LIMITS TESTING MY

Yá’át’ ééh, Shí éí Kaitlin Murphy yinishyé. Kiis’áanii nishłį. Kin łichíin’ii bá shíshchíín. Akot’ éégo asdzání nishłį. Tiis’ Tsozi nideeshgiizh dęę’ naashá. Albuquerque kééhast’į. Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge naashnish.

Hello folx, I’m Kaitlin “Murph” Murphy. I’m Hopi-Diné and I’m from Crownpoint, New Mexico.

I am a Biological Technician Individual Placement Intern with Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps (ALCC) currently stationed at Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge in Albuquerque, NM.

I spend most of my days as a member of the biology team at the refuge caring for trees and hanging out with birds while restoring native semi-arid grasslands and riparian forest habitat within the Middle Rio Grande Valley. When started here a year and a half ago, I had no idea just how far this position would take me.

Back in December of 2022, I was asked to participate in a pilot study to survey a potentially threatened plant species at Grand Canyon National Park. I didn’t realize in that moment what a once-in a-lifetime chance it was to take a river trip down the Colorado, but for five days in March 2023, I got to do just that. I tagged along with partners from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Hualapai Tribe, Grand Canyon Youth and more. We teamed up to search for the Las Vegas Bearpoppy (Arctomecon califonica) species. Traveling by both water and land, I saw over 50 river miles in the lower basin of the Canyon, including portions of ancestral and traditional lands of Hualapai nation.

Before my position with ALCC, I had never done an overnight camping trip, let alone spent a whole week backcountry camping in the Grand Canyon. This trip definitely tested my limits and literally put me right at the edge of my comfort zone. But traversing the Canyon and spending time with friendly strangers who shared good laughs and good food made the experience all the more memorable. Even now, knowing how uncomfortably cold I was that first night and how sore I was on the last day from scaling the steep canyon walls, I would wholeheartedly go back and do it all over again. If not for me, then definitely for science, and for the cute, fuzzy plant along the way. D