I am writing from Carson City, Nevada, where I am participating in a soil and plant ecology workshop. The workshop has focused on interpreting the geomorphology of an area, understanding how that geomorphology affects its soil composition, and how its soil composition determines what type of ecological communities it can support. The course has been taught by both academic and resource management professionals, who have done a great job of explaining how this information is used to make critical management decisions. I am grateful for the new perspective, and am excited to dig some more holes!
In the spirit of my previous blog post, I would like to tell you about another one of my favorite days this summer.
I woke up early on Wednesday, July 2nd, stepped outside the trailer, and celebrated under the stars. The Milky Way formed a rainbow over my head, and I stumbled around in an awestruck, sleepy stupor staring up at it. I woke up later that morning to an alarm, the sounds of the rest of the monitoring crew getting out of bed, and the trumpeting of Sandhill Cranes. I drank black tea and watched the purple sky turn pink and blue.
A coyote – the first I had ever seen in the sunlight – lunged in front of our trucks as we drove lupine-lined two-tracks to our last two HAF sites of the season. HAF stands for Habitat Assessment Framework, and outlines a methodology for assessing the suitability of Sage-Grouse habitat. We have put a lot of effort into reading these sites, and so it was bittersweet to complete the project.
We were rewarded for our commitment to the project. While conducting wetland inventories later that day, we flushed out about 20 Sage-Grouse. These were the first Sage-Grouse I had ever seen. We saw almost 100 more Sage-Grouse the following week while conducting more wetland inventories. It was very special to see such large numbers of the birds we had been working so hard to conserve.
I could not be more grateful to work in the remote and wild Jarbidge Field Office, and I look forward to continuing to conserve it.
Jonathan Kleinman
Jarbidge Field Office
Bureau of Land Management