Over the season, my main project has been to map Mountain Plover habitat. However, this project has been interrupted from time to time by other projects from other areas of the BLM. It’s refreshing to receive a new project after bouncing around the countryside in the work truck for hours and I was happy to help out with Multiple Indicator Monitoring (MIM) on riparian habitats within the Kemmerer, WY, field office.
MIM helps assess the health of riparian areas before and after cattle grazing within specific areas along streams. MIM helps the BLM determine if grazing rotation should be altered or suspended temporarily along riparian areas. For two weeks, I sat in ankle- to waist-deep streams studying the vegetation composition along the banks of streams within one allotment. From sunrise to nearly sunset everyday, we wallowed in the water and soaked up the sun. What made the days most exciting was finding critters of all sorts up and down the streams. These critters included garter snakes, giant 5-inch long caterpillars, fish, and northern leopard frogs. I had seen leopard frogs before in science dissection labs, but never in the wild. So, it was nice to see one still hopping around without the stench of formaldehyde trailing behind it. Interestingly, although these frogs are commonly used for dissections, they are becoming of concern in our area. So, we eagerly took GPS locations of the frogs we sighted and, of course, tried to catch them. Northern leopard frogs are large, slimy, and can leap without warning, making them very difficult to catch. I was unsuccessful, though I attempted several times to catch a frog larger than my palm.
On weekends, I try to explore more of the area outside of the field office I work in. Lately, I’ve been enjoying Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. The southern end of the gorge that crosses into Utah mingles with Ashley National Forest and offers some excellent hiking trails. My dog, Finn, and I love to spend our days exploring different areas of this part of the gorge. On one hike, we spooked a young bighorn sheep and watched it prance down the steep walls of the gorge. We have also seen several northern sage brush lizards and raptors. The water at the bottom of the gorge is a deep blue, contrasted beautifully against the red and white rock cliffs. There is much to explore around my field office, which has made for some fun weekend trips. The landscape varies drastically in every direction, making deciding where to go difficult. But no matter where I go, I find awe-inspiring landscapes as well as challenging and fulfilling adventures.