A Month of Adventure on the Caribou Targhee

Posted on 5 July, 2023 by Alyssa Zawawi

While the extent of our work for seed collections has been mapping potential population areas and scouting around the Caribou-Targhee, my co-intern Alex and I have been lucky enough to help out on a number of different projects, as well as spending a lot of time getting to know the plant populations here in Southeast Idaho. While working with a variety of resources across the forest, we have learned about riparian restoration, soil surveying, field photography, burn restoration, environmental education, and horsemanship. Every day is filled with opportunities to meet new people on the forest and pick up new skills.

View from Snakey Canyon while learning about NRCS soil/vegetation surveys

One of my favorite projects we worked on had us in the field with the Palisades wildlife biologists doing goshawk surveys on various project areas in the forest. Goshawks are considered a sensitive species by the Forest Service, so any project that might alter the habitat needs to undergo monitoring to determine if there are any nesting individuals present in the area. After spending hours bushwhacking through the forest, surrounded by swarms of mosquitos, we were rewarded by seeing a male goshawk circling above us. When we returned to the area hours later, we once again spotted a male goshawk. Chris, the lead wildlife biologist, told us that this behavior likely indicates that there may have been a nest in the area. The next day, we went out to a different section of the forest to monitor a known nesting site of a female goshawk. Goshawks may build several nests in a given area and can return to the same nest year after year, so they had known of a few potential nesting sites that this hawk may have returned to, and earlier this season the wildlife crew had found the nest that she chose for the season. Joe, the wildlife biologist we worked with that day, told us how this hawk’s mate had been killed last summer at a local ski resort and that they weren’t sure if there would be any signs of reproductive activity at the nest because goshawks sometimes mate for life. After arriving to the nest site and settling down into the undergrowth to watch the nest, we noticed her eyeing us (I can say with certainty that I now understand the expression “watching like a hawk”). Goshawks are notoriously defensive of their nests, and I had heard from several coworkers that we should be on the lookout for divebombing birds- some even suggested sitting with a large stick on top of our heads to give the hawks something other than our scalps to aim for! Luckily, this female opted to keep a sharp eye on our group. After sitting in captivated silence for a while, we noticed motion underneath the female, and spotted the fuzzy white bodies of at least two chicks in the nest. Going out with the wildlife biologists was a really cool experience as it gave me a chance to understand a bit more about all the steps a project needs to go through before action can happen on the forest. Even though a management plan may be as simple as removing fuels from the forest floor, it can have serious unintended impacts on the sensitive species in the area and ultimately damage the ecology of the forest.

Another highlight of my time on the CT was helping out with a botany walk that my mentor set up for a group called Great Old Broads for Wilderness. During this botany walk, I got the chance to show off what I have been learning for the past month and help teach a group about plant identification and some of the native species present in the Teton Valley. The ladies that attended the walk were very enthusiastic and asked a lot of great questions about the plants in the area and some of the disturbances they were seeing along our hike. We got to tell them about the work we are doing for our seed collections, and they were very curious about what the point of seed collection was, the process of finding and collecting seed for various plants, and what they could do to help our project. I have worked in environmental education and outreach in the past, so it was fun to get to work with the public and educate a group about the work we are doing, especially because this group was so excited about learning new plants and exploring the forest with us.

While the first month has been filled with a ton of great experiences, it hasn’t come without its challenges. The first weeks of waiting for the field season to kick into gear definitely left me feeling a bit useless around the office, especially with the various difficulties I had in my Forest Service onboarding process. We have also faced many technical issues with Fieldnotes, making it difficult to document the work that we do with surveying for our target species. This, combined with our late start to surveying work, made it feel like we weren’t doing enough work for our seed collection project. Hopefully, as we move later into the season, we will be more able to make progress towards our seed collection goals!

