September has gone by quickly in the Lander Field Office! Today is officially the first day of fall, but it does not feel like it. The entire month of September has been in the 75-85 degree range. I am ready for a cool down. Despite the warm weather, the aspen leaves have started to change color in the mountains. They are a fiery mix of oranges and golds that stand out impressively among the conifer stands.

A golden sea of aspen

An aspen leaf

Fall also means that hunting season has started on antelope, grouse, and deer. Seasons on elk and moose start in early October. This means that Emma and I have to take extra precautions while out in the field, since we are often far away from our vehicle in remote areas. We have bright orange hunting vests that we wear into the field to keep us safe.

This month, Emma and I took over the responsibility of wild horse monitoring. We were given maps and assigned Horse Monitoring Areas, or HMAs, to look for horses in.  We started out with two HMAs to explore. While monitoring we try to cover as much ground as we can inside the HMA to find as many horses as possible. Some days we only find a few, which can be frustrating. However, on a few occasions we have encountered more than 100 wild horses in a day. One of the wild horse specialists taught us about wild horse behavior and how we could use our body language to get closer to the horses. One of the most important things we learned is to never face a wild horse head on, either with a car, or with your person. It is seen as a threatening and aggressive behavior. Instead we were told to always face sideways, or show the horse the back of your shoulder. This movement shows trust and helps the horse understand that you are not a threat. I was very impressed by how knowledgeable our horse specialist was and how he could very accurately predict and understand the horse’s behavior.

A wild horse we found while monitoring.

A group of wild horses. These ones were curious about us.

Although we currently work on horse monitoring most days, we still manage to slip in a few other projects. We have done our last round of riparian area monitoring for the rangeland staff. We also have been vouchering a few sagebrush species that we will use as Seeds of Success collections. We have four sagebrush species that we are waiting to collect, as well as a shrub called Winterfat. All of these species need cold weather for the seeds to ripen, so we are waiting for a cold front.

A flowering Wyoming Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis).

Winterfat is one of my favorite shurbs, it’s fluffy!

This month we also got to work on a multi-agency project between the BLM, the Forest Service, and Wyoming Game and Fish. The project was to delineate aspen stands containing conifers. The goal is to mark the stands that contain conifers, and then have a crew come in to remove the conifers. It is important for the conifers to be removed because they will out-compete the aspen, and aspen are a better species for wildlife. Aspen also do not burn as easily as conifers, which helps with fire suppression. They also are very quick to regrow after a fire, if a fire does occur.

During my free time I hiked up to Louise Lake with some friends, got my first peek at snow this season!

Visited the Tetons for my birthday

Overall the month of September has been busy and exciting. I am grateful that this internship allows us to work on such a wide variety of projects. We are never bored and we are learning so many new skills. I can’t wait to see what other projects are in store for us. Two more months to go!

Until next time,

Erin, BLM- Wyoming, Lander Field Office

The last few weeks have been a conglomeration of different activities at the Burns District BLM.

In the earlier part of this month, we conducted a botanical clearance on 3 potential well sites. An inventory of the current plants was needed to determine if any special status species (SSS) were located on these sites. If this proved to be the case, the disturbance from the construction of a well could potentially be detrimental to the SSS habitat.

Later in the month, we conducted riparian photo monitoring. That is, we located different photo points along streams using GPS coordinates. After we hiked to these locations, we had to document the site condition, which included noting the greenline vegetation composition, soil characteristics, grazing patterns (i.e. livestock usage, wildlife foraging intensity), etc. Next, we had to take an upstream photo as well as a downstream photo that replicated the photos taken from previous years. The purpose of this is to juxtapose the current site condition against previous years’ and to determine whether or not current management decisions are fostering riparian ecological health. Accessing some of these photo trend sites has proven to be a challenge at times, as the streams are oftentimes located at the base of canyons.  Nevertheless, it has been a fun activity and truly refreshing to be around water!

A floodplain of one of the riparian sites we visited.

Another riparian site we visited. It has a dense overstory cover of Salix sp. and Juniperus sp.

