With a sigh of relief, post-fire monitoring for our crew finally came to an end when I finished and closed the final report. The field monitoring portion had ended a couple of weeks before, and since then we had been trudging through data entry and report compiling. For me at least, “trudging” is putting it lightly. I seek out jobs with strong field components for a reason, and working 10 hours a day on a computer is really not my thing. I know data reports are crucial components to the whole process, and I am grateful to be a part of it: learning, contributing, chiseling away at my character building, etc… but future cubicle mates be warned, grumpiness may ensue (keep snacks handy).

Let us reminisce:

Hauling gear back from a site early in the season

For our last fire monitoring field day, our dwindling crew set out to tackle the Spring fire. It was a cool and very windy day. As you can see in the photo, I was a little chilled.

It was an easy plot to monitor, and an uncomfortable hike in. This was due to the overwhelming amount of cheatgrass. Unfortunately, our monitoring job is easier when there is less plant diversity, and the cheatgrass gets in my socks and drives me crazy (see Ode to Cheatgrass).

Fortunately, we had the Halloween tree to protect us from the cheatgrass…

And loving, charred trees…

On to other projects!

orps

Carson City, BLM