A while back, our team here at the North Carolina Botanical Garden agreed to help our friends at the Greenbelt Native Plant Center with a collection they were making at Ted Harvey Wildlife Area just outside of Dover, DE. We were in touch with Barbara and Gio, and they described in brief what kind of help they were looking for. We were to meet them at Ted Harvey on a Tuesday afternoon, work through to the evening, and continue the following day until we could help no longer. We planned our trip that week around helping with their collection, making a few stops along the way, and on our way back at the end of the week.

Courtesy of Google Maps – our trip to Ted Harvey Wildlife Area, had we not stopped at a few sites along the way. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t fly to our collection sites…

On our way to Delaware, we had to first stop at a spot in Maryland we knew to have a large population of Bidens aristosa (Bearded Beggarticks). One of our closest collection sites, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge – a mere 4 hours from home base – requested a lot of seed from B. aristosa, and boy are they gonna get a lot! Once we finished that, we spent the night in MD and headed toward DE the following morning.

Bidens aristosa seeds… maybe one five hundred thousandth of what we collected

Our hotel room filled with drying Bidens aristosa

We knew we were to collect Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass), but we had no idea how much. We arrived that afternoon to see jumbo trash bags behind Barbara’s car absolutely jam-packed with Spartina inflorescences. We met up with the two of them, whom we hadn’t seen since training in June, and began our short hike to the collection area. Never have I seen so much S. alterniflora in one place, nor have I seen such tall plants either! They were easily 7-8 feet tall in some spots. The plants were on steroids. The tallest I’d seen up until then had been at most 5 feet tall. To add, the S. alterniflora we encounter at our own collection sites tends to have a whopping 2-3 seeds per spike, but these had in excess of 50 seeds per spike upon first inspection!

Spartina alterniflora inflorescences – you can see how plump each floret is!

By the time we finished collecting that first day, I was convinced we had leaps and bounds more than we needed. Our bags were full of thousands upon thousands of spikes. But the following day when we met up with Barabara and Gio’s mentor Clara, she explained that the project for which they were collecting wanted to direct sow the seed in an area covering 1500-2000 acres! Not only that, but since they were seeding FROM AN AIRPLANE, they require massive quantities of seed. Somewhere in the area of 10-30 pounds of collected material per acre. You do the math. That’s a gargantuan collection that needs to be made!

Each of us filled around two of these on our first afternoon!

Anyway, we spent that second day split between Bombay Hook NWR and Prime Hook NWR, collecting both from boat and by foot. Clara and I were at Prime Hook on foot, and I took the opportunity to ask what her thoughts were on the stark difference in culm height between the shorter plants I was used to, and the tall ones I was noticing in DE. We both agreed we needed to educate ourselves better on the subject. I did some research into the height differences and found that a number of scientists refer to the two as short and tall forms of S. alterniflora. The two forms seem to be distinct on a hereditary level, but I have not read any studies which have proven that claim.

I do not envy the NY crew. As exciting as it is to have such a large project requesting so much seed, its a large order to fill! I hope they appreciated our help!

On our way back to the garden at the end of our trip, we stopped in at a brand new Maryland state park, so new in fact, that it won’t be open until March of 2017. It’s called Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park. I can’t wait for it to open so I can finally see first hand what it was like for Harriet Tubman and the many families and friends she saved to travel via the Underground Railroad.

And here’s a picture of some interesting looking Spartina patens from Ted Harvey:

Spartina patens flattened and discolored

Till next time.

Jake Dakar

SOS East – North Carolina Botanical Garden

Black River, Eddy County, NM. A nice day to look for SOS collections. Photo taken by B. Palmer

I have spent five months in Carlsbad, NM as an intern working with the Bureau of Land Management. People still ask me what I was doing here, and why did I go. I look back and think…why did I come? The upfront answer is quite simple: I came to get experience in a career I was hoping to pursue. It gave me a chance to practice the skills I have learned throughout my school and education. The internship program focuses on getting recent graduates interested in careers revolving around conservation and botany, careers I am told that are on the brink of endangerment.

This will be my final post about my internship experience in Carlsbad, NM. I was asked to reflect back on my experience to be able to share it with future CLM interns. Of course, you can get a sense of my experience through my previous posts, but reflection is an important part of understanding recent experiences, especially one such as this. I want to start by mentioning that working in Carlsbad has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life, and I do not regret any bit of coming here. I saw many amazing things, and met many different people. Yet at the same time, as elevating as the internship was, it was also a very difficult experience.

The average day in the field looks like, flowers, government rig, oil pad, and all. Photo taken by B. Palmer

I often relate my life to Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist,” a delightful book I read way back in high school that left an everlasting impression on me. This is where I start my reflection of my internship:

“People are capable at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

About three years ago, I spent a field season at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado; it was here I was introduced to plant science, to botany. I got to spend my summer in fields of wildflowers, studying how they work, their role in the mountains. Ever since this experience, I was hooked. Throughout school I dreamed of the day I would be a researcher working in botany in some shape or form. There are some people in life that believe they need to get a job, any stupid job that will pay the bills, and often times find themselves miserable where they are at. But if you have a dream, what is keeping you from following through? The only thing keeping most people from pursuing their dreams are themselves. Again, this is where I start: I found out about this internship, and found it would help me pursue my dreams and long-term goals. After spending time in a federal agency and botanical field the last five months, I found this is still a career I would like to pursue. I would highly suggest this internship program to anyone interested in pursuing wildlife biology or field botany. We are all capable of following our dreams and finding a career in our lives that pays the bills, but also being able to do something we enjoy every single day. I can tell you that on more than one occasion, I found myself saying “I can’t believe they pay me to hike and hunt for wildflowers!” Everyone should have that chance; that chance to tell yourself “I can’t believe they are paying me to do what they call ‘work’!”

Fields and fields of Helianthus petiolaris in the New Mexico dunes country, under the desert sun. Photo taken by B. Palmer

This brings me to my second reflection point about myself, in the words of Mr. Coelho:

“Love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny.”

