June 26, 2013

Hello! And greetings from Montrose, CO.

This month has just flown by; I can’t believe it’s almost over. I’ve mostly been working on HAF transects in the Crawford area. Many of you probably already know what HAF is, it stands for Habitat Assessment Framework and pertains to the protocol used to assess sage grouse habitat. The work is pretty monontonous, but the area is so beautiful I can’t complain.

Imagine taken from Google image search.

But this week has been a little different. The East Fork Fire, about 30 miles southeast of Montrose, has taken priority over all else at our field office (even though it’s a Forest Service fire, not a BLM one). I spent all day Sunday and Monday AD-ing that fire (AD-ing essentially means CBG didn’t pay me to do it, so don’t worry CBG!!) which was exhausting, but an incredible learning experience. I’ve mostly been driving out supplies and meals, and the area where this fire is burning is some of the most beautiful country I’ve seen in Colorado.

Image from Google image search.

Picture from Google image search.

The past two days I’ve had a break from the fire world, because I’ve been in Gunnison participating in a three day workshop on managing grazing in riparian areas. Gunnison is home to my alma mater, Western State College [REPRESENT!!!], so I’m pretty excited to be back here for a few days. Not only that, but I also worked for the BLM here in 2011, so I’m happy to get to visit with my old boss. Last year I took a course on wetland restoration and this class is complimenting it nicely. It’s been interesting to learn how to effectively graze riparian areas without trashing them, and it’s interesting to compare these techniques to what I see going on in my own field office back in Montrose.

Anyway, today is the last day of the course and it starts in 20 minutes so I’d better sign off.

Brandee Wills
Uncompahgre Field Office BLM
Montrose, CO