July 2018

Nuttall’s Sunflower and I: Best Friends! So Happy!

Day of Antelope Bitterbrush collection– so sad

On days when we collect for Seeds of Success, the day could go a variety of ways depending on the plant we are working with, how hot it is outside, the conditions of our field site. Some days are totally perfect. Helianthus nuttallii is a beautiful sunflower. Each head produces 60 seeds, which means to get to our goal of 20,000 seeds, we only need about 330 seed heads. The population we found sits in mountain foothills where the temperature usually sits around 70 degrees and it’s only about a 90 minute drive from our field office. The actual collection took 45 minutes, our field site was gorgeous, I wasn’t drenched in sweat the whole time, and afterwards we had time leftover in the day, so we got to scout for other possible collections afterwards and “had to” drive through Medicine Bow National Forest to get back. I love Helianthus nuttallii. That was a great day. An easy day of field work.

Some collections do not go as great. Purshia tridentata is a shrub in the Rose family. Each flower produces an achene with a single seed. You read that correctly, one seed. That means, in order to reach the goal of 20,000 seeds per population, one has to pick 20,000 individual achenes while also making sure you pick from enough individual bushes to get an acceptable amount of genetic variation within the population. The population we worked with was in the desert. We collected on two hot days (90 degrees), morale was pretty low during the collection, and there were known rattlesnake sighting in that area before (eek!). It took around 10 hours to complete the collection. My back was sore from squatting down to pick the fruits– the bush was just low enough to the ground to be out of reach from a standing position. I am not a big fan of this plant. My opinion of Antelope Bitterbrush will probably always be colored by this experience of collecting its seeds. Apparently antelope love to eat this plant and it’s super great for the local habitat, but it also is probably my least favorite plant in the state of Wyoming.

Standing at the top of Mt Evans (14,000 ft)  in Colorado thinking about Antelope Bitterbrush Photo by Ari Rosenblum

I am not usually the kind of person who hates any plant. In fact, I am very partial to organisms of the botanical persuasion. I have had some bad experiences with the Rose family (Rosa multiflora has destroyed one of my jackets and has poked holes in several of my pants… and it’s invasive), but I generally do not hold grudges. However, it is going to take a while for me to forgive Purshia tridentata.

This Wyoming Toad tadpole does not even know what Antelope Bitterbrush is and look how happy he is! Photo by Alexa Rojas

August 2018

It’s disappointing when the sun comes up after 12 hours of searching and you still haven’t captured a Black Footed Ferret. Not a lot of people can share that experience, so you might just have to trust me on that.

First, some background– just about 30 years ago, Black Footed Ferrets were in sharp decline due to shrinking prairie dog populations (their primary prey), disease, and habitat loss. In fact, they were declared “Extinct in the Wild” in 1987. The future did not look bright for these little guys until a captive breeding program helped to increase the population, and today we classify them as endangered rather than extinct. This is good news, and hopefully as these animals continue to breed in the wild, we will not have to worry about them at all. However, for now, we must keep track of these reintroduced populations, which has some peculiar challenges.

Many animals are nocturnal– owls, raccoons, foxes, bats, scorpions, the list is actually pretty long. Nocturnal behavior can be adaptive– either for hunting purposes, or for escaping hunters. Humans, however, did not develop this adaptation. Our brains have an intricate process for chemically maintaining circadian rhythms, so that we sleep at night and are awake during the day. Black Footed Ferrets, interestingly enough, are one of those nocturnal animals, though. They hunt prairie dogs at night, and sleep in burrows during the day. Our sleep schedules are incompatible to say the least. We can’t expect the ferrets to change their sleep schedule for us, so any humans who are interested in surveying their populations is going to have to go temporarily nocturnal.