The people that surround you every day should be supportive, and encourage you to follow your dreams and be happy. This is something that I believe should be a requirement to surviving this internship: supportive people in your life. I have family that were (and still are) happy to push me out the door to travel and experience the world. I don’t think I would have been able to make it all the way through this internship without my people at home encouraging me, supporting my need to get away and try new things, such as moving to Carlsbad for half a year. That being said, tread lightly on this fact: if you have significant others (i.e. boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses…), maybe consider taking them with you. My position was unique in that I left my fiancé at home and we took on the long distance relationship thing so that he did not have to drop his school and job during my internship. Even so, I came home halfway into my internship to get married, then headed back quickly afterwards (for more details, read my previous blog posts). We have been together a long time, but even with our long history, the long distance relationship was still one of the most mentally difficult things I have ever done. So in order to survive your internship experience, here is my advice: make new friends while you are there; the people in the Carlsbad Field Office are incredibly nice and many would be happy to hang out with you after work. Don’t forget to keep in touch with the old ones, and definitely keep supportive people in your life. Of course if possible, drag the ones that really matter out with you. Otherwise leaving home will be mentally straining and difficult, and meeting halfway on the weekends can get expensive. But if the people in your life really love you, they will let you go pursue your destiny.

Halfway into my internship, I went back home to Colorado to get married. With supportive people in your life, anything is possible! Photo taken by. S. Bober

Alright, I am almost finished with the whole reflection thing. Of many more points I could make, I will just make one more point of personal reflection:

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.“

I think this is probably the biggest takeaway from participating in the CLM internship. This internship gives recent graduates the opportunity to gain experience in a career that appears to be dwindling. It surprised me to find out how little experience people in federal agencies have with botany. Some rangeland employees spray chemicals on “troublesome” flora seemingly without blinking an eye as to how that would negatively affect the ecosystem, only thinking about the money that would be made on giving that poorly treated land to some cattle rancher. People put trust into those who manage our public lands, but some of those people do not seem to fully understand what it takes to maintain healthy ecosystems. My point is that there are very few botany “experts” placed in federal agencies and land management, and this is an excellent program to learn about jobs that need passionate, enthusiastic people. If you go through this program and love what you are doing, then you know that this is the place you should be (and an added note: you don’t have to love the location your placed to still know this is the kind of work you want to continue). I had a very valuable experience working for the BLM, and I absolutely loved working as a Seeds of Success intern. I will be honest, the town itself is a little rough around the edges, but if you love the work, and “strive to become better than [you] are, everything around [you] becomes better too.”

I was told that New Mexico has outstanding sunrises, and most mornings, I was not disappointed. I took this picture just outside the field office in the parking lot, as I was coming into work for a field day.

Now that I have done some reflecting on my experience as a CLM intern, I want to help the next Carlsbad, NM interns out as much as I can. Here are some things to keep in mind for your transition into the Chihuahuan Desert in Carlsbad, NM:

General information about the area:

• Carlsbad, NM is located at one of the northern tips of the Chihuahuan Desert. There are ecotypes here that are seen in very few places in the world. The fine gypsum soils that are located here also house many wonderful endemic plants that you will not see anywhere in the world. So go out and enjoy it whenever possible. The plant life here is truly amazing.

Tiquilia hispidissima, one of many gypsum endemic plants found here in Carlsbad, NM. Photo taken by B. Palmer

Coming up from the Prickly Pear Cactus is an important indicator species of the Chihuahuan Desert, Fouquieria splendens (Ocotillo). Photo taken by B. Palmer

Another gypsum endemic, I believe to be  Anulocaulis leiosolenus, showing off its long stamens. Photo taken by B. Palmer

• Yes, as a Carlsbad intern you are located in the middle of a desert. However, because this desert is at a higher elevation than other deserts in the world, it also makes it slightly cooler than other deserts. So when you are enjoying a 106°F field day, just remember you are not in the Sonoran desert where it is probably 115°F. Don’t worry, most of those days you will probably find an excuse to be inside, and the seasonal monsoons will be around soon after the hottest time of the year.
• Being that you are going to be located in a desert, you may never truly know what the weather will be like, and the patterns are rather sporadic. On a normal year, it will be very hot (in the triple digits) through the most of June and early July. The monsoons will hopefully come towards the end of July to cool things off. What you want to be weary of is the lightening and flash floods. During the monsoons, it will rain every day, so pick and choose wisely where you are going to go so that you don’t get stuck out in the field in a flash flood and thunderstorm. It will still be pretty warm through August, but will cool down in mid-September to the mid-80s and low-90s. I have even experienced a few 70-degree days here, and they are marvelous! Take advantage of them when you can.
• The Carlsbad Field Office will be unlike any other BLM offices in the country. They brag that they are the busiest BLM in the nation, due to the oil and gas business that reign upon the land. Almost everything you do here will be in the shadow of gas and oil pads. Among the oil pads there is also an amazing array of life and animal life, so don’t let the oil life bring you down. One of the reasons interns come here is to help preserve and restore land that the oil and natural gas industry destroys. There is a unique ecosystem here, so make sure to look at that before deciding to say no to the area.

You will often find yourself among the oil fields of southeastern New Mexico. Make sure to enjoy the flora, and be sure to carry your hydrogen sulfide sensor with you. Photo taken by B. Palmer

Despite being gas and oil country of the United States, there is still a lot of beauty to take in. Photo taken by B. Palmer

• Make sure to be involved with the other departments of the field office. As an intern, you will likely be located with the wildlife biology department, but it doesn’t hurt to go out with other departments and try out other things. You are coming here for experience, and going out with the other departments is only going to make you a more well-rounded person, and a marketable employee in the end.

I got to get dirty and go caving in the Parks Ranch gypsum system my third day as an intern. Although I wouldn’t want to do that again, it was still a neat experience! Photo taken by J. Goodbar

I got to go out with the rest of the wildlife biology department to get a non-motorized boat certification. A fun day of work to escape the heat! Photo taken by P. Murphy

When Seeds of Success had not quite been picked up off the dry ground yet, I participated in lizard surveys with the wildlife crew. The pitfall trap is there at the left. Photo taken by N. Montoya

Places to Go: Carlsbad is somewhat of a rustic gem…as it is a town built off of gas and oil, the town itself is stereotypical: Small but widespread, one grocery store, very few things to do in town, and you can smell the natural gas when you walk out your door. It is practically western Texas. But there are quite a few things just outside of Carlsbad that are worth going out to visit on the weekends to save your sanity, when you are tired of being in Carlsbad.