Today and tomorrow we are auditing a two day NEPA training class called: Cumulative Effects Analysis: Concepts, Methods, and Applications. Having done research on DEIS information and environmental quality ratings in college, it has been fascinating to see the thought processes of the government workers writing the documents. It has also verified that the same conclusions we surmised as to why the ratings have worsened over time (lack of standardization between field offices, the subjective nature of NEPA guidelines, the lack of experience because of quick worker turnovers) were recognized by the government workers as ongoing problems in the NEPA process. In addition, working on a live Environmental Assessment (EA) has offered me optimal experiential learning as a BLM employee. I’m looking forward to completing the workshop tomorrow!

Only 2 weeks left in Burns! The time has flown by.

Megan Hoff
Burns District Bureau of Land Management

Jenny and Reed!!

I had the great opportunity to work with two great interns this year, Jenny and Reed!!

Jenny and I worked on various golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) surveys, data recording for NISIMS, and the Sulfur Creek Watershed Assessment. In the beginning, we would always drive into the field to golden eagle sites and try to find nests. At first, looking for golden eagle nests was difficult! We would have this massive wall of basalt that was many stories high and we would have to find a nest in all of that. Even with maps and GPS points the nests were hard to find. After talking to a person from the Department of Fish and Wildlife, we were getting a lot better at finding these nests! By the month of May we were finding nests within five minutes instead of thirty minutes! We found many golden eagle nests and we did see a few peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) and bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests. Jenny especially loved the peregrine falcons, because she monitored them in her previous job. Some of these nests were crazy to get to! Colockum Tarps and Upper Rocky Creek took us many hours just to get to the site! For the Upper Rocky Creek site we had to consult with a landowner and drive in the back country to the site. The directions we were given eventually led to a dead end, so we had to turn around. When we did get to the site, we had a beautiful view, but we did not see golden eagle activity. The overall golden eagle experience would’ve been difficult by myself, but with Jenny, we were able to tackle the project easily. We almost saw all of the nest sites!!

Jenny taming a photoshopped peregrine falcon.

Two of my favorite memories with Jenny involved sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) capturing. In the Spring, Jenny and I accompanied wildlife biologists in the field to capture sage grouse. It was dark and very chilly and we did have a very large aurora borealis to the north. Jenny and I had the bags and we had extra energy to help the biologists anyway possible. Jenny was especially energized when she got the first sage grouse in the bag. She had to transfer the sage grouse from the bag and into a box with kitty litter. When we returned to the truck, we saw some kitty litter and feathers scattered everywhere, but the sage grouse was appropriately packaged. Jenny got this down her first try!! Another one of my favorite memories with Jenny was capturing pygmy rabbits. These rabbits were all in this enclosure and we had to check different outlets for these rabbits. Sometimes these rabbits come running out of the hole into the bag which would greatly surprise us. We helped out with the blood and tissue sampling towards the end. The overall experience was very interesting and we learned a lot!

One of the most interesting experiences dealt with NISIMS. We had to travel all over the place to look for invasive plant populations! Sometimes we would go by ourselves or with Reed and try to estimate cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) densities or thistle populations. One of the biggest adventures was Watermelon Hill! There were invasive plants everywhere and we would have to walk at least ten miles a day under very hot Summer conditions. Sometimes one of us would be done before the other and we would sit by the fence line looking for the other before we started the next transect. We were able to efficiently continue monitoring the area! During the month of August, the fires were becoming more of a problem, especially with all of the smoke around. We would wear masks and continue doing our work with NISIMS monitoring. We were able to complete most of our sites except for two odd ball sites.

Jenny looking at a peregrine falcon nest.

Overall, Jenny was amazing and contributed equally to our work! We had different philosophies and knowledge that made us critically think about all of our tasks! Listening to podcasts in the vehicle was another highlight, especially when it takes over two hours to get to a site. This American Life, Radio Lab, Mystery Show, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Snap Judgement, The Moth, and Serial were our favorite podcasts to listen to! Whenever our bosses or someone from work came with us in the truck, we would make a big deal about the event and ask them many questions. Without Jenny, the internship would’ve been different! Both of us were able to complete every major task and produce some kick butt reports! Our attitudes were balanced and we were able to complete a successful internship without any problems!! She was very smart, capable, efficient, and loved to hike ^_^ Thanks Jenny for everything!!!

