October was an exciting month to be managing a Facebook Page. I made several haunted US Forest Service in North Carolina posts, touching on topics as bizarre as bigfoot and Gilford Pinchot's ghost wife. It was fun reading the stories and comments from people in the...

Just a thought…as someone in the world who has been exposed to the contentious debate around climate change and sustainability (which is often showcased as a race humans are losing). I’ve always wondered how I have contributed to my surrounding environment and what I could...

One of the truly wonderful perks of this position is the travel. And yes, I know what you’re probably thinking right now, “But, LeeDar, you’re working remotely! What on Earth do you mean ‘the travel’”. Hey now, that’s a very fair point, but being that...

This October I was able to attend the Montana Outdoor Recreation Summit in Butte, MT-- a meetup of outdoor recreation professionals, researchers, and land management agency staff organized by the Montana Access Project, University of Montana's College of Forestry, and the Institute of Tourism and...

This past month, I had the opportunity to attend a Wilderness First Responder Training in Prescott, Arizona. It was a two-week course that trained you how to perform medical care in the "back county." I had to learn how to apply splint and make splints...

Fall is upon us, which means that clouds are replacing the sun, and leaves are going from green to red. It seems like only yesterday, it was mid-June. Recently, the NPO had a staff retreat in the Reno-Tahoe region, which was an enlightening experience. During...

The second month of my internship with the North Carolina Forest Service, has been a month of learning and exciting field visits. On August 1st, I was invited to join the Pisgah River Rangers on a field day. I took photos and videos as they gave...

It's been yet another successful and enriching month working with the Forest Service in North Carolina. In September, Gary, the National Forest Botanist, invited the North Carolina Resource Assistants and I to join him on a field visit to a serpentine barren. In the Nantahala Forest, we...

How I got into working with GIS. My first year of college I had signed up for an elective, mostly just to fill up my schedule and fulfill requirements for my major. The class I ended up taking was an introductory course to Geographic Information Systems...