Upon my late arrival across the Arkansas border, after driving a short 2-day drive from New Hampshire, I was swiftly confronted by high winds, heavy rain, tumultuous thunder, and threat of a tornado, (which I shortly learned was nothing out of the ordinary for the Natural State – lovely, isn’t it?). I remarked, “Thanks for the hearty greeting, Arkansas – glad to make your acquaintance, too”.
Within my first week, the clamorous episode I had experienced that night began to reflect my emotional state. I felt vivid strokes of enthusiasm followed by weighted anxiety reaching depths I had never wished to explore. In a land obscured by canopy, and my obliviousness of the world beyond my home town, it felt as if I uncovered my own “City of Z”. However, unlike the unfortunate assumed fate of Percy Fawcett, the ensuing days were brimming with the firm handshakes and animated faced of many, all willing to assist in my transition. Through what began to be a routine conversation of “what brings you down here?”, “New Hampshire? Oh, just right down the road, yeah?”, and “How do you like the humidity?” I shortly grew comfortable (as well as a fine layer of sweat), with the community I would be spending the following months with.
Given the arduous efforts to complete HR protocols, and other seemingly innumerable procedures to be recognized in the system, receive a government license, etc, I spent my first few weeks tagging along with various individuals to assist in conducting biological evaluations, surveys, and other projects in the district. This allowed me to receive an understanding for the local environments, ecosystems, and flora that are present. Not to mention an understanding just how very cold, and very dry Arkansas weather is…
A few projects that illustrated the successful restoration efforts the Forest Service has embarked on is the use of prescribed fires in disturbed, and previously unmanaged environments, fraught with ill-motivated invasive species. Interestingly, I learned of how some of the plots had formed into what they are today – agricultural lands abandoned after financial pressures of farmers reached too grand of a scale. These previously open, and breathable plains were subject to encroaching invasive species, sinking their roots in vulnerable, fertile soils, inviting others to join the party. The kinds who bring friends who trash the place, eating all of the provisions. However, through the application of fire and selective cuttings, even an untrained eye can recognize the significant improvements present. Native species are experiencing a triumphant return, as well as the soils, landscape, etc – the starkness creates such a contrast that burned, and unburned sites do not appear to belong to the same plot of land. Not even of the same region.
Additionally, among these native species are the lesser studied grasses. In efforts to enhance our knowledge of grasses, their diversity, as well as their minute taxonomy, our office, including others in the district, attended a course, which was wonderfully organized by my mentor, Jessica Hawkins. The photos attached to this post capture a glimpse of how the course was conducted, and what the attendees gained. Thoughtfully, notebooks were provided, which were filled with specimens located in the restoration fields. Notes were scratched, grasses were taped, heat was felt, but much needed knowledge was acquired. In total, 46 species were marked! (That was our location alone – just one restoration area). Now we are all equipped with a personalized grass ID field book, and they’re fantastic.
I must say, I never imagined the complexities noted, and exhibited by the locally present grasses. Often disregarded and viewed as a homogenous green mass we either walk through, or drive by daily, my newfound appreciation for grasses has bloomed. Mowing will now become a problem…
Needless to say, I am looking forward to the months to come, and what they include. I’m elated with the way this month has unfolded.

Corey Skeens

USFS Russellville, AR

Hi everyone!

A large amount of seed production begins in late summer here in the Chihuahuan Desert! Since many desert plants rely on the summer monsoon season to begin flowering, I have only been in Carlsbad, NM for a little over a month now. Being from the tallgrass prairies of Kansas, the desert has been a drastic change in scenery! However, desert ecosystems are fascinating and being an SOS intern means that I get to see so many unique plants and help to collect their much needed seed.

One of the biggest challenges so far has definitely been the heat. During my first week in Carlsbad, the temperatures were reaching 106°F! This is why the monsoon season is welcomed in the area, since rain brings cooler weather and a lush landscape. Another characteristic that takes some getting used to is the prominent presence of the oil and gas industry. Aside from the obvious habitat degradation the industry causes, the oil and gas pads emit gases that have the potential to cause serious harm. One gas of note is Hydrogen Sulfide. This gas, which is colorless and odorless, can be fatal if the concentration is too high. Since this is a major health concern, we need to have H²S monitors handy whenever we are in the field. Despite the potential hazards of the desert, I am having a great time becoming familiar with this ecosystem and all of its associated flora and fauna.

