Amidst the every day monitoring of old fires and fuels treatments, counting sage and deciding the dominance of grasses and forbs, there is a special opportunity to geek out even harder. Two weeks ago I got the very special opportunity to go out to the field with the Idaho Natural Heritage Botanist of Fish and Game and monitor an endemic rare species, Castilleja Christii. Castiella christii (CASCHR) grows exclusively on the top of Mt. Harrison in the Sawtooth National Forest south of Albion, ID fairly close to Burley, which is apart of the Twin Falls District I work in. This species is also not listed in the Flora of Pacific Northwest, as it was determined just years after its printing. There has been historic mapping of this plant there so I got to learn a specific rare plant monitoring protocol that I really enjoyed, apart of some of the most floristically abundant transects I have ever seen, partly because they were all at 9,000 feet in elevation.

Driving up to Mt. Harrison is a really unique experience and I am pretty excited to go back there. Like most of Southern Idaho you have to travel through countless acres of farm fields  but then upon ascending the mountain you begin to see some trees and topography all of a sudden. The farther you climb up the more sub alpine it gets, there are parts when you think you must be in Northern Idaho, but no you get to the top and amidst the sub alpine rock and lakes and open meadows, amidst snow melt, you see ag for as far as you can see in the distance. Botanically speaking I understand why this area is monitored so heavily, there are multiple rare species there in what seems like an unlikely place. In addition there are epic displays from the Pedicularis to the Lupin to the Castilleja to the Ligusticum, the thick flowers were visually stunning.

Below is a picture of a sub-alpine buckwheat, Eriogonum microthecum var. simpsonii, that was a pretty find.

Here is a picture of the group of Fish and Game folks monitoring the Castilleja, you can get an idea of the numbers we were counting per quadrat.

I love Pedicularis contorta.

A sound of music-esque epic Lupine display in a transect

Adorable pygmy bitterroot, Lewisia pygmaea.

A cool new Rose plant I learned out there, Sibbaldia procumbens

A nice glamour shot of Castilleja christii amidst Ligusticum grayi.

A neat find off the trail, Aquilega coreulea, the colorado blue columbine, love those spurs, yah

This lovely little api is Cymopterus davisii, another rare plant that grows with the Castilleja that we found here both in flower and fruit, pretty neat

Here is a picture of Stacey, another Fuels Botanical Specalist, helping mount and label the herbarium specimems, many from the time spent monitoring the Castilleja with the Natural Heritage folks.

Things have a way of moving pretty quickly once field season hits, as I’m sure every intern knows. Most have been camping, hiking, botanizing, and admiring views for a few months now; but for me this was week one. Of course, this means that I hit the ground running and spent most of this week between required paperwork and diving into field protocols.

We are exceptionally lucky over in E Idaho to be nestled within the foothills of the Tetons, and have the luxury of having field plots – and working day in and day out – in such a beautiful area. One of our goals for this week was to find populations of a number of focus species, including our primary target Erigeron speciosus. Ultimately, this meant scoping out likely areas and then hiking in to check it out. This week, as we hiked along a trail near the pass, we were struck with the sheer beauty of the sight of a meadow overloaded with blooming wildflowers. Enter Julie Andrews in Sound of Music.

As we reveled in the landscape, we quickly realized that not only was ERSP abundant within the meadow, but so were three other species on our list of desired species. No better reason to linger and enjoy nature’s beauty! We spent the next few hours making collections for the variety of different projects we have our hands in. Before saying goodbye, we marked the location for a return trip in a couple of weeks when ERSP has gone to seed.

B. Brown

– Forest Service (Idaho Falls, ID)

I’ve been in my Fuels position for about three months now, and our post-fire rehabilitation monitoring is coming to a close. I was helping a fuels crew monitor the status of areas that burned 1, 2 and 3 years ago to see how well the BLM’s seeding projects are doing. Now that we’re done with these projects, I’m working with other CLM interns to assess areas that burned 5 years ago, as we should be seeing more diversity and sagebrush seedlings in these older projects. We’ll be generating reports on our findings that will go to the national office, so we’re doing our best to take copious field notes and write out detailed interpretations of what we saw!

Found on one of our last monitoring days – the elusive Hedgehog cactus!

Leaving my Burley fuels crew has been a little sad, as I really enjoyed working with them and getting a glimpse into wildfire management and control, but starting new projects is always exciting! We’ll also be doing some different projects here and there, such as rare plant inventories and botanizing in caves.

