Welcome to Sulfur Canyon! An area carved out by time and grazed by cattle in various areas… So majestic!!! ^_^

Welcome to Central Washington! A land carved out by the mighty Missoula floods 13,000-15,000 years ago. The landscape of sagebrush and basalt may look a little hostile, but with a closer look you can see this area is rich in life and diversity! Our journey takes us to an area called Sulfur Canyon. This land was named after some of the hot springs located in the region. Small ravines are found all over the landscape. These areas provide shelter and ideal growing conditions for a variety of small trees, shrubs, and many forbs. Some of the sagebrush found in the ravine have access to deep soils. This allows the sagebrush to reach heights of over six feet tall! Many deer, small mammals, birds, and rattlesnakes love to live in these small linear oases. Just be careful where you step, there is always something that might surprise you in this area…

Point and case. When you are traveling through the talus slopes or rocky areas along the streams, you may see a lot of rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis). I will name this one Big Hungry Joe.

Let us move to the top of the Sulfur Canyon area. You probably expected a vast canyon with shear drop offs, fortunately for us we only have small ravines to cross. No large canyon to pass through this time! Most of the land that covers Sulfur Canyon is called Biscuit and Swale grassland steppe. Ha, I saw that look you gave me. Yes, biscuit and swale grassland steppe. This is an unusual type of habitat. Notice how there are islands of sagebrush surrounded by lithosol soils? The “vegetative islands” contain deeper soils that allow forbs, grasses, and shrubs to easily grow in. The surrounding lithosols have very shallow, rocky soil. These areas make suitable habitat for the Washington Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus washingtoni…Genus recently changed to Urocitellus) and Pygmy Rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis). These creatures can easily make homes in the deeper soils and form colonies that are protected by the brush vegetation above!

Some biscuit and swale range in this area. You can’t really see it, but there are lithosols and isolated pockets of tall sagebrush.

Lithosol soil with a variety of forbs and grasses! A biscuit can be seen 75 feet away.

We have been getting a large amount of rain lately, so the forbs are absolutely thriving! Let us look closely at the forbs growing in the lithosols. These types of soils are very hostile for many types of large plants to grow in, but many other plants adapted to dry, hot, rocky soils can thrive for a few weeks. As you can see, the common plants that are flowering now are Eriogonum thymoides, Lomatium macropcarpum, Lewisia rediviva, and Talinum spinescens.

Lewisia rediviva: Bitterroot!

This is amazing!!! I never seen that much bitterroot in my life! You are very lucky to see all of these plants blooming. This would make a fantastic SOS collection when they go to seed!! Extra bonus, you get to see a biscuit mound in the background!

Let us head northwards to the Grimes and Jameson Lake area. The sagebrush steppe in this area appears to be very healthy. There are some thick patches of Bromus tectorum, but overall this area contains good sage grouse territ….. (rattling intensifies)

WATCH OUT!!!! Wow! That was a close one! Another rattlesnake. O_O We will just watch our step as we make our way to the lakes…We should also call this rattlesnake, Jörmungandr.

Hey! We are next to a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) nest!! Let’s check it out! Recently, there has been a lot of golden eagle activity in the area. Both of the adult golden eagles are soaring around the area looking for food. The little white fuzzball you see is named Boo. This eaglet is about four to five weeks old and loves to walk around the nest like Godzilla. In the afternoon, one of the parents come by and shelters Boo from the harsh sun. Hopefully, this little one would grow into an adult and become successful at life.

The little fuzzball in the middle, Boo, is exploring the vast world of its nest.

By Grimes and Jameson Lake, you can see a variety of wetland wildlife. Mainly, waterfowl and yellow headed black birds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) are the most common birds to see. You may hear a Sora (Porzana carolina) or a Snipe (Gallinago delicata) if you are lucky!! One problem this wetland is facing is the amount of weeds that are found in the area. Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica), knapweed (Centaurea spp.), and various bromes are the pesky ones to control. This is a very beautiful area to look for forbs and to go fishing, but you might want to check your shoes for Bromus seeds. They love to travel! >_>;;

Yellow Headed Blackbirds found near a rural farm in the area.