Alex at Fall Creek Falls after a day of surveying

The Soggy, Sunless Days on the Chugach

Posted on 3 July, 2023 by Katie Peel

Much of what we saw on our early hikes up near Moose Pass, AK were the opening fiddle head ferns just barely rising out of the ground. According to our mentor, this spring is unlike most with all the cool temperatures and rain. It took until late June for plants to start flowering. Overall, Josh and I have counted 3 days that we’ve seen the sun shine where we live off Kenai Lake. This has been a blessing and a curse, as it has given us ample time to practice and prepare, but also shortens our window for our seed collections.

Image preview — Fiddle Head Ferns, *Matteuccia struthiopteris*, along Ptarmigan Lake Trail

Up until this point, we have been floating around different departments to help with projects. One of them involved putting up fencing along the Russian River to prevent any damage or loss to the vegetation along the bank during sport fishing season, where ~150,000 people come to this small campground area to fish over the course of two months. Another project we worked on was treating European Bird Cherry, Prunus padus. In a team of about 4 people, we went in to off-trail National Forest land areas around Hope, AK to find invasive Bird Cherry trees and used Field Maps to create a polygon and record data. The actual treatment entailed hand sawing the smaller saplings and hanging them about 4 feet above the ground to prevent regrowth from the nodes. Herbicide was also applied by our mentor. Another project we participated in was goshawk surveying. This ongoing project focuses on goshawk nesting habitat because habitat degradation is understood to be one of the primary causes of reduced breeding goshawks, thus making it a sensitive and rare species. This process involves going out to previously recorded nest sites, playing a goshawk distress call to see if one shows up, and checking the area for hatchling feathers and fresh feces near the base of the old nests.

One of the areas we are covering for a plant phenology project on iNaturalist is the Trail of Blue Ice, where you’re able to see glaciers that hang from the gullies and ravines in the mountains that border the portage valley. Although there isn’t much flowering right now, we were able to observe small populations of Achillea millefolium, Lupinus nootkatensis, and Geum macrophyllum from our priority species list that are just beginning to bud. We also found Carex macrochaeta, which is common along some of the trails we have hiked. After verifying the species and discussing with our mentor, we agreed that it should be included in our priority species list, as it is a wetland indicator. Because this is the first year the Chugach has had seed collectors, it has been quite exciting to bust out the old plant presses and be a part of building the foundation for future CLM interns.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trail-of-blue-ice-wildflower-viewing-area

Lower lake on the Trail of Blue Ice, where a glacier can be seen in the mountains behind

We have be able to document collection sites for about 7 species on our list. I expect to collect Lupinus nootkatensis seeds first, as they are starting to fruit. We have also practiced collecting data and pressing plants for voucher specimens, which has been another challenge to dry out the material in this humid environment. I cant wait for what July will bring!

Wild Life and Wilderness

Posted on 3 July, 2023 by Mather Hoyt

From Left to Right: Bald Eagle over the streets of Ketchikan, Dorsal Fin of an Orca, American Red Squirrel; Bottom Row: Dorsal Fin of a Humpback Whale, Roughskin Newt chillin

The first month of this journey has been everything I was hoping for and more! The Tongass NF is so vast and filled with dense wilderness, it’s much more accessible by float plane or boat than by car. So we’ve been traveling mostly by boat, which can present challenges with rough seas or stormy days. However, the weather has been surprisingly incredibly nice. The tales of torrential rain 7 days a week were greatly over exaggerated (please don’t let this jinx me).

As we wait for our targeted species to flower, develop fruits, and then go to seed, we have filled our time with trainings, scouting, rare species surveys, and micro timber sale surveys. We’ve also done a few personal use timber surveys, a program that I believe is unique to Alaska. Each Alaskan resident is given the opportunity to take 10,000 board feet of timber for their personal use (usually to build a house or stock up on firewood). So i’ve gone out to a few different islands with the timber crew to survey the trees they’ve chosen to make sure it’s 150 ft away from any streams or eagles nest, the forest floor is clear of any rare species, and outside of any cultural resource sites. It’s been an interesting experience, my preconceived bias was that these individuals would want the biggest and easiest trees to extract. However, the individuals were very environmentally conscious, and turned down trees that they felt would disturb the ecology of the forest. Its refreshing to see how connected the residents here are with the forest, something that is not as common in other parts of America.