When Jenny and I needed some comp time or wanted to learn more about the plants in our district, we would accompany the mighty SOS intern, Reed!! Reed was an awesome botanist!! He was one of the best botanists I have ever seen. He even loved plants more than me!! Jenny or I would go with Reed to scout out plant populations or look for seeds of specific plant species. Reed would tell us the difference between Lomatium, Penstemon, or Astragalus species. He would always cover a lot of ground and find the most unique plants. He had the most interesting stories to tell Jenny and I. It was always a treat for us to take a break from NISIMS and work on some SOS missions with Reed. The Mt. Baker experience was amazing with everyone! Reed was especially excited to learn all about rare plants and ferns on serpentine soil. He would always tell Jenny and I about an interesting tidbit he learned and it would mostly likely incorporate Latin. Overall, a very cool dude. Thanks Reed!!!

Reed hard at work!

Yay!!! Time for the Krissa and Rebecca Interview!!!

How you’ve grown personally and professionally?

I have grown a lot through my internships in Oregon and Wyoming. In Washington, I was able to learn more about report writing and digitalizing data. Writing reports for the BLM was not an easy task. You had to have specific formats and guidelines you had to follow for maps and reports. With data entry, everything was digitalized and entered in the ArcGIS. Learning about this new way of data entry gave me a better understanding on how to work with ArcGIS in different ways.

Driving was always an interesting experience, especially in back country roads. You had to navigate on non-existent roads through very steep topography. Traveling a few hours to a site was very common! Three years of navigating in these conditions helped me become an excellent driver!

Working in extreme conditions for this internship was awesome. Most of the days in the Summer were over 100°F! We had to avoid dry brush while driving on back country roads. We did not want the hot engine to start a fire! With the wildfires, we had to wear masks and deal with hot temperatures! This was probably the most intense internship, but I survived and stayed safe the whole time. Jenny and I were very careful not to go into an area that had an active fire present. There were some areas that had large wasps (Order: Hymenoptera) and rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis), but you just had to be observant and learn how to avoid these animals in the field.

Jenny and I were prepared for any extreme field conditions, especially areas that had thick smoke.

There were some times I had to work by myself in the field. Planning a few weeks ahead of time had always helped me prepare for these solo missions. I was able to break through my previous limitations and grow stronger in order to accomplish all of my field work for that day! This internship really tested me both personally and professionally and I was able to surpass my limitations to become a stronger and experienced person. In the future, I will be prepared for anything, thanks to these internship!

What are some new skills that you have gained on your internship?

I considered this internship more of a wildlife biology-centric job with a side helping of botany! I learned a lot about golden eagle and wildlife biology surveying. We used software called GeoBOB and a GPS device to fill in information about every individual golden eagle nesting site. I learned the important factors to look for and to take note on. Seriously, the movies that have golden eagles in them do not portray their nesting behavior correctly! You might assume they live in caves on the side of canyon walls? They really build nests on ledges and can build multiple nests at a time. At first it was hard to find the eagles, but with some friendly advice from Jon, an employee from the Washington Department of Fish and Game, we were able to easily spot the nests! Along with data entry, we had the opportunity to capture and tag greater sage grouse. One day we helped out with the capturing and tagging of pygmy rabbits. These two capturing and tagging events gave Jenny and I a lot of insight on how wildlife biologists perform monitoring measures in the field. Surveying the Washington ground squirrels (Spermophilus washingtoni) was a little tougher, because they were not active when we were monitoring them. We did record possible colony locations using a GPS device and GeoBOB, but a future intern would have to investigate these sites to confirm if they are indeed active colonies.

Golden eagle at its nest!

Jenny getting ready to capture a pygmy rabbit.

A captured pygmy rabbit eating and relaxing.