You can drive to Texas in less than an hour, two main ways out of Carlsbad. In my opinion, Carlsbad has actually been taken over by western Texas, and no one has told the rest of New Mexico. Photo taken by N. Montoya

• Carlsbad Caverns: This is the one place that everyone thinks of and goes out to see when they pass through Carlsbad. The Caverns is a short drive from town, and definitely worth visiting at least once. They have an elevator into the actual caverns, but I suggest taking the natural entrance in.
• Washington Ranch, Cottonwood Day Area: The Cottonwood Day Use area is maintained by the BLM, and a little oasis along the Black River, about 40 minutes south of Carlsbad. There are lots of cottonwoods, wildflowers, and even wild turkeys. I liked to go there on lunch breaks when I was out in the field, we also did quite a few collections near there. Even though it’s a popular and busy place on the weekends, an excellent place to sunbathe! There are also some nice hiking trails nearby, including Slaughter Canyon and Rattlesnake Springs.
• La Cuevas Trails: This is a little trail system in the Carlsbad area. If you into hiking and outdoorsy things, this is a nice place to walk around, and maintained by the BLM (and if you are lucky a good place to find rain lilies after the rain!).
• Sitting Bull Falls: This is a very popular area in the Guadalupe mountains, and well-maintained by the forest service. There is a small fee to pay per car that comes in, but definitely worth it! It is a little trickle of a waterfall, and very easy to get to.

Sitting Bull Falls is probably little over an hour away from Carlsbad, but a nice little getaway for a day. Photo taken by B. Palmer

• Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge: I loved going to this refuge on the weekends! It is located in Northern Roswell, about 2 hours away from Carlsbad. If you are a birder, this is a great place to see waterfowl. In late August/early September, they hold a dragonfly festival. I was even able to see the migration of thousands of Sandhill Cranes the last week of September, the week before I finished my internship!
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park: I only found out about the park in the last month I was in Carlsbad. If you are an avid hiker, than this is an excellent area for you (even if it is located in Texas). We even did a few SOS collections in the park, but would be a great place to go on the weekend. It is also one of the only places to see the changing colors of fall. A few good places in the park include Dog Canyon, McKittrick Canyon, Smith Spring Trail, and Guadalupe Peak.

Just another sunny day in McKittrick Canyon at the Park. Photo taken by B. Palmer

• Cloudcroft and Sunspot: I am from the Colorado foothills where I like to hike in the mountains amidst wonderful pine trees and aspens. Cloudcroft is about a three hour drive, and definitely worth it to get some fresh pine-smelling air. Sunspot is a wonderful 30 minute scenic drive from Cloudcroft, where you can visit a neat but rundown solar observatory.

High-altitude trees found along the scenic drive between Cloudcroft and Sunspot. A great place to visit. Photo taken by B. Palmer

One of the telescopes used to research solar flares and sunspots. Photo taken by B. Palmer

• Alamogordo, NM: To get to Alamogordo, you have to drive through Cloudcroft, so it’s a good to do in the same weekend if you want to save miles on your car. You want to visit White Sands National Monument here. The sand is white, and it is quite a site to see. They offer sunset walks and activities throughout the year that may be worth a visit away from Carlsbad!

White Sands National Monument. Photo taken by B. Palmer

• There are lots of other areas to visit while you are staying in Carlsbad. There are a few I didn’t mention (like the Living Desert Zoo). The main thing to keep in mind here is that no matter where you decide to go, almost everything is a decent drive away. But if you have a car, its worth the 4+ hour trips to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, even Taos to visit the “real” New Mexico on some of your weekends.

I was fortunate enough to go to Taos for a weekend, and hike up to William’s Lake, and above it Wheeler’s Peak (the tallest peak in New Mexico, a 13er). Photo taken by B. Palmer

Restaurants in Carlsbad: There aren’t many restaurants to choose from, and no matter where you go the service is slow, but here are a few places that I enjoyed at least a little while I was in Carlsbad.

I am pretty sure this place wasn’t even in business, but I laughed at it every time I drove by. This, in essence is what all of Carlsbad is like. The real Chinese buffet in town (I never went to because I hear of the “rave” reviews) had a sign that read “Costs less than a trip to China.” Photo taken by B. Palmer

• Milton’s Brewing Company – This placed only opened I believe in July 2016. I don’t really drink, but it was a decent place to socialize. Like everything else in town, it closes early, between 9 and 10pm.
• Yellow Brix Restaurant – this was probably the best restaurant in town, although I did not venture out to many of the restaurants.
• The Lucky Bull – Most the food is greasy and the service is slow, but a decent place to go with friends.
• Blue House Cafe – I believe this is one of the only coffee shops in town. They close early (at 10:30am most days) and not even open on Sunday, but I liked to chill there on Friday mornings I didn’t have to be at work. They have food, coffee, a cat, even wifi.
• And there are of course some possible home pleasures: Chili’s, IHop, even a Hibachi Grill that I heard was pretty good.

Resources to prepare yourself for work: The Carlsbad field office will likely have just about everything you will need during your internship, from clicker counters to dichotomous keys. But here are a few extras I found to be helpful while I was here.

• Botany in a Day by Elpel- I love this book, and have had it for years. If you are new to Botany and need a quick guide to identifying plants to the family, this is a great book to bring with you.
• Land of Enchantment Wildflowers: A Guide to the Plants of New Mexico, By Finley and Nieland – This is an excellent resource and probably most up to date book to have in the field, when you need a quick reference before digging into the dichotomous key. This book has lots of pictures, groups plants by the color of their flowers, and even has pictures of what the mature seeds and fruits look like. OF course it does not have everything, but it is a great place to start to get an idea of  the common plants of New Mexico that you will likely find in this area.

If you have more questions about the Carlsbad lifestyle, feel free to contact me at any time. If you have been accepted into the program, my contact information should be on the CLM website. I will be happy to help in any way I can to help you prepare for your stay in Carlsbad. Do your best to enjoy to hidden treasures of Carlsbad while you are here as an intern. Good luck, happy trails, and all the best to you and your new adventure.

Like it did for me, this internship will help you find your inner botanist…and hopefully lead you into a career that will hopefully be a part of you the rest of your life. Happy trails to you, traveler.

Brooke Palmer

Conservation and Land Management Intern 2016

Carlsbad, NM Bureau of Land Management

With about a month left to go, I have started to reflect on all that has happened since I made the move to come out here. I’ll save those reflections for my last post though.

