Greetings fellow interns,

Another lovely California central valley winter has begun.  I have really gotten used to the pleasant 60-70 degree days.  It will be quite the shock returning home to the Midwest over Thanksgiving, where highs have been consistently in the 10-20 degree range.  I will be packing every article of clothing I own (and hand warmers).  Christmas visits are pretty much out of the question except via Skype.

I am still primarily working on permitting for a large scale restoration project I have been tasked with.  This project seems to require every permit known to man (federal, state and county).  I have, however, had the opportunity to work on some side projects.

Last fall, my mentor was informed that there was a machine shed style building on a parcel of land within our field office jurisdiction that was going to be torn down.  It seems that the parcel had been leased for several  years by an educational institution while they were conducting research in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.  They had the building constructed during that time.  After the lease and research had concluded the building was left in place, with no plans for removal.  Due to BLM policies, the building needed to be removed prior to taking control of the property once again.  As the Preserve I work for is constantly searching for space to store and protect our equipment, we saw an opportunity to prevent the unnecessary waste of a perfectly good structure and provide more much-needed storage space for our facility.

With a crew of four guys we deconstructed the entire building in two 12-hour days, loaded it on to a trailer, hauled it to the Preserve, and unloaded it into storage.  This fall a new cement pad was poured at the Preserve where the new structure was to be installed, and in October of this year, we rebuilt the building.  We had no instructions, and lots of pieces.  Based on the pictures we took prior to deconstruction, and a numbering system we used to mark the pieces, we were able to reconstruct the shed in about 3 days.  We are still waiting for new skylight panels that we had to order and a few final steps to complete the building, but for the most part the construction process went very smoothly!  It was a great opportunity to learn some basic construction skills.

Stay warm-

Things have been winding down a bit here in Susanville.  The field work has slowed down and my extension has begun.  I have been working on several different projects recently, helping out different employees at the Eagle Lake Field Office.  I helped install a soil monitoring data tower with the hydrologist/soil scientist and folks from the NRCS.  This tower uses solar energy to power several instruments that measure air temperature, soil temperature, wind speed, soil moisture, and air pressure.  The tower then sends the data back by bouncing signals off the tails of meteors!  I had no idea that meteor tails could be used in place of satellites, but this technology is great for gathering data in remote areas where satellite signals aren’t reliable.

I also finished up packaging and shipping out all of the SOS collections I made this year.  It was bittersweet to send out the final box, knowing I won’t be collecting seed anymore.  Some of the best days of the internship were spent collecting seed; it can be relaxing and productive at the same time.  However, I now have a lot more space in my office cubicle with all the boxes of seed gone.

With field work slowing down, I have been spending a lot of time using ArcMap to complete various projects and make maps for other employees in the office.  It isn’t as exciting as field work, but my skills in ArcGIS have greatly improved over the course of this internship.

In my spare time I have gone on a lot of cool adventures recently.  I hiked to the top of Sonora Peak in the Sierras, went to Santa Cruz to see Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit Concert, and took a trip up to Enterprise, Oregon.  Every weekend has been a new adventure with great friends.  I thought coming to a small cow town in the middle of nowhere would be pretty boring, but I met a great group of people and have traveled to some awesome places.  I am truly grateful for the friends I have made and the times we have shared.

I will leave off with some pictures from the last few weeks.

Bighorn Sheep on the way to Enterprise

Sunset over the Pacific in Santa Cruz

Spelunking in some caves near Eagle Lake

Old ranch building

View from the top of Sonora Peak

Sam Gersie

BLM Eagle Lake Field Office

Susanville, CA

The autumnal chill in the air is a sure sign that the field season is coming to a close. Thus, this is my last blog post from my internship in Farmington, NM. My co-intern finished last week so it’s just me for the next few weeks. Although today is the last official day of my CLM internship, I will be staying on for a few extra weeks as a volunteer to help whip our herbarium into shape and possibly assist with some other ecological monitoring around the office. We are working to wrap up our season and will be finishing up our last SOS collection next week, which should bring our total to 32 SOS Collections for this season. It may not sound like a lot to some, but I consider each one of those collections a hard-won victory due to the continuing drought in Northwest New Mexico.

