The boreal forest, or taiga, is found in the northern reaches around the globe. This constitutes one of the largest forests, making it a crucial part of conversations around climate change, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, water quality, and human needs. The trees and other organisms are especially adapted to the cold, dry conditions and as a result are often stunted. In Alaska, conifers, primarily black spruce and white spruce, dominate accompanied by deciduous trees including birch, aspen, and cottonwood. The mid and understory layers contain a multitude of trees, shrubs, forbs, graminoids, and moss/lichen blankets.

Monica Kopp (CLM), Samantha Snodgrass (CLM), Tim Skiba (BLM Forester), and I got to experience the boreal magic firsthand. We ventured up to Eagle, located in Interior Alaska, just before the winter snows block the passes. Eagle may be tiny, but also boasts a greater percentage of museum per square foot than just about anywhere within historic Fort Egbert. The town is also rimmed with soft mountains and bordered by the mighty Yukon River. Our main focus was to conduct a forest inventory using the national Forest Vegetation Inventory System (FORVIS) protocol. There are a number of parameters collected relating to the general characteristics, forest type, vegetation cover, and tree measurements. We determined what trees to measure by using a 10-factor prism. Each tree that met the size requirements was identified then measured for diameter at breast height, height, crown to height ratio, and age using an inclement borer to collect a core sample. Forest inventories such as these are important for informing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) management in their decision making processes. A definite highlight was having the opportunity to talk with the upper grades at the local Eagle School. The students there were studying forest succession and especially enjoyed getting outside to meet and measure trees. Their looks of delight of seeing the cores come out said it all- pretty cool to age a tree.

Happy trails, Kim Hack

A calm Yukon River.

Monica Kopp expertly cores a tree.

Samantha Snodgrass measures the forest fuel load.

A mossy understory of a boreal forest.

A black spruce, Picea mariana, cone.

Tim Skiba, BLM Forestry, using an inclinometer to calculate a tree’s height.

The town of Eagle, AK.

Winter is coming with snow dustings on the hill tops and ice underfoot.

After six months working with USFWS in Klamath Falls, OR largely focused on captive rearing programs for endangered sucker as well as some brief forays into work with spotted frogs, bald eagles, apple-gate’s milkvetch, vernal pool plants, monarch butterflies, and Canadian geese, I have transitioned into three months entirely focused on bull trout. Bull trout were once relatively common in the Klamath Basin, however in the late 1900s and early 2000s were extirpated from much of their historical range. In 1998 bull trout were listed as threatened under the endangered species act as a result of the species’ declining numbers.

Bull trout have been significantly impacted by habitat loss and the presence of non-native brook trout. Because bull trout require very cold and clean water, road building, logging, and agriculture have impacted Bull trout habitat. Brook trout compete with bull trout for resources and also interbreed with bull trout, resulting in sterile hybrids. While bull trout are still present in a few streams in the basin, bull trout reintroduction is being considered for a variety of historical habitats in the Klamath Basin.

A variety of other bull trout reintroductions have been completed (both successfully and unsuccessfully), so my role in this effort is to help write a review of past bull trout reintroductions so we can learn from these past projects. One of the most notable bull trout reintroduction projects has taken place recently on the Clackamas River in Northwestern Oregon. A short video (below) gives a brief overview of the project and its outcomes. The video does a great job of sharing the amazing work being done on the Clackamas through really impressive film making.

A video about the successful reintroduction of bull trout to the Clackamas River in Northwestern Oregon. Worth a watch just for the incredible underwater filming!

August was an exciting time for the SOS program in Alaska. We spent two weeks collecting seed from the Steese highway and the Dalton highway. The Steese sits in the White Mountains north east of Fairbanks. The Dalton starts north of Fairbanks and traverses the Yukon River, the Brooks Range and the Arctic Circle. We made 70 collections in total. Each collection represents a single population of a species. Stringent criteria ensure our collections obtain a representative sample of a robust population without harming its reproductive potential. Because of these criteria, only common, workhorse species are collected– not endangered, threatened or rare species.

This is the final result of cleaning seed. The clean seed will be counted and then kept in plastic crates in cool, dark storage until it’s time to sell or use it.

Some of the coolest species we collected were: Triglochin palustre, a graminoid that looks and feels like barbed wire, Hedysarum alpinum, a forb whose seeds make the best money bag sound when shaken, and Beckmannia syzigachne, which seems to explode off the stem when touched. With a couple of prolific species, for example Calamagrostis canadensis or Chamerion angustifolium, we used pillowcases rather than cotton bags to hold our collection. At the end of our trip, we delivered our seed bounty to the Plant Materials Center in Palmer, Alaska.

