Work Week Summary September 6th - 28th

I made it to the last month of being an Aquatic AIM Technician for the Great Basin Institute.

September 6th-7th

This week was a short one because of the holiday and I then took Tuesday off for whatever was to come from the opening of hunting season. On Wednesday, Kee and I sampled Carl Creek up the Ham's Fork Drainage. Kee tried to sample this site before but halfway through a fire blowup so he had to leave. The water level had changed dramatically to just being above the ankles so it was pretty difficult to get my macro invertebrate samples. I almost had a five inch Sculpin in my sample, haha, it scared me when this fish just all of a sudden came out of nowhere from like four inches of water. Once we finished sampling, Kee and I drove to Pinedale to spend the night before sampling a site up there the next day.

On Thursday we met up with Justin, Range Specialist out of the Pinedale BLM office, to help us sample Jim Creek. I was having problems with getting access across a hunt management area on private property so I contacted Justin to see if he know a way around. He know a way around that allowed us to get close to the site. We hiked up just over a half a mile up and over boulders to where our coordinates landed. Just so you guys know, I am not very good a climbing up and over boulders especially in waders and Justin is over six feet tall making it look easy. When we finally made it, I know that it was going to be a long day and it turned into a seven hour sample site. We decided to collect everything as we set up the site because of all the trees hanging over and the sheer size of the boulders making it slow moving. Justin would stretch out the measuring tape bushwacking his way through while I followed collecting thawleg wherever we thought the the main flow was going. The creek was mostly flowing under all the rocks but was exposed in random areas. It was a rough day from falling twice: once on my knee and another my feet slipping out from under me and landing on my back. I was glad that I had just finished my last macro invertebrate sample and we only had to pick up flags because I was about to give up. It was a great advantage that we had Justin's help that day otherwise I think we would have had to revisit to finish everything.

September 11th-14th

Since we did not have an office day last week, Monday became that day doing the normal stuff. On Tuesday Kee picked me up in Farson so that we could head up to our upper Big Sandy River site. After hiking a half a mile through deadfall we made it to the location and it was slightly similar to Jim Creek as there was larger boulders but it was much wider over 10 meters, more water, and a lot of large woody debris. Kee and I collected everything as we went like before. Out of all of our sites I think that this was our most beautiful one because it was close to the forest service boundary meaning that was a lot of pine trees and aspens. We were not able to collect slope because it was 6 pm by the time we finished everything else it was getting dark really fast and the temperature was dropping so we decided to come back sometime next week. That evening we slept out along the mountains and the stars were all out along with the milky way. It was pretty close to were I slept last year while working with Wyoming Game and Fish Department treating Longdraw and Sculpin Creeks.

Jim from the BLM and Kevin Spence from WGFD meet us Wednesday morning at our lower Big Sandy River site. Since this portion flows across the Wyoming valley, it consisted of a lot of sand. There was also a rock structure put in place by Wyoming Game and Fish Department to create more fish habitat. There is about 30 different ones and I can't remember how many miles it all spans. The structure consists of larger rocks creating a pool above it and then on each side of the faster moving water that is funneled down through the middle of the river. We split up into groups and sampled as we set up the site again. Kevin and I collected substrate size, thawleg, and macro invertebrates. This site had the most jars with the final count of 19! Nineteen macro invertebrate samples and it mostly consisted of sand.

September 18th-21st

Monday, Kee and I drove out to Soaphole Draw to see if we could sample it or not. We were warned that there was a lot of spots that you could disappear in. When we finally made it there, it was obvious that we were not going to sample it because it was a wetland so we only needed to take pictures. When I started to walk to the middle of the supposed creek the ground under me started moving up and down like being on a trampoline. Most people know that I do not like swamps and areas where I could just fall through into the mud and water to never return. So haha this was going to be fun and then we found out what everyone meant by watch where you walk. I hope that the two videos attached will play for you all because it's really creepy and hilarious.

