September 13- 26

I didn't post last week so here's two weeks in one post.

(9/13-19/09)
Last Monday I learned how to use the recon (hand held computer gps) unit.* I got about 7 pages of protocol on how to set up the satellites and layers to map out the trails we hike. The point of the thing is to mark UDA trails off of main park trails. (UDA is undocumented alien). We do this to see how the illegals are impacting the land. The trails now have trash and a lot of erosion has occurred. The recon unit is used to collect data on where and how heavy the impacts are, but collecting and inputing the data can be a hassle.
Tuesday we (Sara, Ryan, and I) used the recon along the Coronado Cave trail.*
Wednesday we went out with Michelle, an Ecologist that is over 10 different parks in Arizona and spent the week at Coronado. We went off trail and hiked transects in different areas of the park.
Thursday I met my partner, Laura. She's a very positive person which is great, about 95% of the time. In fact she's so positive that sometimes its tempting to shove her off a trail, but I've refrained... so far. (I'm not cynical, I promise) But really she has been great to work with. That day we hiked yaqui trail.* Because of the proximity to the border we had 3 law enforcement agents with us. One carried an M14 with him, it was very impressive. There wasn't much to mark that day because the UDA's are most likely using the actual trail.
Friday some interns from Chiricahua came over and we walked a wash that runs through the park, and didn't find much to mark.

(9/20-26/2009)
Monday Laura and I went out with an a group of biologists that were collecting data on abandoned mines in the park.* If there was a trail to hell, it would be the Crest trail. It was difficult for me, the hike being described as a "grunt" of a climb by people who are experienced hikers. It also didn't help that there is a 1500 feet change in elevation and my asthma kicked in. Once we got to the top we went off the Crest trail and followed a UDA trail along the ridge to about Montezuma's peak. There were trails and lay up sites all over the ridge.* However, I'm not sure that I collected data right in the recon unit, making that day a frustrating one that lasted a grand total of (drumroll please...) 11 hours. Along the way I also heard a rattlesnake, get pricked by an agave, and unknowingly pick up a prickly pear. However the view of the mountains and Mexico was amazing. * (Okay, I might have let some of my cynicial side through.)
Tuesday through Friday was spent either pulling invasive weeds, (stink weed and sand burr), or collecting seeds to be planted next year. The most exciting seeds to collect is the agave.* At the end of the agave's life it grows a stalk 15+ ft high with seed pods that get distributed by the wind. We knock down agave plants, and collect the pods. Then we open the pods and collect the seeds and pull out weevil beetles and larvae. The best is when you open a pod and squish a larvae in the process. It's like popping a really buggy zit.

Hope that wasn't too long. From now on I'm going to try to update every Sunday.

* = corresponding picture
PICTURES:









The 1st pic is of the gps recon unit used to mark trails and lay up sites along trails. There was a point along the hike on Monday when i was ahead of the group and sitting on a peak and looking down the mountain. I honestly visualizedd chucking it and watching it fly away... I'm still debating whether I made the right choice.
2nd - 4th pics are of Coronado Cave.
5th is a warning sign about illegal and drug activity in the park
6th is the sign of yaqui ridge trail.
7th and 8th are of some of the mines along the crest trail
9th is a trash lay upsite along the crest trail
10th is the amazing view from the crest trail
11th is a picture of a prickly pear. The name speaks for themselves. Word to the wise- don't pick them up, not only will you tiny hair like spines all over your hands, people laugh at you while you pull them out for 20 minutes.
12th is of an agave. Word to the wise- dont run into them. It hurts.
The last is of me on the sign at the entrance of the park, and the mountain in the background is montezuma peak.

what i will be doing...

My internship title is 'Natural Resource and Border Impacts Monitor.' until this week I didn't fully understand what that meant. Basically I will be finding and hiking illegal trails through the park. Through the data collected the park will be able to see how illegals are impacting the land. I will be using GPS and GIS systems. Which I'm not completely sure how works, but I'm still excited. I will start doing this work Wednesday when my partner gets here.

This past week I have been working with two other interns, Sarah and Ryan, and their project is restoring land that was a ranch within park boundaries. The ranch is no longer because Mr rancher decided to grow a non native plant- marijuana. His operation was discovered a few years ago when him and his girlfriend got into a fight and she was so mad she turned him in to law enforcement that is conveniently located on the park. After they got booted off the area was used as a staging area for the US-Mexico fence, which damaged 11 acres of land. Anyways, we have been removing fence posts, old irrigation hoses, and everything else that was left. They also will be removing invasive plants and collecting seed. I'm grateful that I am a Natural Resource and Border Impacts Monitor Intern and not the Restoration Intern. Nothing against picking up garbage, weeding and collecting seeds for 3 months but hiking and finding illegal trails sounds a lot more intriguing.






PICTURES-
The 1st and 2nd of the pics is of the 18 and 1/2ft US- Mexico fence. I find it impressive even though the illegals still get through (the fence was never completed and there are parts of the fence that get washed out during hurricane and monsoon season (right now its hurricane season). However it has limited traffic to certain extent. The fence runs a little ways up the first peak (smugglers peak) and ends.
The 3rd pic is of a camera that is monitoring activity. Sometimes it freaks me out knowing that the government is watching my every move. I mean what if scratch my nose and they think digging for gold? Actually it's good the camera's there because LE (law enforcement) has told us that there are Mexican spies up in the hills that watch too.
The 4th pic is of a wire that was taken down from a fence on the ranch that me and Sarah rolled. It took 45 minutes. We were proud.
The 5th is of the Huachuca mountains.
The 6th is of the San Madre mountains in Mexico. The line right below them is the fence.

The beginning

I've been in Sierra Vista, a city 20 miles of Coronado, for about a week now. I have been out on the park once. This is due to the fact that I drank juice that said "gently pasteurized." Note to everyone, "gently pasteurized" is code for "makes you wish you never had a stomach." Yup. Food poisoning. I'll spare the details, but it was miserable. So that leaves me very little to actually write about the park (national monument). Monday I had a little tour of the park. Its named after the explorer Coronado, even though Coronado himself never set foot there. Irony I know, but someone felt the need to honor him. Another thing about the park, it runs through the Huachuca Mountains. Its pronounced WA-CHEW-KA. Not HUE-WAY-SHA. The locals laugh at you if you say it like that. O, and I didn't bring my camera, so the one above is a random one I found on google, but it's accurate.