Plant identification was a very important job when looking for invasive plants out in the field! I learned a variety of new species of forbs, grasses, sedges, trees, shrubs, and lichens! I learned a huge number of grass species due to the grass workshop I attended during the Summer. I learned more about what SOS interns do! Reed taught me a variety of techniques on how to identify plants and how to collect seeds. Searching for plant populations was always tricky, but Reed knew what to look for! Seed collection was crazy at times, especially with Lomatiums! Once you know how to collect seed from each plant, you could go on auto mode and collect the appropriate number of seeds in a given population. Rare plant monitoring in Watermelon Hill was very interesting, especially with Silene spaldingii. Surveying Silene populations with the SOS interns really gave Jenny and I a new perspective on plant monitoring that incorporated photography, plant phenology, and plant measurements! During the Mt. Baker trip, learning about plant identification and plant photography were really important skills I picked up that would definitely help me in the future!

Silene spaldingii flower!

I was able to improve on my understanding of range land health assessments and ESR! I would go into the field with some of my bosses to learn about range land health assessments. We would discuss the indicators of range health, perform soil testing, measure canopy gap of plants, measure plant densities, and do line-point intercept! I have done this in my two previous internships, but it was interesting how each region slightly varies on how they evaluate range land health! Doing ESR evaluations in Washington were slightly different from Oregon’s procedures! I learned new ways to evaluate burn severity and intensity. Reading the landscape for signs of recovery was very fun! ^_^

I learned a lot about range land assessment protocols with the Wenatchee BLM staff in Sulfur Canyon.

There were many software skills that I picked up. I learned more about many software applications in ArcGIS! Incorporating NISIMS and GeoBOB with GIS was a very interesting and pain in the butt experience! I learned how to do check in and check out of data sets, how to continue with data collection and updating of geodatabases, how to use remote sensing to determine where fence lines and plant populations could be, and how to transfer large amounts of data layers over the Internet! These skills would definitely help me find a future job in the biogeography field! I learned more about Microsoft Access and DIMA data entry. GeoBOB mobile was a pain at first to learn but it really helped me understand GIS software programs. NISIMS was very similar to GeoBOB, but a tad easier to understand!

Jenny and the Vale, Oregon CBG interns working on GeoBOB. At first the experience was a tad confusing, but we all eventually learned all about GeoBOB! ^_^

What are some learning experiences that stand out to you?

There were a few learning experiences that really stand out to me! Golden eagle surveying was a very interesting learning experience! In the past, it was easy to identify these birds in the air or when they were protecting their territory. Finding their nest was a completely different story! Jenny and I had to have a lot of patience and perseverance when monitoring these eagles. After a month of experience underneath our belts, finding golden eagles and their nests was easy to accomplish. We learned about the phenology and age of the eagles we were looking at based on their morphology and coloring. I always worked with song birds before when doing various surveys, but golden eagles surveying was a different experience all together!

When working out in the field, navigating each land with a map, GPS unit, and a compass has always been a learning experience. Each day I learned something new about the topography of a region. Eventually, I knew Sulfur Canyon so well I was able to look at a picture of a Sulfur Canyon landscape and know exactly where that piece of land was. Talking with people out in the field or in the office was another interesting experience that I usually encounter with each internship. Talking with land owners or with people who work on the land was always interesting! The majority of the people we did encounter in Washington were very friendly and loved to learn about what we were doing!

I would travel on this abandoned road to enter many of the Sulfur Canyon’s parcels.

Finally, the last major learning experience that stood out to me was working with the GeoBOB and NISIMS software. This software system was a tad advanced and there were many steps you had to make in order to correctly load and submit the information. If you did something slightly wrong, you would hear about it through the computer, phone, and email at least a few times each. >_> Ugh. Eventually, I learned how to work with the system and it became very easy to complete the tasks. NISIMS had a similar format and all of the data collection was easy to accomplish. Unfortunately, we had to be very careful when performing check ins into the computer, because there was this geoprocessing glitch which would freeze your computer and delete all of your GPS points. Luckily, I only encountered this glitch once.

What were some rewarding experiences/memories of your internship?