Dalmatian toadflax all over the freakin’ place!! D:

One moment! Let me get the JUNO GPS system out. One of my jobs is to record locations of weeds throughout the Wenatchee Resource Area. This data collection is for the NISIMS (National Invasive Species Information Management System) project and will help with future restoration efforts. Dalmatian toadflax is not a really good plant to have around in abundance…..(rattling intensifies)

Another close call! That rattlesnake did not want us approaching its home! O_O…okay seriously let us head away from the talus slopes…

Sulfur Canyon and the surrounding region has many diverse plants and animals as you could see. The BLM in Wenatchee are making efforts to promote sage grouse restoration  and to reduce long term grazing. The area that we are in is going through a few range land health evaluations to help with the assessment of the overall area. In the future, we are hoping that rare animals like the pygmy rabbit, greater sage grouse and the Washington ground squirrel will thrive here and spread to parallel allotments to increase their populations.

BLM Legends reviewing range land health guidelines in order to help write various future reports.

I hope you enjoyed this short tour of Sulfur Canyon! See you next time!

And now….. Your Moment of Zen….

How People View BLM Land In Washington

Wenatchee SOS!!!

Recently, I had the fantastic opportunity to help Reed with SOS collections! I got to collect various plant seed from species that were on a special list. There were four species of plant seed that we were after. Hooker’s Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza hookeri), bigseed biscuitroot (Lomatium macrocarpum), nine leaf lomatium (Lomatium triternatum), and a lupine species! One of the main areas to collect seed was the Badger Mountain/ Duffy Creek Region! For many hours, we would scan the lithosols for ideal seed collection locations. The balsamroot was easy to collect from, but you had to be careful not to launch the seed when picking the seed head. The lomatiums were pretty tricky and would scatter everywhere when you try to grab them! That was why you gently grab the lomatium umbels and tap the seed into the collection bags. We had a full collection of Hooker’s balsamroot today!! We collected a good sample of the rest of the SOS plants in the area as well. Reed would return and finish the collecting after the CLM training. Hopefully, I will have more chances to help Reed out in the future!

A bag full of dried Hooker’s balsamroot flower heads. About 30-45 seeds per head.

Hey!! There are some seeds in this one! ^_^

I made a new friend when seed collecting! It did not want to leave my warm hand. Its name was Ms.Nibblesworth.

NISIMS: Attack on Invasives!

NISIMS is an acronym for National Invasive Species Information Management System. One of our jobs we had this summer was to go to many BLM sites and record weed dispersion. Some areas that were near wetlands, overgrazed fields, burned areas, or roadsides were prone to having a variety of weeds such as Brome (Bromus) grasses, thistle (Cirsium), knapweed (Centaurea), and Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica). We would record each weed patch location on a GPS and take detailed notes about each site. For example, “The Sulfur Canyon drainage area in the southeastern quadrant has BRTE, SIAL2, and CIAR4. Dense colonies were dispersed along riparian corridors. Most of the soil was compacted due to cows. Etc.etc…” The data would be transferred to a State database within our resource area. This would help in the future when range land monitors evaluate the land and assign various control methods for the weeds.  This has always been a dream of mine in an internship to work with weeds and ArcGIS. Now I have the opportunity to see how NISIMS is used!

How I feel when working with NISIMS and finding a large population of a specific noxious weed. Time to record all the points and polygons!!! \(>o<)/

The Wenachee BLM does a really good job with weed treatment. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) was present in many allotments, but there was no significant presence of other weeds taking over acres of land. Most of the weed populations were in dense, isolated colonies that could be easily treated. There was a field of Dalmatian toadflax that paralleled BLM land. Hopefully, this area would be treated in the future to prevent the spread of this colorful yet noxious weed. Woolly mullein (Verbascum thapsus) was a plant that loved to grow along roadsides. Whenever we encountered it on BLM land, we would take note of it through NISIMS. Thistles were another common weed found on disturbed areas near water. Right now, many of the thistle species were in their rosette form, so it was hard to tell some species apart. When they flower, I could easily identify the species and record them in the NISIMS database.

Golden Eagle Eaglets: Ready For Action!

Recently, many of the golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) had become very active in their territory. The eaglets were hatching and they were very hungry. Most of the eaglets look like a very fluffy bird-poodle! They love to explore the nest and walk like Godzilla from one side to the other. A favorite activity of the eaglets was to take afternoon rests in the shelter of their Mom or Dad’s feathers. This sheltering helps the eaglets stay cool from the intense afternoon sun. As they get older, the parents leave the nest for longer periods of time. Our BLM district has young eaglets ranging from two to six weeks old. Some of them would not make the journey due to predation from owls or they might accidentally fall out of the nest. The parents usually guard their nest and always keep a keen eye for any potential threats. They love to stare at us or bighorn sheep for a short period of time. One of the historical golden eagle nest sites we found was occupied by an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) couple!! The juvenile osprey was so giddy about its surroundings, it was hilarious. The juvenile osprey’s favorite thing to do was to sit on the side of the nest and watch the violet green swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) fly by. Since the swallows fly fast, the juvenile osprey was turning its head very fast, trying to view each small bird.