An example of just how many oil rigs can consume an area.

Believe it or not, this is an oak forest! (Quercus havardii)

Proof that this plant is indeed an oak.

One of my favorite desert plants so far, Chilopsis linearis.

Aristida purpurea (One of the plants that we have made numerous collections of so far.)

Yucca elata

One of the many storms that we have seen brewing in the distance.

Best,

Caitie

BLM Carlsbad Field Office

Seeds of Success Intern

This past month (this is from July-but August has been similar) has just been a large hodgepodge of different things from collecting seeds, searching for milkweed, counting Harperella (Ptilimnium nodosum) plants, helping with vegetation surveys, and doing lots of herbarium work.

Herbarium work is really relaxing and satisfying because you have a tangible product at the end. I’ve already finished a couple audible books while gluing plants. One that was particularly relevant to read was Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. I would highly recommend reading this book, especially as you are working with plants! The whole concept is whether we really domesticated plants or if they domesticated us….

Just a beautiful botany sheet

As for seed collecting, I’ve been collecting seeds at the seed orchard that is part of the Ouachita National Forest (I talked about this place in my last blog post). It’s a great place for wildflowers because the sun can reach the ground unlike most of the rest of the forest that, due to past human manipulation, has a closed canopy. I’ve collected, with the help of Corey, the intern with the Ozark National Forest, a lot of pale purple cone flower ‘cones’ that I have been slowly working the seeds out of. My desk is covered in seeds by this point.

This was my first monarch sighting. And it was on milkweed! Ascelpias tuberosa

Searching for milkweed has been a big task too because there isn’t much information about where it actually grows in the forest, and even when it is found there is a low chance that it will actually have seed pods. (See below for one that I found with two pods that had no insect damage!) For this I’ve been  wrestling with GIS. I’m trying to use information on known locations of milkweed to make some predictions of where they may be found. I’m trying to use soil type, species composition, and slope. The only issue with my method is that there is a low chance that all the information is up to date. I’ll let you know if I find any using this technique! I’m excited to see if I can find plants this way.

Asclepias variegata in the forest. Aren’t milkweed pods so strange looking?

One day I was able to go out scouting for possible flowers to collect seed from later in the year. I was able to snap these two pictures below.

See the spider?

Pollination at work at the seed orchard

That’s all for now! Look out for my August update soon.

Rachel Froehlich

Ouachita National Forest

A little saxifrage in Chugach State Park, just outside of Anchorage. The lake below was still frozen at the beginning of June

I was skeptical that my first real week in the field would begin June 11. Doesn’t that seem late? When I left Colorado at the end of April the trees were out to play and flowers had begun to poke their colorful little heads out. Well, it snowed on us during our first day of field work. The temperature didn’t rise much above 50 degrees for the entire week. Most days had a bit of ice and frost in the morning. So, in retrospect, I’m glad I wasn’t out much earlier than this. It seems like winter can hack as far as it wants into the short summer in Alaska. The project lead kept saying “if summer doesn’t come, people get pissed.” Its mid-June and most of the plant haven’t completely leafed-out yet. Apparently its a real possibility that a true summer can skip these parts.

I drove up to Fairbanks for this three-week project on Placer Mine restoration. Fairbanks is one of the northernmost cities in the world. These days, the sun is up nearly 22 hours a day and it never gets totally dark. The name of the borough (Alaska has these instead of counties) is the Fairbanks-North Star borough. Something about this name is quite pretty and poetic to me.

Nome Creek. This area of the stream was mined sometime in the early 2000’s. The white mountains are in the background.

I hadn’t heard of placer mining before coming up here. Chances are, you haven’t either. Gold lives in the bottoms of rivers in the Alaskan interior. Where there’s gold, there’s development. Placer mining reroutes entire rivers, dredges out their historic channel, and sifts through all that material for gold. Sometimes the mining companies will return the river to its historic channel when they are finished. Sometimes they will restore the habitat. Sometimes they wont. Currently, most placer mining companies can only actively mine a small area of land, say, 5-acres. Before they move on to a new area in their lease, they need to restore these five acres. Our four person crew is collecting data on sites that have been restored after mining with various treatments, and comparing those different treatments to control sites and sites that haven’t been restored at all. This project will eventually influence BLM policy on how placer mining restoration should be conducted.