Range Management Specialist Angela Yemma prepares to collect Typha latifolia (broadleaf cattail) complete with plastic bag booties! Note: The plastic baggies failed spectacularly and we ended up with wet feet that day. Next time we will definitely wear waders

This internship has greatly improved my plant identification skills. Although I completed some botany coursework in college, this internship was a place to put what I learned in school to use and expand greatly upon those skills. Back in Massachusetts, I spent a great deal of time studying trees, only to work in a place where there are very few trees.  Although I struggled at first, I think I truly rose to the challenge and learned a lot along the way.

I will definitely come away from this internship with a greater appreciation for the desert! It’s incredible how everything just comes alive after the slightest bit of rain. I will miss the enormous skies and beautiful landscapes I’ve been privileged to work in and visit this field season. The Four Corners region is an incredibly diverse and special place.

Some beautiful badlands in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

I would like to thank the folks at the BLM Farmington Field Office for a wonderful season. I was made to feel welcome here and like a member of the team. The biggest thanks go to my wonderful mentor, Sheila Williams. She took me under her wing and showed me the ways of a botany ninja, as well as gave me a candid look at what working for the federal government would be like. An additional thanks to Hannah, my CLM sister and buddy throughout the internship. She dealt with my eccentricities way more than anyone should have to and was a joy to work with.

Hannah, Sunny and I enjoying the sights in Coyote Buttes, Arizona

After I leave the Land of Enchantment next month, I will be headed for South Florida to enjoy a warm winter and (hopefully) find more fieldwork. We’ll see what the future has in store for me.

Hello my fellow CLMers,

Originally I believed this internship at the Buffalo Field Office (BFO), Wyoming, would last me until November and then I planned on heading back to Vermont.  Plans changed last month when I got offered an extension till January. After talking to my co-workers, I realized myself and one other were the only people interested in the extension.  I thought, “hey, more for us!” But, as the other interns slowly leave, one after the other, I am left alone and lonely in the small 4,500+ town.

Justin C. left last month and having been a CLM intern in Burns, Oregon 2013, he mentally prepared me that it would get slow.  Overly enthusiastic I thought, “hey, I would love to have that period in my life where things slow down”. Although, things haven’t really slowed down, the opportunities are there, but I have limited myself. I don’t want to over-commit and spread myself thin. Consequentially, I have had and am bound for slow days.

My time is divided between two projects;

One of those projects being my own, Powder River Basin Restoration Initiative (PRBRI) work, restoring Wyoming’s native habitat in the Greater Sage Grouse (GSG) ‘core’ area.

The ‘core’ area is determined by multiple GIS layers indicating where the GSG migrate, brood, and lek. These numbers are determined by ocular estimation, telemetry and other field methods.  I have not gone out on a GSG survey yet, but hope to sometime with the Wildlife Biologists.

My work for PRBRI is to compare the vegetation seen in aerial imagery (classification), captured this past summer,  to what’s on the ground, also known as ‘ground-truthing’. With snow cover now on the ground, I can’t map vegetation outside, so this will be strictly GIS work until snow melt.

The other project is for the Range Specialists, it has the acronym RIPS-Range Improvement Project something-heehee. This is when Sara, Jill and I, with our mentor, Charlotte, have gone out to BLM land, via F-150 trucks, to map data points for fence lines, stock tanks, reservoirs and counted cattle herds, with GPS Trimble. We have a range improvement data dictionary that was created by previous CLM intern, Nicholas Dove. Also, we record weed encroachment on the aforementioned data points. This will be a winter long project and an easy way to get in the field instead of another office day.

Outside of work, I am hanging with what’s left of my friends/co-workers in town. One of them being this lovely lady;

Puggle=Pug+Beagle 

This 10-year old is still spunky and dresses in warm apparel. She fashions the latest faux fur-lined hoodie with skull and cross bones on the back. Her purple plastic footwear keeps her paws warm from the snowy and freezing outdoor temps. Seriously, freezing (see below)!

Check out that -8F reading!

Aside, from the freezing temps, it has snowed here in Buffalo, Wyoming.

