My, my how time flies, five months have come and gone and now with the satisfactory conclusion of my internship I shall have to retire the coffee cup I borrowed from the USGS kitchen and begin my search for new and more long term things.
I was very lucky to be placed here at the Henderson USGS working for Lesley DeFalco, Sara Scoles-Sciulla and the Biological Research Division. They gave me the opportunity to really grow as an ecologist by giving me a variety of different tasks during my time here. Ranging from picking and identifying every single annual in a plot, vehicle checks, to using R+ to analyze which models are best to predict biomass, I could not have asked for a better and more mentally stimulating placement. Additionally, my roomates/co-workers have been some of the best I have ever had!

It is very impressive how, before my very eyes Las Vegas has transformed from the water guzzling nightlife pumping trashed adult Disney world (that I slightly dreaded working in) into a mere stopping point in between all the gorgeous surrounding areas. Nestles in a valley surrounded by the Spring mountains and Sheep mountains, Las Vegas is relatively close to so many attractions; Valley of Fire, Lake Mead, Red Rock, Mt. Charleston, the Colorado River, Mojave Desert, all these different landscapes are no more than an hour away. Interns of the future, I hope you enjoy this placement as much as I did.

Cheers

P.S The project I was working on that I stressed so much about last months is going very well. Though each step forwards had to be won with tooth and nail, I have prevailed. The deadline for the project is the 30th and so at that point I hope to share with you the semi-final product.