My work involves working outside, wilderness character monitoring, using horses and mules for wilderness work, providing information to people who recreate, and organizing outdoor education activities within local communities.
Attention to detail is crucial! I try to keep precise records of all the things I observe when I am working.
Working on national forest lands can be tricky. Sometimes people forget to treat the land with respect or to leave things nice for folks who come after them, and having to remind people to be respectful is hard.
I use an app on my phone to record how many people I see in a day when traveling through wilderness areas. It’s pretty handy!
A group of volunteers, Forest Service employees, and I planted over 200 native tree saplings at a heavily used alpine lake in order to offset soil compaction, vegetation loss, and erosion along the lake shore. Some of the trees had a hard time surviving after the first year, so we went back and planted more!
I spent a lot of time in college writing reports on a computer, which was important, but I knew I needed to balance time spent inside with time spent outside, and working in the field is a perfect way to do that.