The forest around Nome creek burned in 2004 in a 500,000 acre wildfire. These are the haunting skeletons of thousands of black spruce trees.

Two of the people on my crew are men who work for the Soil and Water Conservation District in Delta, a community east of Fairbanks. They have been in this area for decades and have a great grasp on the general ecology of the place. Jeff is an excellent birder. He has helped me learn the calls for most of the birds we encountered during our first week. I quickly noticed that he was always passively listening for birds, even when in conversation. He knew all the species that were around, and in what abundance. I got my binoculars on some new lifers, including the Northern Hawk Owl, Blackpoll Warbler, Grey-cheeked thrush, and Fox Sparrow.

Crossing Nome Creek on the way out of our field site.

Bryan, the other ecologist, focuses on wetlands. When prompted, he will give long discourses on the permafrost, soil layers, and strange the phenomena that ice creates in the Arctic. Renee is a grad student in entomology. She spent time collecting and finding bugs in all sorts of ways, including Winkler samples, bee bowls, and general searches. It turns out we all play music, so we made some nice tunes to wind down after long days of work. Together, we conducted LPI, counted small and large mammal scat, recorded bird observations, collected insects, diagrammed and collected  soil layers, assessed animal browse, measured downed wood and snags, conducted pollinator observations, trapped small mammals, and summarized the flora of each site along Nome Creek. Most of these assessments were new to me. I enjoy the concept of taking data on such a wide array of flora, fauna, and abiotic factors in an ecosystem because it helps get a picture of the entire community rather than just a part of it. Working with this team of highly tuned-in ecologists is educational and goofy at every opportunity.

Next week we head up to the Brooks Range to do the same surveys. I’ll get to be north of the Arctic Circle on the summer solstice, which means a halo of sunshine all 24 hours of the day. 14-hour work days go surprisingly quick with this amount of sunshine because I can never tell what time it is. The week after that we head a little south to the Denali highway for another week of surveys. I’m looking forward to spending two more weeks with these folks, and two more weeks in the North Star.

Somewhere in the millions of miles of boreal forest…

Howdy!

It’s almost a month now in my new home in Boise, ID and I’m having a blast!! I am originally from Chicago and so stepping out of Illinois was new and different for me. I left the busy traffic of the city to begin my journey west! This summer, I am working with Jessica Irwin at the USFS station in Boise for the Seeds of Sucess (SOS) collection. Our goal this summer is to find populations of species: Chaenactis douglasii, Phacelia hastata, and Crepis accuminata . These species are important as they benefit pollinators such as bees and insects as well as sage grouse. Chris, Kimberly (my coworkers), Jessica and I collaborate to create maps of various regions in Idaho to monitor and collect seed. These species grow in various habitats such as rocky hillsides, ridges, sagebrush habitat, valley grasslands and forest communities. It’s always a wonderful surprise at work because I am usually in awe of the beautiful views! It’s great to drive and explore different regions in Idaho on a daily basis to find these species. It’s been an amazing experience so far to challenge myself to be in a new environment, meet new people, botanize, hike, camp out and enjoy the moments outdoors with my coworkers!

Here are some of the cool photos I’ve taken during my trip so far:

Castilleja angustifolia

Orobanche fasciculata

surveying out in the field at Salmon-Challis National Forest with my mentor Jessica

Fritillaria meleagris

Me enjoying the view of Little City of Rocks!

Crepis acuminata 

Sphaeralcea munroana

Penstemon deustus

I also had the opportunity to attend the Idaho Botanical Foray early June. It was a great chance to meet others and nerd out about plants! We also came across a short-horned lizard!

Idaho Botanical Foray 2018, our group enjoying the view during lunch

Don holding a short-horned lizard!

just a few of what we all collected and pressed!

On my free time, I ride my bike on the Green Belt in Boise and check out the farmers market on Saturday. There are plenty of delicious restaurants, breweries and coffee shops in town that I enjoy going with the friends I’ve made here. I’m loving Idaho!

