Into the West

The past couple of weeks have been intense. I was offered my internship a week before graduating from the University of Kansas, so I had a week for finals, a week for packing, and then I headed straight for my new home: Buffalo, Wyoming! I have found out that living in Kansas is about as far west as you can get in America without actually being in “the West”, as the feel of frontier days still permeates the countryside. Things move slower here, people talk more, and Mother Nature is indomitable. Buffalo is situated at the base of the Bighorn Mountains, which is part of the Rocky Mountains. The scenery is beautiful, and almost every day in the field is picturesque. The people I have encountered here are very welcoming and friendly, making the transition much easier. My fellow interns are awesome, and the staff at the BLM in Buffalo are more helpful and understanding than I could have ever hoped for. I am being trained primarily in range management, which involves evaluating land leased out by the BLM for species composition and overall ecological health and productivity. The work is very involved, and I feel like I have learned more in the past ten days than I learned in entire semesters of college! Anyway, I have taken quite a fancy to my job and where I work, and I wish it would never end!

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