The past month has consisted of office work for the most part. I’m getting (slightly) better at finding and mapping fences on GIS, which has been the main project these days. I’m grateful that Google Earth exists for the times the map layer on GIS isn’t ideal. When I’m not fence mapping, it seems like the office is a-buzz with someone’s birthday or a going-away gathering. I’ve come to enjoy the atmosphere in this field office. Everyone I have talked to has been extremely friendly and willing to help if I ask them a question.

The few times I have been able to get out of the office were to finish weeding the last plot up at Welch (wooooo!) and to help my mentor with the (re)installation of a gate at a frustrating fence site. It’s safe to say that that was my first time installing a gate of any kind and while it wasn’t rocket science, it did require some thought, measurements, and re-adjustments (as well as some girl muscle!). The gate day also reminded me that unfortunately, people can be really disappointing. Our gate-duty doubled as a chance for my mentor to look at and address some issues she had with a contractor who was supposed to put in a new fence around some BLM property. To make a long story short, the contractors did a horrendous job, tried to hide a huge pile of garbage, and were super rude (in my opinion) when my mentor was speaking to them. Their behavior reminded me of some unsavory customers I often had to deal with when I was working as a barista. Needless to say, I was impressed at how she handled the situation, as sometimes it is hard to maintain your cool when these things happen.

Gate installation complete!

Not much else to report except that I am taking full advantage of this unseasonably warm weather to squeeze in some hikes before some serious snow falls on the Bighorns.

Until Next Time,

Corinne Schroeder
Buffalo, Wyoming BLM Field Office

Hey guys,

Wow. Last blog post. This isn’t real, right? Thanksgiving is in two weeks. I will have moved to NC 5 1/2 months ago. THAT’S ALMOST HALF A YEAR. Half a year I’ve been here, working with Seeds of Success at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Half a year of traveling through Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, browsing through the flora and scouting out seed. Half a year of learning about new plants and new people. Half a year of long drives and long hours… but now, it seems so short.What a great half a year!

I’ve always considered myself as someone who is okay with moving away and okay with change. And I am… to an extent. Honestly, on a more personal note, a huge thing I learned from this opportunity is that change is good, yes, but a LOT of change at one time may be a bit overwhelming! In six months, I graduated college, moved out of state where I knew no one (living with roommates I did not know), started a 40 hours/week job (internship), have visited 60+ national wildlife refuges and state parks, have visited 3 states I had never been to, and learned about 100+ plants of which I had no previous knowledge (coastal). Luckily, I had a pretty great group of people to go through all of this with, as well as a good support group back home. It was a great experience – one I would recommend to anyone. It teaches you a lot, not only about technical things – like how to assess a population size or how to properly care for seeds after collection – but also what you are made of. You learn how you handle certain situations, like being farther away from home, or putting effort into making new friends. Sometimes it was hard! I would miss the mountains or my friends and family. I’ve been home more times living 7 hours away than I would go home an entire semester when I was in school (an hour and a half from home). This internship has taught me a lot about the field I would love to dive into as a career but also about how much I’m willing to change for that kind of opportunity.

Making a seed shipment! Confusing stuff! (even when you make an excel file – ha!)

Cenchrus tribuloides – sandbur! Ouch.

Chamaecyparis thyoides – Atlantic white cedar. Looks like we have a lot of money, right? 🙂 This stuff smells like CHRISTMAS!

This is Audubon Pine Island Sanctuary & Center in the outer banks. It MIGHT be haunted, but it’s lovely.

I’ve never studied mycology, but this fella was found in the dunes, and the inside was purple.

Bright colored Liquidambar styriciflua – sweetgum in Maryland!

Little baby plant embryo 🙂

A beautiful sunset while collecting Solidago sempervirens – seaside goldenrod.

All of the paper bags and trays were filled with plants/seeds from a week of collection!

Beautiful color from Ilex glabra – inkberry. My hands are still stained from cleaning this 🙂

All in all, this was truly a great experience. I learned so so much, and I met some really great people along the way. It doesn’t feel like it should be ending just yet. But, I will say that I’m ready to spend the holiday season with my friends and family back home:)

To anyone reading this who may be thinking about taking a CLM internship – do it. It’s an amazing opportunity to learn and grow as a person and a conservation worker. Don’t let anything I’ve said scare you. It’s GOOD to put yourself out there and discover what you are made of and what you hold dear to your heart. You will meet like minded people who want the same things as you! That’s special. Plus, the change is exciting! You won’t regret it.

Good luck to everyone with their future endeavors!

Melanie

I cannot believe this internship is over. I am going to miss the friends and people that I met on this journey in Wyoming. Everyone here was welcoming and caring toward me and I am sad to leave this place.

While I was here I have been able to take part in so many wonderful things through work and on weekends. Work has made me realize that I have chosen the right career path. I cannot wait for what the future holds. I have been able to help out different resource departments within the Bureau of Land Management. Other than working with the Wildlife Biologists in Casper I have also worked with the Range Land Health staff, the Forester, the Archaeologists, and RMG staff. This job has given me so many experiences.

While out west I have been able to visit so many National Parks that I otherwise would not have been able to see from New Jersey. These beautiful places hold such a huge place in my heart.

Hike through the South Bighorns

Hanging out in the Tetons

Watching the sunset over the Grand Teton Mountains

Watching the sunrise from my tent in Hovenweep National Monument

Driving through the Valley of the Gods

I cannot wait to start my trek back to the East Coast, but Wyoming will stay a large part in my life and I hope to get a career our West so I can come back to this amazing place.

My last month working for the BLM in Casper, WY has been very busy and productive.  There has certainly been less field work, but the small amount that I have done has been important and rewarding.  I helped prepare a five-acre section of land for native sagebrush planting and restoration; I also performed wildlife surveys for proposed forestry projects and evaluated areas for prescribed burns and herbicide treatments.  These projects allowed me to become involved with the decision making process that occurs before any large conservation action initiated by the BLM.

