to collect bitterroot seeds. Thankfully, Chris (the botany intern) had planned ahead on this day. Knowing full well that his help was well intentioned but not your typical over-the-top plant loving SOS interns, some much-needed precautions were taken.

First, we were given a rundown of collection protocol so that we didn’t damage the population. I did not realize how many seeds we would need to collect!! This little info session also made me realize how long it had been since I’d had to count past 100…by ones. He finally told us what we were collecting…you guessed it Lewisia rediviva or more commonly known as Bitterroot. Coli (the range intern) and I were so excited! It is one of the most spectacularly colored wildflowers in our office!

Bitterroot Flowers

Bitterroot Flowers

Anticipating a field covered in lovely flowers imagine my slightly let down expression when we were faced with this.

Collection Site

But, all was not lost! The most spectacularly colored flower transformed into a capsule that almost resembled a magnolia blossom (one of my favorite flowers).

Capsule in Life Position

Coli and I were delighted that we were still going to collect something beautiful! The three of us descended upon the hillside and it was not long before all of our bags began to fill with the lovely little pink & cream capsules scarcely bigger than the tip of your thumb.

Collected Capsules

After the collection was done we came back and poured out our bags into a box to let the seeds dry before they continue on their journey. At the end of the day I reflected on my experience and as much fun as this day was, I think I was placed in the right department. Plants are amazing but to me they just aren’t as much fun to search for as the wild creatures of Wyoming.

Collected Capsules

Hello!

Well, it has been a while since I’ve previously updated this blog on my adventures with the BLM office in Burley and as one can imagine, there are certainly a lot of gaps to fill. I’ll be posting twice this week in order to make up for lost time. If you thought there was going to be more discussion on the town name of Idahome, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I just thought it would be an interesting tidbit of knowledge to add to your day. The rest of my blog will be entirely on what we have been up to at the Burley office! But gee, isn’t that town name awfully silly? (No offense directed towards anyway from Idahome or Idaho. It definitely puts a smile on my face!)

Following my first few weeks at Burley, we were given the opportunity to assist with an on-going raptor nest monitoring project. These surveys entailed us tracking previously marked points where nests have been found in the past and investigating whether or not the nest was still active — and if so, who is using it. Unfortunately, we ran into a lot more raven nests than I would personally like to find, however we did run into a few swainson’s hawk and ferruginous hawk nests along the way. It’s astonishing to run into so many ferruginous hawks and golden eagles up here, honestly. As a transplant from the southeast, I am used to having these birds cataloged as “rare” in my brain, and to see them in such abundance here in their prime habitat is truly amazing. Getting a chance to brush up on my raptor identification isn’t too shabby of a perk either, if I do say so myself! Not only did we get to track down previous nest sites, but we even had the opportunity to try and identify new nests built this year!

Mountains near some of our raptor nest survey sites

In addition to surveying for raptors and working on AIM transects, our office gave us a chance later in the season to do an overall biological survey on certain significant points on BLM land. One of the BLM biologists needed us to survey as much as we can including birds, small mammals, insects, etc. While we didn’t see anything too rare or unexpected, it certainly beats staying in the office, especially when you are surrounded by common nighthawks. I even spotted my first badger on one of our surveys! That’s exciting stuff right there.

Scarlet Gilia we found during our AIM transect. The camera really can’t do that color justice!

Indian paintbrush

Raptors have certainly not been the only focus in our lives though. We’ve dipped into surveying for multiple taxa including beetles! Idaho Fish and Game took time out of their day to take us, as well as the CLM interns based in Shoshone, for a day of surveying. The biologist was specifically looking for a certain species of jewel beetle, but welcomed all of our catches, with or without jewel beetles. The specific jewel beetle he was looking for fed on the roots of buckwheat plants, but due to their feeding habits and elusive nature, these little guys are apparently pretty hard to get a hold of! Nevertheless, it was a wonderful day to learn some entomology and get a chance to swing some nets outdoors. I would like to mention though, one of the Shoshone interns did manage to capture a beetle of interest! Exciting news that made the day well worth it. What’s more exciting is when you consider the fact that according to the Fish and Game biologist, there is a significant lack of data in the field of entomology, especially with concern to beetles, here in Idaho. That means there’s an entire world of entomological discoveries yet to be explored here in Idaho, waiting for someone to answer the siren call! If only there were more time in the season to go play with bugs..

Last but not least, I can’t forget to mention the workshop provided at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The garden itself was truly a spectacle. I’ve only been to Chicago a few times myself and never in any of those trips was I even aware of the botanic garden’s presence. Walking through the garden during and after the workshop was like strolling through a dream. Each section of the garden was immaculate and you can certainly tell there is a lot of love and hard work put into it. To top things off, there was even a butterfly garden exhibit on display that week! (self-proclaimed butterfly maniac over here) I was honestly very upset to have to leave so soon! I’d probably be content to live among the butterflies for a few months…. That’s normal, right? This feeling may also be attributed to all the friends and acquaintances I made during that week as well. It’s hard to say goodbye! Between the educational workshop sessions, the blooming of beautiful and strange flowers and friendships, it was surely a week to remember.