:: My apartment’s      parking-lot::

Thankfully snow removal is included in the rent..speaking of rent it is CHEAP in Buffalo, WY. Especially when you split a 2-bedroom apartment between 4 people! There have been times we have all needed space but now that 2 of them are leaving it’ll be bittersweet with all that open space.

After all the slow days, I still have a lovely apartment to sleep and eat in. It’ll be desolate after everyone’s departure from Wyoming, but it’s home.  My Plan: put up my feet and drink some hot cocoa once the place is cleared.  Also, working out at the YMCA around the corner and visiting my local library are all good things to keep a college town gal busy in a small town.

Hope you enjoyed,

Heather B.

The days are growing short here in Nevada and so does the length of our internship as we have only 2 weeks left. Funny enough 10 months has gone by fairly quickly and now winter is returning to the area as the leaves have fallen and early snow has come to the Sierras. It has been very nice to see the Cottonwoods and Aspens turn this fall and hopefully this last collecting trip will still have some fall colors in the canyons of the mountains.

Lewisia rediviva

I have had the opportunity to learn many things this year, but the most exciting has been learning and studying the flora of the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada Mountains! As a botanist it is simply fascinating to learn about new species of plants in habitats that are totally foreign to you. This gives countless opportunities to learn more and more about all kinds of plants in some amazing country from low deserts to high alpine summits; not to mention all of the amazing wildlife that you encounter.

Bright yellow fall colors of Populus tremuloides near Sonora Pass

This opportunity of working in Nevada has really encouraged me to continue to seek opportunities in the west for work or graduate studies. I look forward to seeing where the skills that I have gained and the experiences I have had will take me in the future. I have some exciting opportunities in the works and look forward to see where they will lead. It has been great to work with friends who are also botanizers and appreciators of the outdoors. Nevada has been a splendid place to explore the beauties of the natural world and make some great friends.

A large friend in the Toiyabe National Forest

May the sun always brighten your tomorrow friends,

Ethan

Sunrise over Death Valley

I dismounted from my trusty steed, Bronzie, and crunched down onto the hardened gumbo. So this is what they mean by the word desolate. A northerly wind whipped at my dry lips as I scanned the horizon for signs of life. Luckily, I wasn’t the only sign of life this time. My partner had taken it upon himself to accompany me on my journey; a recon mission to get a lay of the land and to see if the treasure is abundant enough to make it worthwhile.

I hadn’t been to these parts before and a strange, low humming sound caught me off guard. Futilely craning my neck to try to see past the lonely buttes, I was surprised to see a low flying aircraft coming towards me. Instinctively, I ducked and buried myself in the sagebrush, a remnant of my days as a thieving vagabond. I waited as the aircraft flew by and then doubled back over me. Was I being paranoid or am I actually being accosted for trespassing on some kind of sacred ground? Thankfully, my partner was there to reassure me that we were on safe land where we were supposed to be. I reluctantly stood up and began to focus on why we were here in the first place, although I felt a twinge of unease as the plane circled overhead a third time.

“So, it looks like we got a good bunch here,” my partner said, a waiver of excitement in his voice. “You don’t say,” I agreed as I guided my hands through the dry branches feeling hundreds of our treasure falling into my palms and onto the ground. On closer inspection I could see we had some good ones, really good ones.

“Looks like we hit the jackpot,” I said hoisting the strap of my brand new Seed Sucker 2000 over my shoulder. My partner had come up with the idea to use this new tool and so we’re in on this adventure together sharing in the rewards and glory.

We went straight to work and within an hour or so had decided that the new tool was the best idea since toaster ovens. Pretty soon, long after I had forgotten about the aircraft, we had a new set of spectators. A group of ladies had come to the edge of the road to get a closer look at the two orange freaks. Feeling quite proud of myself at the moment, I tipped my hat and blew them a kiss. If only I didn’t already have a family back at home… Who knew Montana was brimming in such riches. I remounted Bronzie and took a last look at the landscape before heading in for the night. I’m not sure why I had originally called this place desolate, she just hides her secrets well. As I began the long journey home, a low humming sound began to stir somewhere off in the horizon.

