So far, creating a rough draft of a Baseline Inventory Report has not been to bad. There are some sections that I have not been taught how to do are giving me a hard time. I am trying to learn about where I need to go to get information about water rights on specific properties, and how to identify certain vegetation that we notated out in the field. I feel that it is better that I try to do these types of things on my own so I can become more independent in a professional atmosphere. That is wh…
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Added by Brandon Martin on July 12, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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I am beginning to make some progress on one of the final reports that I will be working on. So far, I have had to create a soil description, document photographic location, maps that will be included in the easement that will need a specific color key, and various other projects. The most tedious thing that I do not like to do is proofreading some the paragraphs in the report. This is time consuming and everything has to be perfect. If there are errors in the report, it takes away from the profe…
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Added by Brandon Martin on July 8, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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Here we are. it is already the 8th week and this internship is flying by. I cannot believe how fast everything is going. I am having a great time learning in this environment. This week I am currently working on transferring all of my files on my laptop to a desktop computer provided by Dr. Kross. This is kinda of a pain since I have been using my personal computer to do work on. Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed my ability to do things that are now expected of me having gotten a lot…
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Added by Brandon Martin on July 7, 2009 at 7:30pm —
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I have just received word that we are going to be working on an 8th property that encompasses 6,000 acres. This is by far the largest report and basically doubles the work load. We will have to divide that into two amendments which basically means two different reports. Since this property is in Morgan County, I will had to contact NRCS (National Resource Conservation Services) to inquire about soil maps. Morgan County has a different system for documenting the types of soil types, and this is s…
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Added by Brandon Martin on July 3, 2009 at 5:30am —
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This was the start of an interesting week. I have been having to do some different things that are more entailed with energy conservation. On one of the properties that had a land conservation easement created last year, I am looking into getting quotes for a solar powered water well pump. This is teaching me a lot about solar panels and how they are more efficient at saving energy. The hold up with solar powered is that it cost a lot of money. The solar powered system will be replacing a windmi…
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Added by Brandon Martin on July 2, 2009 at 11:30am —
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Out of the seven reports that are going to be finished in the next couple of week. I have made astounding progress on 5 of them by finishing, documented photographs, soils reports, multiple maps of the properties that describe (land elevations, photograph locations, existing improvements, etc), editing reports. There is a little bit more I need to learn before I have gone through everything one time. My next task that I am working on consists of editing Mineable Resource Investigation. This is a…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 26, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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Today I am currently documenting photographs of properties that we visited last week. When I was out in the field, I had a map that I used to mark a rough location of where each photograph was taken. I also utilized a map when I had to identify existing improvements on the land such as two-track ranch roads, 3-strand barb wire fences (abandoned or relatively new), local electric service power lines, natural gas line corridors, and other various items that are man made. Regarding photo location,…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 24, 2009 at 3:24pm —
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On Thursday June 18 me and Dr. Kross evaluated two properties in Northern Weld County near the town of Grover, CO. The properties combined has a total of approximately 1100 acres that we photographed. Access to the properties was limited so we had to drive an ATV in order to take photographs from every corner. The weather recently has been very rainy as everyone probably has noticed and the land is very green. After speaking with a few ranchers in the local area, they are saying the crops (winte…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 21, 2009 at 11:36am —
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This week I have been working on printing out "exceptions" for each property that we are working on a Baseline Inventory Report. The purpose of this task is to see if there has been any prior work done on the land such as natural gas digging, oil well excavation, uranium mining, fiber optic cable installation amongst many other things. An exception is way of separating a part of the land that has undergone and developmental purposes that will not be included in the conservation easement. When I…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 17, 2009 at 9:30am —
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Today I am currently working on editing a rough draft of the environmental Baseline Inventory Report. My process consists of using a template of a similar property that contains some of the same values as the property that the report is being created for. As I edit, I am evaluating topography maps that describe water basin information. This process helps me identify potential ephemeral water areas that could arise in case of a heavy rain. For the water rights, I am going through exceptions creat…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 12, 2009 at 9:00am —
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Today was the half way point of my internship with Management Network Resources. I just finished going through a review with Dr. Kross about my performance. I have impressed him with my ability to learn a new job and do it correctly the first time. Essentially, I have shown that I have great computer skills, enthusiastic about the job, interested in learning as much as possible, and other qualities he is looking for. I do have a tendency to ask a lot of questions in regards to what I am doing, a…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 11, 2009 at 4:52pm —
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Being fairly far into my internship, today is judgment day. All of the work that I have been busy was reviewed by reviewed by Dr. Kross. I have made good progress and have done a variety of things for 5 different reports. The items he reviewed are soils mapping, photographic documentation, tax and property legal information, and mapping of land topography. After inspection, he was happy with my progress thus far. There was some small detail things that I missed, but overall I did an excellent jo…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 9, 2009 at 4:09pm —
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This is the start of my 4 week and this internship is really going by fast. It feels like I just started yesterday. There are many new challenges that I am quickly approaching. At this point, I am transitioning from writing significant portions of the reports to doing research about land values, population growth, and uranium mining in Weld County. The research being conducted is meant to add more value to the reports and make them rich with information about the lands worth. The main point of t…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 8, 2009 at 1:12pm —
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In the past couple of days, I have been evaluating soil survey maps of Northern Weld County, Co. There is a lot I need to learn before I am an expert on this. Basically, the maps have numbers with contour lines that are labeled with a number corresponding to a description in a manual. The manual provides a thorough description of the soil composition, ability to sustain vegetation growth, livestock grazing capabilities etc. This comprises just one portion of the Baseline Inventory Reports I am w…
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Added by Brandon Martin on June 5, 2009 at 1:22pm —
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I am currently working at my internship right now on my lunch break posting a blog. My internship is detailed in the about me page. This internship is challenging because it requires extremely high organization skills and planning ahead. I am utilizing a lot of my knowledge from courses I've taken at CSU. I'm currently looking at soil survey maps that describe land usage from past and present. I have a lot to learn in order to master this internship. However, I am on the correct path for doing s…
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Added by Brandon Martin on May 27, 2009 at 1:57pm —
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