Greetings from hot and dry southern Oregon where it seems as if fire season is finally starting to wind down a little bit. Most of the occasional smoke we have now is only from fires in northern California such as the Happy Camp Complex. Personally I think the smoky skies are kind of beautiful and a change of pace in a way.

Here in Medford I’ve been continuing to inspect quarries and mining claims for compliance. Lots of nice views and lots of nice rocks. Other than that, when I have free time I like to work on the rockhounding guide I’ve been working on. I found quite the jackpot a few days ago that was absolutely filled with banded agates and beautiful green and red jasper.

The larger project I’m working on at the moment has to do with the geology of western Oregon for part of the BLM’s Resource Management Plan. Essentially a guide on how to manage resources for the next several years. The areas I’m working on include the Coast Range, Cascades, Willamette Valley, a small part of the Basin and Range and the magnificent Klamath Mountains. These regions all have pretty different geology. Some have natural gas potential or have produced gas in the past, such as the Mist Gas Field north of Portland, while others have and still are producing placer and lode gold, especially down here in Southern Oregon. Writing about the backgrounds of these areas in allowing me to further expand my knowledge of Oregon as a whole as well as really get into writing and office days.

Cheers from the BLM Medford office,

Morgan

Greetings, all.

I suppose I ought to make a “real” post this month and not just a picture of myself looking silly outside. Right now, I’m gearing up for a month or so of more-or-less constant fieldwork doing more rare plant surveys on proposed herbicide treatments for Restore New Mexico, looking for Pediomelum pentaphyllum and Peniocereus greggii. We’ve hired a short-term field crew through the New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts, placing me at least nominally in charge of 9 people. I think we have an excellent crew assembled; the majority even did similar surveys in 2012 and already know what they’re doing! If I’m lucky, they might not notice that I don’t know what I’m doing!

If nothing else, this is an excellent excuse to wander through the desert. You can never have too many of those. Low elevations in New Mexico don’t immediately grab your attention. The tourists (of which there are, generally, not too many) head up to the mountains for the shady cool of pine trees, the occasional stream, and a relative abundance of green and flowers that do not require a microscope. In winter, if we get any precipitation, you can even ski. Personally, I do not ski because the conditions favorable for this activity are generally incompatible with botanizing, but to each their own. However, the low elevations are generally flat, brown, hot, sunny, desolate and, in the words of the immortal Rooster Cogburn, “nothing else grows but has stickers on it”. In my first few years in New Mexico, I viewed it as “drive-through” country–something that must be crossed between me and the mountains. But after a few years I developed an obsession with the flats, driven if nothing else by the simple questions: “Well, where am I? What is out there?” After subtantial investigation: mostly, yes, it is flat, brown, hot, sunny, and desolate. Occasionally, it is cold, green, steep, or cloudy. Rarely, it rains. You might even find interesting plants. If you enjoy solitude and don’t mind a bit of monotony, walking the Chihuahuan Desert offers a kind of sweaty Zen.

Oh, and I have some pictures. First, one of the Restore New Mexico treatments that I scouted the week before last to get a feel for the landscape before we start surveying. The local rancher accompanied me and was baffled by my objectives. “Just seeing what’s out there,” was not on his radar. “Ooh, this spot might have some interesting plants!” was met with, “That’s just a bunch of weeds.” Que sera and whatnot. But the place was wonderful!

Those familiar with southern New Mexico may be looking at that second photo and thinking to themselves, “Wait… is that Bouteloua eriopoda persisting in sandy soil?” Yes, it is! Black grama used to be the dominant plant in somewhat sandy soils at low elevations but has mostly disappeared after grazing (although it can still be abundant in rockier soils).

Onward to the next adventure; I visited The Rim on the west side of the Guadalupe Mountains with Mike Howard. Here’s what it looks like on the drive in (OK, I took the photo on the way out):

About three fifths of the way across the photograph from the left, you can see some gypsum outcrops. As you draw nearer, the gypsum become more obvious:

The pale bits that look like they have no vegetation? That’s the goal. Walk in further:

And you find some small outcrops of gypseous clay intermingled with limestone:

Keep walking.

By this point it feels like your brain is about to melt out through your ears. However, you have arrived!

That gypsum may look desolate, but it is the home of three plants found only on gypsum on the rim of the Gudalupe Mountains: Anulocaulis leiosolenus var. howardii, Nerisyrenia hypercorax, and Mentzelia humilis var. guadalupensis. Nerisyrenia hypercorax was discovered only a year ago, and the paper describing it is in press at Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. As of yesterday, the paper includes this site! In addition to these three gypsophiles, there were two other rare plants in the area: Nama xylopodum and Dermatophyllum guadalupense.

