Enjoying the peace and quiet while it lasts...

I have a little bit of  time this morning to not only catch up a little better on this journal, but also call everybody that has been great enough to try to get ahold of me lately - been so busy with work, play, and life in general, time just flies when you have phone calls to return! So I'm back in the coffee shop, drinking a mexican mocha (with cayenne pepper)! Can you tell I'm having fun?

A little tidbit of Rocky Mt. National Park information:  They just released the Elk Management Proposal for public review this past week. It might not seem like a big deal, but the day they released it to the press, the park was swarming with news reporters and video cameras. There's just too many elk in the park, plain and simple. Hunting is not allowed and they have no real natural predators here (though I've heard the coyotes sometimes hunt in packs like wolves and have taken a rare sick or young elk down), so the population has exploded and taken quite a toll on the vegetation and resources in the park. The park has been working on this before I worked here in 2003, and their recommended action is to cull the herd through hunting - not just for the general public, but by rangers and/or other private individuals doing it at night, as not to disturb people. The scientists and employees in general, including myself, all favor this choice. A few of us are really into the idea of reintroducing wolves... but that's a bit more complicated.

Unfortunately, the general public doesn't want to see Bambi get shot, so to speak. It doesn't help when the news plasters personified images of "baby elk sticking its tongue out to catch snowflakes" and portreys hunting as murder. It will be interesting to see what happens. I'm pro-wolf in general, but there's gotta be good science and good management to deal with the complications of human-wolf interaction. The park needs that natural balance of predator-prey, and until/if ever wolves are "welcome" here, hunting is the best choice. Read it yourself if you feel so inclinded and see what you think! It's out there for public comment, and if you have an option, let them know! Unless you don't favor hunting. Ha ha just kidding. :)  The National Parks belong to everybody, and we all have a say in how they are managed.

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Didn't plan on spouting off dorky science stuff, but I love this place. The park is so central to this community, my livelihood, my social life, and my hobbies... it gets a little personal sometimes. :)

I think I was briefly explaning what I've been up to and why I've been so busy. Cisco and I are the only people devoted to Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) and hazard tree work... and since the problem is so severe, we have our work cut out for us. We are given a lot of freedom and not much supervision to accomplish our tasks, because we just have SO MUCH to do - it feels good to be important and trusted enough to have say in how and when things get done, despite that we are both only seasonal.

The next couple weeks are hectic. We have until mid-June at the latest to accomplish any active MPB work - that's when the beetles fly, and once they spread to new trees there isn't much that we can do. We are getting this huge dumpster-like bin called an "air curtain burner" on Monday on the West side, where we will be burning the mass quantity of beetle-killed trees for the next month. And we all know how much I enjoy a good bonfire! Next week, the pesticide contractors are coming to spray the trees we have been marking to protect them... we've been so busy though that as of right now, we still have 700 trees to mark. Not sure how that is going to work out, with the Air Curtain Burner going on, plus we need to supervise the contractors on both the East and the West sides... Then, there's always hazard tree work that pops up unexpectedly.

Oh, and it makes it a lot harder when the park goes from being relatively quiet in April (~67,000 in April last year) to busy (I think ~117k in May) to insane (~600k+ in July??) and we have to shut down roads or work in campground areas. It makes it that much harder. Should be fun! :)

For 4-5 days a week, I live in an apartment in Granby and party with the laid back, great folks on that side. Met a lot of cool people - Mark, Keith, Doug and Sandy, the trivia team - drank a few and watched too much Denver sports... I miss the Wings! On the weekends, I live in Estes at my "real" apartment, you know the one with all my stuff. This weekend, a lot of people are moving in and starting on Monday, so our housing area will no longer be as quiet as it as been. Probably the weekly/nightly bonfires and too many parties will start up. As if I'm not already sleep deprived! And I mean that in a good way! :)

Speaking of sleep deprived, I finally got to hang out with one of the former crew leaders, Lonnie. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that he is still around. Him, Cisco and I tore it up until 4 am Thursday night, watching the Nuggets and catching up at Kelli's Dance Club (real hoppin' place too, with like 6 of us there, ha ha!)... I left my car downtown because I don't drink and drive, so Cisco drove us all home. Of course, the next morning when I biked the few miles from my apartment to my car, it decided to get cold and snowy again. That's what I get for being a responsible drunk I guess! Anyway, Lonnie is big into running so if I get up to speed I'll have somebody to train with. It will be a while before I can keep up with him though!  

Now I'm just hanging out, waiting for Joe to show up so I can introduce him to "real" mountain living up here! The weather is cold but I think we're going to go for my first hike in the park since I arrived. Hell, I haven't even driven all the way up Trail Ridge Road to where it is closed yet either... probably do that too!

Speaking of TRR, I met the guys that drive those HUGE plows and rotor-snowplow thing (I need to get a picture of it on here) and they said they are 4 miles from the Alpine Visitor Center - the top of the road. At this point, the snow is SO DEEP that it's a matter of how many FEET closer they get per day - 25+ ft. snow banks, a little at a time. I am going up there and if I am VERY nice, Doug might let me operate some of the equipment. They hope to open the road by Memorial Day, like usual.

Oh yeah, one more cool funny thing (at least to me) - I got trained how to operate a 13 speed dump truck last week! The ones at my last job were all automatic, and I never drive standard CARS... so it was quite a treat to learn how to deal with that split-speed transmission, old school beast! Jake brake and everything! I gave poor Ron whiplash at least a couple times but picked up on it pretty quick I suppose. Let me say this - it is honestly a work out to double clutch and shift through all those gears!

Off to adventure into the wilderness! Miss you all! And I have to give a big thank you to the people that helped me through my last week in Michigan - Linda, for driving out to help me move and drive back and forth too many times, my stepdad for his last minute life-saving help fitting everything in storage and cleaning my apartment, and a certain somebody who took off work to help me chill out and relax while playing Grand Theft Auto... That was a rough week and without them, I would have never gotten everything done and kept my sanity. And of course everybody else who took me out for my birthday and all those going away parties and for understanding when I just left without really saying goodbye... Thanks for being so awesome!