Here a grass is being processed through a brush machine. This is the resulting mixture of seed and dust that comes out of the bottom of the machine.

Before our seed can be stored or used, it first must be cleaned. That means that the seed is stripped of any sheathes, chaff, stems, leaves or other litter. While it will take several months to clean it all, Kim and I were able to work at the PMC for a week to see how it’s done. Seed cleaning has two parts. First the seed needs to be dislodged from the larger pieces of plant material. Second, the materials need to be separated so that all the viable seed is in one neat pile and the rest is in another.

There are multiple methods for each part and the handling differs for each species. One that we used frequently for more fragile seeds was manual stripping and sorting. With this method, I would shake the seed from the stems and then shake them through a sieve and pan. This works well when the seeds need to be treated gently and for small amounts of seed. However, this method is time intensive and requires extended physical labor.

This is the brush machine that we used to clean seed. This is mainly used for tougher seed that can handle the stiff bristles on the interior brush.

The other method that we used frequently involved the use of brush and air machines. The brush machine is exactly what it sounds like. The main body is a metal cylinder case that houses a spinning paddle of brushes. These brushes fit snuggly against a metal mesh cage that prevents the stems from going through the bottom slot—where the seed goes—and instead pushes the stems through an opening at the other end. An air machine can separate the smaller pieces, mostly seed and broken up dust. This machine brings the mixture into a wind tube. The user controls the air speed so that the dust is blown to the top and collected at the upper end while the heavier, full seed drops to the bottom collection cup.

We used both methods and depending on the seeds, we sometimes mixed the methods together. It was wonderful to learn how to use the machines as well as look at the seeds up close under the microscope. Many thanks to the seed guru, Lubo Mahlev, who guided our time at the PMC lab as well as Jen- a previous CLM intern-, Rob, Kyle, and Todd.

Hey guys!

September was awesome. We can definitely feel the fall breeze in the air already, especially up north! We started with a four-day trip to Eastern Neck NWR, Blackwater NWR, Chincoteague NWR, and Brownsville Preserve within Virginia and Maryland. My favorite part of this trip was collecting Tripsacum dactyloides. Don’t ask why. I can’t explain it myself. Maybe it’s just the fact that the seeds could be used to make maracas? Anyway, this trip was absolutely filled with mosquitos. No matter how much bug repellant was used, no matter how many layers we worn, they were vicious and unforgiving. But we persevered! The worst place was Chincoteague NWR on the Delmarva Peninsula. We made four collections there of Borrichia frutescens, Fimbristylis castanea, Typha angustifolia, and Cyperus odoratus.

Beautiful sunset at Eastern Neck NWR.

Tripsacum dactyloides. Such a beautiful, fun grass!

Salicornia depressa turning a wonderful shade of red at Chincoteague NWR.

Wild horses at Chincoteague NWR!

Our next trip was a short 2 day trip to Merchant’s Millpond, First Landing State Park, False Cape State Park, and North Landing River Preserve. Merchant’s Millpond was a bust – BUT – it’s a bald-cypress swamp, so that’s a given that it is absolutely gorgeous. We went looking for Lindera benzoin, and while there was a big enough population of it, there were no fruits. Luckily, we were with a really great ranger who was helping us around and even helped us look through the forest! What a guy. First Landing helped us make up for the lack of collections at Merchants. We collected Uniola paniculata, Panicum amarum, and Fimbristylis castanea.

Callicarpa americana at Merchant’s Millpond.

Monotropa uniflora at Merchant’s Millpond. My second siting ever 🙂

I have to say, I was so jealous going to False Cape. We collected more Uniola paniculata there, but the maritime forest makes me so happy. There were camping spots and a trail that leads out to the dunes that were filled with seaoats just flowing in the wind. And sorry, but my romantic side came out when I saw this adorable couple – with the whole beach to themselves – sitting out on the beach together, drawing the ocean. WHAT. Drawing the ocean. Adorable. I would recommend anyone to go to this place – you cannot drive in, however. Which kind of gives the place more charm 🙂

Dunes and Uniola paniculata at False Cape State Park.

