Job Description

 I had an internship with KP Environmental in the summer of 2023. KP Environmental, one can guess from its name, is an environmentalist group/business that “specialize in understanding natural, cultural and physical environments, state and federal regulatory requirements, and agency and client needs resulting in focused, responsive, cost effective service” (KP Environmental). The project that I had the pleasure to work on for that summer was finding a suitable site for a solar panel farm in Tehachapi. 

While I might have joined in the latter half of the project, it was no less of an arduous task. The task for the field team, which I was part of, was to count the amount of Joshua trees per cluster. The purpose of the field survey was to help a solar panel farm company decide where to emplace their solar farms as removing a Joshua Tree over 5 meters would cost around $300-$500. These clusters were marked on a map using GIS. Not only were we counting the amount of trees per cluster, we also had to separate those trees from over three meters tall and under. Some clusters varied in numbers and were based on distance taken from a satellite image. There were clusters that counted up to almost over 200, so there could have been some human error in those numbers.

During the week as a field researcher, the group would form up at a designated time and location and discuss the plan for the day. The area that the survey takes place is acres long, and requires several groups to split off and cover a specific amount per day so that we could finish by the end of the week. After all the groups know which area to cover, the group leader or the one with the map would pick out an efficient route to take for the work day. Along the route taken, we would go by each cluster and count the number of trees in the cluster, making sure to classify the trees by height. The route plan, while logically sound, is only efficient on paper. Sometimes, there are factors that would lead to groups not getting to as many clusters as we wanted for the day, those factors being time spent on clusters being longer than they thought, taking breaks from the heat, or getting lost. Due to this, staying for overtime was common, often another hour or two. 

Conducting a field survey out in the desert for hours in the summer puts workers at risk for heat injuries, so preparations were made often before stepping off onto the site. Before I went to sleep, I would always make sure that my backpack had a water source, food, pens, and something to write on. After I woke up, I double checked my gear, put on boots so that no bugs or thorns got into my feet. Making sure to eat so that I do not become susceptible to heat injuries was an important part of the day as well. 

While out on the field, I was grateful towards the fact that I have done some military training before my internship, as the amount of walking in the summer heat would have felt much worse had I never conditioned myself. It also required a certain level of discipline and integrity to not throw a random number onto the paper when encountering a cluster that had too many trees. It didn’t help when there were trees that were missed due to their location among their floral peers. Not only was it difficult to keep track of all the trees counted while in the sun’s range, it was also difficult to not get hurt as Joshua trees are spiky. There were a couple of times where, if not for my hat, my head might’ve been pricked from the spine like leaves. The short ones stab right into people’s legs should they not watch where they were going, so staying aware at all times was a requirement to stay safe and perform the job well.