For the past month, many of us in the Shoshone, ID field office have been busy and working hard to do Sage Grouse Habitat Assessments.\u00a0 Yesterday, my partner and I finished the last one.\u00a0 This inventory and analysis project has been not only a fantastic\u00a0 learning experience in the technical aspect of the project, but has given me the opportunity to work in numerous areas that probably few people\u00a0get to see up close.\u00a0 Through all of this, I have been on mountain ridges overlooking huge lava flows that blanket the valley below to right down in the lava itself.\u00a0 Working in such a vast area and in so many different little ecotypes has allowed me to see such a wide variety of plant life.\u00a0 I am truly amazed at the amount of diversity that the high plains deserts have to offer.\u00a0 I came from a place in Minnesota that was on the border of the tall grass prairie and the deciduous forests.\u00a0 The plant life there is truly remarkable.\u00a0 Coming to the desert I had the mindset that there was not going to be\u00a0any diversity in the plant life, if any forbes at all.\u00a0 I had a picture of sagebrush and dry earth blanketing the landscape, with a few stragglers clinging on to life in the\u00a0slim hope of rain.\u00a0 To my\u00a0joyful surprise, there is an abundance of forb diversity and an entire new set of flora for me to learn and experience.\u00a0 The desert has truly shown me\u00a0some of the most stunning flowers that I have seen to date.\u00a0 I look forward to the coming months, with new projects to\u00a0do, new country to see and new wonders to be exposed to.\u00a0 The\u00a0summer\u00a0just gets better and better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the past month, many of us in the Shoshone, ID field office have been busy and working hard to do Sage Grouse Habitat Assessments.\u00a0 Yesterday, my partner and I finished the last one.\u00a0 This inventory and analysis project has … Continue reading