POBR - Bird Creek - Day 3

 

People of The Big River

Location: Bird Creek …

Day 3

Another busy day at the camp, day three we started out early. We woke up and had breakfast and packed up our lunches. Luckily, I had already packed my bag the night before, so it was just a matter of having breakfast and doing morning chores and I was set. Today I was in charge of dishes which wasn’t too bad. Dr. Black said we did a pretty good job, and we were early to meet up with everyone leading us in our project. Today we were privileged enough to have an opportunity to work on Yakama Nation land. We got to meet some members of the tribe who have done all kinds of work in the area we were around. We also met people working with the tribe that have been there for a variety of years. We met Doug Olney Who shared with us that he used to work in timber management/ harvest, and Doug is a member of the Yakama tribe. We also met John Washines who has been a fish tech for 12 years with the tribe and he also told us that he helped fight the fire that burned a lot of the forest we saw and worked in today. John was very nice to talk to, it felt like I was talking to one of my uncles, very informational but with mixed in with a nice sense of humor. We also met Patrick Hayden, and he shared how he got to his job; I thought it was interesting when he started off by saying his first degree he got was in fine arts and then in natural resources.  We also got to meet Gerard Foley who talked about all of his schooling and how he’s been working with the tribe for two years and how his previous work was with fisheries but now he’s doing habitat restoration work. We also talked to David Lindley who mentioned how he went to U of I and got a bachelor’s and a master's degree in forest related sciences. Finally, we met Jeanette and not to pick favorites, but I really liked talking to Jeanette. I asked her about one of the plants that we kept seeing on our way to the site and she went off telling me about a lot of the ones we saw. She is super knowledgeable about plants which is nice because I also am very interested in plants especially when it comes to native ones.

Right when we got there, we were all put to work straight away. We were hauling gear and equipment down so we could try to mend historic beaver dams in three different locations. All were along the same creek which was nice. I was helping dig up mud so we could use to patch up the dam. We also used logs and small green pines and stakes to hold everything up. Everyone was working super hard but a special shout out to Kyal and James who were literally and figuratively carrying the team. They were getting called to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Everything was super nice, and we were warned of mosquitos but thankfully we were spared today. I felt super lucky being on land that has so much history and so many people that care about it. We are very privileged to have met so many people who are so passionate about what they do. I hope to have as much energy and excitement to do things like that once I decide on what I want to do as far as my career goes. To all who I mentioned today who read my post thank you so much for letting us be a part of this project it was so much fun, and I learned a ton from all who were there today.

As we continue on our two week journey, I am also really grateful for my classmates who are very high spirited and energetic. We are all so tired, but it was another great day on our adventure.

 

No pictures today, but I’ll make sure to include them tomorrow! I take forever to type, and these pictures take forever to load unfortunately L

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