Peace,

Allison Buiser

USFS Boise, ID

Always projects to work on, never a dull moment. The Vacciniums and many varieties of Rubus are all ripe. Easy forging while working in the woods. I got a break from the forest to spend a day snorkeling and freediving  to remove the invasive aquatic species Myriophyllum spicatum. The site was near a popular boat launch which provides access to a wilderness area. The M. spicatum has not spread into the adjoining waterways leading into the wilderness area. Even paddlers need to be reminded to clean their boats and equipment.

Also began doing some aquatic and emergent species surveys. The first was in a dammed lake which has been proposed for removal. The dam was constructed sixty years ago as a recreational site and now is being removed due to lack of use.

I had the opportunity to do some interpretive work between forest wildlife biologists and their Spanish speaking chainsaw crew. The crew had a contract to maintaining a wildlife opening and help was need to communicate which trees and shrubs to cut, girdle, and/or save.

I did some work with a group of campers to create a native plant garden. Preparing the site with a rototiller, putting down compost and mulch, and then planting with the campers.

Some more plant photos!!

I’ll be honest, I was a little scared looking out over the high plains of Wyoming as my flight landed at the Natrona county airport. Where had all the lush trees gone? Where was Lake Michigan? Not here, Max, not here.

Not in Chicago anymore!

Wyoming is a land of big skies, strong winds, and geological wonders. Here, one can tap into their inner cowboy: the abundant land that rolls on in every direction invites one to run wild and free. Here too, one can sense the expansionist frenzy that drove hundreds of thousands of Americans to walk to the lush forests of Oregon in the 1840s. But for right now, my journey west has ended: I’m here to stay. I’m here to find water.

The agenda for this summer’s hydrologic interns is to find and record the status of around 250 springs and seeps dotted all over the public lands of Natrona County. Much of our work will be interdisciplinary: we will pool the qualitative expertise of BLM staff that are familiar with high desert ecosystems. They may be biologists, rangeland health specialists, or hydrologists. Each member of the monitoring team will help to ensure that these important wetland habitats are functioning at or near their ideal level. Why does this matter? Well, consider the fact that something like 99% of wildlife in Wyoming depends on wetlands and only 1% of Wyoming is wetlands.

A seep we will be monitoring.

I’ve spent the first weeks of my internship learning the protocols of proper functioning and conditioning monitoring. As field season begins to amp up, my co-intern and I, have been making our initial forays into the BLM lands of Natrona county. We use 4×4’s to traverse the county roads and two-tracks that spiderweb their way across the landscape. Armed with a GPS and maps we’ve created, we’ve begun the process of route-finding our way to the seeps and springs we will be monitoring in the coming months.

Exploring Natrona county, meeting my fellow staff members, and learning about hydrologic monitoring techniques have occupied my time so far. Overall, I am very happy to be here, even if there aren’t too many trees!

The author taking photographs of his new surroundings

I’m not sure where other interns are located but being with the Ouachita National Forest means that I live in this town called Hot Springs, named after the national park that is within it. Hot Springs National Park is the smallest park in the country but that doesn’t mean they skip out on the opportunity to be touristy. In fact, this is Central Ave stocked full of over priced boutiques as well as the famous national park bath houses (white buildings)

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Seeing as this is my first week of work and I’ll be in Chicago next week, I don’t have a full grasp on what I will do doing during the summer. However, that doesn’t mean this week has been slow. Tuesday and Wednesday were full of meetings with the Regional Geneticist who is in town to talk about the progress and future directions of the seed orchard.

If you don’t know what a seed orchard is, don’t worry because I had no clue that they existed either until this week. This one, that is about 45 minutes from Hot Springs, is one of 7 (I think?) in this region of the country that grows pine trees for the sole purpose of being able to collect seeds for restoration projects and things of that sort. The main purpose of the Ouachita Seed Orchard is to grow short-leaf pine (Pinus echinata) because unfortunately throughout the 1900’s the forests were devastated (Ben Rowland–handout from meeting). In the 60’s people started to realize the need to create stocks of high quality trees for future forest regeneration and this is why the seed orchards were created. The thing about pine seeds is that don’t last long, even when stored in frozen seed vaults (personal communication with Barb Crane) so it is necessary to maintain live trees in orchards so that the genetic variation isn’t lost.

(screenshot of my instagram story of the seed orchard because I didn’t take a real picture) –see how they are in rows? Stops the spread of disease from one tree to the next

The national forests are interesting because they need to combine the interests of loggers/hunters with the inherent value of the forest. This means that when the original ‘superior’ trees were selected for the orchard they looked at traits for loggers (how straight the trees are and how parallel the branches are) as well as health of the trees (disease resistance, survival, germination rates, etc).

