The past few weeks here in Roswell have been hectic and busy.\u00a0 I was fortunate enough to go home for two weeks due to compensation time I saved up, and being back in the office has been a warm welcome back.\u00a0 There have been a variety of meetings we have attended this week alone, which has spiced things up a bit.\u00a0 One meeting was for the Lesser Prairie Chicken.\u00a0 Referring to my previous blog, the Lesser Prairie Chicken is up for listing as \u201cthreatened\u201d with the Fish & Wildlife Service.\u00a0 The meeting was held here in the conference room at the BLM and a variety of people were there in attendance.\u00a0 The room was filled with oil company representatives, conservation groups and other federal employees.\u00a0 Two gentlemen from the Game Commission were running the meeting and one of them was a Lesser Prairie Chicken biologist.\u00a0 He provided an interesting history and ecology on the bird, as well as statistics from the last ten years.\u00a0 One of the interesting facts that caught my attention was that the numbers of birds has spiked within the last few years – solely due to increased precipitation.\u00a0 They hypothesize that the numbers will go back up if there is an annual increase in precipitation, however the likely hood of that is unknown.\u00a0 Not only was the meeting interesting to learn more about the bird, but the tension in the room was evident.\u00a0 The oil companies have a lot on the line with their businesses and the conservation groups are adding other pressures.\u00a0 Overall, it was interesting being the fly on the wall.<\/p>\n
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Besides the Lesser Prairie Chicken meeting, we also attended a meeting just for the Natural Resources section of the office. Until this point, I hadn\u2019t fully understood what everybody else I work with actually does.\u00a0 It was eye opening to hear all of the different things going on and actually understand how they are all related.<\/p>\n
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I have just about a month left until my internship is complete and I am having a hard time believing this!\u00a0 My last couple of weeks here will probably involve finishing up various projects – including my wildflower brochure.\u00a0 Almost all of the plant species are identified and the only thing really left is to complete the layout of the brochure.\u00a0 I sincerely hope to finish this before my internship is over and add a link for it to my last blog post.<\/p>\n
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Jaci Braund<\/p>\n
BLM Roswell, NM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The past few weeks here in Roswell have been hectic and busy.\u00a0 I was fortunate enough to go home for two weeks due to compensation time I saved up, and being back in the office has been a warm welcome … Continue reading