Most of my time was spent preparing a report on all cheatgrass herbicide treatments and the vegetation monitoring that has been done to evaluate the ecosystem’s response to these treatments.  This project required me to create maps of specific grazing allotments with layers displaying the areas and years of cheatgrass treatments, along with the locations of every permanent vegetation monitoring transects.  I then used the Access database to summarize cheatgrass percent cover from any monitoring transect located within the treatment areas.  At that point I could use R to visualize the behavior of cheatgrass cover before and after the treatments.  I submitted the report to my mentor and it has been adopted by resources as the living document at the field office to track all cheatgrass treatments and results.  It was a very rewarding project and it allowed me to hone and develop skills gained both from working with the BLM and my education.

Looking back, I believe that this CLM internship has been one of the most productive and career defining experiences of my life so far.  I was able to get a comprehensive view of the workings of a BLM field office and gain hands-on work experience as a wildlife biologist, botanist, and many other valuable disciplines within the conservation field.  I leave the BLM feeling very confident that I chose the correct career path, and would happily work for the BLM full time.

One of the most valuable things I take away from this internship is a much more complete understanding of regulatory actions (such as NEPA, ESA, BGEPA, etc.) and how they influence human development, conservation actions, and management of public land.  The BLMs mission to manage land for “multiple-use” often means reviewing development plans and taking action to mitigate ecological damage.  This idea may take some getting used to for the traditional conservationists among us, but after experiencing the process first hand, it is a very rewarding and ecologically beneficial practice.  It was also refreshing and encouraging to find that land management professionals of many different beliefs and personal philosophies find public land conservation to be important and worthwhile.

In addition to affirming my drive to work in conservation and land management, this internship also gave me the skills needed to be successful in that profession.  I was able to dip my toes into an incredible variety of management disciplines, from wildlife and archaeology to inspecting coal mines.  I received on-the-job training in activities from GPS devices, to plant ID, to GIS analysis, to skid steer operation, to many other valuable skills.  I feel significantly more confident in my professional abilities and in applying to career positions.  Ultimately, this internship has provided me with an amazing foundation on which to build my career as a conservation professional, and I would recommend this experience to anyone thinking about pursuing a career in conservation.

Though the weather in Lander, Wyoming has remained warm and sunny, unusual for early November, many other aspects of life here have changed; Hunting season has mostly wrapped up, all of the leaves have fallen, Halloween costumes came and went, seasonal shops have closed their blinds. Though my internship won’t finish until the end of November, many of the other seasonal workers in the Lander Bureau of Land Management Field Office have packed up and left. While some nights are a little quiet, I’ve been able to spend time with friends from town, taking pottery classes, playing trivia, going hiking and whittling down my reading list. It was great to have out-of-town visitors as I showed them the life I’ve established here and educated them on the amazing system of public lands in this country.

My work life has also changed these past weeks. The amount of fieldwork necessary for my rangeland monitoring position diminished very quickly as the grazing period concluded. With our final stubble height measurements complete, we patrolled for lost or forgotten cows hiding in ravines or beyond nolls. With the cows deemed gone, I helped other range specialists cross off fieldwork on their to-do list. I went out in the field for two days to work with out-of-office remote sensing and rangeland specialists to assist on a long-term monitoring project of theirs. They have been collecting soil temperature and production data on six sites, each with a grazed and un-grazed treatment section, to assess the effects of grazing on water retention capabilities. The working hypothesis, in essence, is that an un-grazed area will remain frozen longer into the spring, thus melting and retaining moisture later into the spring. I helped by clipping vegetation within the grazed and un-grazed plots at each site, and drying and weighing the clippings. I visited, and helped restore, a site where a long-term experiment is being conducted; they are analyzing the effects of faux beaver damns on the water retention abilities on grazed and un-grazed areas. The scientists hypothesized that a faux beaver damn, in flooding the creek, would return the area to a bog, increasing the water retention capability of the area.

Frost on sage brush on a particularly cool morning

Three of the other projects I helped out with in the field were: fixing a fence around a pasture in order to ensure the removal of livestock and wild horses before a prescribed burn (which I’ll hopefully watch!), seeding native seeds as part of a post-burn rehabilitation project with the fire crew, and seeding native seeds and planting sagebrush seedlings to help the botanist and archeologists restore a petroglyph site. In the office I’ve been assisting the remote sensing specialist in the categorization of vegetation type in images along transects. I’ve assisted the GIS specialist with digitizing range improvement projects, and edited NEPA documents. I went to a local school to help present on the BLM to 4^th graders (4^th graders in the parks) and 8^th graders (a geological hazard presentation). Definitely one of the best parts of the internship has been working with, assisting, and learning from a large range of specialists!

At work planting sage brush seedlings at the Castle Gardens petroglyph site.

As my personal and work lives have shifted, and will continue to shift, so has the political environment. With every political transition in Washington D.C., though this one may be more significant than others, there is a transition in the BLM. While it is impossible to predict how these changes will be felt across the country and the DOI, we need to advocate for our public lands. Though I barely knew anything about the vast system six months ago, I now feel that they are one of the United States’ largest assets. In the wake of the Malheur trial and the election it is imperative to protect and work for our public lands!

Bureau of Land Management

Lander Field Office

Lander, Wyoming

You don’t know what you don’t know- has pretty much been the motto of the summer. The amount of knowledge, both botanical and general, this summer has just been incredible. To illustrate this I have a pretty funny story from the beginning of the summer…..

It was during the second week of our internship, and it was me and my partner’s first day out in the field alone. We were doing some rare plant monitoring and we were working off of directions from a map, well neither of us had done any work like this before and working in the west was a completely new experience for us both.

Well we were coming up to one of the populations and we were driving up a dirt road, and all of a sudden right in the middle of the road was a fence. We had no idea what to do. We got out of the truck and looked at the fence and we were just shocked. How could someone just fence right across the road? It was crazy.

So we got back in the truck and drove back to the office ready to tell our mentor about this ridiculous fence that prevented us from getting to the rare plants.

When we retold this to our mentor she began to laugh and laugh, and we were so confused because how was a fence funny? I mean it was right in the middle of the road, blocking us from where we needed to go! When she finally calmed down, she told us it was a gate and all we had to do was open.

Needless to say we spent the next day going out with our mentor opening and closing different types of gates. But you simply don’t know what you don’t know! Looking back on this memory is easily one of the funniest memories from the summer, and really shows how much we learn.

Cheers to the rest of the interns still left out there!

