Training week number one!
Kee (my lead technician) and I drove over to Logan, UT in the morning to attend our first day of training for the next two weeks. Wow! The drive over from Kemmerer to Logan was beautiful. Bear Lake in Utah was as blue as the ocean in Cancun that you see from all of the pictures on the internet and the mountain pass down in to Logan was very green. There was just so much color that it was overwhelming.
We had to meet on the USU campus at 1 pm for the meet and greet of all of the crews and trainers for the summer which was about 50 of us. There was crews from New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, and Wyoming. Buggs, Kath, and Carp where all there which made it feel like a family reunion. During the meeting, it was explained to us what AIM is. AIM is the fundamentals for land health from watershed function, water quality, species/habitat maintains, and ecological processes. I think I told you all what AIM stands for but if not it is assessment, inventory, management. When you read through those, you might notice that the abbreviation should be IMA. You go out and collect the data (I) then revisit to sample again (M) and finally all of the data gets put into context (A). All of us crews are in charge of the inventory.
Our trainers passed out our protical in a very nice water resistant notebook to start going over what bankfull, scour line, and floodplain are and how to identify them. If we can not identify bankfull, there is no way we can sample a reach. All of our measurements count on it meaning we can only sample when the water level is at or below bankfull, mostly need to collect when water is at base flows. HAHA Base flows? Most of our water systems in Wyoming right now are going to remain above bankfull for a while. Hopefully we don't have any problems when we do start sampling in June. Anyways, we all headed out to a stream north of Logan to put what we just learned to the test. Let me tell you, I really hope that I can figure out how to identify these three fast because it was harder then I thought.
Once training was done for the day, Kee and I headed to camp at Guinavah-Malibu campground on highway 89. We were nested right in the forest with the Logan River running not too far away. I know this week was going to be a cold one with rain so I was truly happy that Mike let me use his Kuiu rain gear. I was also happy to crawl into my tent that night because it was warmer then the outside and I felt super cosy in my sleeping bag.
On Tuesday morning, I woke up to it raining! I love the sound/smell of rain along with thunder and lighting but when you are going to be camping for the next four days, it makes it a little hard to get out of the tent and do work. So I was glad we were in the classroom back at campus to learn about recording ALL of our data. We get to use iPads that have an application on it called SARAH (Stream And River Assessment Hub). It keeps track of everything like our measurements, photos, and GPS locations. Now that we had our new tool, we all went to a stream back up the canyon past our camp sit to learn how to collect our macro-invertebrates, measure bankfull and wetted width, bankfull and floodplain height, collect water quality, bank stability, substrate size, and how to set up all of our transects. So much information and we have not even covered half of it yet!
I woke up Wednesday morning to the sound of random thuds falling around my tent and to the sound of trees falling in the distance. Which I think is one of the coolest sounds every! But with that I woke to find a layer of snow on my tent. So we went from sunny to raining/freezing my ass off to snow! We all had to move our tents out from under the trees to an open area. It was getting close to the time we al were suppose to meet at our sample site for the day, so Kee and I along with the Rawlins crew headed out. Once we got close to the site we were told to go back to the campground and tear down our tents because it was unsafe to stay there the rest of the week from more snowfall to come. So we went back and packed up camp then headed back to campus to figure out where it was safe to go out in the field for the day. Meanwhile we booked ourselves a room at the Days Inn. Our sample site was set to the same one as the day before. Once we got there, we learned how to record vegetation and riparian cover and how to measure slope. My favorite part was measuring slope because you get to use those surveying tripods that you see construction workers using and I completely suck at identify native/nonnative plants. After freezing my ass off again, it felt so great to take a shower that evening. Kee and I went to an Indian restaurant which Kee knows how to make India food! Then we went and had a beer at the Beehive Brew and since we were in Utah and it was a restaurant, we had to order food in order to drink. HAHA
Thursday was our last sampling day for the week. We went back to the same stream to learn about large woody debris, human influences, flood prone width, and pools. All of us had to put our knowledge to the test that afternoon with our BLM advisors to see if we could record the right stuff. This calibration test included counting large woody debris, pools, human influences, bank stability, canopy cover, and vegetation. We were not able to get to measuring the stream itself or slope. It snowed pretty much the whole time and none of us were warm anymore. Once 5:30 came it was back to town we went to get ready for a group dinner at Elements. The food was really good and was nice to hangout inside with everyone.
That Friday morning, all the crews had to collect all of our jars and ethanol that we were going to put the macro-invertebrates in. The rest of the morning was learning about how to finalize all of our data and the steps to submitting it in. At noon, we all were dismissed to head to Moab, UT for our Wilderness First Aid training taking place over the weekend. Kee introduced me to a new place to eat, Cafe Zapas. They make all of the salads, sandwiches, and serve the soup right in front of you. All of it was really fresh and my favorite part was they served you a chocolate covered strawberry with your meal! We made it to Moab by 7 pm and walked up to the Moab Brewery to have dinner with the Idaho crew. I hate eating late but times like these I can't really control. Overall, it was a really good dinner with great company but was not ready to go to First Aid training at eight in the morning. All I wanted to do was workout but our hotel did not have a gym like the last one. I am going to loss all my muscle by the time I get back home. This season is going to be very different then the past.
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