Hi from New Mexico! 11 April 2001 Hello all! Well, I had a nice long 2-day drive out to New Mexico the first of this month. I made it all the way to Springerville, AZ by Saturday night (after 10 hours on the road!) and then a few more hours drive Sunday morning and I made it to camp. We are about one hour outside of an itty bitty town called Reserve, NM. Base camp was already set-up by the time I arrived...several Forest Service canvas tents that were meant for people to sleep in, but most people brought their own tents so they've become storage and office tents. We've got a huge mess tent to store all the food (to keep it away from the wildlife) and a good size refridge/freezer truck for the perishables. The main tent is called the circus tent (it looks like a two-top big top) where we have training, meetings, and generally hang out when it gets too cold out by the fire (which is fairly often lately). I live in a little two-person dome tent a little ways outside of the main camp. Almost everyone has their tents set up a ways from camp, which is pretty neat because it's like you're off camping, by yourself, but then you know that there are people nearby. We have a frequently used campfire in the middle of camp. Fresh water and port-a-potties get brought up every week or so (depending on road conditions). We just got our showers this past weekend. They're pretty nice facilities considering the conditions, although I have yet to take a shower (maybe tomorrow). Ah yes, the cold. From Tuesday through Thursday last week we all went through intense Wilderness First Response training which was lots of fun. The days were fairly warm (only one layer of clothes generally, sometimes two), but the nights and mornings were cold! Well, last Thursday it started to rain about midday and turned to snow (yes snow) by about 7pm. It snowed/rained through the night and we woke up to a picture perfect few inches on the ground ...absolutely beautiful. Luckily, almost everyone had left Thursday evening before the snow so there was only 6 of us in camp to enjoy the snow. We got some work done on Friday, but also did our fair share of playing around in the snow building snow owls. :) We even watched a movie on our 9-inch TV. The snow was melted enough by Saturday morning for me to get down the mountain in my little Neon (we're at about 8000-9000ft elevation) and all the way to Las Cruces to visit a friend for the weekend. It was a nice little break...a shower, a real bed, a pizza and a movie. :) Sunday night, everyone made it back up to camp and since then we've been doing all sorts of different training. Monday we learned how to use topographical maps and compasses to navigate our areas. Tuesday we learned how to do the same thing, but by using GPS units. Today we began learning how to identify aircrafts, plant and bird species. Tomorrow is our ATV training and the beginning of our owl survey training. Hopefully by Monday, if the weather continues to get better (which it's supposed to), we'll begin actual surveys. There are about 20 or so people out here. We have several field crew people who are here just for the 4 months in NM. Then there are the others who (like me) work on this year-round from various organizations. I am part of the supervisorial team, which is mostly the head people on the project from 4 organizations, plus a few of super-experienced owling people. I am also the youngest person out here. Almost all of the field people came out here from a previous field job. Just moving about the country (and beyond...there are 2 Canadians) doing field research. Organization is still getting completely under control, but we're looking pretty good. Shopping is done at Super Wal-Mart in Silver City (about 3 hours away, including the hour drive down the mountain). Reserve has very few amenities...2 gas stations that are open weird hours (often at the owner's discretion), a hotel, a bar, a grocery store, and 2 restaurants. So far it's been great. The people all get along really well, and it's great to get to know so many different people. We've got people from all over the States and Canada. Aside from my boss, I'm one of two from California (although the other guy hasn't been there in several years). I hope the Spring is finding all of you well. The best way to get ahold of me is through this email because we are trying to stay online for short periods of time only because it gets expensive and I can read these emails offline. We do have a PO Box in Reserve too. I'll try to keep you all updated as often as possible. I have a feeling things may get a bit more busy for me starting on Monday. I look forward to hearing from everyone! Love, Stefanie ;) top of page letters from camp