All this talk about the importance of seed saving made me think of the seed vault in Svalbard. I decided to look on their website to see if they carry any tree species and they do! Although their main purpose is to focus on crops, in 2015 they did receive some pine and spruce seeds (Kinver). How long these seeds will stay viable in the bank, only time will tell. The importance of maintaining healthy plants that are producing seeds is obvious even with these seed banks. However, because of climate change the seed orchard may be at risk.

Something that was talked about a lot on Tuesday was the fact that shortleaf and loblolly pine are hybridizing. Usually due to temporal differences in time of pollination the rate of hybridization is less than 5% but in some areas the rate has been shown to be 40% (Tourer et al). It is theorized that this is because of warming that is altering the pollination cycle. To keep the species in the seed orchard pure more research needs to be done about why this is happening but also the fitness of these hybrids.However, what type of tree will be desirable in the future is unknown, making it hard to come up with strategies.

Regardless, this week I came away with a lot of knowledge of pine trees in the region but even more questions! What does the future of forest regeneration look like, especially with global warming. Should we allow these trees to hybridize and where are the arguments on either side coming from? Short leaf pine makes for better wood so you know the loggers don’t want the hybrids. Will it be impossible to keep pure trees and should we even continue trying to plant only pure trees out in the field?

Let’s just say my first week has shown me that learning doesn’t just stop when school ends, which for me was about three weeks ago. And that my blog posts may end up being mini research papers…hope you learned something!

P.S Something that I found really funny is the fire fighters share a building in the seed orchard and they converted an old green house into a gym–pictured below–Hope you find it as humorous as I did

Kinver, Mark. “Forest Tree Seeds Arrive at Svalbard’s ‘Doomsday Vault’.” BBC News, BBC, 2 Mar. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31661288.

Tauer, Charles G., et al. “Hybridization Leads to Loss of Genetic Integrity in Shortleaf Pine: Unexpected Consequences of Pine Management and Fire Suppression.” Journal of Forestry, vol. 110, no. 4, 2012, pp. 216–224., doi:10.5849/jof.11-044.

Ouachita National Forest

The last few weeks here in the Colorado State Office have been a whirlwind of change. It is 90 degrees today, and I look back to last month when it was snowing and hailing, and wonder: what happened to spring?

Orobancheae fassiculata found while scouting White River sites.

Though the flowers in their full abundance, and the sweet smells in the air throughout the front range do resemble the shift in seasons I know so well, the desert is quite a different story. The last few drought years here in Colorado have really taken a blow to some of its Western landscape.

This last week we have spent searching for two oil-shale loving penstemons. Penstemmon  scariosus var. albifluvis (White River Penstemon), and Penstemon grahamii.

Photo of Penstemmon  scariosus var. albifluvis

P. grahamii was listed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006 when it appeared that extensive petroleum exploration could endanger the plant. The greatest potential threat to White River penstemon is also oil and gas development. Habitat disturbance from off road vehicle (ORV) use and trampling from cattle and sheep may be a factor influencing these plants, but these effects have not been sufficiently monitored (USDI-FWS, 2010).

This week we were lucky enough to scout, seek, and sample another population of White River Penstemon, however our search for Graham’s Penstemon was a lot more bleak. The drought appears to have effected the plats a lot more this year than in the past.

Additionally, the cedar gnats seem to have done a lot better with the drier years leading to a flesh feeding frenzy as soon as the females are ready to mate and lay eggs. In two of our days of field work, I was absolutely drenched in gnats so thick it was hard to even read my data sheet as I was writing. I made a mask out of a shopping bag, it was glorious.

Despite the gnat attack, it has been a pretty great week in Rangeley, CO. With some half-decent tacos consumed, a baby antelope and mule deer antler found, and a lot of desert botanizing, I now look forward to the weekend in preparation for the CLM training workshop next week.

Me and my fellow crew comrades doing field work, and a mule deer shed.

Hope to meet a few of you there.

Cheers,

Sam

Me loving life.

References:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2010. Species assessment and listing priority assignment for White River penstemon (Penstemon scariosusvar. albifluvis. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Denver, Colorado. 17p.