Hello stranger,

In an attempt to reflect on the past 6 months, I will recount the events of just one day – Thursday, November 6, 2014 – and elaborate on the thoughts this provokes.

I woke up at 5 AM, and prepared my backpack for the day.  I was ready for sun, rain, and snow.  I got to the office at 6 AM, gathered the navigation equipment, scraped ice off of the truck, and set out on the familiar drive to the field office.

Let’s stop there.  Waking up before the sunrise has become a habit.  I feel well prepared to work in a variety of weather conditions.  I feel confident driving a pickup truck over difficult terrain.  I can navigate with Trimble GPS units, and if they ever malfunction, then I can still reach my destination with a map and compass.  These abilities are largely a product of my CLM internship experience.

I love the sunrise, and it has been a pleasure to see the majority of them for the past 6 months.  I will miss this sight tremendously:

The sun rises as I enter the field office

Soon after entering the field office, I turned onto a gravel road, and then again onto a two-track road where I was met by rocks, barbed wire fences, and loitering cattle.

Let’s stop again.  I was not expecting to learn so much about livestock during this internship.  However, they are a major player in rangeland dynamics, and I am grateful to have seen where our Nation’s beef comes from.

I’m going to miss these gals.

I pulled over by the stretch of land where I would walk approximately 10 miles of slickspot peppergrass transects.  Some may find this task monotonous, but there is nothing else I would rather do.

Allow me to explain.  The internship began with sage-grouse habitat assessments, which required identifying an abundance of new plants, and mastering new monitoring techniques.  The focus shifted to locating remotely-sensed wetlands, and describing their vegetation composition and water source.  This task allowed us to explore some amazing country, where we often wondered if anyone else had ever been.  Next we downloaded thermographs for water temperature data collection in streams, which were quite welcome in the heat of the summer.  These priority projects were broken up with various trainings and other opportunities such as mineral pit compliance inspections, frog searches, and rain gauge measuring.

After working hard to internalize all of this new knowledge and skill, it was nice to just soak it all in while walking around looking for slickspot peppergrass – to just be out there.

Happy to be out there, and start walking

I listened to the coyotes howl as I began my walk.  Their howling was lost in the wind, which was sometimes interrupted by chirping birds.  I flushed sage-grouse every once in a while, and smiled at the thought that these birds are what brought me out here.  While walking, I proudly distinguished between about 10 different species of dead grass, and marveled at the recently snow-covered mountains.

So while it is time to go home, I leave not just with new botanical skills and land management experience, but also with a strong relationship with a landscape that I could have never imagined.  I am proud to have helped sustainably manage and conserve our Nation’s land, and am surer than ever that I want to keep doing this for the duration of my career.

Thank you,

Jonathan Kleinman

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

A view of the San Bernardino Mountains, north from the lower slopes of the San Jacintos

Aphids on a pod of climbing milkweed (Funastrum cynanchoides hartwegii)

My field season wound down in mid-October, although many of our threatened, endangered, and sensitive plants are still detectable.  We got the first winter storm of the season on Halloween night; mostly rain, but a bit of snow and sleet at higher elevations. 

The photos in this post are from a (personal) backpacking trip I took down to the San Jacinto Mountains in mid-October.  I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the village of Snow Creek.  This section of trail has gorgeous views of the steep, forbidding north face of San Jacinto Mountain and is also an interesting passage through different vegetation types.  The trail begins on the desert floor, dominated by creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and brittlebush (Encelia sp.), and winds up into montane conifer woodland (with white fir, Jeffrey pine, and Quercus species). 

I have been doing a lot of database work, entering the season’s finds into the Forest Service database.  Last week I helped our Restoration crew plant at one of our restoration sites.  I’ve also been spending time in the herbarium, processing collections from this season and seasons past.  The herbarium work has turned up some interesting collections from this field season, including an intriguing Nama species (more later, if it turns out to be something good).

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

Here’s a pictoral journal of my time in Anchorage, AK! I definitely didn’t post as much as I meant to (this is my first one) but I had to have a record of my amazing time in this internship and this place! So here it is.

