What I and this page is about

Greetings, I am JB and I am a field biologist working in the Northen Great Plains(NGP) of North America. I originate from the east coast of the US and moved into the NGP over a decade ago. I have a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Science and slowly working on one in Rangeland Science. I like to camp and hike when I can. Avid supporter of public lands. My goal is to share information about conservation work in the NGP and what it is like working as a field biologist.

What are the Northern Great Plains(NGP)?

This is an area of North America that includes the grassland habitats in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and stretches into Canada. My work is mostly in the US but wouldn't pass on an opportunity to do work in Canada's grasslands either.

Per the figure below, I work predominantly in the G and F regions. G is going to be more where the sage steppe and mixed grass prairies are. The F region is predominantly what is called the Prairie Potholes region. A big designation between the two is F is glaciated plains while G is not glaciated plains. I'll fill in more details in blog posts and across the site.

A USGS Map of the MLRAs in Northern Great Plains — A USGS map showing the Major Land Resource Areas that encompass the Northern Great Plains

What is a field biologist

Field biologist does most of their work in field doing surveys, assessments, and collecting various forms of data. My primary foci is botanical and avian field work. I collect plant data to asess rangeland health and avian habitat. I collect avian data through visual and sound based surveys.

Spotting scope behind a small pickup looking at a water body for birds — Just a random field day, in this case out looking for migratory shorebirds