Oh Dam! Exploring The Snake River For Me!

 

This weekend, I visited a few sites within the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds Of Prey National Conservation Area! I tried to visit Celebration Park but my GPS kept taking me to the same closed road and wouldn't route me around it, so I decided to go rogue and found a few other neat places nearby: Dedication Point and Swan Falls Dam! I started at Dedication Point, which was a lookout over the Snake River flowing through one of the canyons it has carved out over the years. Needles to say, it was FREEZING! The wind was ruthless and I almost lost all feeling in my butt cheeks! Regardless, it was a breathtaking view and even being the "off season" there were still plenty of birds of prey flying around. There was also still a bit of snow on the ground, so I was able to follow all of the ground squirrel tracks where they were running around and heading back into their burrows. (such cute little tiny footprints!!!)

After I had spent a sufficient amount of time there, I hopped back in my car and drove down into the canyon at the Historic Swan Falls Dam! It was not open to tours that day, but I was the only one there so I had free range to explore the surrounding area, uninterrupted. There were tons of ducks swimming around ahead of the spill gates, and I spent some time sitting and watching and listening to the water flow through the open spill gates, which was very relaxing. I was hoping to find some petroglyphs, but I had no such luck in that endeavor, though the hike was still nice. It was SO much warmer down in the canyon than at the top that I was stripping off layers left and right as I hiked. (I definitely see why the indigenous people spent the winter months there!)

I can't wait to explore more of this beautiful state!

How Neat Is That?!

 

 

 

Working With Special Agents For America!

 

Perks of serving at a US Fish and Wildlife site! We share our building with two USFWS Special Agents and they recently finished a case involving the confiscation of 5 African Lion claws and one Mountain Lion claw. The Mountain Lion claw is the one on the bottom left. You can tell because it is sharper than the others because Mountain Lions are climbing cats, so they need sharper claws to help them grip trees and such whereas lions don't climb, so their claws are duller.

They didn't have a use for them, so they gave them to me to incorporate into a new or existing educational program! I already have ideas for what I want to use them for and can't wait to implement them!

How Neat Is That?!

Repping The Refuge For America!

Photo Credit: FWS

Today I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet with the Region One Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service! It was really neat to get the chance to showcase the work we are doing here, especially being such a small refuge relative to the region. With a permanent staff of only three people, there really aren't a lot of resources for us, so the presence of the AmeriCorps members (myself being one of them) each year truly is the only way that this refuge can do as much as it does. Without the support of the AmeriCorps members, there would be little to no educational opportunities for the community and coordinating volunteers would not come as easily as it presently does. I'm happy to be able to make such a difference in this position and to help the educational programs here at Deer Flat grow and thrive.
I always love getting to speak with people who have been working in this field for some time now and learning about their background and what they did to get to where they are now. She was more than willing to share with me the ins and outs of how she got to become the Region One Director for FWS on both a personal and professional level.
She commended my efforts in working with students (especially in the 4th grade SEEDS partnership) to inspire a "Rachel Carson like sense of wonder" in nature, which is exactly what the mission is- to connect these students (and anyone else) to nature and instill within them a sense of wonder and awe that will hopefully inspire them to continue to develop a love and appreciation for the environment.

Additionally, when she asked me about "my story" and I mentioned wanting to become a Park Ranger for BLM or NPS (and lead interpretive hikes and educational programs in that role) she asked why I left out FWS. To be honest, I hadn't really even considered FWS for the type of position I am looking for, but after her recommendation, I certainly will!

How Neat Is That?!

STEM Nights For America!

 Last night we had another STEM night, this time at a nearby elementary school. We set up a pelt table, a bird feet/mystery box table, and an outreach table. The teacher whos room we were set up in for the night had a few kids of her own who were at the STEM night and the youngest of them kept coming back in the room and "helping" us teach other families about all of the biofacts we had displayed. It was adorable.

Nobody thought the red fox was a squirrel this time, which was a nice break from the norm. We had quite a few kids who had never heard of a badger or a weasel before though, so it was cool to watch them investigate those pelts in particular.

A few of the kids who came in were able to identify every species we had represented without hesitation, so I asked if they wanted my job (they giggled and looked at their moms as if to ask if that would be ok).

Overall, it was a pretty good event. We were able to educate/talk to around 303 people throughout the event and exposed some people to wildlife they had never seen before and had certainly never been able to touch.

How Neat Is That?!

 

 

 

Hooting For America!

