As our numbers of interns have dwindled over the past few months, with most of the interns returning back to school, we are now down officially to two. The last two standing are both CLM interns and we are working as one well oiled machine! As I have been at the Roswell Field Office for over 6 months and Jaci has been here over 5 months, we both have a very good idea of what we need to do. We have seen and learned the full process of the monitoring aspect of range. We can now independently perform all of the different types of monitoring needed at the field office, process and enter our results into the database, and write the corresponding NEPA documentation needed for that allotment. I now fully comprehend the work that I do and why it is needed. The reason I say this is because when I first began my internship I learned the monitoring techniques and the plant species, which was no small task, but I focused most of my attention on learning this first step. After this step, I learned how to analyze and enter our results into the database; consequently, increasing my understanding of why the BLM needs to monitor and obtain certain data. Then recently, I have begun writing the NEPA documentation for the field data that we have collected and entered and this is the step where it all clicked. I have now completed the process and now I truly understand why monitoring is such a vital part of the BLM. And this process is never ending as the Roswell Field Office alone manages 1,490,000 acres of public land. All of those 1,490,000 acres needs management which for the most part includes a certain type of monitoring and that is just the first step in the process. I understand what a huge task the Roswell Field Office takes on, and that this is just one field office within one state of all of the BLM. The task to properly manage all of the public lands is a colossal task but it is a crucial one. I am very thankful for all of the people who work hard to not only maintain our public lands but who fight for access to these lands so that everyone can enjoy them. Here are some pictures of the beautiful public lands managed by the Roswell Field Office!