Speaking of caves, I recently had the greatest field day of my life, and have been talking about it to anyone who will listen. I joined the Geocorps interns for a day of inventorying invertebrates, bats, archaeological signs and other points of interest in caves. It was an incredibly cool experience. Most of the things we were looking for are pretty small, so we had to scour the walls, ground and ceiling of each cave looking for tiny invertebrates while trying not to bother any bats we found. Some caves had pictographs or old artifacts that we tried not to disturb, and some were quite creepy with how many pitch black chambers they had. My favorite (pictured below) was full of car-sized boulders that we had to scramble over, and the entrance had a stone arch overhead. The mystery of what we would find in each cave definitely made this the most exciting field day I’ve ever had, and I’d love to work in more cave systems in the future.

Stone arch cave entrance!

Green rock at right was the size of a small cabin

I also recently had the privilege of attending a Carex workshop, where sedge experts taught us how to recognize and identify Carex species. It was great to get so much experience with a single genus, but even more awesome to take a break from the sagebrush steppe and do some botanizing up north in subalpine forests and a fen.

Day 3 of the Carex workshop – worked in a fen, definitely the most unique environment and plants I’ve ever seen

Though monitoring has been winding down, I’ve gotten to do some very exciting things lately, and look forward to my last two months here.

Last time I wrote a blog post monitoring was just beginning- the Lomatium bradshawii was just starting to flower and rain gear was as essential as data sheets. Now you’d be more likely to find a single butterfly egg than water in the wetlands. These seasonal wetlands rapidly dry out in late spring-early summer and have been bone dry for weeks. Most of the plant species here are going into a sort of summer hibernation until the fall rains come in September/October. There are just two more sensitive species to monitor- Pyrrocoma racemosa and Sericocarpus rigidis, both members of Asteraceae. While many species in Asteraceae are what people think of fondly when they think of flowers, this family is probably one of my least favorite plant families. (Obviously I love all plant families so this is just preference not dislike).

All my sites with Pyrrocoma racemosa also seem to have two other native asters that from afar look very similar. If you’ve ever tried to ID more than one plant you probably know how there can be much variation within a species even at the same location, which doesn’t help with separating species. Although now I feel that I have a pretty good eye for picking out Pyrrocoma racemosa from afar the first few hours of monitoring I had to touch almost every single plant. The texture of the leaves seemed to be the most consistent field characteristic- Microseris laciniata has smooth, thin leaves, Grindelia intergrifolia has thicker leaves that are very sticky to the touch, and Pyrrocoma racemosa has thick leaves that aren’t quite as smooth as the Microseris laciniata but much smoother than the Grindelia intergrifolia. Maybe they look obviously different to you in the following photos but they sure don’t when they’re mixed together in large fields.

Microseris laciniata, one of the many Asteraceae look-a-likes in the wetlands.

Grindelia integrifolia, another look-a-like aster.

Pyrrocoma racemosa, the threatened species I’m  counting.

With two months left in my internship I’ll being doing a mix of projects to fill my time- learning how to use GeoBOB, reflagging plots for next year, helping the other CLM intern attempt to control some of the invasive species that have flourished this season, a couple more butterfly surveys and hoping the fall weather comes soon.

On a more exciting botanical note the other plant family that seem to all be blooming as of late are the orchids!

Platanthera transversa royal rein orchid, found while helping CLM intern Emily Erickson in the forest for the day.

Goodyera oblongifolia western rattlesnake plantain, another common forest orchid.

Spiranthes romanzoffiana hooded ladies’-tresses- all over the wetlands!

My time with the CLM has flown by again, and I will soon be posted in Homer for the foreseeable future with the Soil and Water Conservation District. I’m thankful for the CLM program, but I’m sure I’ll be in touch with interns past, present, and future while working in my new position! I had a relatively brief field season working three field hitches: in the Nulato Hills region (West coast Alaska, just below the Western peninsula), in the town of aptly named Central (very centrally located), and just outside of Denali National Park, in Cantwell.

I was especially glad to venture to the West Coast, a new locale for me to add to my places-been in Alaska. The softened mountains we set our base camp in fade rapidly to rolling hills and plains, and give the onlooker an inkling of the vastness of the wild landscape beyond. Our basecamp, set in the unfriendly (tussocky) crook of a friendly creek, was just 40 miles from the closest village, Unalakleet, which we flew into before heading out with a helicopter pilot hired for the whole trip to camp with us.

Our cozy camp for twelve days.

