The End of an Amazing Internship

The time has flown by so quickly during my internship here in Alturas and, just like that, it’s already over! This internship has been a really amazing and valuable experience and I really could not have asked to be part of a better program. I started my internship with very little experience outside of undergraduate research and have gained so many valuable skills, including general monitoring and surveying protocols that can be useful in countless different field positions and specialized knowledge on the plant and bird diversity in northeastern California. Everyone that I met and got to know during the internship, at the BLM office and elsewhere, were more than friendly and were always helpful. Our mentor was incredibly knowledgeable and was able to ID essentially any plant species in our resource areas, regardless of reproductive stage. Just about everyday of work was enjoyable for me. Whether I was conducting raptor surveys and bird inventories, monitoring raptor nesting habitat, collecting seed, conducting rangeland health assessments, monitoring plant populations and so forth, I was being payed to hike through scenic wilderness areas and work with plants and animals. In addition to assisting our mentor (a botanist and rangeland manager) in fieldwork, we also worked with wildlife biologists and archeologists during the internship.

Alturas may not have been the best place to live as someone single and in their 20s, given the sparse human population in and around the area. Nevertheless, Alturas was a beautiful place to live. The South Warner Wilderness Area is about a 25-minute drive from Alturas, so I was able to frequently make trips there on the weekends. The Warner Mountains seem to be a hidden gem – aside from on Saturdays, I rarely encountered other hikers in spite of how spectacular the trails are. I did, however, frequently encounter bald eagles, golden eagles, great horned owls, and even a black bear on one occasion. My adventures through the Warners were incredible and, in my opinion, on par with hikes I’ve done through Yosemite, Lassen, and other areas in California.