Sunday, June 24, 2012

From the ashes, a new beginning.

Hello fellow readers,

I welcome you to my inaugural post of Summer 2012! I hope that you find this blog in good tidings, and that the start of your summer has been a good one.

Mine has been a bit rough - as I'm sure some of you that are friends with me on Facebook, those of you from Small Stream Salmon Fishing's forum, or those that just plain know me in person, might know. On Friday I had to say goodbye to my best friend and loyal companion at home, Blue the yellow lab. I have posted about him in the places previously mentioned, and I will not elaborate here. I will say though that I miss him dearly, and it was certainly strange coming home Friday evening and not hearing his trademark barking, or getting a chance to pet him as I approached the front door to our Portland home. An eerie silence fell upon our home the day we took him in to have him put to rest, and it will likely remain for some time. But time is the universal healer, and I know that he is in a better place as I write this. From the ashes of his passing, a new day rises, and better, happier times are on the horizon.

The last three days have been a bit of a whirlwind for me, as after tonight, I will have spent the last 3 nights in 3 separate beds. Thankfully, the bed I stay in tonight is one that I will be staying in for the next ten weeks or so. I'm sure some of you are curious as to why I'm writing this blog, so I will get right to the point!

I'm writing this blog to document my experiences as a summer intern with the Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (ODFW), in the Newport, OR district. I have decided to do this for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I felt that it was important to document my time spent with ODFW, as they are one of the big players in the state of Oregon for management of fish and wildlife as a natural resource. Because of this, they are a possible candidate for me as a professional career in the near future. I wanted to have my experience documented so that I can keep a fair record of the duties, job skills, and experiences that I have as an intern and to give those in my life who aren't always in touch with me a chance to see what I'm doing during my summer. Virtually all that I have told about my summer exploits have been excited and anxious to know what I'm doing down here. I assure you, I am just as excited! This blog will be a good place to find this information over the course of the next several weeks.

Secondly, for those who do not know, I am a senior moderator for an online educational sport fishing forum, Small Stream Salmon Fishing, known as Portland, OR's Premiere Educational Fishing Community (http://www.northwestfishing.info). Over there I am known as "Twise95", and I am the 6th original member of the forum that started in the spring of 2009. I was hand-picked by the owner of the forum, a great friend and fishing buddy, to be a familiar face of the community as I continue on my journey through college at Oregon State University as a Fisheries and Wildlife Science major. I have told the community what I am doing this summer, and I wanted to give all of the fine folk who are a part of the community - conservation and educationally minded anglers - a small glimpse into my summer, as I work hands-on with the ODFW in several fisheries-related projects in the Newport district. As they probably know, work that I will be participating in will be directly related to the sport fishing opportunities and projects in this area. Guys, this is for you! Hope you enjoy it, and you get as much out of it as I am putting into it.

At this point in my college career as I begin my fifth and (hopefully) final year, I am still a bit unsure as to where I will end up professionally, but I am extremely hopeful that it will be in this field of science. The one thing I love so much about anyone that I meet in this field is that I have yet to meet a single person who doesn't seem excited or passionate about what they are doing. That is exactly how I feel. Everything I've learned so far has been exciting and interesting, and I thoroughly enjoy my classes at OSU. This internship will be my first hands-on experience in the field of fisheries and wildlife, and I have a busy summer loaded to the hilt with a plethora of projects and experiences waiting for me.

My job details are long and likely a bit head-scratching to most of you, so I will do my best to explain them to you in layman's terms so that you have a good idea of what I'm doing. Anyway, here is a list of the basic duties I am expected to perform this summer, which I'm sure is bound to change:

"The ODFW Mid-Coast District intern will be based out of the Newport field office. Work will be conducted throughout the district, from the Salmon River down to the Siuslaw River.

The Mid-Coast intern will assist with a diverse range of fisheries management activities. Primary duties include: 1) operating district fish traps, 2) estuary seining for juvenile chinook, 3) electro-fishing for juvenile salmonids, and 4) monitoring anadromous cutthroat trout populations via snorkel surveys. District fish trap operations include monitoring wild salmonid populations and assisting with the summer steelhead fishery on in the Siletz basin. Spring chinook and summer steelhead are monitored at the Siletz Falls adult fish trap; as part of this operation, the intern will be trained in fish species and gender identification as well as genetic and scale sampling. The intern will also help collect hatchery broodstock and recycle hatchery fish to enhance the Siletz River summer steelhead fishery. In addition to these primary duties, the intern will be expected to complete some basic data entry and may have the opportunity to assist with site preparation for stream habitat restoration. There may also be opportunities to assist with wildlife management activities such as deer spotlighting surveys. The typical work week is 8AM-5PM Monday-Friday, but the schedule is subject to change. Students will be expected to work in a range of weather conditions, and often in cold, swift flowing rivers."

Whew! That was a mouthful. So to be honest, I have absolutely no idea which of these duties will constitute the majority of my work week. As much as I'd like to go into detail as to what I think each of these duties will entail to, I must stop for the night. My first day of work starts tomorrow at 8AM, and I think after tomorrow I will have a good idea of what to expect. It is nearing 11PM, and I must be going to bed soon so I can wake up bright-eyed and bushy tailed in the morning. I will do my best to elaborate more on these things tomorrow, and hopefully my supervisor will be going over a lot of this stuff with me.

I will leave you folks with a photo I took earlier this evening of tonight's sunset, overlooking Nye Beach:


I have a feeling this is a great omen of things to come.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!

><|||*> ....... ><|||*>.......><|||*>

~Teddy

1 comment:

  1. Good luck with your internship Teddy! I'm sure you'll have a blast doing all that fishy stuff with the ODFW. I'm looking forward to all the cool stuff you'll be blogging about in the future. Tight Lines!

    Shane.

    ReplyDelete