After we finished rejecting that site, we drove to Meadow Creek up by Boulder Lake near Pinedale to start that one. This one turned out to be complicated to set up because some of it was lentic and others were lotic. We ended up moving our A transect up to where our G transect was originally. We had to do this because we need a minimum of 5 transects to collect. So we set up A, A-B, B, B-C, E, E-F, F, F-G, G, H, H-I, I, and collected slope before heading back to Kemmerer. It was a long day since the drive back was 3 hours and then I drove home that evening.
When I was leaving to meet Kee in Mountain View Tuesday morning, he called me and told me that it was snowing in Kemmerer and I told him that it was not snowing in Rock Springs so when we met it was snowing there. Haha So we looked at the radar and it was not going to stop until around 3 pm so we just headed back to Kemmerer to work in the office. Back at the office, I started to pack up all my macro invertebrate samples to be taken to the Bug Lab in Logan, UT so that they can go through all of them and I also worked on making maps and directions to our sites for our final report.

Wednesday morning, I stayed at home for our conference call at 10 am with GBI. They asked us how the season went, what needs to change, and any ideas for new ways of doing things. I made sure that I told them we needed a better truck then a Ford and that they need to visit an aquatic crew one day and see what we really do. GBI has no idea what we do out in the field compared to terrestrial. Afterwards I met Kee in Farson so that we could finish up sampling upper Big Sandy River. There was some snow up there and a lot higher up on the mountains.

September 25th-28th

It finally has come to my last week as an Aquatic AIM Technician for the Great Basin Institute working out of the High Desert BLM offices in southwest Wyoming. I thought that this last week that we would have been done sampling but we are left with three and they have been our most difficult ones. Monday we met Alex and Mary who is a permitee for La Barge, WY out at Black Canyon Creek. It had snowed most of the day in Kemmerer so there was snow covering everything causing the willow trees to be laying flat and bankfull even more difficult for us to identify. But I think the snow made it easier for us since all we had to do was walk over the tops of the willows instead of through them. After setting up the site, I worked with Mary collecting substrate size, canopy cover, and thawleg. This was our fastest site only taking us four hours and since the sun was out for most of it, it made for a nice day. The only thing that was cold was by toes and I wore gloves when reaching into the water.

On Tuesday, all of us sampled our fastest moving system: La Barge Creek. I was nervous to do this one because some of the holes were deep and Kee almost was swept away a few times. Once again we split up having Mary and I collect substrate size and canopy cover. When I finally got to do my macro invertebrate sampling, it turned out to be the greatest site ever! I had large Salmon Flies and Stoneflies in my Surber net!

The tan colored one is a four year old that will be turning into its' adult form and the black one is a three year old. There was also a ton of Caddisfly cases on all of the rocks and a lot of other clean water aquatic insects.

Our last site was to finish up Meadow Creek that we started last week. It was a cold start to the morning but it turned into a really nice day. We started at like nine and finished by noon. The creek was only 50 cm wide so it was not difficult. Then we drove the three long hours back to Kemmerer.
Thursday was my last day and it was not easy letting do of my badge at the end of the day. I finished packing all of my samples which in the picture, the container on the left is from the Rawlins Aquatic AIM crew and mine are on the right. Don't know why there is so much of a difference haha.

Alex gave Kee and I the coolest gift ever for being awesome technicians: a BLM Fisheries hat! I have always wanted one ever since I saw my friend Tribby's hat. It was great working with Kee even if he was not a morning person and did not like listening to country and rock and roll. I learned a lot about being a leader from watching him the whole season. I could not thank Alex enough for putting my name out there to GBI when they were hiring and him for always giving guidance when needed and being a great person to just talk too.

I don't know where I will be working next but I have at least one in progress just waiting to hear back. I will let you all know more when that time comes. But thank you all for following along and reading. I have planned to share about my incredible summer weekends sometime in the future. Sorry that it has not been as consistent as last year. Love all of you and cheers to nature!