With a sigh of relief, post-fire monitoring for our crew finally came to an end when I finished and closed the final report. The field monitoring portion had ended a couple of weeks before, and since then we had been trudging through data entry and report compiling. For me at least, “trudging” is putting it lightly. I seek out jobs with strong field components for a reason, and working 10 hours a day on a computer is really not my thing. I know data reports are crucial components to the whole process, and I am grateful to be a part of it: learning, contributing, chiseling away at my character building, etc… but future cubicle mates be warned, grumpiness may ensue (keep snacks handy).

Let us reminisce:

Hauling gear back from a site early in the season

For our last fire monitoring field day, our dwindling crew set out to tackle the Spring fire. It was a cool and very windy day. As you can see in the photo, I was a little chilled.

It was an easy plot to monitor, and an uncomfortable hike in. This was due to the overwhelming amount of cheatgrass. Unfortunately, our monitoring job is easier when there is less plant diversity, and the cheatgrass gets in my socks and drives me crazy (see Ode to Cheatgrass).

Fortunately, we had the Halloween tree to protect us from the cheatgrass…

And loving, charred trees…

On to other projects!

orps

Carson City, BLM

Alas, it seems that Jeanne and I’s tenure as CLM interns is finally coming to an end.  Overall, it has been a wonderful experience.  We have had the chance to see places in our expansive district that very few have set eyes upon.  Our fearless leader, Patrick, has proven himself a reluctant but well suited mentor.  We got to see petroglyphs, ruins, and a wide variety of plants.  In botany, my experience has been that there is no end to the learning.  There are always more plants to know, love, identify, and dissect.  Sometimes we’d stumble upon a rare or locally rare plant that I’d never encountered before to which I would react with glee, which I would then enthusiastically photograph.  And of course, since Patrick is among the best botanists west of the Mississippi, there were always opportunities to learn and identify unknown species.  A few new species (well, new to me) included Wright’s Dutchman’s Pipe, Echinomastus intertextus, Erioneuron spp.,  Thymophylla aurea, Haplophyton crooksii, Evolvulus alsinioides, and many others.  We got to see an abundance of wildlife; coyotes, two species of rattlesnakes, tarantulas, kangaroo rats, packrats, coyotes, pronghorn sheep, roadrunners, sandhill cranes, oryx, a plethora of insects, arachnids, and cows, and cows, and more cows.

~Co-intern Jeanne and I standing at the edge of Kilbourned Hole….

~Evolvulus alsinioides, just a cute plant I hadn’t seen before in the Florida Mts….

~Haplophyton crooksii, a rare plant in New Mexico.  Also hadn’t seen it before.  Also Floridas….

~Aristolochia wrightii, Wright’s Dutchmans Pipe. A cool rare plant in its own right being feasted upon by some exotic caterpillary things….

We spent many hours hunting down the elusive and rare Nightblooming Cereus.  We were able to form a conclusion based on our observations and past observations that the cactus behaves a lot like many other desert species (although it’s a bit unusual for cacti) in that it periodically dies back to the tuberous root, and then periodically resurrects.  As such, even though it continues to be a rare species, it doesn’t seem to be quite as rare in our district as previously thought.  It’s also just plain hard to spot.  It grows inside nurse shrubs and spends most of the time just looking like a dead stick.  Although the flowers are spectacular I hear.  You would be lucky to see them as they only flower for one or two nights a year.  I haven’t.  Yet.

~Peniocereus greggii var. greggii.  Night Blooming cereus.  A big concern for the BLM in our district….

One highlight of the internship was two trips we took out to Lower Gila Box.  Trust me when I say that a visit to a riparian area on BLM land in Southern New Mexico is a thing to be cherished!  Aside from the very cool Native American archaeology we encountered, there is a hopeful reclamation story as well. Since riparian species of trees and shrubs tend to be short lived (cottonwoods and willows) the establishment of seedlings is important to maintain the overstory.  Until the early 90’s, cattle were allowed to graze along the Gila River in this area.  The cows ate the sapplings so the overstory was decimated.  But then the Lower Gila Box was excluded from grazing and the cottonwoods, willows, and sycamores have come back happy and healthy.  The LCDO office has been taking periodic photo points since the exclusion and it is quite a thing to see the resilience of Mother Nature.