I have talked about many of my experiences and memories already! ^_^; I would like to mention a few rewarding experiences! One of the best memories was towards the end of our internship when we entered all of our data, wrote all of our reports, and accomplished all of our goals! That feeling was amazing! We made a great impact on the workload for the golden eagle surveys and ESR reports. Anything our bosses asked us to do, we did with flying colors. Unfortunately, we could not do Northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) surveys due to the wildfires. Along with accomplishing our reports, figuring out how to work with GeoBOB and submitting our data successfully was a relieving experience. After that point, we rarely had to worry about GeoBOB, because we were so good at entering and submitting data.

On the wildlife biology front, capturing pygmy rabbits for tag and release was very fun! Those rabbits were hopping around even when we were walking right by them. When I did capture my first rabbit with a tennis ball and a pillow case, I was shocked, because I did not expect the rabbit to fly right out of its hole like that! Jenny and I had a lot of fun with helping field biologist capturing these cute little balls of fur. Finding our first golden eagle nest at the Ice Cave site was great! The first few sites we visited, we did not find a nest and we thought this was going to be our whole Summer. When Jenny and I did see our first eagle pair, we were ecstatic!!! The female was sitting on the nest, while the male was protecting the territory! Capturing and tagging sage grouse during the night was another rewarding experience, especially when there were Northern lights in the sky to the north! We walked all around this field finding sage grouse. Trying to sneak up on them was a challenge, but we were able to capture two sage grouse!! These field experiences were very memorable and I will never forget these experiences!

I am holding a pygmy rabbit!!

What were some expectations that were or were not met?

I had high expectations for this internship. I wanted to get experience in wildlife biology, monitoring, and GIS. This internship did not disappoint me! I got fantastic experience with working with mammals and birds! I really wanted to have raptor surveying experience on my resume. Jenny and I were fortunate to watch and record data on golden eagle, peregrine falcon, and bald eagles! I wished I had some experience with mist netting or tagging of song birds, but I could learn about that in a future job.

Time for Some Flower Pictures

Lewisia rediviva: Bitteroot!!

Calochortus spp.: Mariposa lily

Helianthus annuus: Annual Sunflower

Thanks for the Memories!!!!
I want to thank my mentors and bosses J and Erik for the great opportunities! Working with golden eagles and NISIMS was exactly the experience I wanted for my resume! I got to work a lot with GIS software and hardware that both of you provided. Thanks for encouraging us to pursue different lectures and workshops around and beyond our district. Erik and J gave us enough freedom to do all of our field work. They connected us with people in other governmental agencies, which proved to be very important. Thanks J for teaching us the importance of Governmental bureaucracy and how to professionally write reports for the Public. Thanks for the check-ins as well during the Fire Season! Both mentors were really great and gave us plenty of assistance.

Jenny and I with our bosses J and Erik!

Thank you to the staff at the Wentachee BLM Field Office. All of you have been extremely helpful and welcoming to the CBG interns! Thank you Molly, Rusty, Chris, Pete, Kat, Linda, Jeff, Randall, and Angela for all of the information discussions, side trip adventures and opportunities! I learned a lot from all of you and I was very fortunate to have you as additional bosses and mentors!

I want to also thank a few more people!! A huge thank you to Reed and Jenny! Both of you contributed a lot and were very passionate about your internship! I learned a lot from both of you!! Thank you so much Krissa and Rebecca for answering all of our questions and for all of your support especially during the fire season! Both of you were extremely professional and supportive!!

I want to thank my Mom, Dad, and the rest of my family for their support! Thank you for all of the cards and packages! They were very much appreciated! Thank you for all of the side adventures and phone calls! You’re all the best in the biz! 😀

Moment of Zen

Geum triflorum: Prairie smoke

A-Ha Moment!!

Every year this happens to me! I always forget to do an A-Ha Moment in my blog!!! Let me see…. What should be the A-Ha moment for this year…. OH!!!

