The eight months I spent in Eastern Oregon working for the Bureau of Land Management gave me a good amount of time to understand how land management operates within a government organization. Coming from Illinois, and not working for the government before, this was a completely new experience, and worth every moment. Throughout my time at the Vale District BLM, I tried to to take advantage of the wide variety of resources available and learn as much as possible.  This included going to the field with range technicians, range conservationists, soil scientists (NRCS), wildlife biologists, horse and burro specialist, hydrologists, etc., when my mentor gave me the opportunity to do so. Aside from all of the required work, having the opportunity to go out with this wide range staff let me learn so much more than I would have expected.
One of the major skills I took away from the internship is taxonomic identification of a very wide variety of plant species. This will help me in the future, no matter what type of habitat I end up working in. This is a basic skill set that I was not taught in college, unbelievably so, and my mentor took time to help me out with this. Along with that, my navigational skills were immensely improved, both within the backcountry terrain and in general. The main expectations of me and the other intern were to accomplish a set goal of monitoring sensitive plant sites and seed collections. These two tasks taught me about seed viability, the importance of native seed collection, and the proper protocol to efficiently and effectively collect seed. The sensitive plant monitoring taught me how to assess a particular habitat and identify where sensitive plants are likely to occur within a specific location.
A learning experience that stands out to me most is the importance of being prepared for anything while out in the field. While working in extremely remote areas, you ALWAYS have to make sure you have absolutely everything you need before leaving for the field. Along with being prepared, the most important learning experience I will take away from this is to always ask questions even if they might seem ‘stupid’.
My expectation going into the internship was that I would be able to bring together my academic knowledge and other field work experiences in a way that would be very useful in future jobs. I wanted to learn the ins and outs of how everything needs to come together to complete a specific project. My main interest is ecological restoration, so working on restoration project would have been ideal. So, were my expectations met? Yes, but not in the way I originally thought they would be. After getting to the BLM and spending time learning what it was I would be doing for the next couple of months, it turned out I would not have the opportunity to work on a specific restoration project. That is not to say I didn’t get to learn about what I wanted though. Being a part of the Seeds of Success project, I was a part of restorative practices at the beginning level. Also, asking the specialists in the office different questions, I was able to learn more about land management, not just in the restoration realm.
The opportunity to work in a location for an extended period of time, rather than just a typical three month stint, helped me learn a lot more. After reflecting on the internship, I am grateful and appreciative to have had the chance to work in such a beautiful landscape and learn as much as I can while there. The full scope of bringing my academic and field experience together was possible, and I hope it will help me in my next step.