Sierra Sampson

Salmon ID BLM

CLM: R&R (Research and Relaxation)

Hello everyone!! Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately! I have been ultra-busy with work and traveling!! I have been giving presentations on my cheatgrass project to Buffalo BLM office staff and officials from outside organizations. There were many small projects I was able to work on during the Fall time. I had NISIMS and a vectorization project to do during the slower days of October and November. Another major work project was to help out the BLM Recreation Department with middle and high school education field days! After all of the major work tasks, I used my comp time to go on two vacations. The first vacation was a week in the Grand Tetons and the other vacation was in New Mexico! The rest of the blog would be dedicated to the following subjects! Brace yourselves!!

Vectorization of Ecosites
This was a busy project for the late Fall era of my internship! I received an old map of ecosites in our area. My goal was to vectorize and digitize the map for future use. The scanned raster map was given to me at the beginning of the project. I was supposed to draw polygons around each of the ecosites. After tracing the polygons around each ecosite, I assigned attribute values to the traced polygons. The scanned maps had range types and capacities written in purple. I transferred that information to the attribute table of the polygons. This project was pretty straight forward, but had many challenges. The scanned map had many holes and missing text. I had to view the original ecosite map and fill in the blanks.

Step 1

Scanned map/ raster

Step 2

Develop polygons by tracing the lines of the scanned map.

Step 3

Create polygons with attribute values based on the Ecosite Numbering System on the Scanned map.

For the Sake of NISIMS

Another side project I have been working on was NISIMS at Welch Recreation Area. Corrine, Nick, and myself have been going to Welch Recreation Area to look for invasive plants. Luckily, we only encountered a few bad invasive plants like houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale) and bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Smooth brome (Bromus inermis) was literally everywhere in this area, but this grass was not really bad and was planted with the alfalfa (Medicago sativa) apparently by the landowner. I did encounter reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) along some of the smaller tributaries of the Tongue River. A new plant that I encountered here was European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)! (Bum bummm BUUUUUMM!!!) Yes, apparently this bad invasive shrub that could be found in the understory of Chicago along highways has been found here in Wyoming! I noticed a large patch near the parking area, but apparently, this shrub was not in the Wyoming NISIMS database, so I developed my own shapefile and attribute data and gave it to BLM Legend Dusty to deal with in the future. There were only twelve plants, and only four of those were seeding. Dusty told us to look for whitetop (Lepidium/Cardaria  draba) and Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica), which could be found in the western sector of the recreation area. I think we will not be able to make it to the western section this internship…so there will be work for the next intern! Some plants I did notice were field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), common mullein (Verbascum thapsus), and common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) growing along the river. Thankfully, we did not encounter any really bad plants.

This is a map of Welch Recreation Area! The starting points represent where we would begin each of our NISIMS routes. Each route is spaced out in 50 meter increments.

Showtime!!

The final stage of my cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) project was near completion! After developing large cheatgrass density maps for the field office, I was supposed to present my results of the project. The main goal was to show what I did and how the results could benefit the BLM staff. This was supposed to be a forty-five minute presentation to the Resources and NRS Divisions of our office. People from the County Weed Office and University of Wyoming Employees were welcome to attend as well. The presentation was focused on methodology and results in case other people wanted to use this project for their own field office. My first presentation was in October. Unfortunately, the presentation date fell on hunting season, so some of the BLM employees were not able to come. On November 10th, I would have the rest of the employees attend if they were not able to make it to the first presentation.

The first presentation went great! I was able to talk about the overall layout of the project, the methodology, the calculations, the results, and future applications. The presentation had to be simple, because people from the outside community may not know about raster calculations or supervised classification. Many of the employees were excited over the results and the overall meeting lasted an hour and twenty minutes. The Resources and Fire Planning Divisions at work were especially happy about the outcome.
Soon, the raster data along with the vector cheatgrass density layer would be available for everyone in the office to use. This data would help with NEPA documents, future spraying projects, and fire planning.

There was a major issue I did encounter while working on this cheatgrass density project for the BLM…. I was called and emailed a multitude of times by the State Office or the NOC in Denver, Colorado. You may be asking, why I got all of these calls or messages. Apparently, this GIS project took up a large amount of bandwidth and data from the state servers. Many Computer IT people were baffled at first and were always asking what I am up to.  I guess I was taking up the most amount of bandwidth in the BLM agency working on this project. Terabytes of data and hours of processing was pretty taxing to the system. I had a few conference calls and had to show them all of the data I produced. This project was able to help prepare National Internet servers and IT people in terms of planning for future projects. It was an interesting experience overall talking with the NOC! ^_^;;;

Bromus tectorum Infestation. Fun Fact: Chukar (Alectoris chukar) and grey partridge (Perdix perdix) actually feed on the seed in the Spring time!

Educating the Masses: The Field’s A Stage

Towards the end of September, I volunteered to help out the BLM Recreation Department with educating middle and high school students! The first two days involved educating the high school students. Large groups from Sheridan High School came to learn about Nature in a park near the Montana border! During the mornings, I was in charge of bug collection and identification. The BLM and Forest Service would cycle through eight groups of twelve students and give a lecture at each station. Whenever the students came to my station, I would give the students jars and nets and have them run out into the field and capture insects. Towards the end, I would call them in and discuss about the Insect Orders everyone encountered. I was very enthusiastic with the students. Many of them did not like insects or the colder weather. By the end of each group, all the students were really excited about capturing insects. When they were out in the field collecting, I would run up to each group and look in their bugs nets. Most of the time people caught various grasshoppers (Orthoptera), bees (Hymenoptera), and leafhoppers (Hemiptera). The more unique insects were temporarily put in a jar for the students to look at. Some students found mantids (Mantodea), large spiders (Araneae), gall wasps (Hymenoptera), and moths (Lepidoptera), which was always a treat to see! One of my favorite things to do would be to run up to someone that was hardly trying to capture insects in the net and congratulate them on the successful capture of various insects. They would say, “I did not capture anything…” Then I showed them their net full of small insects and leafhoppers. They become slightly motivated and begin to capture various insects.

