I made it back to Massachusetts this weekend after a couple of days of driving from the sandhill region of northwest Nebraska. I spend a couple days with a colleague exploring the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is a 72,000 acre grassland that is embedded in ranching country. Indeed, they have grazing leases on the refuge and do a lot of prescribed burning to maintain the grasslands. I will share photos and more info soon.
It was a long week, leaving Wyoming and setting up in a campground in Nebraska. My friend had a motorhome, so it wasn't exactly roughing it, but we had pretty slow internet, so I didn't get up any new photos from there.
I have a good bit to share about grizzly bear management in Wyoming, energy and wildlife interactions, water use, and of course the Nebraska stuff. If there is something you want me to prioritize, please leave a comment.
On Friday the 5th, I'm heading to the 25th annual conference of The Wildlife Society. My term as President will end during the conference, but I've got a couple of days of meetings of our governing Council to run over the weekend and then a bunch of duties every day during the conference, highlighted by giving out our awards and introducing our daily plenary sessions.
I'll also try to post some highlights from the conference as time allows. Once I get back, after the 12th, I'll get caught up on all the material from the trip west and update new activities, too.
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| A view of the landscape of western Nebraska. |
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| Sunset from the campground south of Valentine, NE. |
