It has been one of the busiest times of my life too. I had the pleasure to attend the LARI 101 in-person training, tied in some trail maintenance, volunteered to work on my first contract, and spent some time with the Army National Guard. Staying with the routine, I have been working on field maps for the upcoming field season and will be wrapping all those up and publishing them out in the next few weeks.

In late February, I travelled to Redding, California to attend the Logging and Roads Institute 101 course at the Shasta-Trinity Supervisors Office. The training was a great experience, and I was able to connect with foresters from various forests. I ended up learning a lot about logging operations and the equipment that is used. I found it beneficial to understand the timber process in the Forest Service and how my position can contribute to it. As I work in the engineering department, the most useful part was learning about roads. I never really considered how important the design of a road is, but the training changed my view a lot. I learned that I could utilize my GIS background to support timber looking at the roads via LiDAR and slope of the areas proposed for a sale. In mid-April, I was talking about the roads access to in for a potential sale and was able to put all the data onto an Arc Scene to show the team a 3D view of the roads and terrain of the sale areas. It was a little different from what they were used to as they have only used AutoCAD in the past. I ended up showing them how I was able to create the view so they could replicate it for future use. For me the best part of the in-person training was the field trip we conducted. As a class, we were able to go out to the forest to see live sales in action and watch operations at the landing. As a hands-on learner, this was extremely valuable to me to help better understand the process with a boots-on-ground experience.

Additionally, I was able to go out into the Modoc Forest with the trail lead and conduct some pre-season maintenance on a popular trail. The wind had knocked over a large ponderosa in the middle of a wilderness trail. Since it was in the wilderness, power tools could not be used to remove the tree. We had to use axes and cross-cut saws to clear the obstruction. The trails lead taught me and a few others how to safely operate the tools needed for the job. It took a lot of work since the tree was rather large and “punky”, but we were able to saw through and clear the trail. We also cleaned the rest of the debris afterwards and the trail looks great.

As I mentioned above, I had a few days where I was out doing what I like to call “playing Army” with the National Guard. It’s a change of pace from the job with the Forest Service but I like to think of ways that I can connect the two. I am currently in a Horizontal Construction Engineer position, which primarily focuses on building roads. I think the two positions go well together especially after completing the LARI training! Next month, I attend my two-week annual training and should be operating equipment and will hopefully have more to talk about for the next post. Lastly, I volunteered to work on my first contract for the Forest Service, so I am working closely with our civil engineer to build the contract package. I should be finishing that up in next few weeks so once again, I will report back afterwards!

I have been very busy lately both at home and at work. On top of being a full-time employee with the assistantship, I just moved, part time with the National Guard, and now a student trying to finish my degree. I have had a pretty full plate, and it has taken a lot of getting used to, but I am doing it! My supervisor and Hispanic Access are both really supportive of all I have going on and I couldn’t be more appreciative of all they are doing for me. I am excited to see what the next two months bring and hopefully have some good stories to tell as field season approaches. Until next time!