Wyoming Fish and Game, being the agency responsible for these surveys, asked the BLM for volunteers to work from sunset to sunrise for 3 days. Unsurprisingly, us four plucky CLM interns working in the Rawlins Field Office jumped on the opportunity. We had no idea what we are in for, but after a fun week of Wyoming Toad surveys with the state Fish and Wildlife agency, we were excited for any opportunity to meet with other government agencies and learn more about how we can help endangered species. We showed up to Shirley Basin at 4pm, bright eyed and bushy tailed, to get trained for the night ahead. At sunset, we headed out to begin the search for our new BFF (Black Footed Ferret).

SOOOOOOOOOOOO Cuuuuuuuute!!!!! Black Footed Ferret

With spotlights in hand and traps in backpack, we searched and became familiar with the nighttime wildlife. Badgers are angry creatures, especially when we would follow them into their burrows, mistaking them for a ferret (it’s dark, okay?!). Foxes run away at first sight. Cows are just always awake, it seems. Pronghorn Antelopes look strangely like ferrets when their heads are low to the ground as they graze, but they often run in groups, so that’s a pretty useful diagnostic. We didn’t see any coyotes, but we definitely heard them as they announced their successful hunts throughout the night. Birds of prey look much larger when they are standing on the ground (and, as a dinosaur enthusiast, I was always happy to see them). Falling into a prairie dog burrow is embarrassing, and I was glad nobody could see me in the dark when it happened. Black Footed Ferret sightings were relatively rare in comparison to other animals, and they were often very hesitant to walk into the traps when found.

After 2 and a half nights of wandering around our assigned plot and capturing not a single ferret, my search partner and I were beginning to think it was all a prank. Maybe the ferrets in our plot were uncapturable. At around 3 in the morning on Thursday, we found out it wasn’t a prank at all. We captured our first ferret and I was so deliriously happy that I could barely talk into the radio to let the processing trailer know we were coming. The three year old female we found was very well behaved as the non-game biologist took her measurements. She had already received her vaccinations against plague and canine distemper when she had been captured in a previous year, but any other captured ferrets would have received those. We released her back to her burrow and set out to continue searching for more ferrets. While I had only caught the one, the overall project was pretty successful in capturing and releasing ferrets.

Anesthesia helps with allowing measurements to be taken

After returning to Rawlins at 9am on Thursday, I immediately fell asleep. The nocturnal lifestyle is probably not for me. Today, I very much enjoyed getting up in the morning for work and I look forward to going to sleep tonight knowing there are some cool BFFs hunting for prairie dogs.

Hitting the books– keying out species– pretending I know what I am doing Photo credit: Chloe Battista

June 2018

I graduated from my small liberal arts college in Ohio about a month ago and then almost immediately packed up and moved to Rawlins, WY to intern with the BLM for Seeds of Success. In my first few weeks here, I realized pretty quickly that I had a lot to learn. While I took plant taxonomy and botany classes as a part of my biology major at Oberlin College, I would not consider myself an expert in seed biology and plant identification. I guess in the next five months, I am going to become much more knowledgeable on those topics. Fortunately, my awesome mentor has been here to help, my amazing co-intern, Chloe, is incredibly  capable and knowledgeable, and my funny and sweet boyfriend, Miguel, is cheering me on from Miami.

I get to work in a pretty place!!!

So far, my time here has had me thinking a lot about conservation, natural resources, and local versus global spheres of each. My project– collecting seeds for restoration– is very focused on the local scale. When habitats within our field office are disturbed (by oil and gas, wind fields, fires, etc), the seeds we collect will be used to assist in the restoration of those habitats. Seeds could also be used for research on the flora that grow here, or may just be banked. All of this is focused on conservation within the High Desert District of Wyoming. Considering the importance of restoration with native plants and how different populations tend to support individuals that are most adapted to their specific environment, our project is crucial for local conservation.