A close up of the fungus, Pyrenophora semeniperda.              Source: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTCT2jCkd-BFdPSzKjdjn9Dqbvh5iqubPd2y0k7gfoPi5TzveWY

Cheatgrass does have a weakness! Jenny and I encountered a disease that inflicts damage on non-native brome species. The disease known as “Five Fingers of Death” was a fungus that grew on the seeds. This black smut grows and disfigures the grasses, lowering the production rate of the cheatgrass. Where this disease was present, brome productivity significantly decreased allowing forbs and other native grasses to recover and grow in place! Range land managers were a little hesitant about releasing this disease on cheatgrass and non-native brome populations. This disease is still being researched. Hopefully in the future, this disease would significantly impact the non-native brome species.

I finished up my internship in Northeast Oregon as summer came to an end. The weather seemed to herald the autumn arrival with cooler days and much needed rain. Even our local mountains, the Elkhorns, had a dusting of snow! I started with the thaw of spring and left with the (slight) chill of fall. I will certainly miss the beautiful landscape that surrounded our office with its seemingly endless open space to explore.

My final month(s) of my internship were a mixture of water quality monitoring, riparian assessments, office work and a few fish surveys! I was very excited to have the opportunity to wok with our fish biologist, learning about the life cycle of salmon and how to find ideal salmon habitat, such as redd sites throughout our rivers. We took a tour of a large scale creek restoration project, focusing improving salmon spawning. I was fascinated by the different techniques and specialities involved with creating viable salmonoid habitat from constructing channel shifts to re-vegetation of banks.

In my final weeks at the BLM, I finished up my independent project of determining thermal regimes of streams within the Powder River Basin. I was specifically examining how grazing may be impacting the stream temperatures by complying historic temperature and grazing data, along with flow levels, elevation and a variety of other factors. After analyzing the data through correlations and linear regression models, I found there was a notable positive relationship between the level of grazing and maximum average temperature. Other factors, such as elevation and percent of BLM ownership, also had a role. My report suggests further examination of stream temperatures in the basin as my analysis was limited in scope, but showed there exists potential effects of grazing.

My internship through the Chicago Botanic Garden has given me a good perspective of the management side of conservation. Before CBG,  I had mostly been involved on the research side of examining impacts and recommending shifts in management. Carrying out the objectives of any management plan has its successes and obstacles. I have seen or heard how many plans have to be alter once implementation begins in the field. Through my independent project, I learned about how many government agencies work on improving the efficacy of restoration plans through cycles of research and monitoring. The success of restoration and conservation relies on both. Monitoring often provides the long term data that research relies on for trends. These trends are the starting point for many a research question. As someone who is thoroughly invested in pursuing a research career, I enjoyed coming to understand the role monitoring serves not only for management plans but also future scientific study.

I would like to thank Krissa, Rebecca, and the rest of CBG.

-Lara

Vale District Office, BLM

As I approach my last month, I have been trying to use my time as well as possible-besides this weekend, which I’m using to recharge. The past couple weeks I have been working on a bat study, recording data on bat roosts in rocks and trees.

Three weeks ago I made the effort to go hiking in Mt. Rainier. Cold, rainy, snowy, exhausting: I loved it all. And I was relatively pleased for knocking out a 40 mile loop in 3 days.

My favorite moment was probably sharing a campsite with a fellow solo hiker. As it turned out his wife and grandfather went to my alma mater at Wake Forest. He told me how his wife will be “tickled” to hear how he spent a night with a Demon Deacon. He spent dinner telling me how I need to follow my dreams. Backpacking always gives me a renewed sense of optimism in humans, and this man was no exception.

As I was driving back-less than 24 hours to prepare for returning to work-I came to realize that one of the biggest reasons I love backpacking is afterwards returning to civilization I feel like a better person. I may not smell like one, but I sure feel better in a way no other activity I know can provide.

The weekend following, to the dismay of my recovering feet and knees, I climbed South Sister just outside of Bend. For me, climbing up was the fun part, on the return trip it seemed falling was the only right way to get down. Still, a gorgeous hike.

Finally, last week for work we got the opportunity to visit Bill’s place. While there we found a visit from some wild horses, so all in all it was a pretty great day.