The last trip we went on was the first week of October and was just Sammy and myself. We headed to Gunpowder Falls SP, Rocks SP, Elk Neck SP, Tuckahoe SP, Blackwater NWR, Chincoteague NWR, and Brownsville. When I think of this trip, I think of Jamaican food (the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had in my life, yes, from a Jamaican restaurant), snakes, apples, and rushed collections! It was a super productive and fun week for Sammy and I. We made 14 collections, which is more than I’ve ever made in a trip – even when we had the whole group together! We found a wonderful population of Ilex verticillata at Gunpowder Falls State Park – Hammerman Beach. We got bummed when we were first there because we were surrounded by seas of phragmites, but we coincidentally found something awesome (and I’m not talking about the mammalian skulls – yeah)! Our next stop, Rocks State Park, is SO PRETTY. I mean, we went there for a population of Leersia that was already done seeding, but hey, that’s okay! Because Elk Neck provided us LOTS of collections! And snakes! I loved collecting Parthenocissus quinquefolia. Pretty berries 🙂 We were also able to collect Schizachyrium scoparium, Tridens flavus, Pycnanthemum tenuifolium, and Panicum anceps. Next was Tuckahoe SP, which is always fun because KAYAKING – we collected Rosa palustris there. We were able to make a collection of Spartina patens at Blackwater NWR, which was great! And to end the trip, we made some cyperus collections at Chincoteague, along with Fuirena pumila, Tridens flavus, Schizachyrium scoparium, and Cenchrus tribuloides! Sammy and I were kind of afraid of cenchrus (for obvious – pointy – reasons), but the collection went really smoothly! If you remember to bring some gloves with you, it’s actually easy-breezy! We will have to collect more seeing that they are single seeded, and we still had one other stop before home. We ended up not getting done that day until 8:30, but I can’t say I was at all disappointed with my week!!

Fall is in the air at Rocks State Park in northern Maryland!

Rocks State Park, MD.

Sometimes you drive 6 hours to get to a population that is already done seeding, like this Leersia, and that’s OK!!

Rock State Park was too pretty 🙂

A kayak filled with spiders… probably my worst nightmare.

This turtle was watching me paddle by at Tuckahoe State Park.

Some spiranthes Sammy and I saw at Chincoteague NWR!

Trip planning with the group. The usual faces of my team, haha. Minus Sammy!

Phytolacca americana seeds that I cleaned – they are just as cool as the berries/plants themselves!

 

My fourth month here in Casper, WY has been very active, and much less routine than the previous months.  I have had the opportunity to engage with many different land management professionals here at the field office, including the rangeland health specialists and hydrologists.  This has resulted in a number of new training and learning opportunities.

On the wildlife side, I recently took part in an ongoing project to install and maintain artificial bat habitat boxes in natural areas around Casper.  The project aims to encourage the establishment of bat populations to help manage insect levels.  I went out and checked every installed bat box around Casper to check for bats and perform any necessary maintenance.   Unfortunately, in the five boxes that I checked, I did not see any evidence of bats inhabiting the box.  There were quite a few wasp nests however, which was an absolute joy to clean out.  Hopefully they see more bat activity in the future.

Observing the bat boxes was helpful in understanding the installation of wildlife projects, which is particularly useful knowledge for the implementation of my wood duck box project.  This past month I surveyed multiple natural areas here in Natrona county and examined published literature on wood duck nesting habitats to determine the best locations to install two wood duck nesting boxes.  I finally settled on two different areas; one where I will mount the box on a metal pole and one where I will mount the box on a tree.  The pole mount is significant because any area where I propose ground disturbance (i.e. installation of the pole) requires a cultural and wildlife clearance.  Wildlife is a nonissue, since this is a wildlife project, but for the cultural clearance I brought one of the field office archaeologists out to the proposed site to ensure that there were no cultural or historic artifacts or sites present at that location.  Once I had successfully cleared both sites for box installation I began to write the categorical exclusion (CX) document to begin the project.  This document is named for a project that is small enough or has a minimal environmental impact so as to not require a full National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessment.  I completed writing the background and proposed action sections and am waiting on clearance from resource management to implement the project.

I have also begun constructing a report on all of the cheatgrass monitoring that I have performed this year, as well as the vegetation monitoring from previous years.  The idea is that it will be a living document, chronicling the treatment and monitoring efforts occurring in each grazing allotment.  I plan on breaking down each section by grazing allotment and providing a map showing the allotment and all past/proposed treatments, summarizing the history of cheatgrass monitoring action on that allotment, and making a recommendation for future conservation management based on the vegetation monitoring data.  It is quite an undertaking, but could be very useful for the field office once completed.

Outside of these projects I have had a variety of interesting interdisciplinary experiences.  I helped a rangeland health specialist fix a fence and survey an area for a contractor, I helped the hydrologist process soil samples and inspect water wells, and I helped the forester map an area for contract preparation, among other things.  Additionally, I have been trained in operating ATVs, UTVs, skid steers, forklifts, and tractors.  Overall, it has been a very busy month with a lot of diverse experiences, and I look forward to finishing out my internship strong this month!