Over the course of this Summer and Fall, I’ve learned and traveled all over the state, from the Mighty Yukon River (yes, “the Mighty” is warranted, it looks as big as a lake) to the little isolated Rohn Cabin on the Iditarod trail next to the South fork of the Kuskokwim.  I’ve been in the Alaskan, White, Chugach, and the Kuskokwim Mountain Ranges, ID-ing plants, digging holes through permafrost, determining successional seres and keeping an eye out for rare and invasive plants alike.

I’ve learned so much in my time here, especially in the UAA Herbarium, about collection management and databasing, and then how to use that information to prep for the field, compare similar species, and use voucher information for plant range reports. And working in such an expansive, unpopulated state gives you the feeling that you’re really making a difference. There’s so much more to do here! So if you’re an intern lucky enough to have been placed with Alaska BLM, and even if you’re not a fan of the cold, I would highly encourage you to consider getting up in the 49th state! You won’t regret it, and who knows, you might get a bite from the “Alaska Bug” and end up staying here, as I hope to do!

The time has come to apply for other jobs, federal and otherwise, and I can’t be thankful enough that I have the experience I need to give me an edge in that hunt. Thanks to all my CLM mentors and friends that have made my time here formative, fruitful, and fun.

Driving down the Richarson Highway, looking at the Alaska Mtn Range, surveying for SOS species.

In the White Mts near the little village of Central, doing NRCS Soil Survey Work.

Sunshine Mtn in  Kuskokwim Mts near McGrath, collecting SOS species.

Rohn Cabin, on the Iditarod trail, invasive plant monitoring and removal.

At the Rohn Cabin airstrip, removing invasives.

In a burnt spruce forest overlooking the soft, rolling White Mts during NRCS soil surveys.

In a wet meadow in the White Mts, having found a moose jaw. Hoping to collect some discount from the Moosejaw outfitters for our excellent advertising shots.

My fellow intern Bonnie, taking a sweet shot of the Alaskan Range, just south of Denali on the George Parks Hwy.

The South Fork of the Kuskokwim River

The BLM Anchorage pair, going where no interns have gone before. I think Alaska has left a mark on us, don’t you?

This was my last week working for the BLM in Pinedale, Wyoming. I have had a great experience and I am planning to come back and at least visit, if not work here, soon. I started my internship coming from a different field and I have enjoyed this work and learned a lot. I was a full time zookeeper before I decided to change my career path and this internship was a great way to experience something new and get my foot in the door with this type of work.

It took me a little while to get used to Wyoming being a New Jersey native and travelling here after living in Florida for over a year but, after the first few weeks it started to feel like home. There is a different culture here that I enjoyed learning about and you can’t beat the recreation opportunities in a town right next to the Wind River Range, Wyoming Range, and just south of Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Looking out at the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range

Not only did I get to work in the Wyoming Range analyzing potential Lynx habitat but I was also able to learn to identify shrubs, grasses, and forbs of Wyoming while completing vegetation monitoring on grazing allotments. Working for the BLM I got to learn not only about these plants but about grazing and the cattle industry. There is not much public land where I grew up and learning about the controversies involved with this land and the views and opinions from every side was very eye opening.

Getting ready for production clipping

Another, sometimes controversial, activity that I have learned about is hunting. Again, coming from 30 minutes outside of New York City I have never learned much about hunting. I was able to assist Game and Fish at a check station and take out mule deer teeth for aging and lymph nodes to test for Chronic Wasting Disease. I learned about the regulations and how the numbers of tags available for the year are decided. I was also able to help friends prepare their meat and tasted my first game, definitely a new experience!

Freezer full of game!

Overall my time in this internship has been excellent and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. The people that I worked with in the Pinedale field office were very welcoming and I was lucky to work with and learn from my mentor, Josh. It was nice to be able to work with all of the wildlife biologists and the range conservationists. I was able to meet a lot of people that way and participate in a multitude of projects. My resume has definitely grown and I am excited about my prospects.

I am sad that this is the end of an adventure but I’ll be back for more! See you later Pinedale!

Sydney B.

Wildlife Biology Intern, Pinedale, WY