Crew Culture!!

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Working 10 hour days doing repetitive tasks can seem boring and hard to some, and some days it is not the most fun, but what really makes it enjoyable is the people you work with. Crew culture can make or break your season. It is the people you smile with while it rains on you, the people you sing in the car with, and the people you rely on when the going gets tough. 

Crew taking in a waterfall while treating weeds on a local trail.

I have been lucky to have a large crew on the Umpqua Nat’l Forest. I get to work with 3 USFS employees, 2 interns through the Scientists Conservation Association, 2 interns through the local community college, and of course my fellow CBG intern, Hannah. Having such a large team allows me to work with different people everyday, sharing stories, and making memories. Another plus is that everyone is from all over the United States. We cover the Southwest, Midwest, East Coast, and the Pacific Northwest. With that I have gotten to experience the cultural differences from across the U.S. It has been so interesting to hear about crab boils from Maryland or meeting people from Arizona who have never seen snow (that is crazy as a midwesterner). 

Me and my co-worker Bridget, taking a funny selfie to capture pre-work vibes

In the field it is really great to have such a large group to pull from. We each bring a different set of skills and knowledge. I have been able to learn just as much from my crew lead as I have from my co-workers. The local interns have such an impressive knowledge of the native species. They have helped me learn how to identify our collection species more quickly than I would have by myself.  One of my assistant crew leads, Bridget, comes from the Midwest with a background in invasive species management. She has really helped us be more efficient when dealing with weeds and even helps us estimate how long a treatment area may take. 

A bunch of the crew taking our ”album cover” photo

At the end of the day this crew has become a second family. We regularly hangout outside of work, and are able to be true selves with each other. When you take a field position your crew can make or break your season. So show up with a smile, open heart, and be ready to make some of the closest friends you will ever have. It makes the beauty of your surroundings shine even brighter.

Group Photo to celebrate one of our co-interns leaving for the season. Taken in front of the National forest sign

Umpqua National Forest

Emma Landenberger

Monsoons in the Desert

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The past month has been filled with a mixture of hot daily temperatures of over 100, contrasted by frequent torrential downpours. Such is life in Arizona. But, as they say, with the rains, life follows. It’s strange to see such bright colors contrasted with the dead grass and the occasional plot of cow bones. It’s kinda strange to see so many of them in the middle of a juniper forest sometimes. (The Wild West is still alive!) I found my second coyote skull this month in a ditch while searching for some Parkinsonia seeds, and whoop there it was, bleached and slightly dusted, with no other bones around it. Strange, really, how I just decided to go in the direction of the skull like it was asking me to find it. I like to think that magical moments like this are more frequent than we give credit for. I really like the natural metaphors and poetry that the desert provides, and I’m particularly inspired by the level of resilience and life that exists contrasted with such obvious symbols of death, like the cow bones. I believe that death and endings are underappreciated and over stigmatized. After all, it provides the opportunity for something new to exist when it may not have before. Sure, the rain provides life, but we only ever think of the death following it under the scorching sun. It’s just as natural as everything else. I’m still reflecting on our recent trip to Diamond Point near Payson, where we found crystal-clear quartz points when scavenging for some woodland target species. It was interesting to see scorch marks that looks like they may have been from lightning, contrasted by the sparkle of the crystals in the gravel and sticking up from the pine litter.

Machaeranthera in the middle of a wash by Warm Creek. I like to think it’s called Warm Creek because of the uranium mine next door to it.
One of the many Payson “Diamond” quartz points we found.

Flourishing in Utah’s Heat

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July’s sizzling temperatures have helped me realize that I am, indeed, a little lizard. How else am I to explain how much I loved being out and about full-sun mid July in Utah?

Art Nord – Wheeler Creek trail

The beautiful landscape and weather make this easily one of the best offices I’ve had the pleasure of working in.

There’s a particular trail we can’t seem to stop revisiting due to the amount of target species we are finding. Art Nord’s Wheeler Creek trail has truly been a gold mine of harvestable populations! The list currently consists of Chaenactic douglasii, Eriogonum heracleoides, Eriogonum umbellatum, Lomatium dissectum, and Purshia tridentata.

