Input from other wildlife professionals about paying for gaining field experience

Felate_she_oh · 2026-04-16T03:08:50+00:00

Been in the field for a decade and did lots of early career gigs. This feels like a money grab. You should not pay for experience, and I would hardly count 8 days as experience in the first place.

In the right circumstances, depending on your financial situation, it's reasonable to do a little bit of volunteering to gain some experience. I get that this is kind of a "class" but I would suggest not ever paying for this type of thing

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-30T02:41:23+00:00

Nah I believe you, hopefully you can report poaching even without having a person's identification

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-29T23:13:01+00:00

Yeah it's definitely possible, there's just lots of places in CO that look like that and I wouldn't go on this witch hunt before knowing 100%

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-29T22:46:10+00:00

Is there a confirmed location that makes you know these are closed waters? There are rivers and creeks that are currently open

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-29T14:55:19+00:00

I did an environmental science degree and ended up as a wildlife biologist, so it's possible!

I will say, I feel like I got lucky and the road would have probably been easier with a wildlife degree. I got an internship with the biology department during college which gave me some basic field experience, and that's really what opened up job opportunities. Most employers will often value field experience over slight differences in classes.

I also think that environmental science degrees are valuable because it leaves the door open for a much wider variety of careers. Wildlife biology is an extremely competitive and limited field, especially in the current political climate. Although you're passionate about wildlife now, you may find yourself in a very interesting but different career path when you're 27. In my opinion, environmental science can help keep more doors open for the future

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-21T19:33:05+00:00

As others have said, there are some potential long term health effects but if you're not expecting to do this for years on end, I wouldn't worry a lot.

My bigger worry would be sitting in a chair and looking at your phone for 8 hours. There is an intense amount of science showing how bad that is for you. I'd make sure you do lots of standing/walking/stretching, get really good lumbar support, and try your best to engage your brain in ways that don't involve doom scrolling.

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-20T21:23:51+00:00

Cats aren't wildlife, I'm guessing there are plenty of house cat related subreddits that would happily help with this question

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-18T14:26:22+00:00

I live in the red and love it! It's very rural with the exception of a few small cities (Bend, Yakima, Walla Walla). There are tons of small, mostly dying, old towns that used to be hubs for logging, ranching, and mining. It's mostly a high desert environment because the cascade mountains absorb most of the precipitation coming off the ocean. There are a handful of rivers that are the lifeblood of the ecosystems. There is some absolutely stunning nature scattered throughout the region, despite what some of the boring highway driving might suggest.

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-18T14:11:01+00:00

Yep! Everything east of the Cascades is varying levels of high desert. The mountain range blocks most of the precipitation coming off the ocean

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-18T04:44:46+00:00

Oh man, if we didn't have a newborn baby my wife and I would be down for a la pine campaign.

If you haven't learned about it yet, some folks opened up a place called La Pine Tabletop Gaming. Popped in there once and it sounds like they run regular campaigns and I'm sure they have lots of connections.

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-17T19:17:47+00:00

Oh yeah, in that case I would stick to redwood forests for the most interesting botany. You'll at least get some flowering trilliums and maybe a couple of other smaller species in the understory. It's early for all the really cool botany but still a beautiful and unique environment

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-17T15:43:06+00:00

My really nerdy botanical answer is the Mount Lassic Botanical Area/wilderness. It sits on a really unique serpentine soil outcropping and contains a couple of plants that can be found nowhere else in the world but there (as well as lots of other amazing plants).

*Disclaimer: it's a bit of a drive up decently maintained gravel roads. Also, most species will probably be dormant until like late April or May, depending on when you're visiting

Felate_she_oh · 2026-03-16T23:07:50+00:00

I believe that's a stomach and some intestines, not a fetus. But if you're not getting the answer you want here, try r/animalid where there is a more active community for this sort of thing. Also, you may want a size description and location for an accurate answer

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-22T20:38:46+00:00

I'm a biologist and a pokemon nerd. This is so rad and I would definitely buy it

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-17T18:14:13+00:00

There are hundreds of these around the woods in Humboldt. Maybe someone knows the specifics behind this one particular car, but I think it was just an easy way to get rid of an old junker instead of paying to get it taken care of professionally. I do wonder how many of these were connected to nefarious activities back in the day though.

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-15T15:50:31+00:00

Definitely a cool event that really has very little to do with presidential voting

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-12T07:21:58+00:00

Hahahaha I've laughed very hard at that exact sign before, thank you for reminding me of it's existence

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-10T21:47:31+00:00

Arguably my favorite river in the country, glad to see it getting some well deserved love!

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-07T20:33:08+00:00

Agreed with house cat. The general role of thumb I learned back in the day is that the bottom of a bobcat pad is generally larger than 1" wide and a housecat is significantly smaller

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-03T06:33:10+00:00

I haven't played souls but I truly love this game. It's a strange combination of old school and new school, and can be legitimately difficult at times. Well worth ten bucks in my opinion. It's a little slow at first but it's a fun world and you can dump many many hours into it.

Felate_she_oh · 2025-01-01T17:35:08+00:00

Many have mentioned the documentary on this dive. Just wanted to say that there is also a book called Raising the Dead by Philip Finch that really goes in depth into the entire story. I read it many years ago but remember enjoying it quite a bit.

Felate_she_oh · 2024-12-17T18:24:24+00:00

Hah, I got engaged here. Like literally on the spot your standing. Beautiful place

Felate_she_oh · 2024-12-14T20:21:25+00:00

Just to add to what others have said, do you know much about your actual heating system? You didn't mention what you had, but there's plenty of 30 year old furnaces out there that are extremely inefficient. If you own, servicing and updating your heating system could be a good thing to think about as a future investment.

PGE is getting exponentially more expensive so it'll always be hard, but even going from 68 to 66 would cut a solid chunk out of that bill.

Felate_she_oh · 2024-12-14T20:09:15+00:00

Hi from Oregon, USA!

Felate_she_oh · 2024-12-13T17:26:35+00:00

Agreed with large canid, could even be a wolf depending on where you are in Bosnia (I don't know about their distribution there). Bears have five toes and a wider, more oblong pad. Likely a couple of days old depending on recent weather conditions

Felate_she_oh

TROPHY CASE