Coming back, I realized how thankful I am to have a family that cares and supports me in every way. Moving out of here was harder than I expected – the pandemic surge has shifted much of our work onto the computer. As a result, I tend to stay most of my days inside my apartment. While I was eager to make a living on my own, the feelings of loneliness crossed my mind more often than not. Luckily, I have friends back home to call or chat with to keep my mind busy. Nevertheless, coming home was a blast! I had a lot of fun making tamales and pozole for Christmas and catching up with my family.

We’re just coming out of the holidays and are getting back into the grind once again! Work before and after the holidays are a bit slow, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have field days to go to!

This week, I met with Alex (the other hydrologist of the group) about collecting our stream data along Cave Creek, located on the southwest Tonto NF. Along the stream, there are gauges drilled into the bedrock that collect river data like turbidity and velocity. We can also collect the relative water level at the time of collection. While the forecast called for cloudy weather for the day, the rain made itself present while we were taking stream measurements! It was a nice, cool day regardless, and it was nice to catch up with my coworker after many weeks of teleworking. Hopefully more field days are coming as the weather starts to warm up soon!

Agency: U.S Forest Service

Program: Resource Assistant Program (RAP)

Location: Tonto National Forest