Also, in the last few weeks I found some more Peniocereus greggii:

And a cute & friendly rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis):

As the other interns have returned back to school I am the only remaining one in the office. I welcome any days out in the field, which are few and far between since our hydrologist just left as well. I have had some exciting opportunities recently, such as going on a 3 day rafting trip with FWS down the Colorado River looking for the endangered Spiranthes diluvialis. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any but I had a great time learning how to raft. Eight river otters began swimming up to us but then a train went by and scared them away! It was pretty annoying that trains continuously rode alongside the river day and night blaring its horn. I wonder what the impacts are on the riparian ecosystem…

I also was able to do another macroinvertebrate survey on West Creek where an oil tanker flipped a few years ago, spilling around 6,000 gallons, I think. At ground zero the stream was filled with algae but appeared to be recovering better downstream. Unfortunately this stream was an important trout hatchery so there are many people, such as Trout Unlimited, invested in its recovery. With fewer field days ahead I’m spending most of time turning NEPA documents into pdfs so they can be published online for the public to see. Pretty boring, but gives me an idea of what working in an office is like. Bring back the outdoors!

Lindsey B.

BLM Grand Junction, CO

It is early September and the Prineville area is drying up quickly. Most plants are past the seeding stage and it is hard to find any new collections. We recently found a few possibilities in higher elevations, some of which were successful, others did not have enough viable seed to collect only twenty percent of the population due to herbivory and lack of overall viable seeds.

Since the seed collecting has slowed down so much, I had the opportunity to help with a project in the office. It consisted of going through the various land use plans that the Prineville BLM District uses and the Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation documents. I was looking for all of the botany information and the after-fire reseeding efforts. I compiled all of this information into one document for quick and easy access to the botany information. 

This week is the beginning of my extension. It is a short one so we are starting to wrap up the season. I will be working on finalizing all of the paperwork and getting it turned in, creating herbarium vouchers to send to the National Herbarium at the Smithsonian and to the Oregon State University herbarium, as well as create vouchers for the herbarium here in Prineville. I anticipate going out into the field for a Seeds of Success collection only one more time. It is in an area with higher elevation that may have some plants that we can identify with just the seeds. If that is not successful then my Seeds of Success season will be over for 2014.

The nights are getting colder here in Cedar City. I never would have expected fall to start in August, but then again I’ve never lived at 6,000 feet before either. The internship continues to be an adventure, and despite being more than halfway through my five months I have yet to settle into any sort of normalcy. Every week is a new activity, a new challenge, and that’s just the way I like it. To start the month off, we took a trip up to Delta, UT, and participated in a training workshop for determining Proper Functioning Condition (PFC) in lentic (wetland) environments. After a couple of months of working in the desert around Cedar, it was a real treat to see the dry, arid landscape blossom into abundant vegetation around these springs and reservoirs, not to mention getting my feet wet! PFC determination is a multi-disciplinary process which requires a team including soil specialists, hydrology experts, and biologists to critically evaluate and discuss the condition of a wetland. This intellectual discourse was extremely interesting, and I really felt like a part of the team.

Equally interesting was my experience of the following week, which my fellow intern Carmen spent in Georgia. Working on my own, I preformed a wildlife clearance and finished a number of reports we hadn’t realized weren’t done. I also got some time to work on my little side project, a field guide to non avian animals found specifically in the Cedar City Field Office. On a suggestion from Christine (a former CLM mentor), I narrowed down a list of Utah animals to learn what to look for here. I decided that it would be interesting to compile habitat and behavioral information on these animals as well. I’m currently in the process of spreadsheeting this info so I can sort species based on commonalities in any of these categories. The eventual plan is to combine this info with pictures and put them together into a guide that might be useful to later interns.

The last two weeks I’ve been out of the BLM entirely. I spent one day last week surveying a stream’s fish population with the Forest Service, which involved what our hosts referred to as “the Ghostbusters pack”- a large backpack with an anode “tail” and cathode wand used to shock fish so that they can be caught and measured along a specific length of stream. Let me tell you, this was fun stuff. It rained the whole day, and I spent much of it kneeling in the mud, soaked to the bone and shivering, and I still had a great time!

Most of my time has been spent on the trapping and translocation of the Utah Prairie Dog, a federally listed threatened species. Despite being listed, and despite having a 24 hour annual mating period, a 30% winter survival rate, and being eaten by basically every carnivorous species in the state, these little buggers somehow manage to be just about everywhere developers don’t want them to be. Pretty much all open areas are game, so long as they aren’t too rocky. I’ve been trapping at farms, golf courses, airports, and even a veterinarian’s back yard. These rodents exhibit an astonishing range of intelligence. On one hand, they have a complex vocal communication system, with specific alarm calls for different species of predator. They will investigate the traps we set out, sometimes knocking over and disabling them to get to the bait. On the other hand, despite what sometimes seems to be a clear understanding of the nature of the device they are presented with, they just gotta get to that peanut butter. After walking around the trap, trying every method to get at the treat aside from walking inside, they’ll usually go ahead in and trigger the pressure plate. Often they will happily consume the bait before even recognizing they cant get out. Silly little guys.

