The most important thing I learned during my field study in Yellowstone was how to network and work with others. This applies to work with my professors, my peers, and people we met along the way! Every time we met with someone in the field they said that the most important thing to getting your…

I went to my first rodeo Sunday, June 13th! I was super excited to be at such a culturally significant event in the west. It was very impressive to watch and see how difficult it is to be in the rodeo. At the same time, I had a hard time watching people use animals for…

We’ve been learning about the wild horse population in the Bighorn Basin. After learning about them and observing them in the field we spoke to a ranch employee about their overpopulation issue. He had lived with herds of wild horses to give mares birth control in efforts to control their reproduction. One of the strategies…

One difficult thing to understand in Wyoming culture is the differences in political views. While never talked about explicitly, I’ve pick up on passing comments about the political climate and hear more conservative perspectives. Employees at the ranch have talked about how much they value the environment, it’s their life. Currently, the conservative side is…

I hope to grow personally and professionally through this program by being immersed in nature and learning from primary examples of ecological and geological concepts. Upon arriving at the ranch that we are staying on we were told the dinner rules are no hats, no phones, no pajamas. This was surprising to all of us…