What do you do for a living?

[LCH]

Chiropractor past 5 years, own my own clinic, professional student before that.

Not sure I'd be brave enough to enter your clinic, based on your HT handle!

 

[backsmasher23]

Not sure I'd be brave enough to enter your clinic, based on your HT handle!

Chiro school softball team name. Your back would be in good hands.

 

[jquigley]

Marketing consultant. Mostly for healthcare companies. Looking to make a change though, hopefully something in Denver.

 

[Dave N]

All she will allow me to say is that it is on Sunday nights.

I understand. No problem. Too many shows to choose from, so her secret identity is safe!

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Got a business degree in college, and then decided to become a Soldier. 15 down, 5 to go.

 

[1_pointer]

I think that is pretty cool. I've hiked all over the Owhyee Desert down around the ION and used to think it probably always looked that way since the Holocene. Then I read that the 45 ranch had 5,000!!!! horses running that country and hundreds of thousands of sheep back in the 1800s. I knew then that there is no way the country could possibly look the same today. It made me wonder what the baseline really was and the species and quantities of wildlife that it once supported. I have the same questions about the valley I live in now in Colorado which, I suspect, had some awesome Ponderosa Pine forests before the rail roads, mines and ranches came in. I don't think the institutional memory of long time residents (rancher families) and the rather late invention of the photograph are much help. Folks like you probably have a more realistic understanding of what was.

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”

― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

What you just described is what makes what I do a bit tough at times. Hard to factor out how much of what is now present is due to past management or just how it's supposed to be. That said, you might find this link interesting:
http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

This will allow you to select an area of interest and then download the available data/reports. The Ecological Site Descriptions, if available, will have the information as to the best guess of what was present prior to European settlement. It takes some playing with, but the info should be there. Here's an exerpt from a report I pulled from an area in Utah I'm very familiar with:

Wyoming big sagebrush, Perennial cool season grasses, Forbs and other shrubs: This
is the Community that is described in the initial Plant List. This community is
represented with 60% grasses, 10% Forbs and 30% Shrubs. The dominant shrub
visually and in production is Wyoming big sagebrush. The dominant grass is
Bluebunch wheatgrass and the dominant Forb visually is Western yarrow. This
community is strong enough to only have around 12 – 18% bare ground.

The tables that go with the report will give you a better handle on the range of amounts for each species.

 

[Steiny]

General contractor. We build industrial projects; manufacturing plants, warehouses, mills, heavy machinery foundations, ironwork, metal buildings, concrete, etc.

 

[Bowhuntrben]

Bridge engineer

 

[James Riley]

That said, you might find this link interesting:
http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm

Thanks, 1_pointer. I will check that out. I think I'm on the far western edge, and elevation edge of buffalo grass and always wanted to know before making the investment. I'll see if I can figure that out, as well as some other stuff.

 

[Djfan]

I just left an 18 year career teaching. I now work in a data center. That is day work.

My night job is a wedding DJ since 1987 - www.anewsong.com . I'm thinking about returning to my first profession, and true passion, being a pastor. It's been since 1992, but I really want this to pan out!

 

[sneakem]

Project Manager / Estimator - Heavy construction, roads, bridges, large infrastructure.... and a photographer a couple of days a year..

 

[BigHornRam]

Living the good life as a first generation Bitterroot peasant.

 

[opyff]

Been a wildland firefighter for the last 12 years and currently an unemployed ice fisherman, unless I learn to walk on water

 

[JohnCushman]

I retired from the Army 8 years ago today

 

[----]

First picture is what I wish I did more of. Second picture is more of a reality. The third picture is for Cushman.

Those pictures explain perfectly why surveying was both the best and worst job I've had.

Right now I'm doing Lidar mapping for a civil engineering firm.

 

[ultramag]

Timber Sale Prep-Tech, Forest Service, I get to spend most every day out in the woods makes it hard to complain.

 

[Mthuntinfool]

Fisheries Biologist

I guess I should say that's what I do now, as well as a firefighter and emt. I have been a truck driver, worked construction, heavy equip operator, mechanic, ranch hand, and fish tech. Jack-of-all trades and master of none!

 

[idnative1948]

Hmmm, why do I recognize the hole in the ground in the second photo?

First picture is what I wish I did more of. Second picture is more of a reality. The third picture is for Cushman.

 

[fowladdict]

Hmmm, why do I recognize the hole in the ground in the second photo?

Anybody that spent some time at the balcony should recognize the hole in the ground.

All kidding aside native...good eye. Not very often an Idaho surveyor gets to work on a "high" rise. It was a feather in the cap for sure.

 

[JDH]

Project Manager for a commercial construction company.

I work in the repair department at a Caterpillar plant fixing things on dozers before they go to dealers. Anything from tightening a loose bolt to tearing out a transmission.

Dave, Do you put the tanks and enclosures on generators also?