I’m getting my bearings here in central Oregon: I started at the Prineville BLM office on May 1, and after a few days of trainings and general office setup, I’ve started scouting for SOS collections by tagging along on plant monitoring trips.

The Prineville office has an herbarium specimen of Phacelia lutea var. lutea that was collected in 1985, but hadn’t been found or collected since. It was found in the Northern Basin & Range, which is my target ecoregion for this year’s SOS collection. My mentor thought this would be a great opportunity to go out with Hannah (BLM Botany Tech & former CLM intern!) to both search for this rare plant, and keep an eye out for potential SOS collection populations.

The notes on the herbarium voucher were thorough: the population was recorded within a square quarter mile on a south facing slope on the north side of Camp Creek. It seemed like a straightforward task: we had the herbarium mount as an example of the plant, thorough directions, and a relatively small swath of land to survey.

I was so excited to be following in another botanist’s footsteps: “This is it!” I thought. “This is what real botanists do! I’m a real botanist, out to find a really rare plant, maybe we’ll even find a new population of them!”

Herbarium mount of Phacelia lutea var lutea back in its original habitat, three decades later.

We drove along the gravel road up to the two-track jeep trail where we needed to cross the creek, only to discover one of the seasonal irrigation spigots was leaking to the point of creating a silty, marshy wallow completely covering the trail. Although it meant hiking an extra mile, we left the truck at the road since hiking was a better alternative to getting stuck.

After a long walk (because botanists do not walk quickly), we made it to our square quarter mile of creek where the samples had been taken years ago. We scrabbled down the loose, sandy hillside & perched on little protrusions of bank where the soil had compacted, intently scouring the slopes for these tiny plants. The largest sample taken was at most only 5cm (2.5in) across, and although it was recorded as flowering on May 8, we weren’t sure if it would be delayed this year because of the long, cold winter Oregon just received. For all we knew, we could be looking for recent sprouts that might only be 1-2cm (1/2in)!

Habitat for Phacelia lutea var. lutea. Southern exposure bank is left side of photo. Camp Creek runs through center of the valley, in this section more overland flow than an actual dedicated channel.

Coming to the end of our quarter mile section, we were starting to look at the context of our supposed habitat: “Look at the sharp bank on the south side of the creek…look at how the water flows overland, then cuts back into the channel…look at that headcut!” We began to wonder whether the banks we were sitting on were even the same banks that had been there 30 years ago. For all we knew this creek had been busy meandering, flooding, downcutting, and depositing over the years, and the sunny slope our predecessor had sat on was now buried under a broad floodplain or high above our heads where erosion forces had sheared away the soil into a flat wall.

A headcut and plunge pool just below our sloping “habitat”. Note the incision in the plunge pool already acruing. In 30 more years time, the slope I was sitting on won’t exist.

We still scrabbled along, hoping to find a plant or two that had survived or blown to a better location. We got down into the marshy floodplain and looked on either side in case it had found a new niche; we got as high as we could on the steep bank and looked into the tiny draws that formed along the top of the cliff faces. All to no avail – Phacelia lutea var. lutea does not appear to live on the southern-facing slopes of Camp Creek any longer.

This is the real reality of botany, and much conservation work. Habitat loss is almost always the top listed reason for species decline and extirpation, and P. lutea lost its habitat due to erosion. The other reality of botany is that the records we make and samples we take are invaluable time-points. Maybe if we had photos of where the botanist sat in 1985, we could compare to the current terrain. Better yet, a GPS point could have shown us whether or how far the old banks had moved. All the data we collect and notes we take might someday yield a clue to a future botanist about the conditions we see today. I’m going to think about this as I write my field notes and leave descriptions for someone else to follow. Even photos and GPS points can’t replace first-hand experience, so the more descriptive and complete information I can leave behind might make a future expedition a little more fruitful.

– Stefanie Lane, BLM, Prineville, OR

Well, add another entry to my list of stories about loading up on coffee and heading out before dawn to chase birds.  This time, I had jumped at the chance to help Jay Carlisle, a researcher from Boise State University, track and capture long-billed curlews at the base of Heart Mountain, north of Cody.

Spoilers: We were successful. Meet “JT.”

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I keep expecting it to snow one last time, as a kind of parting shot from this past winter, but for now the dial seems to be pointed squarely toward “spring.” The road into Yellowstone was opened a few days ago, and the Bighorn Basin itself is greening up nicely.

