I started my first week in Colorado on May 13th. It was a hectic week before work, as I had to finish up my final semester at school and drive across country from NY to Colorado in 2 days. Two thirteen hour days of driving got me to Denver a few days before work. I was greeted with an odd May snowstorm which delayed my start date a day due to road closings in the mountains. As I was settled into the bunkhouse in Kremmling, CO I got to know my coworkers. The first week was great. We drove around the BLM land and I started to learn some of the Invasive plant species I will be eradicating this summer. The area is beautiful-surrounded by mountains.

The first day of field work consisted of spraying Thistle (Carduus spp.), and Cheat Grass (Bromus tectorum)  with the herbicide boom sprayer off of our UTV/ATV. In patches that had previously been sprayed and killed, we laid native seeds down and raked in the patches.

The next day we went to Yarmony Mountain and sprayed Mullein, and Thistle that had taken over an old burn site. The whole burn area was covered in invasives.

The next day we went to an old grazing pasture that the BLM had been spraying for years to see how it was doing. It had very few invasives and we sprayed the little that we did find. Today we went up Wolford mountain and surveyed for invasive species. We covered quite a bit of land in our 10 hour day.

The wildlife is great out here. I have already seen Prairie Dogs, a Jack-Rabbit, Big-Horned Sheep, Mule Deer, a herd of Elk, and many Falcons. Looking forward to more adventures in the mountains of Colorado.