We’ve completed a few collections, unfortunately, we now know what it’s like to miss a population. When we first started, Balsamorhiza sagittata (BASA) seemed to be everywhere. As we began scouting for new ecoregions and populations we took BASA’s abundance for granted…missing a population has been extremely frustrating but, I try to stay positive in that we’ll collect from another population and that the particular population we missed will likely flourish next season.

In other news, this past month also provided me the luxury of camping for a week in the Heber-Kamas east zone with the Botany department and Student Conservation Association (SCA) Interns where I had the opportunity to act as a botany tech lead! We worked on multiple surveys for two proposed timber sales (Silver Meadows Timber Sale and Flytree Timber Sale) as well as two large sections of a fuels reduction project. Throughout the 698 acres we kept our eyes peeled for Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive (TES) species: Botrychium crenulatum, Botrychium lineare, Corydalis caseana ssp brachycarpa, Cyprepedium fasciculatum, and Cypripedium parviflorum. Fortunately for me, I’d seen a few in previous surveys so I knew what to look for and could help provide tips and guidance for others. We didn’t find anything in the proposed polygons however, a decent population of the tiny Botrychiums were spotted in a meadow not too far from camp. The little guys were no longer than my pinky!

Botrychium
Botrychium
Forest survey views
Meadow views
Camp at dusk

One of many cool aspects of this internship is the amount of collaboration we get to take part in. A team from the Great Basin Institute had been in contact with our FS mentor and so we coordinated with them to complete a Lomatium dissectum (LODI) and BASA population collection. They follow the seeds of success protocol which was extremely useful to see in action! Thank you to Brian for being an amazing lead and mentor!

Brian conducting a LODI seed cut test
Seed cut test for BASA
BASA harvest

Another blog post means another month has come and gone. I’m enjoying this seasonal internship too much, if that’s possible, and just wish it could be a permanent position 🙂

The Hunt for ERUM

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There’s much to talk about here at the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Boise, ID! In the short two and a half months since I’ve began this position my partner and I have been darting all over the Great Basin involved in some cool research. Most of our time these days is dedicated to searching for a particular plant species, but we have also gotten involved in some smaller projects that needed extra hands.

Though first, I suppose I’d like to talk more about the Great Basin itself. Despite growing up in Colorado, and seeing parts of the greater Great Basin ecosystem, the basin isn’t something I have thought of very much. In fact, it took several hours of unbroken driving throughout this region to really appreciate its magnificent vastness, like a rolling sea of scrubland mottled with pinyon-juniper woodland in-between stark mountain ranges. Much like the sea, the magnitude of the apparently desolate land is intimidating, yet amazing.

A view from the top of Yellow Peak in the Sheldon National Antelope Refuge in Nevada.

The Great Basin is defined primarily by the fact that the rivers flowing through this region do not drain into any major ocean or worldwide system. The water that enters the Great Basin, stays in the Great Basin (and now I know where Vegas ripped their slogan from!). This region is dominated by scrubland and pinion-juniper, but is home to a wonderful suite of forbs, one of which has been our primary focus for the past month, ERUM. ERUM stands for Eriogonum umbellatum, or sulphur buckwheat, a perennial from the family Polygonaceae. My field partner and I spend most of our time traveling to locations with presence records of this species, and collecting leaf tissue, herbarium vouchers, and seed from them when available.

Eriogonum umbellatum.

These materials are raw inputs into a research pipeline. Genetic material and phenological information are used to characterize varieties of this species while seeds from various climates are grown in several so-called “common gardens” across the Great Basin. All of this information gets united in an effort to identify “seed zones” for ERUM and its many varieties. These zones are areas throughout the Great Basin associated with particular environments and climatic conditions which result specialized in adaptations in ERUM. For instance, a sample of ERUM seed collected in a high-altitude forest meadow zone would likely not grow well in a low-elevation scrubland zone, and vice versa. So by identifying these seed zones, and characterizing the seed collections by said zones, restoration projects can use this information to select ERUM seed suited for the proper climate and environment. Developing large quantities of native seed is an extremely expensive process, and much seed can go to waste if the environment isn’t suitable. My mentor, Jessica, mentioned to us that after all the labor, permits, equipment, and resources, a bag of seed can be worth more than its weight in gold!

