a recap of the last five weeks
Here’s a recap of weeks 3 through 7:
week 3: workskills at Copper Mountain with Steve Hester! Trail work at its finest, in 110 degrees on a hillside made of rock. The students learned a lot and worked their hardest, developing muscles they didn’t know they had. We also saw the results of the biggest monsoon rain in Arizona history.
week 4: data collection for the threatened Yellow-billed Cuckoo at the Agua Fria National Monument. Stayed at the beautiful Horseshoe Ranch and hiked along/in the river measuring and counting plants. We also got rained out as another set of storms rolled into the state.
week 5: trail work with Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona outside of Payson. Worked behind a trail machine, doing the hand-finishing after the rough cut made by the machine. The crew appreciated the cooler temps and big trees up north.
week 6: pronghorn boma construction at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Helped both US Fish and Wildlife and AZ Game and Fish to get ready for the pronghorn capture in December and repair fences damaged in this season’s crazy rains.
week 7: road decommissioning and rehab in Vulture Peak area outside of Wickenburg for the BLM. Vertical mulching and plant debris scattering to disguise roads & discourge use to create more habitat for desert tortoise.
This semester’s flying by, looking forward to more work for the BLM in the coming weeks and the wildland firefighting class too!
