Hello from the Mojave Desert!                                                                                                                    Its official! I finally moved into my position with the Ridgecrest, CA BLM field office.  I just completed my second week in the office and everyone has been fantastic in helping me get my bearings.  These past two weeks have been a seamless transition into the Recreation department.  I have focused mainly on trainings and finishing up restoration work plans and GIS maps for upcoming SCA (Student Conservation Association) crews.  Creating maps, maps, and more maps has been my recent objective.  This is my first big project.  The restoration crews arrive in about a month and I am assisting in getting the plans together for 4 crews and about 8 different work areas.  I am now on the downhill slope to having these projects complete!  Thanks to Jeff for all your help with ArcPad and ArcMap.  He has been a wonderful teacher and so willing to help me out at any time! I was not familiar with ArcPad a week ago and now I think I might be in love!  

There have also been several  training and field opportunities woven into the past 2 weeks.  I was able to join the other 2 intern (Alena and Tyler), Jeff, and Jeff for a morning of Abandon Mines monitoring training. It was great to get out into the field and learn about an unfamiliar resources (mines).  I joined Eddie Duque, another Recreation Specialist here in the Ridgecrest field office, for a basic ATV rider course.  It was a great day of learning safety and manuevering techniques for ATV’s.  We got a full day of training and riding in the  Jawbone Canyon open area.   Dana Jacobs and Marty Dickes both brought me out on 2 separate reconissence trips.  I joined Dana to scope out and take photos of the Nadeau National Recreation trail.  It is a pretty rough off road Jeep trail.  There were definitely a few areas we though we were going to get stuck. Thanks to the proficient driving of Rob, we made it out with only a couple of minor scratches! This will be the first National Recreation trail here in the Ridgecrest area.  On August 22nd, there will be a ceremony and official opening of the trail. Marty’s project was to take a closer look at Sage Canyon and determine proper route designation for and area that is surrounded by wilderness.  We were joined by two resource specialist to assist in locating private property boundaries and grazing considerations.

Though I have only been on the job for 2 weeks, I have been involved in different activities.  I have appreciated getting a larger understanding of the other departments and resources that are managed here in this field office.  Thanks to everyone for letting me tag along!