Castilleja sp. (probably chromosa), a.k.a. Indian paintbrush

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Hello Folks and Welcome to Oregon!

This summer I am excited to be starting my third CLM internship working with forestry in Baker City, OR. I’m super excited to be working with forestry, as trees were the thing that I always missed most from home. 

I have been working for about a month already and while I have been doing a lot of forestry work I also have been getting a lot of important training in. Some of the training include 4-wheel drive and utv/atv training. These were fun hands on trainings as I got to take vehicles out and drive them through various terrain, including an OHV area and a sand dune. There has also been the many not as fun videos and computer trainings.

After the obligatory training was done I got to start working on forestry related stuff. Most of the stuff I am working on is related to timber sales and timber cruising. Timber cruising is a way of evaluating what is present in a timber stand and an estimate of the merchantable lumber. This can be done by establishing a number of plots within a sale unit, collecting data and then using that data to estimate for the rest of the sale unit. However, instead of doing plots we are using the 100% method. With this method we measure the diameter of every tree and the field computer that we use makes calculations for us and gives us strike trees. These strike trees get more extensive measurements including diameter, height, the number of 16 ft. merchantable logs we can cut from the tree, and the defect present in each log. The field computer then uses those numbers to estimate for the entire sale unit. This helps to make sure that our error is not too high and ensures that we do not have to go back into a sale unit to insert more plots. The data tells us the species and density which can be used to make an appraised value of the timber stand. This information is used in the sale of the stand. I got the opportunity to witness a timber sale of an already cruised stand and it was neat to see what the final result of all my work will be.

I also have had the opportunity to participate in other projects not related to forestry. The two main ones being installing a fence to assist with fire rehabilitation in a burned area and helping reflag a fuels reduction project.

I look forward to seeing what other new and different thing I get to do throughout the summer.

AZ

After driving 30 hours I finally arrived in Lander, Wyoming.  After recovering our first late night we went to see how our daily commute was going to be and explore the town a bit.  We found that our daily drive into Lander is as picturesque daily commute as one could hope for.

After exploring the town, we looked outwards to Sinks Canyon, a large public area managed by the State Park Service.  We found that the river flowing through the canyon was very high and were later informed that the annual snow pack was over 270% of normal resulting in flushed waterways all over the Lander Field Office.

A few days later we had gotten our bearings being in a western state.  We found ourselves being bombarded by (what the locals say hopefully will be) the last snow of the year.  My family back home enjoyed informing me of the 90 degree weather in Virginia while we were at maybe 20 here in Lander.  Though the snow quickly melted in Lander, the snow pack was left at 320% normal.

The increased snow pack quickly melted and the still somewhat common evening rain has left the field office very lush and many places are flowering very heavily from the usually pretty lush Sinks Canyon.

To the usually very very dry desert we are experiencing our own little super bloom in the Lander field office.  This promises to be an excellent year for seed collection, particularly for collecting those usually small populations and those less likely to produce enough seed in a normal year.  We found places covered in balsamroot (not really uncommon) and other drier places covered with evening primrose of scarlet globe-mallow.  I am very excited for the chance to collect such species and get the season really underway.

  I hope every CLM intern is having as much fun and beneficial experience as I am.  Hope everyone has a great summer.  Thanks.

Chris, Bureau for Land Management, Lander Field Office

Common garden experiments, a type of study in which individuals from distinct populations of a species are grown side-by-side, have provided a great deal of evidence to support the position that populations adapt their phenology and resource allocation strategy to local conditions. Environmental conditions that may vary across a species’ range include average annual temperature, minimum and maximum temperatures, timing and amount of precipitation, ratio of precipitation to evaporative losses, associated plants and animals, and soil characteristics. Some aspects of phenology and resource allocation strategies that may evolve include timing of germination, flowering, fruiting, or senescing, number of flowers, seed number and mass, and ratio of aboveground to belowground biomass. Adaptation to a given set of conditions may hinder survival under a different set of conditions, hence the need to collect and make available to restorationists seed from a wide variety of locally adapted populations of a given species.

