Back in the land of the midnight sun

It's hard to say what has happened to my brain in the past 6 months but something sure has.

I made it back home to the north country after some intense final exams of which I am thankful for having had the opportunity to write as odd as that may sound. I was fortunate to join Sam in attending the US Forest Service National Grassland Manager's AGM at Quartz Mountain in western Oklahoma. It was a very unique opportunity to connect with my counterparts in the USFS and although we manage different ground, there were many things that united us. Obviously the biggest one was the use of prescribed fire. It would appear to me that the US is very progressive in their use of fire from ranchers to scientists to government agencies including the USFS.

We had the good chance to tour the Black Kettle National Grasslands and visit a research site where they have demonstrations of prescribed fire plots which Dr. Dwayne Elmore and Sam lead us through. I thought I was really going to get zapped by a snake there. Conditions were perfect.

A very early late night and early morning saw me hoping onto my plane out of Oklahoma City with the sun shining brightly but my heart feeling a bit heavy leaving my new friends and extended family in the US for my family, true love and home, in Canada.

I never expected the return back home to be as challenging as it was. I have been home for a month now and have been hastled by a few folks for not keeping on top of the last bit of school. Life happens and I am just now getting back into the swing of things - reading books again and thumbing through some stellar papers that I am desiring to read soon ... the latest flavor that I am enjoying on my mind is landscape ecology mixed with heterogeneity. I may have gotten bitten by a bug that is thinking that those are some key words to carry us forward into the future.

To say that I am continually challenged with the search for science to support management decisions does not quite hit it. How can we be expected to appropriately, effectively and efficiently manage the land remotely? What happens when we place economics over biologic and ecologic principles, demands, desires and needs? Consumerism, materialism, over indulgence, greed, a society so dependent on buy and use without care - that is where I find myself and as sick as it makes me, I am my own worst enemey driving a vehicle again (after 4 months without it), cooking and heating with natural gas and realizing that I am surrounded by petroleum products.

The Horn River play continues to fuel the world around me up here and I struggle without knowing what the baseline data for our water, air, vegetation and wildlife communities are. If I am consuming beyond my needs and drawing on the products that are being extracted from the shale in the earth's core up here, how can I possibly expect to be part of a solution?

Perhaps this may all sound far from range management and statistical analysis but after reading Holechek's range management text book (every single word from front to back), I take away with me the emphasis that he and others are placing on rangelands to help provide for our future generations. And part of that is maintaining biodiversity - clean water or even just plain old water. I resist becomming a paper pusher because I believe we all have a vital role to play in the future of our land. Aware that naivete runs rampant through my veins, I know what I propose is a task that consumes more than myself.

So for now - I look to the wildfire management branch, to the ecosystem restoration team leaders, to my research team and our BC wide project, to my guidance at Oklahoma State, Range Branch and to my family - my mum and Trevor - to help us through this research that I believe in, which I vision will provide information for appropriate, effective and efficient management of the natural resource. Like the famous Red Green says: "we're all in this together ... keep your stick on the ice." This one's for you Brent Bye - Senior Protection Officer, Prince George Fire Center - a friend of fire, a man with guts and one hell of a friend!