They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, and set you free.: Field Work

A couple months ago I met with a professor at CSU named Stewart Breck after hearing that he had given a presentation on Urban Coyote Conflicts to the student chapter of The Wildlife Society (TWS). I had really wanted to attend the talk but Josey and I had agility classes going on at the time so he agreed to meet with me after the fact to pick his brain about things I could start doing to gain experience while I earn my undergrad in Wildlife Biology.

Stewart pointed me in the direction of a camera study project in Fort Collins' Pineridge Natural Area. A set of 6 wildlife cameras had been set up in this area to help a 6th grade science class at Boltz Middle School here in Fort Collins with their unit on ecology. The project's funding was coming to an end for the professor and undergrad students at CSU and TWS was looking to take on the project, but needed someone to act as a project manager - BAM! Really psyched to have been named the chair of the TWS camera study committee.

One of the camera boxes in Pineridge

Things are winding down with the study at the moment, but I've had my first exposure sorting the photos from the cameras, helping out teaching the kids at Boltz and best of all, early last week Joes and I got to go into the field on an awesome snowy Colorado day to take down all the cameras for the year - MY FIRST DAY OF FIELD WORK. As Joes and I trudged around the natural area collecting the cameras I had this overwhelming sense of total satisfaction. It was massively fun and I can hardly express how excited I am to have found this path.

I'll certainly be writing more about the camera study in the future, and will try to remember a camera for the next field work day. In the mean time, check out some of the cool photos we captured!