11 Apr Learning the Ropes

BY: Kat Villanueva

It has been a little over a month since I started work here at the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho Falls, ID. In that time, I have been l have been learning at lot about more than just the work I’ll be completing during this internship but also about the Forest Service and working in the supervisor’s office. I am new to the working for the Forest Service and slowly becoming more and more familiar with the agency and how it operates. It is also a transition for me to be working in an office setting because my background is field work. Through I won’t be solely working in the office, I will start field work in the summer, it has been an interesting experience learning to sit still for so long.

As I have already mentioned, I have been learning a lot of material to prepare me for the work I will be contributing to this season. Majority of the trainings I have completed so far have been about the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because I will be working within the process most of the time. I have been reviewing the forests carbon white paper that is essentially a baseline report of carbon stock and the factors that affect them, specific to the Caribou-Targhee NF. I have also been reviewing the Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaption in the Intermountain Region which provides the best available science allowing the Forest Service to make forest management decisions. Currently, these documents are my biggest resources for most aspects of my job.

I am excited to take what I have been learning and apply it to the projects I am working on. Looking forward to what the rest of this internship has instore for me.