~Lower Gila Box, lush, recovered, and happy…

~Some petroglyphs from Lower Gila Box..

~A granary from Lower Gila Box.  It’s in a cliff face looking down into a steep crevice.  Could be a thousand years old, but I wouldn’t know….

We spent a lot of time and brainpower locating, monitoring, and assessing phenology of target collection species.  We were forced to think differently.  In other natural sciences such as geology, phenology doesn’t matter so much.  A rock is the same rock whether it’s January or June.  Not so with plants.  We had to keep regular tabs on a variety of potential collection sites to catch them at just the right moment when they had produced adequate mature seed but before a gust or a storm dispersed them into oblivion.  Sometimes it’s a delicate gambit.  Furthermore, we found that among grasses, just because a species produces inflorescences, there is no guarantee that actual viable seed was set.  We found multiple populations of Setaria leucopila (plains bristle grass) but only at the last site did we find that it had actually producing viable see.  Even then, it was only producing seed at a rate of about 1 per 8 florets.  Nonetheless, our population was dense enough to complete a collection.  We were wanting to make collections of blue grama and black grama, but neither of them seemed to want to produce viable fruit at all this year in our district.  Down here in the deep Chihuahuan desert, we are very much at the mercy of precipitation patterns.  It was a strange year in that regard.  We had a lot of rain early in the summer but not a lot of great rain when we normally have monsoon season in early August.  And of course, our district is large enough where some regions got way above average rain while others remained deep in drought.

~Emory globemallow.  One of our collections…

~Baielya multiradiata; A happy field of Desert Marigold.  We made multiple collections of it.

As you might expect, we had the most success in regions of our district that had been blessed by good precipitation this year.  We tried to stick to our initial target list, but we had to adjust according to what we were finding, and what we simply happened to stumble upon.  We made a lot of good collections that weren’t on the initial target list but that still make good candidates given the stated goals of the SOS program.  There was one site in particular that turned out to be an exceptionally good collection site.  At Goat Mountain Allotment we collected Machaeranthera tanacetifolia, Panicum obtusum, Verbesina encelioides, Chloris virgata, Bahia dissecta, Bahia absinthifolia, Baileya multiradiata, and Sanvitalia abertii.  Not bad for a single location!  In any case, we were able to surpass our goal of 35 collections with 38 collections for the season.  And, there is a decent chance we will make one final collection on our last day.

~One of many cute and irritable rattlers we stumbled upon….

Furthermore, we were lucky to get the opportunity to improve our GIS skills.  For my Masters project I got to be somewhat familiar with QGIS but at the BLM office we got some good experience with ArcGIS.  We also got a taste of relevant policy commonly used around the office.  The work culture at the office was a pleasant surprise.  I immediately noticed a distinct lack of tension or drama in the office.  This was a sharp contrast to my experiences in graduate school, where there is a universal and palpable sense of quiet panic and pressure.  Academia is for workaholics.  I loved the feeling that I was actually done when I left work without some guilty pang somewhere in my psyche telling me I should be grading papers or working on a manuscript until 2 am.  And my God, comp time is such a wonderful, wonderful thing.  We would often put in very long days but we were also able to take a fair number of 3 day weekends.

We got to sit in on a number of NEPA meetings, a process that is both complicated and necessary for any biologist interested in a job that interacts with the government or in contracting with entities that need to comply with government environmental and reclamation policy.  Although my cublicle at the office didn’t have windows, I had the best views in the house most days because we spent a majority of our time outside anyway.

Jeanne and I gave a presentation to our office about the Seeds of Success program and why it is important.  I think it was well received overall because we got compliments from people in the office that I know can be harsh critics.  This is good because we worked very hard at putting it together.  After it was over, I was sad to realize that our time at the office is coming to an end very quickly.

Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly what the future holds for me but there are, at least, opportunities out there.  It makes me anxious sometimes to not know what is next, but I’m getting used to uncertainty and I realize that sooner or later some sort of stability will happen if I can just keep my head down and do a job as well as I can wherever I find myself.  But working as a CLM intern has been an unforgettable and priceless learning experience.  Much thanks to Krissa, I hope for nothing but the best for my CLM compatriots out there and I hope you never lose the passion that got you into this game from the beginning.  Nature is awesome.

Best wishes to you all,

David Morin

Las Cruces District Office of the BLM

~Pectis papposa, Lemoncillo.  We made a collection of this plant.  Perhaps the most lovely smelling of any plant I know.  Definitely top 5.  It smells like a mixture of lemon, anise, and bubble gum.  It sounds weird, but it’s actually quite pleasant….

One of the great things about the Eugene BLM office is the amount of collaboration that goes on between our office and other nearby agencies, conservation groups, universities, and community members. I truly believe that this level of collaboration, and sharing of resources is vital to successful restoration now and in the future. Over the past few weeks, I got a chance to see this collaboration in action.

Lomatium nudicaule

Instead of office work, I got to work in collaboration with the City of Eugene to help create a handful of native seed mixes for use on several nearby restoration sites, and an ongoing research project at the University of Oregon. Two other women and I spent 3 days measuring and mixing this commonwealth of seeds for dispersal on wetlands and upland habitats all across West Eugene.

The Seed Castle

The so called Seed Castle, where we did our mixing, is a dilapidated old wooden warehouse in the middle of an industrial park. From the outside you would never guess that within it’s aging walls are hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of native graminoid and wildflower seeds.

With a stockpile of seeds this large, it’s hard not to appreciate the sheer magnitude of kick-ass native plant potential in this one room. Even with my limited experience growing and collecting native seed, I was awe-struck by not only the volume of seeds, but also the diversity of species. There is something truly amazing about being elbow deep in a bag full of Lomatium nudicaule seed that made the journey all the way from wild collection in a nearby remnant prairie, into a seed increase bed at a local native plant nursery, through an intense cleaning process, and finally back into the hands of the ecologists and botanists who will plant them into the threatened habitats they started in.

As October comes to an end, we are collecting more seeds than ever before as we continue to travel the east coast. On our last trip, my crew member and I made 37 collections! Space in the seed room is getting a bit tight.

Seed room at NCBG

We had the opportunity to collect some really awesome things, like Opuntia humifusa, prickly pear!

Opuntia humifusa from Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, MD

And we got a closer look at the wild ponies of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

Pony at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

We spent most of the time on the coast, so the sites were all amazing.

Horns Point Laboratory, MD

Mason Neck State Park, VA

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, VA

Since the days are getting shorter, we get to see the sun both rise and set, and they have been spectacular!

Sunrise at Virginia Beach

Sunset at Mason Neck State Park, VA

Sunset at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, VA

Cheers!

Lauren

Fall has arrived, and so have the collections we’ve been waiting so long to make! We first saw Baccharis halimifolia start to flower 6-8 weeks ago, but just last week we were able to make our first – and second – and third collection with ease. This species produces wind-dispersed seeds, which is definitely evident when you shake the shrub and watch the seeds drift through the air, blanketing everything in white.

Another long-awaited collecting was Helenium autumnale, common sneezeweed, which we first saw doing its thing at the start of September. The notched petals of the ray flowers on this wetland species are a dead giveaway. That, and the fact that we found it first among Lobelia cardinalis made for a gorgeous scene around my partner Maggie and me.

Rhexia has also been on our radar for some time now. Probably longer than the Baccharis, since the showy pinkish-purple flowers have been visible from yards away for the majority of our time in this internship. The capsules, however, are my favorite part. They’re shaped like little vases, and when not filled with insects and their excrement, are full of the tiniest, tan-colored seeds that resemble miniature kidney beans.