I was glad that we had a helicopter regularly buzzing in and out of camp–a grizzly bear was sighted in the area before we even pitched a tent, and multiple piles of fresh scat dotted the area outside our group tent. But we practiced normal preventative measures, and didn’t have any scares. Moose and waterfowl frequented our bank as well, and the water harbored large dolly varden. Just outside of camp, a herd of caribou was seen cooling themselves off on a latent snow patch on a sunny afternoon. And the mosquitos only sucked us half dry. All in all, it was a wonderfully nice field hitch, with mostly sunny days, a good crew, and an idyllic setting. Having nice working conditions makes keying out plants after dinner much more relaxing.

Serene coastal plains

The next trip (also for the NRCS Soil Survey) was much more lush, as we were able to stay in a full-amenity cabin located in town, and our transects were walked, though most just off the road system. Much of interior Alaska burns regularly, and so many scenic strolls through fire-hardened spruce spears were enjoyed. But hidden in those thick interior forests are some unexpected rewards. (below photo credits: Ronald McCormick)

Great discoveries and camaraderie were enjoyed by all. And again, we were hunted by a humming army of millions noncontiguously, and were thus all the more thankful for the moments we weren’t getting mosquitos up our noses.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos in the Denali area, but delighted in doing more road-side hikes near the town of Cantwell, where several teams-worth of sled dog howls echo off the foothills.

Thanks again to CLM for supplying a much-needed and endlessly helpful conduit for the up and coming land managing generation! And happy season-end to everyone!

Charlotte
NRCS Homer Field Office
Homer, AK

Greetings from the Roseburg BLM Office! My last post highlighted my exploits for the BLM in Roseburg centered around investigating potential seed opening sites where GIS imagery showed breaks in forest canopy. All of those seeds are now hanging out in our office cubicle, occupying just about every available surface. We have at least 20 large Ace Hardware bags full of grasses and many smaller brown paper bags that are holding some seeds for various forbs that we’ve collected.Soon (hopefully by the time this is posted!), we will be sending our precious seed collection to the USFS Bend Seed extractory where they will be grown out to be later sowed along BLM roads. And finally, we will have free surfaces again!

So many seeds!

As the seeds dried up for most of the grasses we want to collect, the seeds are just getting ready on one grass we very much don’t want to collect; slender false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum). This plant is native to Asia, Europe, and North Africa, and made its way to this continent in the 1930’s. It’s first reported sighting was in Lane County near Eugene, Oregon (north of us). As of now, it has not been found outside of Oregon, but land managers are worried that it will soon spread to Washington and California. It has, alas, made its way down to Douglas County and is currently hanging out all along the North Umpqua river and up several of its tributaries, which is very much in Roseburg BLM’s stomping grounds, and also in the Roseburg Forest Service’s land as well.

The common name “False Brome” comes from the fact that it very closely resembles many species in the Bromus genus, several of which are native here in Oregon. So naturally, we need to be very careful when identifying it to make sure we aren’t mistaking it for something else. Luckily, it has some distinctive characteristics that are easy to check. It posses a very particular shade of green that is slightly lighter than many surrounding grasses that makes it easy to pick out even from a large distance. Once you get closer you see that it is very hairy near the root of the stem and on the lower leaves, which are wide and have prominent venation. One very distinctive things about true bromes is that they have closed sheaths, whereas False Brome has open sheaths. This can be a tricky and time-consuming thing to check, but is a great identifier if they are not setting seed. But luckily, we are targeting them as they are setting seed and their inflorescence is very distinct. The spikelets are very tightly connected to the stem, with no pedicel. This is what helps us distinguish False Brome from its almost identical look-a-like, California Brome (Bromus vulgaris) a.k.a. “False False Brome”, which is a native plant that often co-occurs with False Brome.

False Brome leaves. Note the hairy surface and the leaf venation.

False Brome inflorescence. Note the the lack of a pedicel.

The other part of this project is the mapping portion. The actual task of removing False Brome from Douglas County is unfortunately a very large one. So part of what we need to do is identify when we can pull, treat, and contain a population, and when we need to just document its existence and find a contractor to do it for us. There also isn’t currently any type of map that documents the extent of False Brome populations, so we need to create one. Roads, waterways, campgrounds, parking lots, pull-offs, etc seem to be the major conduits and and refuges of False Brome. So we’ve been doing weed surveys along roads, and up rivers. It’s important to know how far up a river False Brome has made it so that we’re better able to target the most important areas for removal.

We’ve erected a large map in our office to help track our progress on mapping out False Brome…we definitely have a lot of ground left we need to cover

Weed surveys are also great opportunities for noticing desirable species for seed collection nearby. In particular, we’ve felt very fortunate to have found many previously unknown populations of Mimulus cardinalis (scarlet monkey flower) and we’ve managed to do some seed collecting of many native plants we’ve serendipitously come across.

