It was a fairly uninteresting day today. Most of the day was spent studying to get my government driver's license, reading some literature related to some of the projects we will do, and setting up my Forest Service network information.
Ian and I did, however, get out of the office for a bit. First we helped a recreation technician, John, who has been with the Forest Service since something like 1987, by spotting for him while he felled a "problem" tree in a nearby campground. While we were there, I also got to meet some of the community justice crew that is working on a Himalayan blackberry removal program along the edge of the Applegate. A funny side note: Ian later showed me a copy of an article that had been written about the project; it talked about what they were doing and why and interviewed some of the prisoners that were on the crew. One of the crew members was talking about how he got there. His story went something like this: "I was on probation for aggravated assault; then I smoked a bowl and told my probation officer about it." Oops! He also went on to say that he didn't know why he was out there doing what he was doing and didn't care, but that was better than shackles. The journalist used some literary genius and said that the river was shackled by the blackberries... Later, we went to a couple of sites to check for snags and more "problem" trees that could be used to create instream habitat.
After work I went and checked out what is now a nonmaintained trail that literally starts in our backyard. I got some cool pictures, but I will undoubtedly contract copious amounts of poison oak.
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