And of course I can’t forget to mention Juniperus virginiana! Now is the perfect time of year to collect their fruits, as they are a vibrant blue color, not often seen in nature, and stand out among the green backdrop of foliage. They even smell nice! Some of the trees we found were up to 40 feet tall! Standing between these trees I felt almost as though I were in a Bob Ross painting! How many people can say that about their jobs?

Last, but certainly my favorite, was Diospyros virginiana, Persimmon. We finally found a population large enough to collect from, and boy did we! You won’t hear us complaining about cleaning this collection! I see Persimmon Pudding in our future!

Until next time…

Although my internship with the Burns, BLM is officially over, I thought I’d take a step back and talk about one of my favorite hashtags — #Fieldworkfails — since my last post was fairly reflective. The Burns District is located in the high desert, therefore it’s usually dry and crispy during the peak of summer, but every once in a while Mother Nature (or maybe climate change) decides to throw a curve ball. And so it was that Burns had a usually rainy July, which is likely the reason that Burns didn’t burn this summer. The district and town were spared from the roaring fires that claimed canyon city and almost consumed John Day. Besides keeping us inside, for the most part our fieldwork is not directly affected by rain. However, we did have a couple days like these:

Now, when you get a Ford F-250 stuck in the mud, getting it out isn’t an easy feat. These trucks are huge, nothing can stop me, run over all the things monsters!

See what I mean?

Immediately you may be tempted to rev the engine and push on through. DON’T DO IT. You’ll only make it worse and dig yourself hub cap deep. After taking a few deep breaths and a moment to lament, assess the situation. Depending on how deep you’re in the mud, primitive methods may yield results. Dig out under your wheels and stick pieces of sagebrush and rocks under them for traction. Then carefully work your way out of the rut.

This is maybe hour 3 of being stuck

If you’ve already dug yourself deep and the former doesn’t work, you’ll probably need more muscle and sometimes that doesn’t even work (atleast not initally). Pull baby pull.

After about 6 hours we finally rescued our truck from the cluthces of that soupy road and then got milkshakes as a reward. All in all the work of an intern is dirty job, but wouldn’t I have it any other way. With this post I bid you all adieu and much luck in future ecological endeavors.

-Jessica

After the threat of Hurricane Joaquin here in North Carolina, our seed collections were stunted for a bit as the rain started pouring down and flooding many of the sites we were hoping to visit. Luckily, for the past two weeks, we’ve still been able to find some beautiful ecosystems that were mostly undamaged by the Joaquin storms that rolled through a few weeks back.

This week, Jake and I did a short three-day-long outing around North Carolina and Virginia. We expected to not find much harvestable seed after the storm, but boy, were we mistaken! We were able to get 7 collections in 1 day at Belle Isle State Park in Virginia, for one thing!

All of our seed collections after just 3 days of being out in the field (notice the plastic bag full of cloth bags – a bag of bags!).

This past week, we spent a lot of time in marshes in particular. We first visited the beautiful marshy mud flat at New Point Comfort Preserve, where we found our first collections thus far of glasswort (Salicornia depressa) and Carolina sealavender (Limonium carolinianum).

We then went on to visit Belle Isle State Park (where we commenced the 7 seed collections in one day) to find beautiful marshes outlined by forests of Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and American holly (Ilex opaca) trees.

Belle Isle State Park marsh

The beautiful, blue berries of Juniperus virginiana

A sunlit boardwalk next to the marsh

Finally, we visited Vandell Preserve, where a marsh full of wildflowers and cattails has taken over the site of an old dam. There, we got to catch of glimpse of some very loud, swarming Canadian geese up in the sky while we collected seeds of hazel alder (Alnus serrulata) and small maid Marian (Rhexia nashii).

Collecting Rhexia nashii at Vandell Preserve

It was another beautiful week for us, trudging through mud and the mucky waters of marshes in the crisp autumn air! In addition to our collection success, we also just got word from our coworkers, Emily and Lauren, who are currently out in the field in northern Virginia and Maryland, that they beat our collections by a landslide…31 collections in 5 days!

