![\"Beautiful](\"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/PART95141167755666995IMG951436.jpg\")
<\/a>Beautiful rural Vermont-foliar peak overlooking\u00a0miscellaneous\u00a0lake<\/p><\/div>\n
Just visited Vermont last weekend for a wedding during its foliar peak. \u00a0I had left in May for my CLM internship after living there for 9 years! Beautiful colors, well-used hiking trails, and familiarity are all reasons I love Vermont.\u00a0Comparatively, Vermont never offered me the wildness that Wyoming does! Even after hiking a section of the Long Trail (VT) for 10 days in October of last year, never once did I come across moose, deer, black bear, or other ungulates (only startled\u00a02 grouse). What a disapointment!\u00a0 Now, being in Wyoming, I can’t take a jog without coming across pronghorn, mule or white-tailed deer. Lovely bird songs seem to constantly be\u00a0in choir\u00a0when I’m outdoors. A hike in the Cloud Peak wilderness and I’m bound to run into more wildlife. I very much enjoy this part of the country.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Overlook at Grouse Mountain-3.5 miles up and what a lovely view, got to see it all over again on the way back down! (Buffalo, Wyoming)<\/p><\/div>\n
Originally, I moved to Wyoming for the seasonal work that the CLM internship offered, but now I realize it’s more than that. It’s not better than the northeast, as I had to explain to friends and family, it’s just different<\/em>. I can’t emphasize that enough.<\/p>\n Jumping back into working for the BLM, after taking a extended break (10 days) from it,\u00a0and the office is barren. Most people are out in the wilderness…hunting. The season just opened this past weekend. Mud cakes the Squeaky Kleen car wash from all the vehicles coming in after hunting. I know this specifically because I was there washing a vehicle today and the owner was complaining to me mid-wash. I assured him that the field vehicle was not a contributor.<\/p>\n Back in the office, I am catching up on emails and communicating with co-workers on projects for the coming weeks.\u00a0 Currently working on a habitat restoration project for the Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocerus urophasianus<\/em>) by conducting field work.\u00a0 The field work includes; mapping Big Wyoming Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata<\/em>), cheat grass (Bromus tectorum<\/em>),\u00a0Japanese Brome (Bromus\u00a0japonicus<\/em>)\u00a0and Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum)<\/em> within historic wildfire perimeters.\u00a0 The historic wildfires are found on GIS through an exisiting (out dated) layer.\u00a0 Ground truthing is the focus right now, until end of October. Out in the field, mapping vegetation within the fire\u00a0perimeters will be used to establish a vegetation layer in GIS.\u00a0\u00a0A layer\u00a0that will be available to the Buffalo Field office (BFO) and any other agency that may be interested.\u00a0 The funding for this work came from the Powder River Basin Restoration initiative through the BLM, and pays for my internship with CBG.<\/p>\n The project began when my mentor, a former rangeland specialist, took on a\u00a0new position at the BFO\u00a0to restore the Powder River Basin.\u00a0 After spit balling ideas with like professionals she crafted the project you\u00a0read above.\u00a0 With the help of the vegetation layer, which will cover BLM, state and private lands (within the BFO),\u00a0we will be able to spray for\u00a0annuals (targeting invasive)\u00a0possibly 10+ years down the road.\u00a0 The\u00a0hope is that\u00a0post spray the encroaching\u00a0Bromus spp.<\/em> will die off, which will give way to accessible bareground for native bunchgrasses to grow and out compete invasives.\u00a0With native bunchgrasses back this provides desirable land for sage grouse habitat. Another implementation plan is to raise Big Wyoming Sage Brush\u00a0and manually plant them in\u00a0these\u00a0historic wildfires\u00a0to bring back habitat (post spray).\u00a0 This has been very rewarding work, I am still in the preliminary stages. Please let me know if you have experience with this and what that experience was like in the comments section (thank you).<\/strong><\/p>\n Originally,\u00a0I thought there\u00a0wouldn’t be work\u00a0at BLM\u00a0BFO this\u00a0winter, but\u00a0I was wrong. There is plenty of field work\u00a0and plenty of office work too! I look forward to a Wyoming winter because it’s different from my native northeast and New England home base, and there is work to be done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello everyone, Just visited Vermont last weekend for a wedding during its foliar peak. \u00a0I had left in May for my CLM internship after living there for 9 years! Beautiful colors, well-used hiking trails, and familiarity are all reasons I … Continue reading