Helping with that local conservation… Blowout Penstemon is an endangered species and we were assisting with surveys to assess its population in Wyoming. Photo Credit to Bonnie Heidel

The global sphere within conservation, however, is also extremely important. It is becoming increasingly laughable to deny that humans actions, specifically greenhouse gas emissions, have lead to a global change in climate. With more severe weather, higher average temperature, and increasing extinction rates, we are at the beginning of what looks like will be Earth’s sixth mass extinction. Marine organisms that are indicators of healthy oceans are now quickly falling in number, as are amphibians and other vulnerable groups of organisms. These major global patterns are a result of the enhanced Greenhouse Effect. Human use of fossil fuels for energy since the industrial revolution have a major hand in disrupting the balance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Restoration botany can, in some ways, work to mitigate climate effects because plants can act as carbon sinks, but it would take a lot of planting to solve our problems and local communities can only do so much when large corporations are to blame for the grand majority of emissions. This is why, as I work in the local conservation sphere, I cannot forget about the global scale as well.

Blowout Penstemon

Global issues like climate change are hard to combat as one person who just graduated from college. However, our planet is a global community. What we do can affect everyone, so while it is easy to feel helpless and ignore what is happening at a global scale, we are responsible for maintaining awareness. We can encourage greener energy sources over fossil fuels, call government officials, and inform friends and family. I am going to hold myself accountable in doing those things, while I collect seeds for local restoration projects. 

These last couple months have flown by. There is only one month left. The last couple months have been spent mostly on seed collection and treatment of invasive species. My grass identification skills are growing stronger and I am starting to recognize key differences in different types of grasses. Pictured below is bundle of Danthonia Californica which is a native perennial oatgrass.  My favorite part about this plant is that it can produce seeds in its stem as well as at the top of the plant.

The day after the 4^th of July, we were able to have a relaxing day on the Umpqua River rafting and pulling weeds. We were controlling the spread of False Brome which is an invasive species from Europe that can outcompete native plants.

We had the pleasure of working with the Phoenix School Crew here in Roseburg. They helped us on a couple different projects. One of the projects was to pull tansy ragwort at the North Bank Habitat Management Area. They crew did a great job and we ended up with a few truckloads of tansy ragwort to dispose of! The other intern and I were lucky enough to have them help because it would have taken us weeks to do the work.

We have also been focusing more on forbs seed collection. Pictured below is Achillea Millefolium, also known as Common Yarrow.

We wrapped up our final seed collection on a population of Canada Goldenrod. We will be transitioning to spraying noxious weeds for the remainder of our internship.

I have learned a lot about plant identification and invasive species management so far and have appreciated all of the gorgeous views along the way.

August, 2018

Thanks to my mentor Dirk, at the end of July I was able to go out on a backpacking trip with 2 fish biologists from the forest service. With 3 other ladies from California fish and wildlife, we hiked 16 miles to Stella Lake. This lake is right on the eastern border of Yosemite and is right on the PCT! The purpose of this trip was to continue an ongoing project called the high mountain lakes project that is designed to remove fish from alpine lakes in order to help restore populations of the endangered Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog. This frog is endangered due to a combination of factors including predation by invasive fish and due to outbreaks of the Chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). Our team spent a week at Stella putting in gill nets in order to catch and remove rainbow and brook trout. During our time up at the lake, there was an active forest fire in Yosemite called the Ferguson fire. This made the visibility pretty awful and sometimes made breathing a little difficult.

I really valued my time with these women because they didn’t mind me asking all of the questions that I could think of! I learned so much about the project and about their jobs in general. I am very grateful that this internship has allowed me to meet such a diverse group of people.

Dawne Emery and Rachel Van Horne out on Stella Lake, setting up the gill nets.

Making me feel like I’m back in the Rockies! This Alpine Gentian looks an awful lot like the Arctic Gentian that I sought out in CO.

Thanks to the high mountain lakes project, we found frogs all around this lake and didn’t spot any fish!

