The month of August has absolutely FLOWN by. There were times I desperately wanted it to slow down because I am not looking forward to the end of this internship (or having to leave the beautiful state of Wyoming). However, because the past month has been so jam-packed, I have had an absolute blast! Here’s a tiny glimpse of each of the events that made this month, and the entire summer so special…
Great Dam Day: On August 19th, the old road to the east entrance of Yellowstone was opened to the public. Different organizations in town positioned themselves along the road and set up informational booths. We had a BLM tent set up at each end of the road. One was a Leave No Trace station where kids could answer questions about the ethics of LNT and win prizes. The other booth had a trivia game (pictured below) with questions about the management and different aspects relating to public lands. The game was a big hit with visitors of all ages!
Here I am playing Your Public Lands Trivia Quest with a few visitors and my mentor’s kids 🙂
Eclipse: On August 21st, I traveled down to Thermopolis, WY with fellow CBG interns, Tyler Kerr and Hank Carlson, to see the Great American Eclipse within the range of 100% totality. After a short two hour drive, we pulled over alongside a horse pasture and hunkered down for event. As it got darker, we noticed the horses begin migrating to the other end of the pasture. When it started to get lighter again, the horses walked in a straight line towards a gate on the opposite end to wait for what I’m assuming they thought was going to be breakfast. The most common question I received after the eclipse was about how dark it got. My response was always along the lines of “not quite as dark as night time, but more like sunset…right after the sun has gone down behind the trees or mountains, but still lights up the sky a bit. That’s how it felt, only it was in the middle of the day which definitely felt strange! However, it was still an incredible experience and I can’t wait until the next time I can see an eclipse. The struggle was real as I tried to capture photos of the miraculous event, but here’s one I captured with my eclipse glasses positioned in front of my camera lense. Pretty neat!
Great American Eclipse 100% totality from Thermopolis, WY.
National Public Lands Day: On August 26th, we invited volunteers to join us in remodeling our Hogan and Luce Recreation Area. The goal of the project was to increase accessibility for visitors with disabilities. Together we assembled and installed 6 new picnic tables, 5 new bear boxes, and five new fire rings that are all ADA/ABA compliant. We also installed a boot brush station, refurbished and painted a damaged kiosk. Volunteers also helped to gather and remove over 1,000 pounds of trash from the site making it a cleaner site for all. Everyone was very enthusiastic, the weather could not have been better, and the results look great! NPLD Part II will come next month sometime where we will delineate the campsites and spread gravel to finish the project.
Volunteers and BLMers assembling ADA/ABA compliant picnic tables in celebration of National Public Lands Day
Volunteers and BLMers/CBG interns refurbishing and painting an informational kiosk in celebration of National Public Lands Day
Myself and fellow CBG intern, Hank Carlson, working together to size and cut a new backboard for the kiosk
The finished product! Not bad for a day’s work 🙂
Black-Footed Ferret Release: On August 28th, for the second time in history, black-footed ferrets were released on the Pitchfork Ranch in Meeteetse, WY. If you haven’t heard the success story of the black-footed ferret in Wyoming it goes like this. Circa 1987 a rancher’s dog brought him an animal he believed to be a black-footed ferret, which at the time was considered to be extinct. He brought it to the local vet and it was confirmed that it was indeed a black-footed ferret! He then decided to place a tracking device in the animal and release it in hopes of finding a larger colony. He had an extreme stroke of luck and the remaining animals were found and captured by the Game and Fish Department. After that, the animals were bred in captivity until the population was considered large enough to release a small portion of them. History was made when 35 were released for the first time last year. This year I had the incredible opportunity to attend the second ever release of black-footed ferrets in Wyoming. This year, 13 animals were released on the ranch. Over 60, excited community members from all over Park County attended the historic event, and a great time was had by all.The highlight was definitely when one of our BLM wildlife biologists got to release his very own ferret. It was a bit shy to come out at first, but after a nice juicy prairie dog leg was dropped into an active prairie dog hole, our little ferret hustled down that hole after it! Needless to say, life is about to get very interesting for the prairie dogs on Pitchfork Ranch.
One of the feisty black-footed ferrets released this year on the Pitchfork Ranch
The first ferret being released by the great grandchildren of the man who discovered the species was not extinct 35 years ago!
Beautiful night to release a few ferrets!
Melissa Higley
Recreation Intern
Bureau of Land Management ~ Cody Field Office