October 3rd, 2010

I honestly had no clue how these conferences go since I had only joined Wildlife Conclave this semester, so I counted on those who had been to other conferences to lead the way! We had all registered online, and so we went to check in at the registration to get our bags filled with schedules and other goodies. We got canteens and bands! Yes, we were banded like birds! I thought that was a really cute idea and the bands were big enough to wear as rings. We got down there pretty early, but we took time to find the cheapest breakfast in the resort and pick out which talks we wanted to attend. Each symposium consisted of 20-minute talks of related research by professionals and graduate students. I went back and forth between two symposia; Managing Human-Carnivore Conflicts in a Modern World and Implementation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Natural Resource Management. There were afternoon symposia, as well, but most of us wanted to take advantage of the nice sunny weather because the rest of the week was supposed to be cloudy and rainy. Another goodie in our registration bags were free tram passes. This resort where the conference was held is a ski resort, so there was a big tram and a ski lift. We took the tram to the top of the mountain, and we were all gasping for air! The resort is at 8,000 feet already and I’m guessing the top of the mountain is at least another 1,000 feet higher. We didn’t do very serious hiking but we didn’t need to. We saw some pika right in the area where the tram lets off. These big-eared rodents are adorable so everyone was trying to snap a picture of them. Other than that, we didn't see too much wildlife. Some birds, but not as many as some had hoped (the birders…I’m not too into birds). We had hoped to catch a glimpse of some mountain goats or big horned sheep because we knew they were in those mountains somewhere, but we didn’t see any this day. We had plenty of fun enjoying the view and the sunshine. We hiked down to the ski lift to get back down to the resort, but then saw the tunnel and just had to run through it (connected like a conga line, of course!). When we finally got in line for the ski lift, it started to sprinkle so I guess we picked a good time to head back!