landowners

I had a really interesting day today. I met with few NRCS guys to visit a few landowners who are interested in getting assistance in some wetland restoration projects. The first two landowners are at the begining of the process. We are still working out the details, deciding if the Wetland Restoration Program (WRP) with a permanent land easement is for sure what they want, and working out the ideas of what can be done on the ground.

The second stop was a landowner who has a WRP on some of their property that was initiated in 2001 and is looking to do more if it can be done. It was awesome to see the results of the different methods used several years later. It will be so cool to be involved in the decisions and planning on the current projects. We'll be looking to partner with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy in addition to the NRCS and IDFG to increase our funding oportunities. Cool stuff.

Oh, and the second landowners are both PhD Wildlife Biologist that have developed a Wildlife Preserve in Africa, spent 7 years fighting paochers in Africa, and have created a non-profit organization that still works in African communities, educating them about poaching and ways they can fight against it. Anyways, they've written 3 books about their time spent in Africa; Cry of the Kalahari, The Eye of the Elephant, and Secrets of the Savanna. Would be cool to read the books, having met them.

Well, it's Thurs but my Friday!!! I have tomorrow off and I am going to Spokane tomorrow for a Lynn Leach herding lesson!! OMG I can count this as a herding blog today :) Well, I should have somthing to herding to report soon at least. Laters Gaters.

Touring ID

Last week I was on our second week of new employee training. This week we toured SE ID. We started in Idaho Falls, then Pocatello, and then Sun Valley. It was a fun trip, better than the first week in Boise which covered more of the boring day lectures than field trips. This time we all awoke at 4 am on Wed morning for a little birding trip! Yeah. Much better than the fish hatchery tours...uhm boring! Fish are so not wildlife :)

This is the area we traveled to, to see sharp-tailed grouse and sage grouse leks. Beautiful SE ID. I soo miss the sagebrush.

Here we all are at 6am looking for grouse...which we didn't see much of seeing as we had 40 people and 10 vehicles!

We did see a bunch of waterfowl and a few other species. Here is a yellow-headed blackbird. If you have ever heard one, they totally sound like R2D2 from Star Wars.

On our way to Sun Valley our truck stopped to site see. A few were new to Idaho so site seeing was on the agenda. This is register rock, a stop on the Oregon Trail where pioneers stopped and signed there names on the rock cliffs in the mid- to late 1800s.

This is Shoshone Falls near Twin Falls. Taller than Niagra Falls actually. But doesn't look like it.

On our drive back to N ID, we stopped near Salmon and took a hike in the mountains. I had my dogs with me the entire trip so they were ecstatic to get out of their crates for once. Loved it!

That's all for now folks.

Mmm mmm good

What a gorgeous day out. I can't wait till you all come up to visit. The place is so nice in the spring. I have a firepit in my back yard. I have a canoe we could take out on the lake. When I was out on the airboat yesterday I realized just how big and beautiful it is.

Today I have the back sliding door open and the fireplace going for the perfect enjoyment of both worlds. Roy and Reena have been outside for more than two hours, staying close to the house without supervision. What good kids. I went out for a photo op since I am borrowing Jodi's camera. And since I don't usually have much capability for photos, here are a bunch of them.

View across the lake.



Hangin' out



Reena and Roy took turns chewing on the biggest elk foot I have ever seen.





They had to fight off the Grizzly bear and wolves





Even the cats came out.



And more of my favorite subjects.

fire fire

What a great day yesterday was. One of those spring days that just make you happy. And I had a really fun time flying around McArthur Lake and Boundary Creek Wildlife Management Areas on an air boat, conducting Canada goose nest surveys. The first thing I did was jump in the drivers seat and try my hand at driving an airboat! I didn't know what to expect but I got it pretty quickly. They are soo fun. You can drive through anything, cattails, shrubby veg or any kind of wetland veg, even drive over land if your real good. But you can only go forward so you have to be careful were you end up. I had to fly the thing over a beaver dam! Yikes. And then back down the other way too, Ouch. I didn't have a camera for the airboat but we did a control burn today at BCWMA and I have a few photos. This was pretty fun too. We burned about 15 acres and everything went off well.

First we burned a black line in areas with no natural barriers by burning a few feet and then putting it out. This acts as an outer barrier once the real fire gets started.

Then we start burning in a configuration that sets the fire to generally burn in towards itself. You can see the fire in the distance.

Putting out the outer edge.

We had two lighters burning toward a corner where they both have to meet at the exact same time. It was all easy cheesy till the wind picked up at the end and it started moving in the wrong direction and the flames and smoke were headed toward the lighters. But we did good. And then it was done - walla.