The Seven Weeks

Non-Native Brown Trout

Although this post is not entirely focused on biological experiences, I thought it would important to write about my experiences these last seven weeks. Since my internship ended with the forest service in August, I have been living at home and preparing for my trip to Costa Rica. It does not take a full seven weeks to pack for a five month trip, so I have found things to keep myself busy. Teaming up with my old supervisor from the Dixie National Forest and the Native Aquatics Biologist from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, I have gone out volunteering on five separate days. I helped out with boreal toad surveys and looked for fish presence in some of the burned areas following the Brian Head fire. The last trip I volunteered with was a rotenone treatment on the Paunsaugunt Plateau. I helped administer the pesticide rotenone, which is used to kill fish. This treatment is part of restoration efforts throughout this region to restore native cutthroat trout to some of their historic ranges. Removal of non-native species which would out compete the natives is necessary to create the space for the natives to inhabit. This practice remains somewhat controversial and I have even been confronted due to my participation in it. However, based on my educated opinion, when managed correctly rotenone treatments are a safe and effective management practice for the removal of unwanted fish species.

Along with volunteering and packing suitcases, I went on vacation to the San Francisco area. Leaving on a Monday morning, I drove up to Brigham City and met my father. We took the last bus that night down to Ogden and managed to time it just right to catch the Frontrunner heading to Salt Lake City. Both the Frontrunner and California Zephyr trains stop at the same station in downtown Salt Lake City, which was the starting point for the next leg in our journey. As the midnight hour approached so to did the train. With it arriving so late, we boarded the train, found our sleeper cabin, and went straight to sleep. It was a small cabin about the size of a closet, yet large enough to fit bunk beds. In the morning we discovered that the bunks could fold up and provide a sitting area within the cabin. We spent the day catching up on sleep, eating in the dinner car, and watching the passing landscape from the observation car. After the 16 hour train ride, we pulled into the final station in San Francisco. It was an enjoyable experience taking the train, but like any form of transportation I was glad to be done with that stretch of the trip. After figuring out the B.A.R.T. system we took the light-rail into Oakland, where we watched two Oakland A's games played against the Los Angeles Angels. This was my first Major League Baseball experience and it was very exciting. We witnessed home runs, a player get ejected, extra innings, and were seated close enough to watch the Angels bullpen warming up. We wrapped up our trip by riding more public transportation to the Golden Gate Bridge where we made the long walk across. It was cold and windy, but I am glad that we made the trek across. We left on Thursday morning by taking a flight to Salt Lake City, where we once again used public transportation en route back to Brigham City. Surprisingly, we made all of our connections in a timely fashion and never really had to sit and wait long for a bus to arrive. Overall, this trip went very well and I am glad that I did it with my father.