Hunting for ERUM feels like one great scavenger hunt, and it’s always a bit of a rush to stumble upon some. My time so far in this position has been pleasant. I feel very fortunate to travel to so many breathtaking places I likely never would have gone to otherwise. The great outdoors sure has a way of making one feel whole…

As we transition from traveling around the Great Basin collecting seed to setting up common gardens, I hope learn whether development of a reference genome is in the works, what sort of genes are being used as markers to identify varieties, as well as some general curiosities about the potential link between plant breeding, agronomy, and restoration.

Stanley Lake, ID
Jackson, WY

Life on the Road

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This summer has been filled with all sorts of fun out here in Boise, ID. Coming into this job I had no idea how much I would be learning and how much fun this would be! My field partner and I have been collecting seed and plant material from two main species, Eriogonum umbellatum and Lomatium dissectum. We have been as far north as Craig Mountain Wildlife Management Area (south of Lewiston), ID and as far south as Cedar City, UT. At times the traveling can be overwhelming and tiresome but I enjoy getting paid to work places people vacation. For example, this past week we were able to work near Jackson Hole, WY, one of my favorite places to go! Being from Idaho I love exploring my state more and exploring new states. Nevada has been so beautiful and desolate simultaneously, and it has been one of my new favorites to explore.

As a wildlife biology major, I was excited to start a job working with plants and learn more about habitats and ecosystems. This job has allowed me to explore many aspects of both and I have really enjoyed challenging myself to make connections in habitats while looking for our target species.

Some fun moments so far this summer were almost getting bit by a rattlesnake, having a grouse attack me, seeing lots of wildlife, watching long-eared owls feed above my head, finding bats tucked in a rock crack, and of course all the beautiful scenery.

Work will start to change as we start traveling less for seed collection and more for common garden work and I am excited to update how that goes in the coming months! Enjoy these photos in the meantime.

Lomatium dissectum!
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Me near Custer, ID
Eriogonum umbellatum growing in a cool place
Pretty Idaho mountains

Prairie Bogs

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To start off my July I traveled to Wisconsin to spend time in the boreal forests of the north with my family. We hiked at the Porcupine Mountains which are not even mountains, but us Midwesterners are used to land flatter than a soda that’s been left open for a week. While there I just about rounded out my observations of the 6 native Midwest honeysuckles; seeing Red Honey Suckle, Lonicera Dioica, growing near the shore of Lake Superior. Only Lonicera oblongifolia has evaded my searching for the relatives of the nauseatingly monotonous Eurasian honeysuckles. An interesting aspect of the honeysuckles is the natives are edible or close to edible while the invasive are disgustingly bitter.

On my way home I visited the biggest bog I have ever seen. I was delighted at the sight of tamaracks, heaths, sedges, and moss as far as I could see, but dismayed by the little lily of valley taking hold in every square foot of the bog. I felt a pain up my back as I remembered having spent days hunched over hand painting herbicide onto this invader. It had invaded a large portion of the highest quality remnant prairie in the county I live in. Having been planted in the cemetery prairie to pay respects to a deceased loved ones, the lily has lead to the deaths of numerous rare native plants.

Coming back from Wisconsin to Illinois I was missing the cushion of the canopy and colder temperatures. Though I was pleasantly relieved when the same smell of pine crept across the prairie. All the species of Silphium, Compass Plant and Prairie had started to peak in bloom. The blazing sun on the prairie burns off the acridity of the landfill in the morning and volatilizes the terpenes in the plants. The most interesting smell I have encountered was the smell of the tussock sedges. It has a unique pleasant smell that is hard for me to put into words and was disappointing to collect very little seed for these important plants.

Seasons of Change

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Having just written our mid-season report, I find myself reflecting upon how the season has gone so far, and day-dreaming about what still lies ahead of us. I can hardly believe that summer is almost over. This summer has flown by for me- a testament to how wonderful this job has been. One of my favorite things about this position has to be seeing how the forest changes with each new season. I feel like a quiet observer, a fly on the wall, watching as the forest delicately lays down her colored coat each week, only to put on a new one.

