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A typical day

In field season you are up before dawn for bird surveys, then walking transects with a plant list and a tablet, sampling water, or setting traps. You are wet, bitten and tired by 4pm. Out of field season you are at a desk: cleaning data, running statistics, drawing maps and writing the report that decides whether a road, mine or subdivision gets approved and on what conditions. Meetings with regulators and clients fill the winter.