Rising from the ashes – sorry to be cliché, but it is quite literally true in my case. The Dixie Fire was extremely disruptive to my project and my plans for this summer overall. It was not at all what I was expecting, but I suppose it is hard to “expect” those kinds of things. I only got about halfway through my project before it happened. I thought it was going to ruin everything and I even thought for a second I might not be able to finish out my fellowship. I was so invested in this project and was truly loving what I was doing. Going to work in the beautiful mountains, surrounded by meadows and streams… catching little critters… it was a literal dream. I knew I went into the right field. It never felt like “work” to me because I was doing what I loved in a breathtakingly beautiful place. It was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when that was taken away.

Turns out I have some great supervisors, who reached out to other parks, making sure that

myself and the rest of the wildlife crew could still make the most out of our summer. So I ended up at Crater Lake National Park, another stunning destination. I always wanted to go to Oregon anyways! They immediately took us in and showed us the ropes there. I found it amazing how our neighbors at Crater Lake ran things fairly differently than we did at Lassen. Each park has is own unique ecosystems, but also its own unique way of doings things as well. Being exposed to multiple different management styles and meeting so many more professionals in this field was truly one of the best parts of my fellowship. I got to help out with a variety of projects (instead of just one) like meso-carnivore camera work, bird banding, and still did quite a few pika surveys as well!

A change of perspective

The more I settled into Crater Lake, the more I realized how lucky I was to be there. Sure, I missed Lassen, and my project because it was SO cool, but I got to do and see amazing things I wouldn’t have if I had stayed at Lassen. I made friends, I made connections, I learned new skills, and I got to know myself even more. I went into this fellowship thinking “oh this is going to be great professional experience” or “this is going to look great on my resume” and “I am going to get direct hire authority which is a huge plus.” While all those things are very VERY true, one thing I didn’t expect was the amount of professional AND personal growth I would go through. This experience was not easy. It challenged me in about every way I can think of. And now I feel SO prepared to enter the work force and begin my life long career in natural resource conservation. It is one thing to go to school and study wildlife, but it is a whole other thing to actually get to go out there and experience what it is like to work in this profession. For me, this fellowship has solidified in my mind that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I can only hope that future fellows have the same wonderful experience that I had.

I always tell people, field work never goes the way you want it to. There are always little hiccups and bumps along the way. It’s all part of the process. Science is messy. To be fair, this was a pilot project and we were still working out the kinks of the study design and feasibility. Making sure we had enough traps, enough people, enough time, enough data. It seemed like there was a lot to work out before we could get the ball rolling and actually start trapping animals. At the time, this all seemed a little overwhelming, like we would never get to the good stuff . Again, all part of the process, but it seemed like there were a hundred little hurtles to get over. Looking back on that now, I realize how small those hurtles were in the scheme of things. I was not prepared for just how BIG of a hiccup I was going to experience.

When I first arrived, our team went over the usual things such as safety measures in the field, always having your radio on you, and the potential that a wildfire could start near us and what we were to do in that case. My supervisor tried very hard not to scare little old me from the East coast who had never experienced a wildfire. We all thought, what are the chances of that happening to us? Its just something we need to think about and be aware of. I mostly brushed it off and focused on the development of my project.

The big hiccup

How’s that saying go? You never think it’ll happen to you, until it does? Well, it did. The Dixie fire was near by, and we knew about it (it was hard to ignore with all the smoke), but we didn’t know how quickly the fire would move, and eventually reach our park. The second it did, the park shut down and we weren’t allowed back in. All of our traps and cameras are still out there somewhere (don’t worry they were closed with no animals in them). Needless to say, my whole project (and many others) were put on hold, or completely thrown out. We tried to wait it out, hoping the fire would slow down and we could resume our work. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and we had to be evacuated from headquarters. I wish I was dealing with those little hiccups now.

A Light Through the Smoke

Not everything goes the way you want it to, and we have to adapt, just like the little critters I was studying. Through some amazing collaboration, myself and several others were able to relocate to the wildlife crew at Crater Lake National Park. I feel incredibly lucky to work at not one, but TWO National Parks this summer. I may not have gotten to “finish” my project, but I still get to write up what I did find and share that with everyone. This situation provides scientists a unique glimpse into how animals and plants respond after a major fire. It’s not often we get to do “experiments” in the field. People wouldn’t be very happy if we ran around starting fires on purpose just to study their effects. Ironically, this project was studying the interactions of climate change and disease in Pika. The climate change part became a little too real, but only emphasized the need for studies such as this. Perhaps this project in the future will look at the effects of the fire, and help us better understand how it effects already declining species such as the Pika, and be a catalyst for the protection of these beloved little critters.

Mornings are cool, quiet, beautiful….and wayyy to early. Alas, this is the biologists conundrum. The small mammals rise early, and so do we (at least I’m not an ornithologist). We set out for the day to check the Sherman traps we set the night before. Mice, mice, mice, and oh something else? Wait…no that’s just a mouse. Don’t get me wrong, mice are very cute (and important to our project), but could we catch something else pleaseee? We open up the traps for the day, now opening the Tomahawks hoping to catch the ever so elusive Pika! Most of the time we just catch chipmunks and golden mantled ground squirrels, which are an important piece of the puzzle too!

The Pika and Plague Project

You may be asking, why are we trying to catch these cute little critters? Well hold on to your seats, because this is a rough ride. The American Pika has been petitioned to be on the endangered species list several times – which is a long, complicated, drawn out process. The Pika are very sensitive to changes in temperature, thus climate change has been a major concern for these little guys. Pika tend to live in areas around 8,000 feet in elevation, where it generally stays cooler. With rising temperatures, they must shift their territories upward to maintain the cool temperature of the alpine environment. As we all know, mountains have a peak…so they can only shift so far. Their body temperature float around 104 degrees F, which is warmer than most mammals. This means if ambient temperatures get to high (not even that high, like 77 degrees F) then they can overheat, and die. Yeah, crazy, I know. And if that wasn’t bad enough – they are also threatened by the plague. The plague is caused by a bacterium (Yersina pestis) which is transmitted by fleas. The hypothesis is other small mammals that live is close association with Pika are transmitting the plague by bringing fleas to their nesting areas. Hence why we are interested in capturing mice, wood rats, chipmunks, and squirrels as well. 

It isn’t all bad news

Phew, I know that was a lot to dump on you, so here’s the good news: Science is amazing! A vaccine for the plague has been developed, and injecting animals with said vaccine is part of our process! I wont bore you with the details, but basically the vaccine contains a protein that encapsulates the bacterium, and helps the body initiate an immune response to fight off the disease. So there is hope! The vaccine has been shown to be successful in other habitats and species such as the Black-footed ferret and prairie dogs. Use of the vaccine on Pika is still pretty new, so I guess you could say this is ground breaking research *wink wink*. 

Alright alright, I’ll give you all what you’ve been waiting for: PIKA PICTURES!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: All animals were handled by trained professionals

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=d0181b2625e24a86b5c159919254b230