Mad Dogs, or Englishmen?

  Fresh from a great season at Aztec Ruins National Monument (AZRU in park speak), I went into the fall of 2010 with a quandary.  It can be very hard for a relatively untried ranger to find a job, especially for the winter months!  It is an impersonal expression of economics that fewer people visit the parks in the winter, which means there are fewer job openings.  Without experience a new ranger often has to make do, be it in a coffee shop or as a substitute teacher!  I turned towards my first employer out of college...

I ended my time at AZRU on a Friday in August, and that Sunday I started a job as a crew leader for the Southwest Conservation Corps in Durango.  I was to head a small crew of contractors in a fire effects monitoring project, with the NPS in the west Texas region.  Basically we were on our own for 10 weeks, locating GPS markers and inventorying forest health.  My job was to guarantee the project quality, paperwork, and to act as a liason with the parks.

It was an incredible fall, hiking through four different parks!  Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns N.P., Big Bend N.P., and Fort Davis National Historical Site all had their own wonders to share.  Tarantulas and Tarantula Hawks battling it out in Gumo, climbing mountains in CAVE, watching Javelinas in BIBE, and eating Mexican food at a little hole in the wall at FODA.  I wore out a pair of park boots that season, and learned how to use a Triimble GPS unit to navigate the back country.  Marvelous!

Thinking back I can't begin to capture all the adventures, from sharing a dumpy apartment at Panther Junction, to a moonlit hike to hotsprings.


Special thanks to Christine, Sebastien, Kirsti, Dr. Faust, Sarah, and Christina for an AWESOME time!


Fall 2010

Southwest Conservation Corps

Four Corners office
701 Camino del Rio, Suite 101
Durango, CO 81301
(970)259-8607
http://www.sccorps.org/