In a couple of weeks, the eaglets would mature and grow stronger feathers. They would start to look like adults. They begin practicing their flapping and calls to their parents. Hopefully, we get to see them do it in the future when we revisit the nesting sites. Most of the bald eagles in the area were preparing their chicks for the outside world. Eventually, many of the golden eagles will be doing the same thing.

You should never do an eagle survey like this when the adult golden eagles are around. It is safer to view them from a distance with a viewing scope.

This is a lot safer way to view golden eagles. Some sites it is really hard to view the nest because of the sun angle and heat. I had to improvise my posture in order to see a cliff nest. Do this for three to four hours a day and you will become a legend for being patient….man do I look awkward. Haha!

GeoBOB…Frustrations and Celebrations Unite!

Another GPS program we were working on beyond NISIMS was the dreadful GeoBOB. (One person in the crowd boos) Now, now, this program had brought a lot of frustration, but it was usually followed by celebration. There would always be some glitch or kink in the system, which complicated different checkouts and check ins of field collected data. When we actually got the program to function properly, we were rewarded with accurate GPS data that was recorded out in the field. The data would be processed and turned to Spokane for further data entry. A few months ago, we had training in Vale, Oregon on GeoBOB. All of the BLM Legends and CLM interns had to figure out how to work with this complex program. Two days of training allowed us to understand how to work with this software. Eventually with practice, this GPS software program helped us many times when recording golden eagle activity. In the future, we plan on using GeoBOB to record Washington Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus washingtoni) activity.

Time for Some CLM Q&A!!!!!

Lori from Island Lake, IL asked: What is your favorite bird that you have seen in the field?

Hey Lori!! ^_^ My favorite bird to view in the field is the California Quail (Callipepla californica)! They are extraordinarily cute in the way they move and their voices are pretty cool. I like how they travel in big groups along the side of the road or near our work in Wenatchee. When the quail chicks hatch they look like brown fuzzballs with legs. They are very funny to watch on a windy day.

This is a male California Quail relaxing on a post.

Emily from Stevens Point, WI asked, “What was the most fun thing you did on your internship so far?”

One of my favorite activities was to help out with the pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) surveys. I learned a lot about these rabbits and the ecosystem they live in. They were very docile and liked to stare at us as we walked through their walled-in village. I also loved to survey golden eagle nests. Viewing the adults feed, build a nest, or soar around their territory was always considered a treat! Oh, I also love taking pictures of wildlife and forbs.

Largehead Clover (Trifolium macrocephalum) was one of my favorite flowers to take pictures of!

Wow!! The month of May was very busy and on top of that I had a broken computer. Now everything is back on track and I am ready. There will be a large eastern migration soon of CLM interns going to the CLM training in Chicago, IL! I hope everyone has a great time learning, making new friends, developing new connections and having awesome lunches.  Have fun!! ^_^

Moment of Zen….

I love my new job working at the Burns Bureau of Land Management in Burns, OR. The people at the BLM as well as the people in Harney County are unbelievably friendly. However, moving from the densly populated city of Chicago to the rural high desert of Burns has been somewhat of a culture shock. First off, cowboys DO exist! I thought that the American West was a romantic historic notion; never did I think it was still alive and well, especially in Oregon!

My first week working at the BLM, I tagged along on a Rangeland health monitoring with an ID team. We took the big government trucks and drove through hundreds of acres of Sagebrush country into these remote locations. Once there, we looked at the plants in different ecological sites to determine the health of the rangeland and its fire susceptibility. This is done using different ecological indicators. Never before had I see such unique flora! The desert shrubs and forbs are so beautiful and small! That same week, I was able to accompany two BLM employees in an ATV to do a fish liberation in one of the stock ponds on their allotments. While we cruised into the mountains, a buck pronghorn antelope raced us- I felt like I was in Africa! When we got to the pond, we were really cold so we made a fire while the fish acclimated to the water.

I’m working 10 hour days, 4 days a week so I have 3 day weekends, which is great because that means I can travel to other places on the weekends! I’m living on a farm, and every morning I wake up and I see the horses outside of my window, which is quite different than seeing and hearing thousands of cars and people like in Chicago. And there are also cows, goats, donkeys, and a llama. Oh and there are two adorable barn cats that require an impossible amount of attention.

