Back to Life
It was an unusually cold October morning, when six biologists woke up in the small Alabama town of Gadsden. After a hearty, southern breakfast of biscuits and gravy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Jeff Powell waited for the fog to lift and the air to warm up. The goal was to perform fish surveys at several sites in the Big Canoe Creek watershed, a part of a statewide effort to reintroduce imperiled aquatic species into the state’s most sensitive watersheds.

Desert Fish Habitat Partnership Receives National Recognition – BLM Fish Biologist Heidi Blasius Plays Key Role
On March 5, 2009, the National Fish Habitat Action Plan Board approved the Desert Fish Habitat Partnership for full board recognition. Heidi Blasius, a fish biologist in the Bureau of Land Management Arizona Safford Field Office, is chiefly responsible for this achievement. As the DFHP coordinator, Blasius provided the leadership necessary to develop the comprehensive Framework for Strategic Conservation of Desert Fishes. Not only is the Framework the vehicle by which DFHP achieved board recognition it is also the first cross-jurisdictional, strategic plan for desert-fish conservation and recovery.

Examining the Books
Who monitors and verifies that fiduciary trust standards are being met for the Indian trust? That’s the job of the reviewers and auditors with the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians’ Office of Trust Review and Audit.

Employees of OTRA continually look for Indian-trust assets that may be in imminent jeopardy. While OTRA typically weighs its audits toward financial data, it gears its reviews toward determining the accuracy of transactions or land-title updates.