Until next time,

Maggie Heraty

I can not say enough about how great my experience in the CLM Internship Program has been.  I had previously finished my master’s degree before starting my internship and desperately needed experience in my new field.  The CLM internship was the perfect opportunity!  I worked as a Seeds of Success intern at the BLM in Vernal, Utah.  I spent five amazing months collecting seeds from the native plants, as well as helping the botanists with other exciting tasks like monitoring & surveying for T&E species and floating along the Green River applying herbicide treatments for weeds.

I made so many great connections, had the opportunity to work alongside extremely talented botanists, and experienced what it would be like working for the federal government.  I was also offered a permanent position with the Vernal BLM Field Office at the conclusion of my internship and I accepted….woohoo!!!

Without a doubt, the CLM internship program prepared me for this permanent position by providing critical training working with experienced botanists, giving me the opportunity to learn different aspects of plant conservation, and allowed me to experience working at the BLM.

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity that was given to me to be a part of the CLM Internship Program.  It was so fun but yet challenging.  It opened up so many doors for me and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.  Thank you CLM Internship Program Staff for this unforgettable experience!

Katie and Mike perfectly express the joys and despairs of Spartina alterniflora collection. That’s S. alterniflora  and S. cynosuroides growing along the Leipsic River in the background.

If you are familiar with salt marshes, then you are familiar with Spartina alterniflora. It is the dominant grass (in fact, the dominant plant) of the low marsh, or the portion of the marsh that is regularly inundated with water at high tide. It grows 4-7 feet tall, with a slender, arching inflorescence that dries to a light tan color when its worm-like seeds are ripe. When you look out across a salt marsh, it is fields of Spartina alterniflora that you see stretching endlessly into the distance, as well as the high marsh grasses Spartina patens and Distichilis spicata. It is beautiful in the late afternoon light, and very smelly when stuffed into a garbage bag. The scent is sickly sweet.

My seed collection partner Paige and I usually spend our trips to Delaware collecting a variety of species in a variety of locations. The first couple weeks of October, however, was a marathon of Spartina alterniflora collection for a massive salt marsh restoration project at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Hurricane Joaquin and the nor’easter that preceded him did a number on the seed that was available– quite a lot of the seed heads were shattered by the time we got to them, especially at Prime Hook. Luckily, enough of the population hadn’t dropped its seed yet, and we were still able to make meaningful collections. With the help of three of our fellow MARSB interns and our mentor Clara Holmes (as well as the national Seeds of Success collection coordinator for a couple days – thank you Megan Haidet!), we managed to stuff 21 garbage bags with extremely malodorous S. alterniflora seed heads.

How many garbage bags of Spartina seed heads will fit in the trunk of a four door sedan? Apparently, not quite 14.

That may sound like a lot, but it will likely just scratch the surface of what the folks at Prime Hook are going to need for their restoration project. Even before Hurricane Sandy, more frequent storms and sea level rise caused increased flooding at Prime Hook, with multiple storms breaking through the dune line since 2006. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy widened gaps in parts of the dune system, leading to more severe flooding on the refuge and in surrounding communities. The result has been the flooding with seawater of more than 4,000 acres of freshwater marsh that was managed for waterfowl and seabirds. Prime Hook is now taking this as an opportunity to rebuild the dunes and return the managed freshwater marshes to historically occurring salt marsh, which should serve to buffer against future storms and expand critical salt marsh habitat. According to the US Fish and Wildlife profile of the project on their website, it is the largest coastal marsh restoration on the Atlantic coast. More information,as well as maps and some really cool videos showing the breaches and restoration activities, is available at http://www.fws.gov/hurricane/sandy/projects/PrimeHook.html.

Restoring 4,000 acres of salt marsh means planting an ungodly amount of Spartina alterniflora and other salt marsh species, which the restoration managers at Prime Hook would prefer, for the good of the ecosystem, to be local, ecotypically appropriate and genetically diverse. That’s why we found ourselves donning waders and saddlebags to repeatedly and very carefully trek out into the salt marshes at both Prime Hook and Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuges these last two trips. Armed with clippers and waterbottles, we fanned out across the segments of marsh that were accessible by foot, stepping from Spartina hummock to Spartina hummock. Walking through Spartina can be a strenuous, and at times treacherous, business, especially if the tide isn’t at its lowest. A misstep can lead to getting stuck up to your knee in vice-like mud, or worse, swamping your waders.

