01 Jun It’s going down, im yelling timber – Marshall D. Morgan

Hi everyone & greetings from the Flagstaff Area National Monuments!

I just completed my first full week of interning and what an amazing and event filled week it was! I have been getting to know many of the personal and volunteers that work at the three monuments, and everyone has been so amazing and friendly! I was definitely worried before starting my internship as I did know what to expect from my coworkers and the work culture but its been so amazing!

Other than having the opportunity to start building relationships with the amazing people with the National Monuments, this week I had the opportunity to experience some of the strongest winds that the Flagstaff Area has had in recent years! I was actually working in the field the day that we had these strong winds of 50+ mph so it was quite amazing to see how the monument operations adjusted to account for this. For instance as a result of the strong winds we had three different trees block portions of trails after falling or snapping. Fortunately, no visitor or personal were injured as we took preventative measures to ensure the safety of everyone in the park. Additionally, within the hour of the trees falling, there was already park personal safely cutting the tree to ensure that the park operations would not be disrupted.

I was glad that I was able to witness the communication and teamwork among park personal, as it showed me what a truly efficient team can do!

Overall, I had an amazing week and I can’t wait to see what the next week might entail!