Sierra's First

Well, I finally get to post about my time at Harris Environmental Group (HEG), a woman-owned company that does... quite an array of stuff. I suppose you could summarize all of it into working with private companies and/or federal agencies to make sure they are complying with all environmental regulations when, as the most common example, performing new construction on a certain site. This includes doing fieldwork and collecting data on the natural and historical resources of the area in question and creating report after report after report to be submitted to the state government, each of which has a different acronym that I have to memorize. The most important documents involved include the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) and EA (Environmental Assessment), one of which is always used, depending on the likelihood and magnitude of the project's impact. The EIS proposes alternatives to the project to lessen this impact, and both documents allow for the government to decide whether or not to allow the project to go on as proposed originally or otherwise. The need for these documents was created by the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation the U.S. government has so far implemented, and one that I plan to research much more in the future. So far, I have been spending the majority of my time looking at old reports the company has completed to get a feel of the way they work and asking many questions of the several biologists and archaeologists here, each with their own specialty. I've also been enjoying our - guess what? - microwave and fridge! Yes, I have them too. I also have a plethora of different teas and a compost bin with worms and everything! You really can't beat that. The office has a nice desert-y feel to it, with an array of different desert grasses decorating the wall and all sorts of stuffed desert animals having rumbles on the bookshelves (not real ones! No taxidermy goin' on here, thank goodness). There's also some elephants and one tiger though, so I suppose the 'desert' thing doesn't really apply. Even more, it's been nice to have an occasional foster puppy roll into the room I work in (and I mean 'roll' literally), since the woman in the next room is a puppy foster mom. For a night person such as me, I've also been greatly enjoying the hours that are COMPLETELY UP TO ME. I can come in whenever I want, leave whenever I want, and I can even just not come if I feel I don't need to. NOT that I completely exploit that - I do quite like being here. And in the next couple of weeks, as I stray away from merely acquainting myself with the process and my work becomes more hands-on, I will be assisting with field work that will include compiling data on plant species that have been left to live after construction at a specific site. The company that was constructing will get reimbursement for each plant they left alone, so it'll be interesting to see just how well they did. Also, next month I will begin working directly on HEG's incoming project, and for that I am very excited. Meanwhile, I'll be tying all this knowledge in with research on the creation of all of these policies, the stimuli for their creation and the policies' original intentions, in case of significant changes over time that have occurred.

Until next time, have a lovely day!