This first month in Montana has been eventful since the moment I arrived. On my way into the ranger station I ran into a dog that was walking around in the middle of the highway near Monarch and my co-worker Ana and I brought it back so we could call the number on his collar and get him out of harms way. His name was Homie and he was such a lovely dog! He was nothing but sweet the entire time, and even hopped into the truck without any problems! Some other people at the ranger station were heading towards the address on Homie’s collar, so they took him back to his owners.

My first few weeks here was spent doing restoration work in several different locations. It was my first time in Montana so I wasn’t fully prepared for how beautiful the landscape was! Every site had a great view of the mountains, which just seemed to go on and on and it was nice to be able to relax during our lunch breaks and enjoy the view.

On the third week Sky and I spent a lot of time going over the plant list that we were given and finding the flowering times so we could build a rough plan for how we will be collecting the seeds. We also spent a lot of time going through training, which was a bit of a drag, but meant that we were able to go out on or own and practice our keying to see if there were any target species some areas suggested by our boss Victor.

Finally, we were able to meet with the Forest Botanist Nate and he helped us with keying out grasses and learning all of the specific terminology that comes with it. We made sure to go out to different sites to gain more experience and I feel much more confident now in my plant id skills than I did before. We were also able to join him and another botany tech searching for some rare orchids in the Rocky Mountain Front!

So far this season has been filled with many different experiences that I didn’t expect going into it, and I only hope that this season continues to surpass my expectations.