Not a great picture, but this is one of the areas where we collected on foot at Prime Hook the first week. In the foreground, the shrubby stuff is Iva frutescens, a common salt marsh shrub in the Aster family. In the background low marsh grasses Spartina patens and Distichilis spicata give way to Spartina alterniflora. There’s also a couple incongruous Phragmites (common reed) individuals in there, and some juniper trees in the background.

Thanks to the dedication and patience of refuge wildlife biologists Susan Guitieras and Dan Stotts, we also managed to get out into the marsh at Bombay Hook NWR by boat. On two separate days (Susan one day, Dan another) they took us to collect along Raymond’s Gut, which branches off the Leipsic River, and one of its associated channels. Our intrepid boat captains would pull the boat up into the Spartina, and we would furiously clip seed heads off anything within reach. We owe both Susan and Dan a huge debt of gratitude for their help and resourcefulness during this effort, not just for taking us out on the boats, but for generally making time to consult with us on our collection efforts and offering their help and advice at every juncture. Thank you so much, Dan and Susan!

Wildlife biologist and sage boat captain Dan Stotts at the helm. Behind him is a good mix of Spartina alterniflora and the taller Spartina cynosuroides (big cordgrass).

It important to note that not all of the Spartina that will be planted this spring will be from the seed we just collected – there is simply too much to plant too quickly, so they will be planting plugs of Spartina as well from another source. But hopefully what we have collected will provide a meaningful portion of the initial planting this spring, and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank will continue to collect for seasons to come.

In the meantime, Paige and I return to business as usual – collecting all kinds of different species from a variety of parks in the state of Delaware. More on that in my next post!

All information on the marsh restoration at Prime Hook taken from http://www.fws.gov/hurricane/sandy/projects/PrimeHook.html

We spent a day assisting USGS with their efforts out on Clear Lake in California. For several years they have trapped and PIT tagged adult suckers in the lake. The lake is a natural freshwater lake, but was dammed at its outlet in 1914 to increase its capacity. Around the lake cattle graze and it was a historical site used by the native tribes of the area. USGS puts out trammel nets, which are long nets that layout and act similar to mist nets, that are used to trap birds. When a fish swims into the net it creates a pocket and gets trapped. We placed seven nets and set them for 2 hours. For the day our boat caught over 70 fish, another boat caught over 100. Most fish caught were adult Shortnose suckers, we only caught about 4 Lost River. Each fish was measured, scanned for a previous tag, and if one was not found, was then PIT tagged. It was my first time handling adult suckers, work all summer has only dealt with juveniles.

Measuring fish out on Clear Lake

Lost River Sucker

Threemile creek is about an hour north of Klamath Falls and a few years ago Bull trout was found in the stream. Bull trout are a listed threatened species and are a char in the Salmonidae family. Since its discovery in the stream, efforts to remove Brown trout, an introduced species from Europe, started. Brown trout compete with the threatened Bull trout for resources. They were manually removed from the stream at first. Then electroshocking was used, and finally a chemical treatment to ensure no fish remained. We assisted with one last effort of electroshocking before the placement of large woody debris. These downed tress would be helicoptered in to create fish habitat, such as pools, and eventually level out the stream. Barriers were placed downstream to prevent brown trout from traveling back upstream. Once the woody debris is placed the hope is bull trout will then recolonize from upstream.

Electrofishing Threemile Creek

We spent a few days in the Gerber reservoir area searching pools for juvenile suckers. We used electroshocking to catch the fish and collect genetic samples. A small clip of a pectoral fin was enough to test for DNA.

My internship is wrapping up shortly with only a little over a week left. But there’s plenty more fieldwork planned before I leave.