Training Week for the Hat Creek Youth Intiative

My name is Cody McCann. I am 16 years old and will be a junior at Fall River High School. My interests involve football, hunting, fishing and target shooting. I applied for this job at CalTrout again because I thought that it would be a good experience and it's better than mowing lawns all summer. Throughout the first week we had multiple presenters come out to speak with us about some of the projects that are happening around Hat Creek.We had Kit Mullen who is the Hat Creek District Ranger come speak to us about forestry management. One of the most interesting things I learned from her presentation was about the type of paint they use to mark trees. It is a special paint that the USFS orders and can only be used by forest service employees. If you are in possession of the paint and use it to mark trees without permission it is a felony crime. The Forest service uses this paint to mark trees and boundaries for timber sales.

We also had the opportunity to listen to Jeff Cooke from Spring Rivers speak about the aquatic ecology of Hat Creek and talk about the sedimentation issues surrounding Hat Creek. We took a walk with him to the site where the town of Carbon used to sit and he explained how the town rerouted Carbon Creek and the problems that the creek is encountering in its new channel. On the 4th day of training we headed to the Pit River Campground and Claude Singleton, the Recreational Manager for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), talk to us about the Fitzhugh Creek Project which we will be working on later in July. He also talked about the management of campgrounds and the history of the BLM. After the week of training I am really excited about the projects we will be working on this summer at Hat Creek.

(Jeff Cooke from Spring Rivers Ecological Services presents on the hydrology of Hat Creek)