A little over a month and a half ago, I loaded up my little Saturn to the roof and began my two day, 19 hour trek from my home in Missouri to my new home in Southwestern Utah. I will admit, I was scared out of my mind. The furthest west I had ever been was Kansas and I wasn’t sure what to expect living alone, 1300 miles from everything I’ve known for 22 years. Despite my initial uncertainty and fear, the move ( and internship) have changed my life both professionally and personally in ways I never thought possible. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with both western plants and animals. The projects that I am currently working on include assessing vegetation plots, using telemetry to track our local Greater Sage Grouse population and conducting fenceline surveys.

My most memorable experience thus far?  Tracking and flushing my first Sage Grouse.  I had never even seen a Sage Grouse and had  no idea what I was getting myself into. It was a female and I spent about 30 minutes triangulating her position. I was completely estatic when the graduate student I was working with informed me that we were close enough that I could hop out of the truck and follow my female on foot. I wiggled and twisted my way up a hill scattered with sage brush, intently focused on the steady beeping coming from my telemetry set, letting me know I was closing in. Suddenly and unexpectedly she flushed about four feet in front of me, literally almost scaring me to death. The loud noise of her beating wings made me jump so bad that I scared the graduate student who was another ten feet behind me. I had done it! It was such a rewarding experience. I turned to the graduate student with the biggest smile on my face and she smiled back saying, ” Congrats, you just tracked and flushed your first bird.”

The feelings and experiences I’ve been blessed with are ones I will never forget and though I wouldn’t have guessed it two months ago, Southwestern Utah is exactly the place I want to be.