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POBR25 Day 14: Departure Home! 6-28-25

  We are leaving tomorrow! I feel pretty good about getting home. I am learning more about myself taking these trips. I went on Panama and now completed People of the Big River, so I am ready to relax at home in bed. I had a two-week break in between trips but this was not enough time to settle in at home so when I got back out, I still had a majority of my travel stuff together. I downloaded a lot of movies for the final evening here. I don’t anticipate getting much rest even though summer is here since I have an internship I am fully committed to when I get home. Since we get back Saturday then Sunday off and right back to the Huckleberry work on Monday morning and this should be a fun project since I did have time to learn more about the issues and research put into that project. The stuff we did for this trip felt like I was thrown into the deep end and had to roll with what we did. I get it though sometimes education has to be rough to get a full picture of the commitment we a...
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POBR25 Day 13: CTUIR- Walla Walla Hatcheries Tour and Microbiology Day, 6-27-25

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  For the first part of the day, we started with microbiology work. We finished some testing we missed throughout the two weeks we have been here. Personally, I missed like 4 tests since we are being rushed around daily. I tried to get them done but failed to, I don’t like missing out on data and not being able to paint a full accurate picture of the research but that’s science sometimes. After doing some of our tests we were taken to the Walla Walla Hatchery where the manager Thomas Tallbull showcased a lot of the technical work, they do use higher tech programs and massive interconnected systems that help the fish develop in treated water and stream water. In one portion of the South Fork of the Walla Walla River is a mixture of treated water with the natural stream water where adult fish will hangout. I liked seeing their lamprey and their fish. It is good to see some tribes out here doing well and working hard to get into the nitty gritty protections of the different Treaties...
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POBR25 Day 12: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), 6-26-25

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  Today was jam packed of education, work exposure, and fun. First we started with the plant nursery and Gail Redberg who is the manager of the facility, then we met with Andrew Wildbill at the CTUIR Agency to hear what the program is about and a brief history lesson of the lands we are invited to work on, then we capped it off helping Solai Le Fay who is a grad student out of Boise State University studying Burrowed Owls and Lindsay Chiono, Habitat Biologist, and finally Mr. Le Fay who was there learning with his daughter Solai just like us rounding out this super interesting afternoon. So, in the morning, we got to the plant nursery and Gail gave a briefing about how their mission revolved around using native plants to aid restoration efforts of streams and their pathways. They help a ton to keep the water cooler by their canopy and their use for bugs who lay their eggs on the plants which in turn help to sustain the fish diet. They will be getting into landscaping too which I ...
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POBR25 Day 11: Travel Day, 6-25-25

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Day eleven we were driving. Major props to our drivers for real. They are putting hours on the road; I am thankful they’re so invested in the program we are part of. Thanks to Monet, Corbin, and Jessica! Our one stop was at the Obsidian Flow in Newberry Park where I may or may not have retrieved some of nature's 1300-year-old rocks. Obsidian is such a cool rock, and this place was unique for its development and its explosion over a thousand years ago. I know the ancestors saw this one and likely recovered some material from the source as soon as it cooled down and the gasses cleared up. This mountain is an active shield volcano which surprises me. I have seen the stratovolcanoes but not a shield or cinder. From a distance it does look just like a shield. The top of the obsidian flow was a great view of the perimeter of the shield where you can see the vastness of the miles making up the edges. I enjoyed it a lot, the view was beautiful. I was up at the top getting a brief geology l...
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POBR25 Day 10: Lower Black Butter Swamp Restoration, 6-24-25

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 Today marks day ten and we were tasked with helping to maintain Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA) for the Deschutes National Park. BDA’s are channel wide human made dams that mimic the engineering of the great ol beavers. Which I think is super interesting and since I can see myself managing the wetlands for our tribe back home I could get into this work for sure. Today we got to work with Liz Day (Wildlife Biologist), Alex Ena ( Partner Program Manager), and Christine Meyer (Assistant  Partner Manager) out of the Sisters Ranger District from the Deschutes National Forest and they welcomed us with open arms and work we appreciate. Their recent work has involved constructing dams on Indian Ford Creek to reintroduce beavers in the region to increase the quality of the swamp and the water table. After a short hike into the area, we ended up at BDA 7 which needed some maintenance. For repair our group Joellene, Yoleth, James, and I got to jump into the water to find out if there were ...
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Day 9: Deschutes National Park, Pumice Moonwort Survey w/ Marlow Fisher 6-23-25

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  Today was a blast doing survey work with Marlow Fisher who is a Botanist for the Deschutes National Park. She does a ton of conservation work with many plants, but this survey was aimed at population counts for the Pumice Moonwort ( Botrychium Panicola) nicknamed the Bopu which is kind of funny. The weather wasn’t all crazy and hot today and there was a chill breeze making our work much easier. Our total count was over 700! Bopu is a plant that only grows in pumice soils in higher elevations. The site today was 4895 ft, and we found an abundance of plants. Marlow had told us that even on Mt. Baker at 8000+ ft elevation they are growing with much of the same size ranges we saw today, the guess is that the sustained snow and porosity of the soil allows them to thrive. Initially I thought the plant would be stomped out, eaten, or negatively impacted by the manure and urine in the area but this was already explored so I guess not. Although, I have an interest in botany I don’t in...
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POBR25 Day 8: Crane Prairie Campground, Bend, OR 6-22-25

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  Today was another full science day which I love since we did microscope work and tests on our sampling. Dr. Schuster showed us how to do all the lab work while simultaneously getting everything set up and keeping everyone on track so that was nice. I take advantage of using microscopes every time since to me it's super fun to see the microscopic world. Today we ran transported our bacterial growth from the paddles to the plates to multiply the number of bacteria cells we can analyze from each sample site we have visited since the start of the trip. I got to see the first samples for the MacConkey test and the Nutrient-TCC for the Klickitat River. I got a lot of growth so that is interesting to see what the heck is going on in the water. I can’t imagine its anything good. After our work was done, I actually got to collect a small sample of sand from the shallow sandy part of Crane Prairie Lake which was super cool since I was able to identify a rotifer, nematode, and a diatom wh...
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