The Shocking Begins!

Taking photos of our sites after we have shocked them for next years sampling.

A wood river scuplin!

This past week we finally started electrofishing! We went to Lake Creek and did some wood river sculpin surveys. The wood river sculpin is a "species of interest" for the Forest Service, especially in Lake Creek. Idaho has some odd water policies, so land owners are allowed to divert streams on National Forest land for irrigation purposes as long as they have a permit. We are monitoring the sculpin in this area to see how the diversion affects the fish population in the stream. Pretty cool stuff!
View from Steve and Bonnie's back porch

This past weekend fellow bunkhousers and I experienced life outside of work in Fairfield. On Friday we went to the local bar for some great live bluegrass/rock music, which proved to be a blast! Saturday we helped out a fellow forest service worker plant 200 juniper trees for a Wind/Snow block. He and his wife payed us with a elk and moose barbeque, beer, and bonfire! The photo above is the view from his back porch... something I could definitely get used to!

This next week we will be traveling down to Northern Utah to sample yellowstone trout, we will be camping out overnight from Monday to Tuesday. Then we will be back in our district to hopefully sample because the streams have finally gone down after all our rain we have had! Then Thursday evening Andrew flies into Boise for the weekend! Yahoo!


Hope all is well back home, Love you all!