Yesterday was yet another successful program with Kuna Middle School! We were reminded by the teachers how much the kids loved the scat and tracks presentation a few weeks back, which is always nice to hear!
We were joined by this adorably little great horned owl, Archimedes, who is a non-releasable resident of the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds Of Prey National Conservation Area (an area of BLM land) and his handler, Cori. They filled the first half of the program with fun Owl facts and such and then I brought in owl pellets for the kids to dissect and identify the bones that they found inside! They all seemed to enjoy it and a bunch of them wanted to keep some of the bones, so it was a good thing I anticipated that and brought some baggies for them to store their bones in!
Only one more visit to Kuna Middle School before they come out and visit us in May!
How Neat Is That?!

 

No Hike Just Killer Views For Me!

 

On Sunday, I tried to hike another trail I learned about at the REI presentation, but I made the fatal mistake of not checking trail conditions before I left so I arrived at the trailhead to find it under several feet of snow, and me without my snowshoes or a plan. I checked road conditions to make sure my little car could make it up there but I think I confused this trail with another that he said was at a low enough elevation that it wouldn't have much snow this time of year. While not being able to hike was a bummer, the views off the side of the road were worth the drive. The Boise National Forest is beautiful, and snow definitely is a good look for it.
How Neat Is That?!

 

Hoodoos And Honeycombs For Me!

 

 This past Saturday I went for a hike out at Leslie Gulch- an area of BLM public land that I had learned about in a presentation at REI about local winter hiking destinations. In order to get to the trails, you have to drive for miles and miles on a gravel road through farms and cow pastures until you finally reach the sign. After driving past the sign, the earth opens up into these incredible rock formations (hoodoos as I have learned they are called) and the road winds through them until it dead ends at the Owyhee Reservoir. I drove all the way to the end and walked along the reservoir for a few minutes before hopping back in my car and heading up to the real reason I made the trek- Juniper Gulch Trail. The speaker at the REI presentation was a local guidebook author and he promised some incredible views and impressive rock formations on this hike, and let me tell you- it did not disappoint! The hike was a fairly short one, but it involved a lot of scrambling through cracks in the rocks and up some smaller rock faces (at least that was the case for the route that I chose to take) so it was a bit of a workout- but the views were nothing short of amazing!! I found some neat little outcroppings to lay or sit in and have a snack before I climbed up to a high point and read a chapter in my book, enjoying the warmth from the sun. Of the six people I encountered on the trail, one of them was Tess- another PCEI AmeriCorps member from Boise! What are the chances?!
I'm excited to visit some of the other trails I learned about in the REI presentation soon!
How Neat Is That?!

The view from the top! What a beaut!

 

SO many honeycombe!

 

  

Much Needed Good Feedback For America And For Me!!!

I just received this email from one of the leaders of the after-school program at Kuna Middle School! This is amazing to hear, especially after how terribly wrong it went the first time we tried leading a program there (when we were expecting 30 kids but had over 100 and only 2 participated).
Scat and Tracks has been one of my favorite topics to teach about since I worked as a ranger at UNF, so to hear that the kids really enjoyed the program makes me SUPER happy! I really needed this!

How Neat Is That?!

Middle School Mayhem For America!

This week has been FULL of education programs with middle school students. I lead eight programs total Monday and Wednesday (each about an hour long) where I taught primarily eighth grade students about water quality and the macro invertebrates that serve as bio indicators. They learned about various ways to measure and test water quality (turbidity, pH, D.O., etc) but the activity focused on macro invertebrates. Students were given a tub full of various office supplies which represented different invert species that they then "sampled" from the "stream" and sorted into an ice cube tray. They then worked together to count each species and determine the percent composition of each category of invertebrates- from very pollution intolerant to vary pollution tolerant. They were able to draw conclusions about their possible water quality using this information.

On Tuesday, I returned to Kuna Middle School (the location of the surprise 120 students when we only expected 30) to lead a program about scat and tracks!! While I was a bit nervous about how another program at Kuna MS would turn out, I was excited to get to teach about tracks as that was my favorite program when I was a Ranger at UNF! Thankfully the program ended up going really well and we had a reasonable amount of students. I taught them about the different types of tracks, various gait patterns of animals and demonstrated what they look like, taught them how to look at a track and figure out what species it was (including how to differentiate between a cat and a dog species) and they had to look at a "track story" and figure out what was happening at the time the tracks were left. They concluded the lesson with a discussion about scat and a matching game using repli-scat from various species.

I'm happy to have finally had a slight break from sitting at a desk to get to go out and educate some kiddos.

How Neat Is That?!