{"id":82166,"date":"2019-11-12T12:18:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T19:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=82166"},"modified":"2019-11-12T12:18:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T19:18:21","slug":"there-and-back-again-an-interns-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=82166","title":{"rendered":"There and back again, an intern\u2019s tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Far over the Bighorn Mountains cold,
To canyons deep and forests old
We must away ere break of day
To find our long forgotten goals.
<\/p>

The pines were roaring on the heights
The winds were moaning in the night
The snow was wet, its flurry spread
The trees like beacons shone with light
(-The Hobbit<\/em>, sort of) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Bighorn Mountains<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Winter in\nWyoming started October 1st<\/sup> with the first of many snowfalls. The\ntrees experienced one blast of the icy cold and decided immediate leaf abscission\nwas their only path forward. On multiple occasions I have been foiled going to\nwork by ice on the hilly roads between my apartment and the office, and \u201coh\nlook, the high is 5 degrees\u201d has been a sad and somewhat frequent lamentation\nby my coworkers. But for all this, I will always remember my time in Wyoming\nfor its beauty, absurdity, and the wonderful opportunities I had while working\nat the Buffalo BLM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Snow on October 1st<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I was able\nto take plenty of trainings and develop many professional skills while in\nWyoming. In my very first week, I learned \u201cDefensive Driving\u201d (and consequently\nhow to drive a pickup truck) and was able to take an awesome NOLS wilderness\nmedicine course through the BLM. A very long day was devoted to driving a UTV\nand countless online courses gave me proficiency in writing government\ndocuments such as NEPA, Visual Resource Management, and Statements of Work. I\nwas also extremely fortunate to work with Buffalo\u2019s hydrologist on the early stages\nof a river restoration project. This opened up an entire new knowledge set for\nme regarding fluid dynamics, elevation measurements via laser, river terms, and\njust being able to slog through the river in waders to collect various kinds of\ndata. That in particular was an awesome project that I am proud to have been a\npart of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were\nalways little moments of delight at work. Sometimes, especially in the colder\nmonths, someone would put out a jigsaw puzzle in the break room. As puzzle\nenthusiast, I would always take my lunches (when I was not in the field) to\nwork on these. There were a few of us for whom this pastime was perfect, and so\na little community of puzzlers formed, people with whom you would chat and eat\nwhile plopping pieces into place. Or when it got closer to Halloween, being\nable to take a break after finishing an office task by cutting out a\nconstruction paper bat or meandering through the halls to see the decorations\nin all of the different departments. This particular joy culminated in a\nmorning of preschooler trick or treaters in the office, whom I was lucky enough\nto lead through the various rooms on their hunt for candy and stickers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our office, decorated for Halloween and kiddo trick or treaters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professionally,\nmy most rewarding moments were working with kids. Every time I was able to work\nwith kids as the rec intern (which was actually fairly often) I was ecstatic. We\ndid camps and lessons for kids ranging 6 through 16 over the course of the\ninternship. Flower dissections with elementary and middle school students\nresulted in ripped up pieces of flowers everywhere while students\nsystematically went through and described what they were seeing to me and to\neach other. A pollination game with first graders lead to conversations about\nhow there are so many things that make it difficult for trees to successfully\nreproduce, from pollinators to weather conditions. A game focused on public\nlands use saw beads all over the floor and 4th<\/sup> grade students super\nexcited to use their public lands passes to explore. Each of these experiences\nonce again showed me that the work we were doing, educating the public from a\nyoung age about nature and keeping our lands safe, could really make a\ndifference for the next generation of nature lovers and users. It also showed\nme that you are what you teach. Once, a few weeks after a day of educating 8th<\/sup>\ngrade students about plants at a nearby campsite, I was walking through town\nand a few students stopped me by saying \u201chey, I know you! You\u2019re the plant\nlady!\u201d I think I can safely say being the one and only \u201cplant lady\u201d may be the\nhighlight of my career thus far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing\nthat I did find lacking in this internship was the chances for scientific data\ncollection and engagement. As the rec intern, there was not much need for me to\ncollect data, beyond shuttling the traffic counters with a special tool to amass\ndata on rec site use. I began to keenly feel this lack of science a few months\ninto the internship, and think future interns should be aware that this job is\nmuch more focused on the physical aspects of land management (fixing fences,\nputting up signs, interacting with land owners) than the science that informs\nthese management decisions. Thankfully I joined the hydrology project and spent\nseveral weeks back in my element of data collection and analysis. But without\nthis project, this internship would have felt somewhat incomplete. In the end,\nperhaps this was all a good thing \u2013 I now know for certain that I do want to\nreturn to the world of academic science, at least for a time, to focus on the\nscience helping to inform land management for the next generation of BLM\npolicies.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the many cool sunrises seen from the BLM parking lot<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

 During my second week, I was sent out to the Outlaw Cave campground at Middle Fork to pick up trash and do general site maintenance. The campground is located on the edge of a breathtaking canyon. As soon as I got out of the truck, I knew that if trash cleanup on this job meant visiting one of the most beautiful places in Wyoming, then I was set for this internship. During my last week, I revisited the canyon as part of a sagebrush planting crew. This time, covered with snow, the trees standing out starkly against the white of the canyon slopes, I was able to look across this view and say goodbye to this beautiful scene, this wide open place, and all of the people who helped fill my time in Wyoming with stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n