11 Jul Climate Change Coordinators’ Workshop

Throughout my internship, one of my most time-consuming and exciting projects was helping plan the Climate Coordinators Workshop in Vernal, Utah. My mentor leads out in organizing and co-hosting this workshop each year, so I got involved in planning, organizing, and facilitating this meeting. We hosted the workshop on the Ashley National Forest based out of Vernal, Utah. Even though I’m located in Utah, I had never visited Vernal or spent any tangible time on the Ashley NF before, so it was a new forest to me! We spent two full days visiting sites along the Ashley, meeting with speakers to discuss drought, fire, invasive species, and other climate change issues. It was a great time to meet with Environmental and Climate Change Coordinators from all the different forests. As part of my responsibilities in facilitating, I lead our icebreakers at the beginning of the week and wrap up discussions at the end of the week. I also presented the Intermountain Region’s Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment to the workshop attendees! It was a great experience to be involved in the planning and coordination. It was so rewarding to hear that all the attendees enjoyed our hard work! In addition to other attendees, there were 5 other Resource Assistants that were able to come to the workshop. Seeing my peers again in person was great, and I really enjoyed the quality time we spent together. Lots of laughs and stories were shared!