All in all I’m pretty proud for the high density of adventure, so I’m rewarding myself with a weekend of coffee and relaxing.

Until next time,

Ben Robb

Over the past month, the New England SOS team’s seed collections have surged from 32 collections on 8/25 to 120 on 9/25–just about everything is fruiting in the narrow growing season of America’s northeast.  A month ago we were collecting about one species per day; now, we collect about six or seven.  Consequently, all four interns are bursting at the seams trying to properly dry, de-pest, and package the seeds for cleaning following collection.  Though the weather is now cooling down and the salt marshes are a little less rife with mosquitoes, our apartments, though booby-trapped with dozens of no-pest strips, are getting buggier and looking, well, seedier:

Scene 1 – Dining room table, from left: Eutrochium maculatum, Limonium carolinianum, Carex lupulina, Asclepias syriaca, Iva frutescens (top right), and Panicum virgatum (bottom right)

Scene 2 – Living room, from top: Scirpus cyperinus, Iva frutescens

Scene 3 – Dining room round table (aka the Graminoid table), clockwise from top right: Schizachyrium scoparium, Cyperus diandrus, Echinochloa walteri, Schoenoplectus acutus, Cyperus strigosus, Schoenoplectus pungens

Since we also have to collect specimens, our plant press is also very full:

Ran out of blotting paper…newspaper will have to do.

Despite the sudden rapid pace of collection, we are working hard and I think we are much more efficient at finding all the target seeds that we need on this giant plant scavenger hunt.  The time is flying by…soon it will be November, we will have made >200 collections, and our two dozen aluminum trays will be filled with–not seeds–but turkeys and stuffing.

If there’s one thing about this internship that I wasn’t quite expecting, it’s the driving. Harney county is the largest county in Oregon in terms of area, and much of the land is owned by the BLM. Driving to field sites takes hours upon hours on black top, gravel, dirt, and rocks. The single activity I have done the most this summer is to drive or ride in a pickup truck which is the single most valuable tool I use to get field work done.

The last apple:

Back during the first week, we had finished field work for the day. There was still a little bit of time before we had to head back, so some of the guys we work with were driving us out to see Krumbo Reservoir. I had been sitting in the truck for what seemed like forever. I had a little motion sickness, but felt like I could handle it. Then we turned down a slightly bumpy and curvy gravel road that led down to the reservoir. By the time we reached our destination, I was about dying and ran to the bathroom to lose the better part of my lunch.

Right before we were about to go back, I ran over to a trash can just to make sure I was done. When we climbed in the truck to head back, Kyle asked if I was sick. I said it was just motion sickness. He looked kind of concerned and said we were going to be doing a lot more driving this summer and I should get some medicine or something. He asked if it would help if I drove, and he let me drive the rig home.

I knew my mistake though. While they aren’t solely to blame, apples generally make me car sick for whatever reason. So now I eat oranges at lunch. That was the last day I brought an apple.

Randy:

Learning to navigate in Harney county was a bit difficult for me at first. The dirt roads all looked the same, and the rolling hills of grass and sage looked the same. When giving directions, my boss would use phrases like “you can’t miss it”. Needless to say, the four of us interns all missed that spot the first time and started driving to Nevada. Even the guys who weren’t new had to backtrack occasionally when seeking out our field sites.

Into this sea of navigational troubles walked Randy. Randy, a salt-and-peppered fifty-something was born and raised here in Burns. Randy spent much of his life exploring the backroads of Harney County, and has been driving to BLM field sites for five years now.

Randy drives through a herd of cattle

A coyote watches us stop for some typical scenery

ArcGIS and the Disappearing Roads:

ArcGIS, the most prominent program for mapping and geographic analysis is all the rage these days. There is even a version of the program called ArcPad that is made for use on a tablet. We have ArcPad on our fancy Trimble tablet GPS units, and are therefore able to track out position relative to the expansive network of back roads without too much difficulty. You would think it’s impossible to get lost with this technology.