As fun as working with prairie dogs can be, there is a lot of waiting involved, and I find myself looking forward to getting back to the BLM and clearing fence sites again. I guess I haven’t been spending enough time walking meandering transects out in the middle of nowhere lately.

As my internship continues, I find it feels as new and exciting as the beginning. One of the things I love about this internship is that there is always something new to learn. I had to take some days off of work and as soon as I got back, I literally got my feet wet learning how to estimate fish population. As part of a monitoring effort, I helped out with shocking and counting fish at Bear Creek. Despite the numb fingers, wet clothes, and water in my boots, I thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

For these last two weeks, I have been working with prairie dog translocation, a task I both love and hate. Although I can understand some of the reasons why people may find prairie dogs to be a nuisance, it amazes me how cruel humans can be. If we stop and think about it, we are more of a nuisance to them – building over their homes, decreasing their habitat, and if that weren’t enough, shooting them for fun. I do not feel good trapping prairie dogs to take them from their home, separate them from their families, and move them to a completely different area where they must quickly learn to adapt. It seems ridiculous that as human beings we simply get rid of what we don’t want instead of finding ways to live in cooperation.

Prairie dogs belong to the Sciuridae (squirrel) family and are composed of five different species: Utah, Gunison’s, black-tailed, white-tailed, and Mexican prairie dog. As a keystone species, they are a crucial part of the North American prairies, benefiting around 150 other species and feeding animals like hawks, eagles, ferrets, foxes, and badgers. They also have one of the most complex communication systems ever studied. Con Slobodchikoff, professor at Northern Arizona University, has identified differences in calls for humans, coyotes, dogs, and hawks. Prairie dogs can even describe size, color, and location of predators. They also help aerate and fertilize the soil.

I enjoy working with these charismatic furry rodents. I feel good knowing that at least by translocating them, I am giving them a better chance of survival. There is a lot that can be done for all five species of prairie dog whose populations have dramatically plummeted. Currently, only the Mexican prairie dog is listed as endangered and the Utah prairie dog as threatened. The most important, and perhaps the most challenging, is to have a shift in people’s perspective on the way we treat other beings. Through better understanding and different alternatives, people may shift their attitude towards what they consider pests.

Hello Everyone!

(Hmm, “Everyone” seems kind of optimistic. Maybe I should just say, “Hello Mom & Dad”)

I am back after a long, unintended gap in my blogging about the Mojave Desert. But I have good news. I now have access to all of the pictures I’ve taken for work, which means that I get to show off to you some of the amazing plants that I’ve seen!

Agave utahensis. This one is shooting up a beautiful flower stalk, making it more than 10 feet tall.

To start off, we’ll take a look at a couple of Agaves. This is a rather conspicuous genus that is wildly different from anything I’m familiar with back in my Midwest home. You may recognize a common name used for some Agaves – Century Plants. Most species of Agave are found in semiarid climates farther south in Mexico and the Sonoran Desert, but two species show up in my field area in the Mojave: Agave deserti (Desert Agave) and Agave utahensis (Utah Agave).

Agave deserti. For most of its life, this plant only grows as the rosette of leaves on the ground. But here you can see the bottom of the flower stalk growing up out of this one. When it’s done flowering, this rosette will die.

These plants have a very distinctive form that is striking on the rocky slopes where they grow. They have leaves that grow in a basal rosette – forming a round cluster on the ground. The leaves are succulent, which means that they are thick and fleshy, storing water for the plant in this extremely dry environment where they live. Each individual leaf is long and slender, which sharp teeth on the edges and a dagger-like spine at the tip. The species here in the Mojave have waxy, bluish-green leaves that grow in clusters about 0.5-meter wide.

Agave utahensis. The leaves of these plants contain plenty of water, so they need to protect themselves from being browsed by thirsty animals. Spines like that should do the trick.

Agave utahensis, with some beautiful yellow flowers in bloom. I’m not sure exactly what pollinates this particular species, but some Agaves are pollinated primarily by bats and moths at night. Others rely on hummingbirds for pollination during the day. 

When these Agaves bloom, they produce a tall stalk with a branching inflorescence at the top. The largest flower stalks that I’ve seen have been 3-5 meters in height. That makes for a very tall plant amongst the other, typically shorter, vegetation that grows here in the desert. A hillside full of flowering Agave is an impressive sight. The flowers themselves are beautiful. Both species that grow here produce large, vibrant clusters of yellow flowers.

