In my current position, I work with the infrastructure management division. While I love the work that I do, I have been curious about what kind of work other positions in the fish and wildlife do. I recently went down to San Diego to assist the San Diego Refuge staff with Latino Conservation Week. Supporting the San Diego Refuge staff was a great opportunity for me to understand the work that visitor services does. 

During Latino Conservation Week, I assisted their refuge staff with outreach to the community and participated in interactive events planned by their partners. I was amazed to see the refuge work with so many mission-aligned partners to achieve the same goal of encouraging people to become more involved with the outdoors. 

Growing up, I never really had the opportunity to get out and enjoy nature. My family had no interest in any outdoor activities such as hiking, camping or bird watching. I wasn’t able to have these experiences until I became an adult and sought them out myself. To be able to help with this event and encourage other people to try to become more involved with nature and come out to the San Diego Bay Refuge felt rewarding. 

With my return back to Sacramento, I began working on cleaning up Region 8’s trail asset inventory. The trails inventory clean-up involves creating new trail assets for Refuges that have had trails for over five years or longer that have been missing from their inventory. For trails that are no longer in use, I will have to process them as decommissions. I will also have to update trails already in the database to accurately display the correct trail name, trail number, coordinates and construction material. 

This project ensures the Fish & Wildlife Service has the most updated and accurate data. In my role, I support Region 8 with data management, making sure the refuges' real asset inventory is correct. While there is no set timeline on completing this project, my personal goal is to finish it before the end of the year.