Coho smolt I had the unique opportunity to be part of a small team to support the release of nearly 3,000 endangered coho salmon! Three interns from the NPS Inventory and Monitoring program and I ventured to a conservation hatchery almost every day for two weeks...
CRLF egg mass It’s that time of the year again! We are ramping up our annual California red-legged frog (CRLF) monitoring! Each winter, CRLFs breed in several sites across GOGA and its all hands on deck for the Aquatics and Wildlife team. The main way we monitor...
The day begins when my alarm sounds at 5am. It’s still dark out but I spring out of bed, excited to start my day. I put on my extra cozy intern hoodie and eat my overnight oats in the peaceful, dimly lit dining room. As...
Did you know that salmon spend parts of their life cycle in both fresh and salt waters? They begin their life cycle in freshwater, where females lay their eggs at the bottom of a river and males fertilize them. This stage is called “spawning”. At...
Hello! My name is Ruby and I am the new Aquatic Ecology Intern at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, California. I grew up in the beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, where I just moved from. I love spending time with my two dogs, going...
Hello again! I am pleased to report that I am having such an amazing time working for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GOGA)! The scenery is just magnificent, the people are wonderful and I am learning more and more about aquatic ecology every day....
Me writing down streamflow measurements. About a month into my internship, my supervisor suggested that I come up with my very own project that I would work on for the rest of the year. I immediately knew that I wanted to monitor aquatic macroinvertebrates a.k.a. aquatic...
My team recently collaborated with 3 civil engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in St. Louis, Missouri. Our goal was to teach them various field techniques over the course of 2 weeks here in Arizona in exchange for their help on building computer...
During orientation, I heard that interns could participate on active wildfires, so on my first official day as an intern, I told my mentor about it. She was very excited that I was interested in this and gave me a list of six trainings I...
The Forest Service owns horses and mules from all types of backgrounds, including those with backgrounds as pack mules for Mexican cartels. Poncho is one of those lucky rescue mules who now lives at the Payson Ranger Station in Arizona. A couple of weeks ago,...