Introduction
Last summer, I had the opportunity to participate in the Siegele Conservation Internship. It was a wonderful introduction to the world of conservation and inspired me to pursue this career path. Throughout the summer, I was exposed to a variety of enriching experiences. I will discuss a few highlights in further detail.
Goshawk Monitoring
An experience that stood out to me was a day I spent with the USFS wildlife crew monitoring Goshawks in early June. From Fort Collins, we drove up to a location on private land just southeast of Rocky Mountain National Park. Starting at around 8,000 feet in elevation, we hiked a road surrounded by beautiful wildflowers. On our ascent, we had a lovely view of Long’s Peak in the distance. The hike was long, and entirely uphill, but very rewarding. Eventually, we started hiking off-trail into the wilderness in search of a historic Goshawk nest. We walked through this mossy old-growth forest full of towering evergreens and the largest aspens I had ever seen. On our way to the nest, we had fun spotting and identifying other species of birds. After locating the nest, we played a Goshawk call from the speaker we had brought. After no sign of a Goshawk, we scrambled over some boulders to a new location. We weren’t super confident that we would find a Goshawk today considering the wildlife team had only found one the entire last season. We played the call again and to our surprise, we heard a Goshawk call in the distance. The bird’s powerful call filled me with a sense of awe. The Goshawk circled our area for a while and we began searching for large nests in the area it flew to. I was able to spot the nest in a tree high above and we confirmed that it was the nest the Goshawk had been currently using. Later in the season, the team revisited the nest and the bird’s chicks had hatched.
Rifle Ranch
My week at Rifle Ranch was also a highlight of my summer and I appreciated all the information and skills I gained during this experience. All the conservation professionals I was introduced to during this week were very eager to welcome a new generation of conservation stewards and tell us about the important work they do. Everyone who spoke to us was enthusiastic about their work and the impact it had on their local environment and people. I was introduced to several conservation paths as we toured a sustainability-focused farm, learned about erosion and water issues from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife crew, discussed conservation easements at Colorado Mountain College, and heard from a variety of local people involved in conservation efforts. I felt very honored that all these people took the time to come together and talk to us interns about our career prospects. I also learned a variety of practical skills at Rifle Ranch including an introduction to plant identification and how to use transect lines to collect data.
Prairie Dog Mapping
Another highlight of my experience was working on the Pawnee National Grassland with the USFS to map prairie dog towns. Something I loved about working on the prairie was that it was full of life. This is something that’s easily overlooked when seeing the prairie from afar or simply driving past it on the highway. Coming from Nebraska, I really resonate with the grassland ecosystem and through this experience have developed a greater appreciation for this land. I came across a variety of birds (including a few burrowing owls), many small lizards, black widows, pronghorns in the distance, ground squirrels, a young coyote, and of course plenty of prairie dogs. These prairie dogs were a lot more shy to people compared to the ones near Fort Collins residential areas. They tended to stay deep in their burrows when we were near, so typically when we were marking a prairie dog burrow for activity we had to rely on other signs that the prairie dogs were currently using it such as fresh scat, kicked-up dirt, and shortly trimmed grass. Every once in a while we would hear little squeaks coming from a burrow, meaning it was definitely active. Not every burrow we came across was active because some had been constructed in previous seasons and were no longer in use. The purpose of marking active burrows was to figure out an estimate of prairie dog populations in that area. The measurement of the area of a prairie dog town was usually fairly indicative of their population size. It was also very interesting to learn about how the forest service worked to manage conflict between ranchers and prairie dogs. I learned about how the Forest Service strives to make compromises between people’s livelihoods and the health of ecosystems and species populations. It was also interesting to learn about the prairie dog plague that has spread through Colorado. I was told that a lot of the time the Forest Service doesn’t even need to take population control measures because the plague wipes out prairie dog populations below the agreed-upon level by the local government.
Wetland Assessments
I also enjoyed the collaborative process of working with the CNHP wetlands team on element occurrences and assessment of rare and valuable plant communities. The project we were assigned to was just getting off the ground due to a new funding increase. The project was slightly hectic because it hadn’t been planned out before the field season. Nonetheless, I appreciated being in on parts of the planning and management process. We spent a couple of days in the field in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties. At the end of the first day, we made camp in Idaho Springs next to this beautiful beaver pond wetland area in the valley. We hiked through several locations with previously recorded data on plant communities and rare species. The crew I worked with was very knowledgeable about the species of plants in the ecosystems we explored. They knew the scientific names of almost every species we encountered and were able to key out some unknown plants. The crew was very eager to share scientific names and families with me and help me learn how to key out different species. My favorite plant we came across was the Calypso bulbosa, or the common name “Fairy Slipper” (pictured below). I thought the name was very fitting because it’s such a magical-looking plant.