Viewing these changes through my eyes, as a budding botanist, has been especially spectacular for me. In spring, the first yellow blooms of arrowleaf balsamroot break through the thawed ground, while lupines, a personal favorite of mine, add a touch of lavender among the new greenery. As the days warm, and summer progresses, wild geraniums and scarlet gilia bring subtle pinks and reds, their flowers attracting pollinators that flit between them.

Now that it is late summer, mountain mahogany seeds have begun to show, their fine, feathered strands catching the light before drifting off with the wind. Penstemon, with its deep blue and purple flowers, stands tall in open spaces. The seedheads of annual grasses, long since passed, turn gold in the sun.

I find myself waiting on the edge of my seat to see what the forest does as fall approaches. I can only guess that the colors of her coat will turn deeper, and richer as the aspens turn gold, and the reds of bigtooth maples and burr oaks spill across the hills. I am sure that fireweed, one of the last to bloom, will add a final burst of magenta before the first snowflakes settle and the forest shifts into the quiet of winter

Winter. Of all the seasons, it’s the most difficult for me to picture. Not because it isn’t beautiful, it might be the most breathtaking season of all. But because I know that once the forest puts on her white coat, contrasted only by the dark green of the conifers, that I will hardly be there to see it. Of course I know that after my time as a CLM intern is over I will still be able to go into the forest. But it won’t be like it is now, I can’t go everyday. Surely, I won’t be around to notice the subtle changes as early winter progresses into late winter, and as late winter thaws into spring. The forest will be quieter then, and very few will be around to see her.

Until then, I plan to enjoy my time with the forest, however fleeting it may be. She continues to change everyday, and with each change brings new plants to be discovered, and new seeds to be harvested.

Musings on Earth

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These past few weeks, soil has been on my mind. Blowing in through my ears, landing in the crevices of my brain. I’m hoping it’ll fertilize my mind into feeling grounded, encourage some new growth. Inevitably, I’m always drawn to soil when in need of grounding. I appreciate how literal it is, to be connected to the Earth, dirt under my nails, nibbling on roots. And I can get lost in the wonder of it all when I consider soil, how it nourishes us, brimming with life and mystery, a hidden world under our feet, supporting us as the foundation of life.


This last month, our grasslands research has included preparing bud core samples that my boss harvested for analysis. The samples start as chunks of the earth- foot high grass culms and their dense, clayey root bundles. We hold the dried root bundles under the blast of the hose, breaking off chunks of clay, combing out rhizomes and fine roots the way you’d comb out hair or wash a dog. The reveal is beautiful. There’s an immediate recognition and appreciation that finally you’re seeing the whole plant. It’s like the floor washed away and you can see all the pipes and mechanics and innerworkings of your city. Like you can finally really understand where it all comes from. Washing the soil from Pascopyrum smithii’s below ground structures reveals a story, and our boss, Jackie, translates it for us. This is her language, and she tells the story with familiarity and adoration.


“Here is last years’ culm, and here it decided to put up a new shoot! I predict that drought will have less impact on the number of buds, but more so on their development and energy invested by the plant.”


She shows us three years’ generations of grass shoots, spaced neatly along the rhizome, the newest looking young and fresh, the oldest greying and soft. From above ground, you could never translate this familial story, but understanding roots entirely changes the way I see the prairie.


The metaphors are enough for me to get lost in. When I was in undergrad, I tattooed “as above, so below around my kneecap. Soil exemplified this for me. Ecology and geology lessons left me reeling, the interconnectedness of it all…the rocks, the soil, the plants. Nourishing, growing, dying, returning. The cycles, all the cycles… inducing a mania over all the love pouring from rocks. To me, learning the ways in which soil was alive was reflected in community structure, resilience, and cooperation, and a thread of love throughout all levels of life. It taught me about foundations, being grounded, and about putting down roots.

Homage to the Huachuca Water Umbel

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The Huachuca water umbel, Lilaeopsis schaffneriana var. recurva is tiny but mighty – and a flood plain opportunist who deserves our attention as dedicated conservationists.