(Prepare yourself – picture dump ahead!)

One of many bonsai displayed at the Chicago Botanic Garden. So vibrant!

Beautiful succulent with a diamond (raindrop, if you look with less imagination) in the middle.

Big Ol’ Dr. Seuss lookin’ onion

From the butterfly garden

Leaf or butterfly? You decide.

Caught some summer lovin’ at the garden.

Nothing like making new, long-lasting connections at something so brief such as our workshop. 🙂

I have been settled into Buffalo, Wyoming for one month now and I have very much been enjoying my work and my play. I was brought in to fill the need for GIS help within this very busy BLM office. Unfortunately, this would have to wait for a few weeks while my access cards and clearance to come through. But I would not be sitting idly by as such a busy office abounds with wonderful opportunities to go into the field. I got to get hands on with the AIM process, land reclamation, plugging defunct mineral wells, and my personal favorite, proper flow and conditioning of a river (this one required sidehilling up and down a 1200 foot canyon wall) that took my breath away (literally and figuratively). Once my access was granted, I’ve taken every opportunity to increase my GIS skills by learning from my mentor, Courtney. I’ve created several wall maps to be  used in the office and have started digesting the wildlife data that comes into the office.

My play around Buffalo has featured much hiking and fishing. Despite the obscene cost of an out of state fishing license, I took the plunge and have been enjoying the local lakes and streams. This is my first foray into trout fishing and the results have been mixed at best. The hiking is also a new beast to me as I didn’t realize there would be a difference between Michigan hiking shape and Wyoming hiking shape. The mountains and rivers provide the perfect backdrop for an afternoons travels and eating a sandwich alongside a mountain lake surround by the sounds of nature just puts a soul at ease.

The balance has been great and with so much still yet to explore, I look forward to my next four months here in Buffalo. And, like the title said, I got my own cubicle.

One of my goals this summer (as it usually is every summer) was to “get in better shape”. The plan was to be as active as possible in my free time, exploring the numerous mountain ranges around me. This way I would have fun “getting in shape”, and get to know the surrounding area at the same time. I have successfully hiked several of the mountains and locations on my list, but little did I know that I would be training during work hours as well.

During one field day, Hank and I set out with our supervisor and Outdoor Recreation Planner, Rick, to complete some much needed trail maintenance on our Four Bear Trail. Seeing as all of our field office’s UTVs were occupied for the day, we took a wheelbarrow from the yard and loaded it up with our (HEAVY!) equipment and took turns pushing it down the trail.

Fumbling awkwardly down the trail with heavy equipment, we soon gave up and redistributed our materials. Hank and I decided to carry the U-channel posts Mulan style while Rick pushed the wheelbarrow.

Ask me how many times I sang Mulan’s “I’ll make a man out of you” that day

In addition to building strength, I have learned how to use many new and interesting tools like a post pounder, an auger, a Pulaski, a rock bar, a chop saw, and countless others. I have also been to the hardware stores in town more times than I can remember.

Trying out our new gas-powered post pounder

Drilling holes with an auger is actually pretty fun

What has been memorable about learning to use these tools, though, is the patience, understanding, and willingness of my coworkers to teach me how to use them. What I also love, is that they encourage me to try new tools, and help me when I falter. This may not seem like a big deal for some. However, in my field office I am the only female on the recreation crew. This experience has been both frustrating and rewarding. Frustrating because I swear half the time we are on two separate wavelengths. The guys are always doing things the opposite way I would have done them. The result has been many misunderstandings, lots of learning from each other and finished results that we can all be proud of!

Here are a few cool projects we worked on throughout the month of August:

One of the livestock tanks we installed after the June fire melted the old ones. This project required a lot of team work, equipment and coordination to dig ditches, build a dam in a nearby creek, level the ground, set the tire, mix and pour the concrete, hook up and install the hardware to fill the tank with water, and attach a wildlife ramp for small critters that may fall into the tank.

A newly stained cabin on Carter Mountain. Not picture are the hundreds of angry horseflies found embedded in its walls. This project was easy to complete, but what was challenging was coordinating a two hour drive up the mountain on a newly opened “road” with all of our equipment needed for that day.

Newly installed trail marker on our Four Bear Trail. This project looks fairly simply, but required cutting, prepping and assembling the sign at our warehouse, hauling it two miles up the trail, and installing it with a nearly 50 lb. post pounder.

This experience has also been very rewarding because my coworkers continuously push me to grow in new ways, and empower me by treating me as an equal. With that being said, there are times where I am frustrated because I am not physically equal. I have always been strong “for a girl”. But there are times when my muscles tire far before any of theirs. And there are times I need help lifting the post pounder because its really heavy and I’m not tall enough to place it on top of the post. At first I was embarrassed in these situations because I didn’t want them to think less of me. But I am not a quitter by any means, and I would just keep trying. Soon I would surprise myself in what I was truly capable of.

I fully believe women can do anything men can do. But I have accepted that she may need to work harder in order to do it. This job has taught me that I am always up for that challenge if I have a strong support system. Thanks guys!

Melissa Higley

Recreation Intern

Bureau of Land Management ~ Cody Field Office