Marmot friend 🙂

Bee enjoying Ranger’s button (Sphenosciadium capitellatum)

Zoë Moffett

US Forest Service, Sparks NV

I am situated in Mesa county Colorado. The entire county is inundated by extreme drought conditions, which has resulted in many plant species failing to produce viable seed or only producing small amounts. I have seen large populations of Gutierrezia sarothrae and microcephala beginning to die back to their caudex before reaching antithesis. I assume the plants are still alive below ground but couldn’t afford to nurture their above ground foliage. There are multiple forbs that have dried without maturing to seed, such as some Packera, Heterotheca, and Grindelia species. While some plants may still complete their life cycles, there seems to be an exceedingly high proportion of plants that are struggling, especially as the summer comes to a close. When I first got to this area in mid-May I was surprised by the drought conditions and found a charm in seeing how different populations were able to handle it and the phenotypic nuances that were exhibited dependent on soil, cover, and water. However, as the summer has gone on the majority of plants have shriveled and left behind their standing dead with few characteristics to determine what they once were.

Antithetically one of the most valuable things I will take away from my experience here is my love of mesic, riparian, and wetland areas. Before coming here I was on the fence about what I wanted to focus on and study ecologically, yet being in the desert I find that I can’t help but be drawn to the seasonal springs, seeps, playas, and rivers. Many of these spaces have dried by the time I reach them, but I can still read the space through the landforms, plants, animals/amphibians present and get an idea of what this area is like during different times. A salvation for me from the desert heat/dryness has been to visit the wet montane meadows and riparian areas of the San juan and Weminuche wilderness. It has been a fabulous and increasingly interesting experience to learn about the local ecosystems, and I find myself wishing I had been here in the spring to see the full circle of the growing season.

Our seed collections have been rolling nicely along here in Rawlins! We are over halfway done with our collections for the season. Now that we have a better grasp on the phenology of the plants here coupled with the dry year, it’s been easier to understand how to prioritize our collections between the forbs (especially the asters!) and grasses.

Collecting bottlebrush squirreltail (Elymus elymoides) in the Chain Lakes area, which is rich with oil and gas pads.

We’ve also been branching out a lot into other areas of our field office, primarily with the wildlife biologists and interns. It’s been really cool to see the kind of projects they are in charge of and even get to work with other agencies, like we did with Wyoming toad surveys! I mentioned before that I had really enjoyed endangered species work, and that was even more solidified with these surveys.

Anaxyrus baxteri in all her glory.

We spent three days out at Mortensen Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Laramie with biologists from the BLM, USFWS, and USFS from areas in Wyoming and Colorado. We split into groups and took different plots around the refuge; censusing the toads we found and splitting them into groups of adult, overwinter, young-of-the-year, and metamorphs; as well as taking measurements and swabbing for chytrid fungus. We also released tadpoles from enclosures that had recently grown legs and lost their tails, and were therefore (hopefully) developed enough to survive on their own in the lake.

Hanging with a beautiful toad

About to release a bucket full of newly developed baby toads

We’ve also gotten to go out with the other wildlife CLM interns in our field office who are doing a herpetofauna study with their mentor. They do intervals of 10-day trapping, and we got to help check their plots around the Ferris Mountains and record and measure anything they’ve caught. Although the study is centered around herps, we’ve mostly seen some smaller snakes and a couple small mammals. As an aspiring botanist I haven’t gotten to handle much wildlife, but as you can see from the following photos I was pretty excited about it.

This vole kept trying to bite me while I measured his ears but I admired his sassiness.

The excitement is apparent here, with a very docile deer mouse

This is the first snake I’ve ever held – a small, slithery garter snake.

I’m excited to continue seeing other parts of our field office and make progress on our seed collections in the next half of my internship!

Things are starting to ramp up as we head full swing into summer here in Rawlins, WY. I am almost two months into my field season and we’re in the middle of our voucher specimen and seed collection. I’m enjoying getting to see so much of the field office collecting and scouting for plants and really being in the wilderness. As of early July, we’ve completed 6 seed collections so far, putting in long days with travel and collecting.