Two weeks later and I have finished my field work training with my new roommates! What I essentially have to do is go to these fire rehabilitation sites, and survey what kind of plants are growing back. They have a lot of wild fires here because it is so dry; millions of acres burn at a time! And global climate change has exacerbated this. Therefore, the fires are burning longer than they ever have before, and at a much higher intensity. Invasive species, such as cheat grass and medusa head, are also contributing to this, making the landscape more flammable. After a fire, my roommates and I come in and we do a survey called the Line-Point intercept and the Pace 180. First, we set up a photo plot and take photos in all 4 cardinal directions, which gives us a visual of the current area to juxtapose year by year. Next, we walk 50 paces. For each pace, we drop a flag, and whichever plants the flag touches, we have to identify and mark down. We repeat this for 50 spaces, walk 10 paces to our left, and then repeat the same methodology back for 50 paces. This gives us an unbiased sample of the vegetation composition! And based on this, you can determine what plants are making a comeback after the fire. If the species composition is diverse and native, the current land management techniques the BLM are using is working. If the species composition is homogeneous and has a lot of invasive species, then the current land management techniques are not working and they need to be modified. So it’s cool! Oftentimes, we drive at least 2 hours to get to our field sites. And there, you can see for miles and miles. It looks like a landscape picture. The landscape is usually dotted with cows and antelope. But it does get boring after a while, especially since the drought here has curtailed the wild flower season. I do miss the green of the forest in Illinois. Nothing is quite as green and lush here as it is there- but I am in the high desert after all!

Until next time!

Megan
Burns District Bureau of Land Management

Rangeland Health Monitoring in Sagebrush Country!

Desert Cushion Buckwheat

Desert Indian Paintbrush

Bitter root

Alvord Desert

Trout fishing!

Over the course of the last month here in the Carson City BLM office the SOS interns and I have been conducting field work, field work, and MORE fieldwork!!! We have frequently been spending 10 hours a day or more in various BLM allotments collecting seed stock from a multitude of plants. As the growing season has progressed many of these species have begun to drop their seed. This has and will continue to mean many long day in the increasingly hot Nevada sun in order to meet our project seed collection goal. These hot days however have been tempered with wonderfully cool nights abounding in ample amounts of stargazing and howling of coyotes. In short, life couldn’t be better.

Until next time

J

First, I will tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Erica and I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, IL. I went to college at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO and graduated this past December. I have a degree in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology with a concentration in Conservation. After graduating, I worked for the USGS FORT Science Center in a lab processing macro invertebrates for a Jams project. I was thrilled to be offered an internship through the CLM. My internship is with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Klamath Falls, OR. I had never been to Oregon before moving here. Oregon is so beautiful!!! I am working with two other interns, Nicki and Alia. We are currently assisting with three projects.

Josh, our mentor, has us rearing and monitoring Lost River (Deltistes luxatus) and shortnose suckers (Chasmistes brevirostris). Both are currently listed as endangered. A major contributing factor to their decline was crucial habitat loss and/or degradation. Due to high mortality rates of larvae and juveniles, their recovery is limited. My first week, we went out into the field at night to collect sucker larvae. We collected the larvae with a sweep net dropped off of two bridge sites. Kircher’s bridge is absolutely gorgeous.

Kircher’s Bridge.

Before we started collecting, we saw a Bald Eagle eating a fish near the water. It was awesome! We collected at these sites for two nights until we had a significant amount of larvae (estimated over 2,000). We placed them into water pens at the office. We will monitor and feed them until we transfer them into our net pen docks that are within natural waters. We will continue to study and monitor the suckers until we release them near the end of the internship. This week we built the docks at Rocky Point. Today we installed the nets. We will transfer the larvae into the net pens next week.

Alia at the water pens!

Floating Docks.

Julie, a Fish Biologist, has us assisting with a rearing program for the Lost River and shortnose suckers. We will monitor three different sized fishponds. These ponds are not stocked yet. Last Friday was my first time at the ponds. We monitored for predators and fish. We collected water levels and sonde data.

One of the three ponds.

Darrick, a Senior Fish Biologists, has us assisting with Applegate’s Milk-vetch (Astragalus applegatei) surveys. The Applegate’s Milk-vetch is currently listed as endangered. We will be surveying for this milk-vetch at the Crater Lake Klamath Regional Airport. The airport has planned to expand and develop another runway. We will be in the field all next week conducting surveys.