Different insects that were found on the field days. Upper Left: Tiger beetle (Family: Carabidae), Upper Right: Moth (Order: Lepidoptera), Bottom Left: Pregnant Praying Mantis (Order: Mantodea), Bottom Right: Salmonfly Nypmh (Family: Pteronarcyidae)

In the afternoon, we would take the students to Welch Recreation Area. Each group would talk about what the BLM does for work! Damen and I were in charge of showing the high schoolers what we do for vegetation monitoring. This was a slightly dry subject and the kids loved to hop back and forth along the transect even after we instructed them how to properly monitor for plants. I established two small transects and groups of two people would walk along the transect and record the plant and ground cover. It would take around fifteen minutes for the students to look at ten points. (It would take me under two minutes to do the same thing.) After everyone collected their data, Damen would lecture the students on calculating groundcover and talk to them about the importance of vegetation monitoring on public lands. Overall, the high school education experience was amazing and I was fortunate enough to do this twice!!

Damen giving a lecture about the importance of public lands to the students!

The last day, we got to go to Middle Fork Campground up in the mountains and talk about various sciences to middle schoolers. Different forest service and BLM staff lectured on subjects such as water ecology, photography, ornithology, and cleaning up trash. My exciting education subject was geology! Since I am a rock hounder and have a degree in geology, I was pretty excited to teach about one of my passions. I brought a bag full of rocks from around the Buffalo Field Office. I brought various rocks, minerals, and fossils with me to entertain the middle schoolers. I decided to talk about the geologic time and history of the region from the Cambrian Period up to the present and talk about how each of these rocks were made. I found out fast that the children did not like geology…at all. The first two presentations were very rocky (no pun intended). The kids looked bored or gave me death stares. This was the first time I encountered this, so I had to quickly evolve my teaching style and subjects. By the third group, I talked quickly about geologic time and rocks, but then I lectured on volcanoes, earthquakes, and other interesting geologic events of Wyoming. With each group, I honed in my lecture. By the fifth group, all the children were participating and were amazed about rocks and earthquake events. Even when it was raining, they would ask questions and take notes, which excited me! By the last group, the lecture was a work of art and all of the children were excited about rocks, geologic time, and Wyoming’s dynamic past!  Phew!!! Tough crowd. I learned a lot from this day and how to lecture to a younger audience! My past experience in education was teaching high schoolers, first graders, and college students. Teaching middle schoolers was a different ball game for me! Overall, I really enjoyed this day! I learned a great deal about educating middle schoolers and adapting my teaching style to interest kids!

Welch Recreation Area, Keepin’ it real since 2005!

Grand Tetons

I was very fortunate to take a small vacation before my major vacation at the end of September!! My parents, along with myself, went to the Grand Tetons National Park! This was during peak fall color, so every deciduous shrub and tree was a yellow- orange- red color. Most of the days had perfect weather. I had many opportunities to go bird watching and go fishing! During this time, the Yellowstone cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri) and Snake River fine spotted cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii behnkei?) were active! My parents and I caught a lot of nice sized cutthroat trout! I usually catch and release but my Dad wanted to keep all the large fish for future fish fillets. Beyond fishing, we did hiking and bird watching! One of the most common birds to see was the white crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) and the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). As I was bird watching, I was able to see many moose (Alces alces), which were active in the park at this time. The Yellowstone wildfires this year pushed different mammal species into the Grand Tetons, so we saw a larger number of large ungulates. Overall, this small mini-cation was great! The Grand Tetons is my favorite National Park and I was happy I got to visit them again!!

Fall Color in the Grand Tetons. Picture taken by Patricia Chappelle

New Mexico: Beyond the Sands and Deserts

There was a lot of comp time I had left, so I decided to take a large trip down to Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas! I wanted to go during peak bird migration times in New Mexico! For the first few days, I went down to my sister’s place in Denver to celebrate my nephew’s birthday! From there I was able to travel with my parents down to New Mexico to areas like Roswell, Carlsbad Caverns, the Guadalupe Mountains, White Sand Dunes, and Bosque del Apache!

Our first major stop was in Roswell, New Mexico! I was able to go to the International Museum for UFO Study and Research. I learned all about the Truth and how is way out there! Even within a couple of years since the last time I went to this town, the area greatly expanded due to oil and gas development. You could tell that the town got a large upgrade!

The truth is out there…

…found the truth…it was way out there.

After Roswell, I went to the town of Carlsbad! This town was great and I never expected it to be so large! I visited the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park, which was great to see! There were many cacti (Family: Cactaceae), ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), and cholla (Genus: Cylindropuntia) everywhere! To the south of town, I was able to go to Carlsbad Caverns! This MASSIVE cave system existed underneath the desert. I have been to many caves in my life, but I never visited a cave system so large before! There were many amazing stalactites and stalagmites everywhere! With all of the great views this cavern had to offer, we left a little earlier so we could make it down to the Guadalupe Mountains down in Texas. We did miss the bats (Order: Chiroptera), but I have seen bats fly out of caves in great numbers before.

Some plants you could find in the Chihuanhuan Desert!

A limestone column in Carlsbad Caverns!

Down in Texas, I was able to visit the Guadalupe Mountains! This place had many migrating birds and I was able to do a lot of bird watching here! Hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus), white crowned sparrows, western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana), white winged doves (Zenaida asiatica), verdin (Auriparus flaviceps), various quails (Family: Odontophoridae), red tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), and marsh wrens (Cistothorus palustris) were the most common species I saw down in the park! It was baffling for me as a bird watcher. I recognized all of the bird songs, but I had trouble identifying the birds due to the environment I was in. I usually associate a hermit thrush melody with a forest or a marsh wren song with a wetland, but down in the yucca and shrubland areas these birds were hard to pick out. I would hear a hermit thrush but my brain had trouble connecting the song with the bird, because I was in a totally different habitat. The Guadalupe Mountains had great trails and I was able to find Apache plumes (Fallugia paradoxa), which were my favorite southwestern plant.

Apache Plume!! (Fallugia paradoxa)

Guadalupe Mountains and a dry arroyo. Somewhere there are SOS interns collecting seed in this area.

After the Guadalupe Mountains, we made our way to Alamogordo, New Mexico! This area had the New Mexico Museum of Space History and the White Sands National Monument. The museum was interesting! I learned all about the history of the World’s space programs. I learned how to accidentally destroy a $145 million dollar device in a flight simulator! Beyond the simulator, I learned about the rocket tests and important people who contributed to space science! I even got to try on a space suit!

That is one large step for the CLM program, one giant leap for intern-kind.