We also got to branch out a little bit this past month from seeds to do some endangered species monitoring with our mentor, Frank Blomquist, and Bonnie Heidel, from the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD) in Laramie. We went out to Bear Mountain, in the northeast section of Carbon County, to monitor the Blowout Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii). Our first day at Bear Mountain included hiking to the sand dunes in the mountains and censusing all the plants we could find, listing them into 3 categories – flowering or fruiting, vegetative, and browsed. We were prepared for a long day in the mountain; we had tried to census the day before and got hailed out so we made sure we had all our rain gear this time.

With P. haydenii

Our second day was on the other side of Bear Mountain running transects to get an idea of how many seedlings and mature plants were present in a different sand dune blowout. This census is done each year to look at the persistence of the seedlings in the blowout and see if they are surviving despite the changing placement of the dunes.

Our little seedlings

Completing transects with my co-intern Anah, our mentor Frank (not pictured), and Bonnie.

I think the endangered species work has been one of my favorite things out here so far, other than getting to seed pronghorn every single day – I’m still not used to it! I enjoyed the deviation from our usual scouting and collecting to go to a different site (this one is actually an ACEC, or Area of Critical Environmental Concern) and complete work that contributes to emerging research.

July, 2018

Still acting as a sort of third wheel, I have gone out with a different duo working out of Reno. This team could not function more differently than the first team that I worked with. While they still of course do a great job, they are much more independent and quiet. This was a tricky transition for me as I came from a team of two who constantly chatted and joked, cooking and walking together even when the day was technically over. It took some adjusting, but I figured out how I fit in with the new team, finding my own ways to spend my solo time in the mornings and evenings. I am learning a lot about group dynamics and team efficiency in a field setting.

We have been scouting out for small, research collections for the Rocky Mountain Research Station. As the summer continues, we have to move higher up into the numerous mountain ranges where plants are flowering later in their phenology and where there is more moisture.

Camping spot south of Austin, NV

I have started to keep a list of reasons why I love the Nevada landscape. Here is a sample:

• So much BLM and USFS land! You can camp basically anywhere.
• The milky way is incredible basically every night.
• Constant night hawks and poor-wills at night.
• A species of mountain mahogany that is new to me! Cercocarpus ledifolius. 

Quick pit stop at Diana’s Punchbowl! There’s a hot spring in this formation that reaches 200°F!

Best,

Zoë Moffett

US Forest Service, Sparks NV

June, 2018

In May, I moved from Colorado to Reno with the help of a good friend. Together we drove west across the state of Nevada, peering at the sage brush and endless mountain ranges, so different from those in Colorado. Every time we passed a sign declaring “Entering the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest”, we would look around, discussing my new “office” for the season.

My internship is with the Seeds of Success (SOS) Program working with the US Forest Service. However, I have realized that this internship is not going to function exactly as I thought it would. Unfortunately, I do not have a partner for the season. This means that I will be acting as a “third wheel” with two different 2 person SOS crews from the Great Basin Institute (GBI). In order to scout out populations and make collections, these teams go out for 8 days at a time, camping out in the desert. So far, I have gone out with one of these crews to help scout grass populations and to make a few collections. These two girls have been working together since April, so I was a little nervous to come into a group that had already been so established. It was also tricky because they already had their training and routines down – and here I was coming in with no real understanding of their work or group dynamics. It was awkward to try and learn on the job, asking for clarifications and tasks without wanting to slow them down. Luckily they are two lovely people who I immediately got along with on a personal level.

With the help of a fantastic crew of inmates from the Nevada Division of Forestry (NDF), we collected a crazy amount of Indian Ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides)

A few SOS field tips that I have learned right off the bat:

1. Don’t wear nice hiking songs in sagebrush habitat. The cheatgrass will shred them up
2. Podcasts are king when collecting seed nonstop for hours at a time.
3. Gatorade powder can really help out with those 100 degree desert afternoons.

Until next time,

Zoë Moffett

US Forest Service, Sparks NV