Why Yellowstone National Park?
I was in a bit of a pickle with a different job that couldn't seem to make up it's mind on whether it was going to happen or not. I really wanted the job but it changed description and location and even the nature of the job a few times. My lease was running out and to stay even an extra month would have cost me more than double the rent and I had just left other job. I ended up accepting a seasonal position(basically an internship) in Yellowstone working with their bison managment program. I didn't hear about this other job until I had already started in Yellowstone. I can't deny there are times where I thought I should have taken the other job but I can't say I regret it. My work trajectory would have gone probably a completely different direction if I hadn't ended up in Yellowstone.
The job in the Park appealed for multiple reasons. The low pay was unfortunate but the was an education award at the end I could use against student loans. As a wildlife/field biologist, I stood a lot to gain experience wise. I was trying really hard to get out of education and trying to go from teaching to doing ends up being more difficult than it needs to be. I wanted to improve my plant and in particular grass identification skills. Bison managment in Yellowstone is one of the longest running and rather controversial programs in park. My previous field season was a pilot programs so seeing a long running program was ideal to round out my education. Lastly, it's Yellowstone National Park, who wouldn't want to live there for a season, right?
Something to keep in mind as your read through my experience there, I did this all the year I turned 40. From a career and life standpoint, it was "pivotal" in many ways. It was by far the most challenging work I've ever done, physically and mentally. Am I glad I did it? Maybe, I debate this a lot. I learned a lot and it certainly shifted my career towards rangeland science over wildlife. Was it worth the blood, sweat, and tears? One day I'll decide on the answer to this. Do I regret it, not at all.
What did I do there?
The TL;DR: I chased around the ungulates in the park, collected fecal samples, counted plants, and hauled survey equipment.
The finer details will be filled in more over time. The project is an ongoing grazing study that helps the park biologists determine the carrying capacity for bison in the park. This is how they determine the herd size the park can support. It was sampling locations across the primary bison areas in the park where we collected plant data via a few different sampling methods. Exclosures were used to keep the Bison out, the movable variety of these were made with rebar. There is also a project to be able to ship out bison as an alternate way to control the population in the park. It also tracks other ungulates: mule deer, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep. There was an entire project that did just the elk.