View of Ketchikan (small town in Alaska), partly cloudy

This Picture is a great example of the weather in Ketchikan Alaska. A beautiful and sunny day turns cloudy and rainy, then turns back to sun. If the weather is going to deter your spirit, then Southeast Alaska isn’t the place for you. I for one have fallen in love with the ever-changing weather patterns and will continue to explore the island rain or shine.

My name is Mason Boomgarden and I’m going to tell you a little about my experiences working in Ketchikan, AK. I have spent most of my time working as part of a team providing Conservation education classes and opportunities. This has been in person out at Ward Lake and virtually to reach as many students as we can. One of our more recent classes has been teaching a plant press class to a local 3rd grade classroom over zoom. Below are pictures of the set-up process and getting all the plants over to the kids.

Any job where you can spend the morning picking plants and the afternoon teaching kids about them sounds like a dream job to me.

I have also been doing a lot of collaborative projects with my coworker Willie Smith. He is visually impaired and working with him has been an amazing experience. One of our monthly projects is to make a story for the kids during one of the Ed programs that month. In March my first time working with him we ended up making a video short story about caves and karst.

I have also had the great opportunity to get out into the field with our local wildlife biologist for some Amphibian Surveys. Here are 4 pictures and a video of some long-toed salamanders.

Lastly, I have had the great pleasure of doing an interview with Metlakatla High school located on an island near Ketchikan. Attached is a the video recording of that event.

The regular visitor’s season is rapidly approaching. If we open like normal it will be a whole new ball game. Full of new and exciting twists. If that happens you will learn all about it in my second installation of field reports. One of my favorite things about this job is being able to do and experience new things almost every day!