What did you do?
My title was actually Range Technician. Field ecologist is a little more descriptive. But, essentially, I worked in rangeland ecosystems. I went out and collected field data on ecological processes, plant, wildlife, etc. I looked at grazing and the benefits or degradation that occurred. I’ve worked with ranchers and other stakeholders in various capacities. We supported the PhDs in these larger projects meant to benefit agricultural producers, land management agencies, and others. We published our findings in the hope that they can be shared with the public to improve how we get our food.
How did you find your way into federal service? Did you always want to join up?
I’m not a highly patriotic individual. However, I’m devoted to the plants and wildlife, who don’t have a voice in how we manage our lands. We’ve made so many mistakes in the past, and I wanted to play a part in making it right. I also just wanted some security and a living wage. Both of those are gone now.
What does this work mean to you? Why is it important to you, personally?
This work is highly complex and requires a great deal of critical thinking, everyone had their own speciality or talent they brought. It was really cool to collaborate with all these great minds, we innovated, we could operate at a loss when private industry can’t afford to. The science and technology we contributed to agriculture producers is so important, new techniques in grazing management can have so many cascading effects on the natural world. We developed strategies and technologies for producers, so that they can keep their farm, and ranch, and the overall ecological health was not degraded. Through our work, we were attempting to improve our food systems.
Rangeland is not just a biological ecosystem, its also socioeconomic. So many people throughout the world live and work on rangelands. Our products can help improve those situations. It’s all so closely connected to people, not just the environment. We develop methods for measuring the ecological health on our public lands. We created virtual fencing, so we don’t have to rely on physical fencing. We study long term ecological processes that inform agencies like BLM, USFS, and NPS.
I’m proud of the team we built. Myself and the other techs were all on probation. We were getting into such a great rhythm and planning everything, and running on all cylinders. None of this work happens immediately, we are talking about much larger spatial and temporal scales. None of this happens overnight. But I’m proud of the team we created. My supervisors and other researchers would remark that we had such a great team rolling together and the work we were doing was phenomenal. It was finally all falling into place.
What should be important about this work to Americans? Why does it matter?
It’s a complex question to answer, because for a lot of it, we don’t know yet! We don’t know what these novel ecosystems will look like. Climate change is affecting everything we do. It’s all important to the American people, whether they know or not. Many people don’t know how important grazing is to other wildlife. Grassland birds have seen a population net loss of 750 million, and a lot of that is due to land conversion (farming), land development (housing), and overgrazing. If a rancher can’t make a living, they’re going to sell their land. That could be developed or broken out into cropland, and that’s a bad thing. Our products assist the working producer to be more efficient but also be less impactful on their land. Once that land gets past a certain threshold, it’s going to stay like that through our lifetime. Birds benefit from large intact rangeland, not little patches here and there. They need millions of acres of healthy grasslands. The more we fragment and sell off grazing lands, the more that impacts wildlife.
What does all of this chaos and dysfunction mean to you? Do you have a sense of how it’s all going to impact the work and the mission?
The researchers here have been really amazing. A lot of us have been lucky to find a part-time gig, but it’s at lower pay, with no benefits, and only temporary. I kinda saw the signs. I started applying to jobs upon the first “fork in the road” email. I wasn’t gonna take that bullshit offer, but I held out hope that we wouldn’t get fired, too. I’ve lost jobs before, and felt I should get a head start. I’ve got another seasonal job lined up doing ecological monitoring for a non profit. But that only lasts until January. I’m not sure if my 45-year old body can handle it. I am more concerned about the long-term career aspects. The administration has been working on gutting so many environmental laws that there may be no use for anyone in natural resources. Maybe, I could have a career in consulting for mines and other extractive industries? Shit is dark.
The one thing I am struggling with: how do I go forward and work with Trump supporters, who probably make up the majority of ranchers? They’re hurting themselves because of some grifter who makes up lies about who to “hate”. I don’t know if I want to be “civil” with the fuckers who made me unemployed.
But ultimately, I need to get over that. Birds don’t fucking vote.
GOLIKEHELLMACHINE 