Fall is upon us here in Idaho, and by fall I mean winter has come in full force. It seems like we had just one day of beautiful leaves changing color and then all of a sudden the frost hit hard.

The winter this week has given us snow up in our hills, the line being at about 6,500ft. And hitting us in the valley with no fun snow, but rather the less than stellar freezing temps of 30-40 degrees.

The weather turning has changed the way that we are starting to view the last little bit of our season. With these cool temps and precipitation the need to be properly prepared in the field is something that we are struggling with. So used to the hot summer temps that we are forgetting to add that extra layer, to pack those gloves, to trade our baseball hats for stocking caps

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But with the cold weather and snow brings some absolutely breathtaking views of the mountains. It seems like a fair trade off for the cold.

-Sierra Sampson

Salmon, Idaho BLM

At the end of September, month six of my CLM Internship, I am still loving the diversity of the work I get to do. I have been working on some of the same projects for a while now and have mentioned them in previous blog posts: raptor surveys, maintaining insect traps, picking up trash, finding and pulling weeds, and of course seed collections. The last raptor survey of the year at Cosumnes River Preserve is completed, but waterfowl surveys are just beginning. As for some projects, the work might be the same, but the people and places can change. I recently led a large group of enthusiastic, hardworking, geocaching volunteers to clean up a large dump site on a newly acquired parcel of Pine Hill Preserve. They were trying to persuade me to start geocaching with them, and I told them I get out in the field plenty hunting for plants. Speaking of…I have completed a couple more seed collections in the last month: one not so common Navarretia filicaulis and one very common Epilobium brachycarpum.

A project which I had looked forward to through September happened last week. There are now two ephemeral ponds on BLM lands near Michigan Bluff, CA, constructed by a small but strong group of people from our BLM field office and the US Forest Service, led by a wetland designer and the wildlife biologist at our office. Yeah, the excavator did a lot of the heaving lifting, but it was tough work for us too. The ponds might not look like much now, but with the rains coming, soon they’ll hold a couple feet of water and hopefully some endangered California red-legged frogs! The ponds were constructed to increase the habit of red-legged frogs, which live on private land about a mile from these new ponds and are otherwise scarce in the Sierra Nevada. Being that the ponds are ephemeral, they will provide habitat for the endangered species while excluding bullfrogs and fish that decrease populations. A PVC liner will be responsible for holding the water because adequate clay was not present there and could not be economically sourced from nearby to create an impermeable wetland. I may have the opportunity to help collect seeds from local wetlands to plant along the margins of the constructed ponds, providing nice places to hide, mate, and lay eggs. Come on frogs!

John Woodruff

BLM Mother Lode Field Office

As the Pokémon fans and SOS participants will tell you, “Got to clean ‘em all.” Cleaning seeds is important for storage, future use in restoration, and for qualitative/quantitative assessment. Nearly all the Seeds of Success (SOS) collections are sent to the Seed Extractory in Bend, Oregon for seed cleaning, but in Alaska we have a local facility for that. The Plant Materials Center (PMC) is primarily focused on agricultural research and services, but also partners with agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for ecological projects. The PMC not only cleans SOS seeds, but also propagates plants from those seeds to determine the viability of cultivating these plants for even greater seed yields. The ultimate purpose of these efforts is for restoration projects on BLM lands for campgrounds, road ways, trail systems, and mining sites. As Conservation Land Management (CLM) interns, Samantha Snodgrass and I take part in this good, clean fun. The strategies for cleaning seeds varies by species and includes both hand and mechanical means. The stars of the show are brush machines, air machines, pans, and tumblers. We use the tools that fit the task in order to reduce loss and damage to the seed while of course maximizing the cleanliness. We then could examine the seed under the microscope to determine how healthy the seed appeared and anticipate their viability. While there, we primarily cleaned seeds in the Poaceae and Fabaceae families. Lubo Mahlev served as our guru guide in this science (and art) form and we even got to join forces with a former CLMer Jenn MacMillan.  In addition to cleaning seed, we also harvested some of the last seed from the PMC fields with handy sickles. It was incredible to experience these facilities (that includes a seed library!) and interact with the welcoming, knowledgeable staff.

Samantha Snodgrass expertly working the brush machine.

Kim Hack feeding Calamgrostis canadensis into the brush machine,

Beautiful lighting at the Plant Materials Center.

Examining seed in the microscope.

Samantha, Lubo, and Jenn harvesting the bounty.

Machine v. human, who yields more seed?

My these seed bags are soft.

Seed library!

Beautiful creatures.