About 8,000 carp or about 120,000 pounds of carp flesh were pulled out of the Blitzen during the annual electrofishing roundup with U.S. Forest Service-Malheur National Forest and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge staff in late August and mid September. The Forest Service has been working with the Refuge for up to 15 years now doing this project every year to help manage the carp population in various locations in the Harney Basin. These efforts on the Blitzen are pretty new with 2016 being the first year and the conditions were great; low water levels and great weather.

While the best case scenario is for all these carp to be processed into fertilizer, that wasn't an option this year so they were disposed of in a dedicated pit.

Gosh, it almost seems like a lifetime ago but we sure had fun at the fair. Thanks for sharing your kids with us for Baker Technical Institute's STEAM sessions. Dirt babies were made, the heavy equipment simulator was put to good use and we learned a bit about what it takes to be a drone pilot.

We also got to see kids test their luck with the carp toss and Darbie Kemper won a biologist guided airboat ride on Malheur Lake for her and 3 friends. We look forward to sharing pictures from Darbie's adventure; in the meantime here are a few pictures from this year's fair fun.

September was a busy collaboration month with the Harney County Restoration Collaborative, Harney County Wildfire Collaborative, the Refuge's Comprehensive Conservation Planning group and the Harney Basin Wetlands Initiative Collaborative all gathering for full day meetings. Watch for an update with what came from these meetings in the November newsletter.