a day in my “office”

background information:
I work as a hydrology technician during the summer months for the forest service in the wondefulr bighorn mountains in north central wyoming.
some of you may ask “wtf do you do?”
well short answer…aquatics/fish/stream work.

now let me put you in my “office.”

yup, I’m pretty dang lucky.

what’s a day in the life of a hydro tech like?

you have to become “un-girlie.” (un-girlie in a good way!)
un-girlie=hat, ponytail, jeans, tshirt, daypack. hiking boots (although I was in tennys this day).
I was pretty excited to get out there. our first day in the field.

next, you save the forest by moving baby trees from one semi to another.
need a baby conifer tree?

then you move on to riparian habitat and save the willows.
a little bit of background:
the fisheries biologist planted these willows last spring in hopes of stabilizing the banks. these banks just get hammered in the summer due to grazing of livestock. and the banks get so much energy from the spring runoff that it just cuts the banks like crazy. so this is what were trying.

check out water levels on other rivers in the forest.
still flowing REALLY high!

more water.
hydro tech…this is what I do!

this little river has turned into a lake.
hello mosquitos!

with the high water levels, unfortunately we are still left out of the water until it goes down in order for us to safely conduct our stream surveys. in the mean time…we drive around and look at the flooding….

…..and get yelled at by forest service volunteers. oh, excuse me, we get paid by the forest service…you’re a volunteer, why are you yelling at us….for something absolutely stupid!
but that’s another story for a different day.