Firsts

I can't believe how fast time goes by here! It's already been a month! Some firsts during my first month:

First baby bear

On my way back to the barracks on Friday I saw a bear in the road. Momma bear was in the road and baby was off at the edge. Mom ran a few steps down the road when she saw me but baby just froze. Mom looked back, ran a few more steps, looked again, and finally baby turned around and ran into the wooded area off the side of the road and mom followed. When I first saw mom bear my thought process was “Giant dog! No. Bear! Eek!” I never really expected to see one so close to where I live, it was just up the road. It makes sense though; it’s still part of the National Forest.

First raptor in hand

So far I’ve held a western screech owl named Frodo, a burrowing owl named Thor, and a great horned owl Maxine (Max for short). I will try to get a better picture later but for now I have this:

Me and Frodo, the western screech owl

First flat tire in a car I was responsible for

The Forest Service vehicle I drive got a flat tire last weekend. It was a little flat when I went to sleep on Saturday, but when I woke up on Sunday it was completely flat. I slowly drove the limping car to the work center where I was hoping to find an air compressor or somebody to help me change the tire. There was no one there so I was going to do it on my own but I couldn’t find the spare! I looked everywhere and it was nowhere to be found! I had to call the main office to ask someone to bring me a car. About 45 minutes later one of the recreation guys arrived saying that there are no extra vehicles today so he will be my chauffeur/I’ll be his helper. He drove me to Princess Campground with just enough time for me to give my program. I next helped him give campers warnings for leaving campfires unattended. Then we drove around for a while and I helped him clean some of the bathrooms and take out the trash in various Forest Service areas. Eventually he dropped me off with another of the interns at Buck Rock fire lookout so she could drive me around for a while.

A few days later the car still hadn’t been fixed so my supervisor and I drove up to check it out. It turns out she had had to deal with this before and knew exactly where it was. She chastised all of us because no one thought to check the owners manual. At least seven people (including myself, a few firefighters, and various other personnel) looked for the spare before M—came up and did it. It turns out it was stored under the front of the vehicle with a plastic cover over it so you couldn’t see it if you looked under the car.

First time being called ma’am

A visitor said that to get my attention. I’d had “miss” “ranger” “hey” and “Lindsey” but one gentleman felt the need to call me “ma’am”. So that happened…

First wild tarantula sighting

It was crossing the road as I drove by. I parked the car to go take a look but once I got close it turned around and started walking towards me shaking it's abdomen. When I backed off a few feet it turned right around and went back to the previous path. Not a terribly friendly tarantula. I did briefly consider catching it to take back to the barracks because one of the boys here who likes to be really tough is super afraid of spiders. One day he got a package and a spider had stowed away inside. Instead of just killing the spider or having one of us deal with it he took the whole package and locked it in the tool box in the back of his truck.

First Day in the Field

Saturday I had a split shift, I was giving a talk about bats in the morning at one campground and the evening at another. The day started off pretty easily, I showed up at the first campground, walked around and talked to people for a while and went to give the talk at 10. The "Bats are Beneficial Beasts" talk is aimed at children and six adults show up so it turned into a question and answer/chit chat about bats. It was pretty fun, I liked the people that came.

Because I had the middle of the day off I went to Hume Lake where I was going to give my next presentation that evening. I spent the day walking around, reading, and swimming, it was very nice! Then when I needed to begin making my rounds about the campground telling folks the event of the evening I changed into my uniform and le the camp directors know what I was up to. They were confused; apparently D-- the bird lady always does presentations there Saturday night. Lo and behold! D-- arrived and I got out of doing a presentation. Best part? She going to teach me how to handle raptors!! She said I could hold the red tailed hawk next week when we walk around the campgrounds and she'll hold the great horned owl!

As soon as D-- and I finished our roving of the campground telling people about her presentation 7, a woman walked up to me asking for help.

It turns out that her friends had accidentally left her behind at the place they were hiking and she had hitch hiked a ride back. She needed help trying to contact her friends. Unfortunately, the places where her friends were and where some of her things were was all in Park Service lands. So I was on the radio with Forest Service dispatch who was on the phone with Park Service dispatch who was on the radio with their rangers in the area. I had to wait at the campground until all her party finally arrived. Some took a while because they went back to look for her after she had already left. I ended up leaving Hume Lake at 9PM. But the lady and her friends were really nice and fed me a big dinner and gave me Snapple.

When I got back to the barracks at 10:30, one of the girls I work with was getting ready to freak out. She had heard the beginning of my radio conversation while driving home but didn’t know I had to wait at the campground so she was really worried! All’s well that ends well though.

Interpretation

Today is morning number six at Giant Sequoia National Monument. There was quite a rush to get here, but once you arrive everything slows down. So far there has been an interesting mix of camper time and professionalism. My supervisor is definitely the on time, efficient type. She is the District Planner, in charge of making sure all environmental laws are followed within her district, on top of being in charge of the three of us interpretive interns. It seems nearly every long time Forest Service employee has multiple jobs and titles assigned to them over time. So M-- is the district planner but she is also in charge of interpretation. I learned the other day that there is no budget anywhere in the Forest Service for interpretation. Those interested in having interpreters must carve the money from the recreation and wilderness departments within their district. In this case, the three of us interns are paid through the Student Conservation Association. The Forest Service just has to give us a place to stay, reimburse the driving that we do as part of our job, and pay for the indirect cost of people dealing with more paperwork.

When I speak of an interpreter I mean someone who teaches visitors about a forest, park, monument, historical site, etc without simply relaying information. In one of the interpretive theory books we are assigned to read the author described interpretation as a cross between an art and a science.

Part of our job yesterday was to walk around Hume Lake, to try and familiarize ourselves with the area. We then met up with a long time Forest Service volunteer who does raptor programs. This woman is amazing; she has a house in the middle of the city where she rehabilitates wild animals, or cares for those that can’t be rehabilitated. She has large cages in her backyard where she keeps owls, she has had deer and coyotes running around before, and a red-tailed hawk that just lives in the house. The opportunity to talk to this woman and have her as a resource will be wonderful. She is an encyclopedia of local plant and animal knowledge.

D-- and a Burrowing Owl