This past week, we were assigned to mark sagebrush seedling establishment plots in several specific patches in the Miller Homestead Fire region. We set out with a map, a GPS, and Randy. We were making good time and had gotten three sites marked when we hit a lovely stretch of road heading for the fourth site. The road curved up and over a patch of rim rock, and was entirely made of rocks. At one point, I had to get out and roll a particularly large rock out of the way, and another time we went up a stair of rock that was larger than an average stair. Both sides of the road were lined with more rocks sticking out and threatening to rip up our tires. And that was the site we made it to. Randy just gritted his teeth and drove. We got back to the office an hour late that day. Randy looked at the tires and pointed out where a chunk of rubber had been gouged out of their thick tread. “I thought these tires were new; didn’t you get them a couple of weeks back?”  “Well they ain’t new any more.”

The sites we didn’t make it to came the second day. We came to an intersection and the road we needed to take completely disappeared. There was another road present which was not on the map and went off in a different direction. This happened again on the third day. While GPS and ArcGIS are wonderful technologies, they have limited usefulness without regular updating. Even when a map has a road drawn on it, that doesn’t make the road a reality. Navigation would also be easier if a measure of road roughness were included on the map.

Hello from Utah- one final time! Last week was the end of my time here in Vernal. In a couple of days I will be packing up and heading to northern Minnesota, where I will be collecting MORE seeds with the University of Minnesota-Duluth for two months. I’m very excited!

It has been a blast getting to know all the botanists at the Vernal Field Office. I will treasure all my memories of this summer, including hacking away at teasel, wandering up mountains surveying for rare plants, floating down river rapids on an inflatable kayak, and navigating the truck through some questionably well-maintained roads. The town of Vernal itself was not my favorite place, but the nearby recreational activities were seemingly endless. I have visited 10 national parks and five state parks this summer, along with countless hikes and scenic drives. I would definitely recommend having a car if you are planning on working in Vernal, because the town itself is not that spectacular, but the surrounding public lands should not be missed.

This internship has helped me to cement my knowledge that I am obsessed with plants, and that I would be perfectly happy wandering around outside all day looking at plants… probably for the rest of my life! I thought I might get bored collecting seeds after six months, but I really haven’t. Each plant population is unique and interesting in its own way, and it makes me realize how much more I’d like to know about plant community ecology. I am planning on attending grad school in the near future, and the workshop at the Chicago Botanic Gardens earlier this summer was incredibly helpful in teaching me the next steps of applying to grad school.

So, that was my summer in a nutshell! I will never forget my time here in Vernal, and I hope to cross paths with some of the amazing people I have met here again in the future.

Go plants!

Probably one of my favorite pictures of the summer… one of our teasel-spraying expeditions!

Jinny Alexander
BLM- Vernal, Utah Field Office

They say that in your twenties you meet alot of temporary people. Immediately that may conjur up a lot of negatives — best-friendships,  romantic relationships, the removal of bad vibes and people from your life —  but as an ecologist, temporary people are an integral part of our careers. The early stages of our careers are often seasonal and short-term, which is a hinderance and a blessing. As soon as you learn to identify all the grasses on the range it’s time to move on, by the time you get to really know your co-workers – adios the next place is acallin’.  We become a jack of all ecosystems (learning a little about each place we visit) and are yet to be masters at any. But, we see some of the most scenic and beautiful places and by understanding how our interactions with nature shape the land, we gain a greater appreciation for where we live. This transient-ness in the prime of our lives allows us to connect with a lot of new people, reshape and modify our opinions, and challenge ourselves in ways we may have not expected.  As I enter my last month of working in Burns, OR I’ve been reflecting on how lucky I am that this is one of those temporary places. Therefore, I dedicate this blog to some of my favorite moments. 

Seriously, one of my favorite parts of living in Oregon is living out on a farm. Every evening I take a walk in the fields and feed treats to horses, donkeys, and cows. Pictured above is Fuzz, one of the barn cats.

some of the critters we see at work:

Moments with Friends:

Hiking the Strawberries. My First Back Country Camping Trip

Fishing at Delitment Lake my first weekend in Burns

Hike to Wild Horse Lake on the Steens

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