One of my favorite locations to visit was the White Sands National Monument. This area was a large expanse of white gypsum sand that had specialized plants and animals! You definitely had to wear sunglasses during the day! The albedo from the sand and the sunlight was very intense! It was like walking on a different planet! I have been to this location five years ago and I noticed a great change in the southern dune systems! Plants were colonizing like crazy! Alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), and various yucca plants were growing all over the shallow dunes! In the past I really did not see this! Another interesting thing to notice was the wildlife! Many of the grasshoppers and Southwestern fence lizards (Sceleporus cowlesi) were a white to grey color! The only thing that stood out was the darkling beetles (Genus: Eleodes), which were black. I loved climbing on the sand dunes and looking for plants and animals. Unfortunately, many people used the dunes for recreation, which is great, but they left their trash behind which was not great.

White Sands Monument!!

One of our last major stops was Bosque del Apache! This area was one of my favorite birding places! I always love looking for black phoebe (Sayornis nigricans), greater roadrunners (Geococcyx californianus), and Gambel’s quail (Callipepla gambelii). This time of year, I got to see a huge amount of migrating waterfowl! Northern pintails (Anas acuta), American coots (Fulica americana), mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), Northern shovelers (Anas clypeata), lesser scaup (Aythya affinis), snow geese (Chen caerulescens), Canada geese (Branta canadensis), and western grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis)! In the fields, I saw many sandhill crane (Grus canadensis)! These cranes were everywhere and were increasing in number every day!

Various waterfowl!!!

This larger vacation was just what I needed! Even if I was sick for most of the time, I really enjoyed visiting different ecosystems, exploring caves, and bird watching! New Mexico has been great and I was fortunate to have the comp time to visit many areas and view different flora and fauna!

Halloween!!

After my vacation, I arrived just in time for Halloween! The Buffalo Field Office invites young trick or treaters to come to the office and receive candy. The parents were just as excited, because they got to scope out potential candies they could tax from their children. I dressed up as an Australian DAWR (Department of Agriculture and Water Resource) Legend…basically the Australian version of a BLM Legend. I got to wear my j-hat and my safari clothes for the event. I handed out Lindor candy and tootsie roll pops as well! When the pre-school kids did come, they were overwhelmed by the whole experience. They were sort of confused why their parents made them dress up and walk around a dark office receiving candy. Many of the BLM employees brought their children as well! They were more used to the office and people! For the rest of the day, we continued our work and celebrated BLM Legend Charlotte’s birthday towards the end of the day!

Picture of my Halloween costume, my phone and various candies.

Grand Slam of Fishing

This is my grand slam for trout I caught on this internship!! Brown trout, Brook trout, Rainbow trout, Yellowstone cutthroat trout???, and Snake River fine spotted cutthroat trout!

Moment of Zen

Cactus flowers!!

It is November, and the New York weather is finally turning chilly and staying that way. The landscape is transformed by the fiery hues of fall foliage.

Gardiner County Park, Suffolk, NY

Here at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seedbank, we CLM interns are wrapping up the last few weeks of work. Bundled up in hats, gloves and wool socks, my field partner Laura and I brave the cold for the last choice native seed collections. Our six months of work have gone by quickly, but were jam-packed full of productive work and memorable adventures.

As of the day I write this, I’ve been a part of a NY field team that has collected:

• 110 collections of native plant seeds in Long Island (10,000-30,000 seeds per collection)
• Over 60 species
• 145 pounds of salt marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), a crucial part of the marsh ecosystem
• Data, pictures and herbarium specimen for all these collections, and intel on collections to make next year!

We’ve had our ups and downs, but overall I am extremely proud of the efforts and achievements of my team. Here are some superlatives that highlight different moments we experienced along the way.

Handiest Item: Duct tape. I could write a love poem to duct tape. It comes in handy in so many situations! Tent poles you bought from Amazon break on your second camping trip? Duct tape. Seed collection bag ripping from moisture or tension? Duct tape. Strap holding your waders up by your belt disintegrates? Duct tape! I could go on, but you get the idea.

Toughest Field Day: mid-July collections at Wertheim NWR and Gardiner Cty Park. These were some of our best sites, but I remember a particular day in July when our collections there really tested us. We got several salt marsh species in the expanses of wetland at Wertheim, then scoured the forested areas of Gardiner for elderberry and viburnum shrubs in the afternoon. The temperature was in the 100s with high humidity, and the mosquitoes were in literal swarms. Luckily we had netted hats, but I remember struggling to pour water through my face net so that I could stay hydrated while being actively swarmed by mosquitoes. At the end of the day, I think I felt the most tired I’ve ever been, but I was really glad we made those collections.

Most Helpful Landowner: Robin at US Fish & Wildlife. This was a tough one! We couldn’t have made the collections we did without the amazing knowledge and support of staff members at our various sites. Robin was always prompt in our communications about collection sites. He took time to drive out and show us the salt marsh at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge. In general he was just super helpful and great to work with. Honorable mention/shout out to Terry at Connetquot State Park and Andy and Andy of Easthampton Town Parks who are also fantastic!

Best View from a Seed Collection Site: Accabonac Harbor, Easthampton NY. We collected salt marsh plants here late in the field season. The site sits on a peninsula jutting out into the sea off of the South fork of Long Island. The early morning light glowing through fog over the ocean made the boundary between sea and sky indistinguishable. I wish I had photos so I could back this up, but I was honestly too breathtaken to think to get my phone out!

Favorite Collection: Nyssa sylvatica at Connetquot River State Park. This collection is memorable to me (and am getting a tattoo of this plant!) because I feel like it encapsulates my CLM internship experience as a whole. Nyssa sylvatica, or black tupelo, is a native tree that likes to grow near wet areas like pond or stream edges. The collection was quite challenging to make. Since each fruit has one seed, we needed to collect a large volume of fruit, and the trees were well dispersed throughout a system of streams. We snaked along the trails and climbed over downed pine trees to find fruit-bearing tupelos. Then we would use a clipper on the edge of a long poll (called a pull-pruner) to cut branches and harvest the precious fruit. In spite of, or maybe because of the challenge, we loved making this collection. The woods and streams were so beautiful, and every time we found a tree it was like a treasure trove of ripe fruit.

So in short, this collection and my internship experience as a whole boil down to this: challenging, but fruitful.