And when we’re not doing weed surveys, we’ve gotten the chance to help out a little with the wildlife crew. Some highlights of the past month include helping do a frog survey of Rana boyii, the yellow-legged frog. Basically, we spent a day hiking both sides of a stream bed fastidiously scanning the banks and listening intently for any suspicious “plonking” noises that might indicate we scared a yellow-legged frog from sunning into the water. We also went out hiking with the owl crew as they banded a juvenile spotted owl. We helped distract the parents by feeding them mice, but mostly just got to enjoy listening to the expertise of our two owl guides, and admire watching the spotted owls from such a close distance. 

That’s owl for now! Expect another Roseburg Botany BLM update soon!

Last week I took a solo scouting/collection trip to North-western New Jersey. I was scouting for Sambucus canadensis var. nigra, as well as some other species that were requested for a restoration project on the Musconetcong river. There have been a series of dam removals along this tributary of the Delaware river in the past few years, and the project coordinators are looking for genetically appropriate wetland species from ecoregions 67 and 58 to restore the river banks and floodplains

Ecoregions 67 and 58 are in the Appalachian highland region of New Jersey, not far from the Delaware Water gap. It is so much different from the pitch pine lowland habitats of South Jersey that I’m used to. So, it was very exciting for me to explore the cliffs and caves hidden under Hornbeam canopies..

I found Sambucus at multiple sites, but unfortunately not in great enough numbers to warrant collecting. I did find other restoration species like Cornus amomum (Silky dogwood), Apios americana (American ground-nut), and Viburnum acerifolium (Maple-leaf viburnum). As well as species I have never encountered before like, Celtis occidentalis (American Hackberry), Vaccinium staminum (Tall deer berry), and Corylus cornuta (Beaked hazelnut).

Here are some photos of my favorite discoveries from this trip.

*~The Fairy Hole~*

Archaeological evidence suggest this was ceremonial cave for Lenape. The Fairy Hole looks out at Ghost Lake, inside Jenny Jump State Forest.

The most Beautiful (Chicken) Mushroom.

This is New Jersey?
YES!
A huge agricultural valley seen from Shades of Death Road in Hope, NJ

Big ol’ Solomon Seal

Corylus cornuta  (Beaked Hazelnut)

These filberts dominated the forest under story along with the Tall Deer Berry. TASTY.

Asclepias incarnata (Swamp Milkweed)

For a nerd like me, this soil map of a wildlife management area is like a work of art.

I’ll stick to what I’m good at. Botany, not blogging.

All in all, this was a successful trip. I made two small collections of Carex species, and found several other potential collections for later on in the season. I’m so excited to be helping to restore habitats damaged by water impoundments. The net positive ecological impacts of dam removal is a great motivator for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank to find these species and collect them.

Here is a link to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service blog where there is a video of a dam removal that occurred December 2016.

Video: Time-Lapse of Hughesville Dam Removal

The page contains a lot of links to other info on the past, present, and future dam removal projects along the Musconetcong river in New Jersey. CHECK IT OUT.

In my second season at the Chesapeae and Ohio Canal National Historical Park I found several new occurrences of RTE plant species and recorded three new species for the canal.  That puts the total number of new rare and endangered plant species I discovered while doing survey work over the last two years at seven.  These seven species were Gymnocladus dioicus, Trichostema brachiatum, Heracleum maximum, Ribes americanum, Panax quinquefolius, Aristolochia macrophylla and Liparis liliifolia.  The Ribes americanum discovery was the first time that plant had been seen in Maryland for over 100 years and is listed as extirpated.

I greatly expanded my knowledge of riverine habitats and their associated disturbances. I surveyed several areas of high quality limestone habitat and floodplain forests.  I learned valuable lessons in regards to managing a large database of rare plant records and was introduced to the process of writing and submitting a scientific paper for publication.  I met a lot of nice people working for the National Park Service and saw some of the challenges facing the agency.

I had the opportunity to participate in a sedge workshop in Syracuse, New York led by Tony Reznicek.  Tony is a very nice man and an extraordinary botanist.  Getting the chance to meet him was one of the highlights of my internship.

Tony Reznicek discussing sedge things on a field trip in New York.

I also wanted to mention that I stumbled upon a book called Wild Flowers of the Alleghanies by Joseph E. Harned.  This is a very interesting book by one of the less celebrated botanists of Maryland.  In the book I found an autographed photo of the author.  I don’t know how or why it got there but it was a pleasant surprise.  The excerpt on Aristolochia macrophylla I included in my previous post was from this book.  It doesn’t have any keys but some of the species descriptions include interesting comments.  I really dig this kind of thing and thought I’d share.

