{"id":81347,"date":"2019-08-19T11:47:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T18:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=81347"},"modified":"2019-08-19T11:47:10","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T18:47:10","slug":"corral-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=81347","title":{"rendered":"Corral Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week I had the opportunity to monitor a couple of populations of Gibbon\u2019s Penstemon down by powder rim, and a population of Wyoming toads over by Laramie. Gibbon\u2019s Penstemon is a BLM sensitive plant, and Wyoming toads are the most endangered species of amphibian in North America. The work was a good change of pace from seed collecting, and I really enjoyed it. It was immensely rewarding to be able to see and learn about these rare and beautiful organisms, threatened by humankind\u2019s never-ending and destructive expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gibbon’s Penstemon in flower <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gibbon\u2019s Penstemon is a purple flowered plant that grows in soil that has a lot of volcanic ash in it, giving its habitat a distinctive color and texture. To me this seems like a very narrow range that limits the plant to growth in somewhat predictable locations. Similarly, meadow milkvetch (another BLM sensitive species, with delicate cream-colored flowers and green stems that sprawl across the white soil to form a spider we pattern) only grows in alkali flats on the lower side of greasewood in the chain lake region of the field office. I found it fascinating that a plant would specialize to such a narrow and theoretically predictable habitat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shifting gears:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Wednesday morning, I arrived at Bennet Peak Campground,\nthe backseat of the 2019 Dodge Ram 1500 was loaded with power tools and the bed\nwas loaded with dark painted boards; however, our most important cargo was a\nclipboard, a pen, and a pile of visitor use surveys. We quickly found a picnic bench\nin dire need of repair. Mike showed us how to remove the bolts from the picnic\nbench and replace the old rotting boards with our new freshly painted ones. In\na few minutes we had one drop-dead-gorgeous freshly painted picnic bench. We\nreplaced the boards on another picnic bench; but by the time we finished it was\ntime for our most important task of the day: Visitor Use Surveys at the nearby Corral\nCreek Campground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Upon arriving we immediately encountered a parked truck\noccupied by a genial old man. He agreed to take the survey and we waited\ncomfortably under a tree while he filled out the sheet front and back with\nvitally important and useful information about his experience at the corral\ncreek campground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The corral creek campground is a beautiful BLM operated\nsite about a mile down the road from the Bennet peak campground near the North\nPlatte river. It is a great spot for fishing and floating, with beautiful views\nof nearby mountains, and wildlife, including: pronghorns, mule-deer, elk, and\ncattle. However, the nearby Bennet peak campground is closer to the river,\nmaking it far more popular than Corral Creek, which essentially operates as an\noverflow campsite for when Bennet Peak is full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            For the next four hours we relaxed and enjoyed a cool and\npleasant summer day. An incredibly nice couple arrived and asked us for\ndirections to Bennet peak; a truck pulled through for a quick pit stop at the\nimmaculately maintained bathroom facility; we handed out zero surveys. I also\nfound out that the surveys themselves were incredibly general, designed to be\napplicable to any BLM recreation site. Consequently, the information from them\nis very hard to interpret, and make use of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way back from the\nfield we listened to a couple of inspirational Oprah podcasts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nhad been awake and driving for over 24 hours. His Wal-Mart truck was traveling about\ntwenty miles over the posted speed limit on the dark interstate highway. That\u2019s\nwhen he struck the back of a car containing beloved comic legend Tracy Morgan, and\nseveral of Tracy\u2019s close friends. People died in the accident, including one of\nTracy\u2019s close friends. Tracy suffered life-threatening injuries that sent him\ninto a coma lasting for weeks. Tracy wasn\u2019t sure if he was ever going to be\nable to walk again. Tracy was worried that he would never be funny again. Tracy\nbriefly questioned his faith in god. Why did this happen? Why did his friend have\nto die so suddenly and so young? However, in a conversation with Oprah a few\nmonths after the accident both Oprah, and Tracy agree: \u201cEVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR\nA REASON,\u201d & \u201cTHERE IS NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCE\u201d, after all coincidence\nis never mentioned in The Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In conclusion, as Oprah says: \u201cJUST BE YOURSELF, IT\u2019S THAT SIMPLE<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trip through the Bighorns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Winterfat, in Shirley Basin <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Until\nnext time,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zeke\nZelman <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOS\nintern in Rawlins Wyoming <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I had the opportunity to monitor a couple of populations of Gibbon\u2019s Penstemon down by powder rim, and a population of Wyoming toads over by Laramie. Gibbon\u2019s Penstemon is a BLM sensitive plant, and Wyoming toads are the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81393,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81347\/revisions\/81393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}