The label “Century Plant” is misleading, but not entirely inaccurate for these plants. It is true that they will grow as a rosette for many years without flowering. It takes an Agave deserti at least 20-30 years, but not a whole century, before it finally produces flowers. Then, after the plant finally does bloom and produce seed, the rosette withers and dies. However, some Agaves will generate vegetative re-growth as well, forming clones of new rosettes. Over time, these clones can form ring-shaped colonies that far exceed the century mark in age. Some Agave deserti colonies may be more than 1,000 years old! Century Plants indeed.

Agave deserti has red flower buds that open up to reveal yellow flowers. You can see that they bloom first at the bottom of the inflorescence, and move their way up.

First we have the buds…

…and then the flowers

Until next time,

-Steve

Needles Field Office, BLM

Hey everyone! 

Wow, can you believe it’s already the end of August? I sure can’t! As CLM interns, this past month has undeniably given Marta and I the chance to work hard and play even harder.

August 2^nd:

Spent the day hiking, botanizing and relaxing at glacial Wildhorse Lake. I’d been saving this trip for a while so that I could catch all the magnificent alpine wildflowers at the peak of their blooming period. Took me about three hours to get down to the lake, not because it was a mile long, switch-back heavy, daunting 1,000+ ft. drop down a rugged rock face into the alpine basin, but because I kept stopping in awe every time I saw a spurt of bright red, yellow, orange, blue, pink, or white flowers shooting out from all directions of the trail. After dipping my feet into the lake and taking a nice rest, I

Alpine Wildflowers near Wildhorse Lake

decided it was time for me to go on a little adventure. I was initially headed straight to a smaller lake down further into the gorge until I heard what sounded like the rush of a small waterfall. I traveled up that way and I swear, I had not seen something as beautiful as that area of the creek–with its pink penstemon, yellow sunflowers, black sedges, blue bells and purple daisies–in a long time. Then, when I didn’t think life could get any better, I began noticing all the extraordinarily lovely grasses (all around me of course) holding this place together! After my time spent with the stunning bromes, poas
 and wheatgrasses I scrambled over a huge boulder patch (soooo FUN!) to get to that smaller lake up ahead.

Beautiful and whispy

smaller lake up ahead of Wildhorse Lake

August 5^th-7^th:

Rooster Comb RNA

Marta and I headed down to (the BLM owned and managed) historic Riddle Brothers Ranch complex located in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area. We were to stay overnight at the Riddle Brothers Ranch (BLM Administration site) for the next couple days so that each morning we could easily access the nearby Rooster Comb Research Natural Area and get to work right away without having to drive hours to and fro. As I’m sure most of my fellow CLM interns have come to find out, according to the Bureau of Land Management, “Research Natural Areas (RNAs) are areas that are part of a national network of reserved areas under various ownerships which contain important ecological and scientific values and are managed for minimum human disturbance”. Our job was to spend the next couple days identifying as many plant species in the Rooster Comb RNA as possible. Hearing the calming flow of the Little Blitzen River to the left, right and sometimes below us while we (wrapped in summer’s warmth) identified the many new grasses, sedges,forbs and shrubs all around us was pure bliss!

Little Blitzen River running through Rooster Comb RNA

Rest of August:

On our way to an ES&R (2012 Holloway FIre) plot/transect site

Since our return from Riddle Brother’s Ranch, Marta and I have been getting closer and closer to finishing up what is left of our fire monitoring when it comes to going out in the field to the different plot sites and collecting data. Since the beginning, Marta, good ol’ Randy and I have had a blast laughing, learning about each other, and familiarizing ourselves with the flora and fauna of a number of diverse ecosystems (such as the shrubland-steppes, high deserts, wetlands, alkaline flats, aspen groves, hot springs, juniper woodlands and alpine tundra’s of eastern Oregon). Lately, we have been working in the office; inputting field data into excel spreadsheets, creating a multitude of graphs representative of our findings and uploading/organizing all the photo point pictures we have taken at each plot site this summer. Yesterday, I happily determined the potential vegetation types of each plot’s ecological site with the use of ARCmap 10.2 and entered that information into the excel data sheets. Oh, how I have missed GIS!!

We saw Greater Sage-Grouse!!!

Annnnnnd did I mention…….

Marta and I nearing the end of the trip! Best backpacking buddy a girl could ask for 🙂

Strawberry Mountain Wilderness

This last weekend (Aug. 15^th-16^th) Marta and I went on a 17.5 mile (two day) backpacking trip around the stunning Strawberry Mountain Wilderness and aaay dios mio!! We summited Strawberry Mountain, camped at Little Strawberry Lake, spent time at near a strikingly gorgeous waterfall and visited Strawberry Lake, Slide Lake and Little Slide Lake! It was so incredibly STUPENDOUS (ha that one’s for you Marta!), physically challenging and overall one of the best times I have ever had in the outside world—one that I will never forget!

Strawberry Lake

Anyone know what our friend Felix is?

Ariana Gloria-Martinez

Hines, OR