This semi-aquatic plant, although small, is imperative for erosion control and overall maintenance of sensitive wetland habitats. Since this species can produce both sexually through flowers and asexually through rhizomes – it’s seedbanks can persist viably for up to 10 years, allowing the plant to recolonize quickly after periods of drought if precipitation is great enough. In events of extreme downpours and flooding caused by desert monsoons, the Huachuca water umbel can expand its population quickly by establishing itself in newly disturbed habitats by dislodged rhizomes opportunistically dispersing and re-rooting themselves in a different site along the aquatic system. However, the unique ability is dependent upon the presence of a refugia – or a suitable, unaltered wetland habitat that supports these isolated individuals.

In the Huachuca mountains, healthy riparian communities are starting to disappear. As the Huachuca water umbel seeks to find refuge – it finds itself fighting an uphill battle against increased cattle allotments leading to overgrazing, aquatic habitat degradation, stream pollution from wildfire sedimentation, invasive species competition, recreation, and extreme drought. With all these factors at play, great concern for the species was expressed by the Center for Biological Diversity and in 1997 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rightfully added the Huachuca water umbel to the list of species under the Endangered Species Act.

Last week, myself and B. Sonday accompanied Coronado Forest Botanist Hannah in monitoring and collecting data for these important individuals.

Measuring a large umbel population in the Huachuca Mountains.

We collected data for two separate drainage areas and found several microsites of umbel populations throughout both. However, in the first drainage where evidence of the presence of cattle was high – distance between umbel populations were significant and individuals within those populations made up just 0-5% percent of the total vegetation coverage.

In conclusion, the Huachuca water umbel is struggling to overcome adversity in face of a changing climate and poor land management. But, monitoring efforts play an imperative part in understanding this plants ecology and to best provide solutions for increasing their populations in the future.

Outstanding Orchids! (and some other plants too!)

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The Rocky Mountain Front

This month has been filled to the brim with new plants and new places. Since the last blog post Sky and I have kinda settled into the position and have been getting into a groove. Most days we end up going to the Helena side of the forest so we can get plants in a large area which means we’ve been doing A LOT of driving, but hey I get to listen to my music more, so that’s a plus!

Our month started with us going to the Rocky Mountain Front to meet up with the head botanist in the Helena office to help look for a rare orchid that should be in the area. However, in order to get to the right spot we had to go off-trail and really get into the thicker parts of the forest. It was some of the most fun I had on the job! It felt like I was really exploring the forest that I’m stationed in and it made every plant that we found even more exciting than usual. In the end we were able to find the orchid we were looking for along with some other ones!

Galiarus rotundfolia (Small Round-Leaved Orchid) was the orchid we were looking for. It likes to grow in damp areas and can be easily confused with Twinflower when they aren’t in bloom.
Cypripedium montanum (Mountain Lady’s Slipper) was also growing near the Small Round-Leaved Orchid! This was the first time I’ve seen this one!
And my personal favorite: Corallorhiza striata (Striped Coralroot). This orchid gets it’s sugars from the mycelium in the ground through mycoheterotrophy! I hope that I get to see more of this one in the future.

The week after our trip with Nate we spent some time helping out the trails crew and sprayed some weeds around some campgrounds. Wasn’t my favorite work to do (especially since we ended up spraying a lot of Ox-eyed Daisies, which I didn’t know were invasive until then), but we had a cookout for lunch so it wasn’t all too bad!

The rest of the month was spent doing our usual survey work and seed collections. It’s been interesting seeing how our populations change throughout the season and then seeing how these plants spread their seeds. This job has made me so much more conscious of the different stages of a plants life and how differences in climate can affect the timing of when it’s seeds are released. The higher temperatures in Helena along with the forest fires in the area has made it so many of the plants in that part of the forest are much farther along than the ones that we see closer to the ranger station. This has sometimes been a source of some frustrations since it narrows down the already short window for collecting from some species, but it has also allowed us to collect from some species sooner than we would be able to if we just stayed close to the ranger station.

Overall it has been another good month of my time in Montana, and I’m excited to see what this next month brings!