I started my internship May 11th. My first week I went into the field two times (stated above) but most of the time I was at the MOCC (Motorboat Operation Certification Course). I learned a lot of useful information during this course. I had never driven a boat before and did not know how to tie boating knots. Now I feel 100xs more confident about boating. I will definitely use everything I learned at MOCC throughout this internship.

Completed Net Pen Docks!

My second week consisted of various required training. I went out into the field one day to collect zooplankton for our larvae. It is so neat to see how much life is in the water! This is my third week and it has been a busy one. We built the floating docks, prepared the nets, and installed the net pens. Brock and James from BOR helped us. It is so beautiful here. It looks like we will be out in the field most of the summer. AWESOME! Everyone at the office has been so welcoming and nice. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity. I am excited to see how the rest of the summer goes.

Till next time,

~Erica

After my third week I can say I’ve successfully explored a large swathe of my Cedar City field office. My work so far has encompassed a plethora of activities from Mexican Spotted Owl surveys in Kanarraville to point-counts in Hamlin Valley. As a wildlife technician for the Cedar City BLM, it is my duty to survey large areas of land for wildlife so that the BLM can properly assess and treat locations with species of concern.

Once such species is the sage grouse, which is a member of the pheasant family and is roughly the size of a chicken. It is dependent on an environment composed entirely of sage brush. This makes managing for sagebrush habitat an instrumental part in prevent their listing as an endangered species. My work thus far has put me on the forefront of monitoring for both sage grouse and any other wildlife exploiting the sagebrush habitat.

Relaxing in front of the sagebrush sea.

Outside of sage grouse monitoring, my team and I have surveyed for raptors and raptor nests along unauthorized trails. These unauthorized trails pose a danger to both the public and wildlife. It is the hope of our BLM to help create new trails that allow outdoor enthusiasts a fun and safe environment, while protecting native/migratory birds, mammals, and reptiles. My surveys are the first step in improving the path of these trails to help avoid clashes with wildlife hotspots.

Surveying for raptor nests.

Finally, we were able to participate in Migratory Bird Day. There we, and a number of other government programs, set up activities and educational booths to help teach the community the importance of migratory birds. Programs like these help ensure a healthy relationship between the public and our government agencies.  All of this combined has made for a tremendous experience so far. I look forward to finding out what else my CLM internship has in store for me.

Hello all. I have been in Lander, Wyoming for about two weeks now. I moved here from Minnesota, which is a very different place than Wyoming. One of my first thoughts after moving here was that I had never seen so much open space in my life. There are very few trees, making it easy to see for miles in every direction.  The habitat here is considered sagebrush steppe, a landscape dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia) species and short bunchgrasses. This area of the country has a semi-arid climate and there is much less water here than I am accustomed to.  Lander is located at the base of the Wind River Mountains. From many places in the field office you can see snow capped mountains in the distance.

The sagebrush steppe habitat in the Lander Feild Office.

My first couple weeks at work has consisted mainly of introductions and training. Various employees have been taking my fellow intern and I out for tours of the field office. The Lander Field Office manages 2.2 million acres, so there is a lot to see. We are just starting to get oriented so we can eventually head out to the field by ourselves. Much of the land is only accessible on two-track dirt roads, so we have been doing quite a bit of off road driving. We have also started talking about some of the projects we will be working on over the course of our internship. We will be doing quite a bit of rangeland monitoring, which involves monitoring key species to measure both the intensity and the impact of grazing in different grazing allotments. We will also be doing some experimental repair of wetlands in areas where livestock have caused “hummocking” of the wetland. We will also be doing some seed collection of native species with the Seeds Of Success program.

One of the prettier areas in the field office

I have started learning some of the native species in the field office. One of the rangeland specialists helped us with some identification tips in the field and we have also been studying from the herbarium. Many of the plants are species I have never seen before, which I find exciting. Out in the field last week I got to see Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja linariaefolia) for the first time.

Wyoming Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja linariaefolia)

We have also seen a lot of wildlife in the field. I’ve seen hundreds of Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), they seem to be everywhere. Also many mule deer (Odocoileus heminous), rabbits, horned toads (Phrynosoma douglasi brevirostre), and a few elk (Cervus canadensis).

Pronghorn are generally very skittish. However, we got pretty close to this one in the truck.

It looks like it will be a great season, I can’t wait to see what it will bring. Until next time!

Erin, Lander Field Office, Bureau of Land Management- Wyoming