DOINews: BLM Nevada Highlights Multiple-Use Mission through New Employee Features on Social Media

"The Bureau of Land Management has more than 900 employees in Nevada, and each one has a special story to tell. BLM Nevada uses social media to share those stories." – Kaitlin Godbey, public affairs specialist and social media lead, BLM Nevada

Each Friday, the BLM Nevada now showcases a different employee on the @BLMNevada Facebook page. In a question-and-answer format, employees discuss their job duties, favorite public lands to explore and interesting facts about themselves. Through the features, the public can learn about the variety of jobs that support the BLM's multiple-use mission – from outdoor recreation planner to petroleum engineer to wildlife biologist – and get an inside look at the great people who manage Nevada's lands and resources.

Meet the first three employees featured on the @BLMNevada Facebook page and reposted to the BLM's My Public Lands Tumblr site, hashtag #BLMcareers.

Meet Kathy Cadigan, wildlife biologist for the BLM-Nevada in Winnemucca.

Q: How long have you been with BLM in Winnemucca?

A: 1 year and 5 months

Q: What made you choose to come to Winnemucca?

A: I graduated college in 2012 and was offered this job in Winnemucca. This is first position in my professional career.

Q: What are the 5 best things about your job?

A: 1) I am able to go out into the lands of the Black Rock Field Office.

2) There is something new to experience every day.

3) As a biologist, I get to experience many different types of projects.

4) I get firsthand knowledge on many different threatened or Endangered Species.

5) Working in the Black Rock Field Office, I get to interact with many of our partners and get to participate in many different events throughout the year.

Q: What is your favorite place to visit in the Winnemucca District? Why?

A: Colman Creek within the North Black Rock Range Wilderness is one of the prettiest creeks I have ever seen within the Black Rock Field Office.

Q: What is an interesting Fun Fact about yourself?

A: I began working for BLM in high school and have been working for them ever since. This was my first job ever.

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Meet Allie Brandt, geographic information systems specialist for BLM-Nevada in Winnemucca.
(In this photo, Brandt is working on a mapping project following a 2013 wildland fire.)

Q: How long have you been with BLM in Winnemucca?

A: I have worked for the BLM since 2008. My positions have included: Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Technician and ES&R monitoring Coordinator.

Q: What are the 3 best things about your job?

A: 1) My co-workers. I am fortunate enough to work with some really amazing people.

2) The rapidly changing/evolving field of GIS. I learn something new every day!

3) The opportunity to integrate GIS into other disciplines. I have utilized GIS in projects ranging from cultural surveys to compliance monitoring for the Burning Man event. These experiences have allowed me to learn a great deal about the other fields within the BLM.

Q: What is your favorite thing about the Winnemucca District?

A: The smell of sagebrush after it rains.

Q: What is an interesting Fun Fact about yourself?

A: I know Lewis Carol's poem "The Jabberwocky" by heart.

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Meet Whitney Kroschel, BLM-Nevada's NEPA technician in Winnemucca.

Q: How long have you been with the BLM in Winnemucca? What made you choose to come here?

A: I've been with the Winnemucca BLM since August 2012. I moved here from Minnesota and before that I had spent very little time out West. I was interested in the job opportunity and did not know very much about Nevada. I knew that by moving out here I would learn so much about the West and the BLM. It was the right choice, and it has been an adventure ever since.

Q: What's something that you have learned about public lands while you have been at your job?

A: Compared to the other states, Nevada has the greatest percentage of state territory managed by the federal government, i.e., about 80 percent of Nevada is public land. (BLM public lands make up about 67 percent of Nevada's land base.)

Q: What's one thing you want the public to know about the Winnemucca District?

A: The Winnemucca District issues the largest special recreation permit in the U.S. – for Burning Man.

Q: What is an interesting fun fact about yourself?

A: I was a NCAA Division II collegiate pole vaulter from 2006 to 2010.

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This Friday, meet another BLM Nevada employee on the @BLMNevada Facebook page and the BLM's My Public Lands Tumblr site, hashtag #BLMcareers.

By: Kaitlin Godbey, public affairs specialist and social media lead, BLM-Nevada
Dec. 17, 2013