I love old botany books and this was a fine addition to my collection.

This job over the past two seasons has been one of my favorite seasonal positions.  I’d like to thank the park staff and the Chicago Botanic Garden for making this opportunity possible.

While doing some research on the land-use history of one section of the park I came across some interesting information and photos.  Our park keeps physical documents of the land acquisition transactions that took place when tracts were being bought and added to the canal boundary.  Among these records were appraisals.  These appraisals included timber values and documentation of all structures on a tract of land.  The timber appraisals even listed the number of trees over 14” dbh and the species, although it wasn’t always specific for some groups like maples and ash.  You could get a rough idea of the character of the forest at that time.  Pictures of structures were also included.  They were meant to document the structure only but some photos showed the surrounding landscape.  These photos and maps helped show the extent of disturbance during that time period.

One of the seasonal/recreational structures found along the Potomac River. This photo is from the 1970s. When the National Park Service obtained these properties most of these structures were removed.

I assisted a contract botanist with his survey on canal lands this month.  I always find it interesting to talk with botanists in the private sector about their experiences.  We had a successful couple of days surveying and found 6 new rare plant records for that portion of the canal.

View from atop one of the bluffs that was surveyed.

One of the plants we found was a new species for the park.  Aristolochia macrophylla is listed as imperiled (S2) for the state of Maryland.  The synonym for it is Isotrema macrophyllum.  Previous records for this plant in Maryland are from Garrett and Allegany counties.  This plant was found in Washington County which borders Allegany County.  After reading up on this plant I found out that is or was planted widely as an ornamental.  This information and the fact that the vines I found were near a lock and next to a pile of gravel, lead me to believe that this occurrence is probably an escaped population.   I ran into a similar situation with Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) which is a state-listed tree but widely planted in the area.  I will include all this information in my records and still map the occurrence for the park’s database.  I also plan to reach out to the state botanist to get his opinion.

Aristolochia macrophylla (Pipvine)

Aristolochia macrophylla (Pipevine) climbing up a Sycamore tree.

Here’s an excerpt from a old plant guide I purchased this season that the interesting pollination strategy of this vine.

I didn’t get to catch this one in flower but I wish I did after reading this.

Lastly, I found this cool looking Sphinx Moth (Eumorpha pandorus) on a Hackberry (Celtis occidnetalis) leaf along the canal towpath.  I also found an early-instar Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) caterpillar on the leaf of the state-listed (MD) shrub, Hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata).   The Giant Swallowtail is a state-listed butterfly in Maryland and I was glad to finally sight one.  The caterpillar’s strategy of disguising itself as bird poop is really interesting in my opinion.

Sphinx Moth (Eumorpha pandorus)

Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) caterpillar

Those are the highlights from July.

Almost since we first arrived in May, we’ve been hearing about preparations for the eclipse. The path of totality went through the northern part of our field office and thousands of visitors were expected to pour into the area. No one knew exactly how many people would come but there was general fear that the traffic would overwhelm the two highways north and unprecedented demand would empty remote, rural gas stations and grocery stores. There was even talk that highways would come to a complete standstill and be shut down. Our office planned teams to drive around with extra supplies, rescuing stuck cars, checking campsites, and teaching people about fire safety. There was so much buildup, we almost didn’t go see it. Luckily, we braved the craziness and found no major issues.

One of the interns and I drove a couple hours north to the Salmon-Challis National Forest to be in the path of totality. It was one of the strangest and coolest things I’ve ever seen. For most of the partial eclipse, if you didn’t have the glasses, you would hardly know anything was different. The sun is so powerful half the sun is nearly as bright as a normal sunny day. Through the glasses, it looked like a cookie with a bite out of it at first and gradually shrank down to look like a crescent moon. By the time it got down to a tiny sliver, the day had dimmed noticeably,. It was almost like twilight but without the golden or reddish tinge that usually accompanies sunrise or sunset. At some point as it darkened, the crickets began chirping and the birds began twittering as if it were evening.

At the moment that the sun finally disappeared, everything went silent for  a second and then the crickets began chirping again like crazy. I expected totality to be darker, like the middle of the night. Instead, there was still some light, it was more like an hour or so after sunset. There was even a pink tinge on the horizon. The sun looked incredible. I wasn’t able to get a good picture during totality, but this photo captures it the best.

Totality ended so fast. In a matter of seconds the light went from dark, to dim and bluish, to normal daylight. It seemed to end so much faster than it began/