Resource Management

After this week I have officially shadowed all divisions of Buffalo National River! This was actually one of my favorite units; other than Visitor and Resource Protection of course. Having a focus on Biology and studying Environmental studies it was fun to hang out with these guys. I understood a lot of what they were talking about. It was fun to put my major to good use. I will always have a sweet spot for this division for that reason. But I have zero interest in going back to school for my masters so I’ll admire it from afar!

For two days I was able to work with fire management. It killed two birds with one stone since I’m working on my red card. Talking to them I was able to see the benefit of fires but also how dangerous they can be if not done right. Some people push off the fire but if that fuel that is built up is not properly burned off it can cause massive forest fires. It’s interesting how when they go on fires they still have to protect certain areas. It won't be perfect but if they see a tree or animal that shouldn’t be near the fire they mark off the area. One time a group from this park went to an island and the project had to change because they found protected migratory birds. If a fire truck needs water it can pull from a pond but they need the pond checked to see if it’s safe for the fish to pull the water out. They said they normally will come back and fill the pond back up, especially if the pond feeds cattle. 

The other department I was able to shadow was water quality. I was able to really put my NEPA and Environmental Law class to use talking with these guys. But they started to lose me a tad in the lab. I understood what we were doing but I definitely couldn’t keep up with the codes. The days started by testing all the equipment and making sure they were reading accurately with deionized water. Then we packed up and went to different areas of the park. Part of the water was found not up to par so they check it every month to keep an eye on it. The information will be sent in and publicized to the public. There was a hog farm that the public thought was the reason.  The water is tested where runoff from the farm could be dumped in the river. There wasn’t great data before the farm was built so no one will ever know if that's the problem. The farm was bought out eventually and the pigs moved but the runoff is still possible 3 years later so they are keeping up with the tests. After testing 8 sites we went back to the lab to check all the samples. 

I ended this week with the River Ranger in my district. He isn’t resource management but we did go through the river and pick up all the trash we saw. It was cool to do this after working with water quality. The river was super low for weeks and I was sad I couldn’t make it on the river but after a few days of rain, the river ranger figured we should try. Floating showed me areas of the park I’d never see on foot. I was so happy we got to squeeze that in before I leave this park. It is now on my bucket list to come back in the fall and see the leaves changing.