Back To Work....

Today was my first day with the Forest Service. We had a seminar on the hazard of falling trees. The Pine Beetles have killed over 55% of the trees in the Rio Grande National Forest and falling trees are becoming very dangerous for hikers, campers and forest service workers, several people have already been killed. Its unreal to see the damage these little bugs have done and there is nothing they can do to stop them. There are other National Forests in the US and Canada that have almost 100% loss of trees. It can take up to a year for a tree to turn brown so you know its really dead and it can take 10 years or more for the tree to fall. Tomorrow will be my first day of on the job training. I will be setting up monitoring equipment and asking visitors to the Rio Grande forest areas questions about themselves and their experience in the forest. Each day I work I will get to travel to a different campground, trailhead or day use recreational area to complete the surveys. I am really looking forward to getting started. I will only be working 3 or 4 days a week through September.