[Lewisia rediviva, the bitterroot]

The bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva, offers a good case study of a plant that lives in widely separated areas which receive precipitation in very different amounts and at very different times. While the plant is reported from all western states and British Columbia and Alberta, I’ll make a short study of only three reported populations (Coconino co., AZ, Humboldt co., NV, San Joaquin co., CA) that experience a range of conditions across the southwestern United States. The Arizona population, reported from near the south rim of the Grand Canyon, receives roughly 16 inches of rain per year spread over a winter and a late summer rainy season. The Nevada population, reported from near Winnemucca in Humboldt Co., receives roughly 8 inches of rain per year, almost entirely in the winter. The California population, reported from northeast of Stockton in San Joaquin co., receives roughly 14 inches of rain per year, almost entirely in the winter. While it does not appear that any common-garden studies of this species have been conducted, it does seems unlikely that an individual from a population that is adapted to high rainfall (i.e. an individual from the south rim of the Grand Canyon) would prosper under the much more arid conditions around Winnemucca, NV. In the same vein, an individual transplanted from San Joaquin co., CA, which lacks a summer monsoon, might not prosper when planted among the south rim population due to a lack of adaptation to the local timing of rainfall.

[L. rediviva on high, dry ridge – the small white forms in the center are Lewisia flowers]

Upon Arriving at my CLM Seeds of Success mentorship location in Rawlins, Wyoming, all I could see was sagebrush. Fat ones, skinny ones, low ones, tall ones- but all sagebrush. My thoughts were- “What forbs could I possibly find in this environment?” and “Gee, what a monotone, diversity-lacking ecosystem.”

After the first week of getting trained and acquainted with the field office, these thoughts quickly dissipated from my mind. Our Seeds of Success crew, consisting of me, my coworker Kyle, and mentors Frank and Ray, would set out on daily adventures in the field. Each day would (and continues to) hold exciting botanical explorations. Fields of yellow (Lomatium foeniculaceum), orange (Sphaeralcea coccinea), and purple (Astragalus spatulatus) would greet us with a warm embrace.

Sphaeralcea coccinea, Scarlet Globemallow. Found near the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area

Cymopterus bulbosus, Bulbous Springparsley. Found in the Red Desert area.

Oenothera, Evening Primrose.

Finding these pops of color is something that I look forward to every day. When I think back to my initial feelings regarding this high desert ecosystem, I realize how wrong I actually was. Because this environment is so extreme, it harbors a great diversity of plants who have evolved to withstand its intensity. Knowing that these perennial plants go from highs of 100 degrees in the summers to lows of almost 40 degrees below zero in the winters, cultivates a feeling of respect and admiration.

In addition to the plants, I have also been exposed to the great diversity of landscapes and ecosystem types in the Rawlins Field Office District. We have focused most of our time in an area known as the “Red Desert.” Above ground there are many extremophile plants living in clay, saline soils. Below ground harbors rich deposits of oil and gas. It is because of the below ground mineral content that we spend our time in this area. One of Wyoming’s largest sources of income is energy production in the form of oil, gas or wind. With the production of this energy of course comes disturbance, and with this disturbance comes a need for reclamation. As a Seeds of Success team, we hope to gather seeds in order to assist with this reclamation process. I find that being able to see gas pads and other disturbances in a real-world setting gives me more of a drive to do what I do. Our country has a need for energy, making these disturbances nearly inevitable. At the Bureau of Land Management, it is our job to manage the land. Making sure that disturbances due to energy production are minimal and that the areas are reclaimed in order to restore habitat, are just a few modes of this management.

A “gas patch” area with several oil/gas pads in the distance.

My first month as a Conservation and Land Management Intern has treated me extremely well. Each day holds new curiosities and treasures in all types of forms. From the land itself, to the sprinkled pops of color which are extremophile forbs, and the BLM. I look forward to what the rest of the season holds.

Summer is officially here at the Palm Springs, CA field office and most days have been 100+F. We are now practicing waking up early to begin our days out around 5/6am to beat the heat! I have also really learned the importance of staying hydrating and have finally figured out how much water I should be bringing with me into the field–very good things to know when working in the desert.

Collecting for SOS has begun to slow down as well since many of our target species are past their reproducing season or will not have seed ready until later in the summer/fall. There is still much to do and learn though and I am feeling the time crunch with the nearing of mid-June and the approach of the end of my internship.

Looking forward to what the next month and a half holds for me in the desert.

Regards,

Elysa DuCharme

Palm Springs, CA BLM field office