Truly, that is the most accurate way to describe my job.  I am the fence girl.  My job is to walk fence lines.  Miles and miles of barbed wire, the top wire now bedecked with small white plastic clips, is the only evidence of my presence in those nether regions of our field office.  The purpose behind it all is to collect data on the quantity of wildlife, particularly the ever important sage-grouse, that are colliding with the almost invisible barbed wires that bisect so much of their habitat.  My job, while it may seem extremely simple, has taken a lot of time to perfect.  For example, I have gotten very good at quickly picking out feathers from dead grass (a lot more difficult that it may seem when the sun makes them all the same color) and identifying the difference between a prairie dog and a sage-grouse skeleton (think rotisserie chicken).  These are just a few of the skills that I have mastered but never guessed I would ever need to.

I do actually enjoy my time with the fences and the sagebrush.  I am alone 90% of the time but this does not bother me.  Instead I use that extra space to feel better connected to my environment.  I also feel like my job is truly making a difference.  This is the first time this project has been undertaken and my whole office is often asking me for updates on how much I have found so far.  (I just hit 100 sage-grouse strikes yesterday, a number much higher than people hoped I would find.)  I’m under the impression that this project promotes the idea that our office is progressive in its management strategies, something that is not very common within the Bureau as far as I can tell.  This gives many people a new sense of pride in how they view the office, and I really enjoy being part of that source.

However, I would have to say that my favorite thing about being in the field and covering so much ground on foot is all the little oddities that I have stumbled on along the way.  Some examples of natural wonders that I have found are dozens of fossils, raw gemstones, amazingly intact skeletons of just about every creature that exists out here, antelope antler sheds, and even what was left over of a hawk that an eagle apparently had for lunch.  On the more random side, people leave their mark in strange ways as well.  I have found broken dishes, cowboy boots on fence posts, a well-abused old computer monitor (Office Space style destroyed), my very own mud-encrusted GPS unit (wa-hoo!), and my personal favorite: fence-impaled deli sandwiches.

I really don’t think there are words for this. And no, that is not my lunch.

This moth was impaled on the barbed wire by a bird called a shrike. It hangs them up and then comes back to eat it later.

Did you know that school buses can go on two-tracks? This one full of 4th graders was headed out to an old garnet mine. Also, that road it’s on is part of the Oregon Trail, just to make it a little better.

So far this has been an absolutely wonderful experience.  I have learned so much about this part of the country that I never really knew was out here having never traveled west before this internship.  (I truly didn’t have any idea how dominant of a plant sagebrush was!)  This internship has also given me the opportunity to work on all sorts of other projects as well and I have learned something new from every one of them.  In addition to my intricate knowledge of fences, I have learned about seed collecting, snake hunting, pocket gopher trapping, and even a new portfolio of GIS knowledge that I know will be forever useful for my later career.  Thank you CBG for setting up this marvelous living and learning experience for us all!

-Katie Ellis, BLM field office, Rock Springs, WY