Anyways, I’m super excited for the rest of this adventure. I’ve learned a ton and can’t wait to absorb even more!

Left to Right: Canoeing to Lake Shelokum’s shelter, A big gash in an old growth stump, some beautiful Lupine , Bottom Row: rare fern species on botany training week, Me driving the boat with my upside down member CBG hat, surveying for yellow lady slipper.

Saving Ducks, Treating Invasives and Making Plant Observations in the Chugach National Forest

Posted on 3 July, 2023 by Josh Abudarham

It has been a month now since we arrived in Moose Pass, Alaska for the Conservation Land Management internship with the USFS. There has been constant on-and-off rain due to the monsoon this year and the flowers are just starting to bloom making it very difficult for us to begin collecting seeds. One of the first projects our mentor had us work on was to create a field reference guide of our priority plant species list for native seed collection.

During our first few weeks here, we have been assisting the USFS with other projects including putting up fencing along the shore of the Russian River to protect the vegetation from people who come for sport fishing season and treatment of an invasive plant species called Prunus Padas commonly known as European Bird Cherries.

Applying herbicide to a European Bird Cherry Tree

European Bird Cherry, Prunus padas, is a highly invasive, rhizomatous plant that was planted as an ornamental years ago in Hope. Now certain remnants of it remain in the forest and have been visited over the last ~5 years by workers of the Forest Service to eradicate it from the area to prevent it from overtaking the native plants.

One day when we were out in Hope, Alaska searching for European Bird Cherries, our mentor discovered a Harlequin duck with a fishing line caught around its neck and attached to a log along the shore of the river. My mentor picked up the duck, I cut the line off of the duck’s neck, and we returned the duck back to the river.

We have also been using iNaturalist to make plant observations on any plant species we find while we are out scouting for possible seed collection sites along the many trails of the Kenai Peninsula. Additionally, we created 3 project pages on iNaturalist. One for users to make and share observations of plants and fungi throughout the Chugach National Forest, and two of which are for specific wildflower viewing areas where we have asked users to upload photos and information on plant phenology.

Below I have provided the links to our Three projects for anyone interested:

When we are not out in the field, we are usually in the office practicing keying out and pressing plant species that we have collected.

June in the Chugach National Forest has been a difficult time for seed collection since most plants are still in early stages of phenology. Hopefully more plants begin to flower in July!

Beauty in the Unexpected

Posted on 3 July, 2023 by Rose Coyne

When we travel to Midwestern prairie remnants to collect from an extremely long list of target species, it can be disappointing to ID a species with a large population that is not on your list. I am here to argue for the beauty in the unexpected undesirables (those not on the list). We see everything from abundant plants that we have more than enough seed from to rare plants to things that are not plants at all. During a recent hitch to northern Minnesota, we were scouting a large prairie remnant when I stumbled upon the Showy Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium reginae). It is the state flower and a beloved symbol of the area. Even though I had previously lived in Minnesota for four years, I had never seen one until this scouting trip. It was certainly not on our collection list and only had a population size of five across the section we saw, but it was still special to see.

Showy Lady’s Slipper (*Cypripedium reginae*)

Our target species are often difficult to find and/or produce very little seed. This makes it difficult to find the perfect collection population, but also makes the effort worthwhile by filling in the gaps. Unlike our target species, we often see the same plants over and over again in large populations that make us wish they were on our list for ease of collection. One such beautiful plant is the purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea). When it is not blooming, the blue-ish gray spikes predominate the landscape. When it blooms, the spikes turn strikingly purple and the small flowers are quite a sight (even if you have seen them many times before).

Purple Prairie Clover (*Dalia purpurea*)

We visit large ecosystems that support much more life than just the plant populations. From the less desired ticks and mosquitos to the frogs and snakes that jump out as we walk through the field, the sites are full of life. Some USFWS offices create partnerships with local farmers to use cattle or even bison to graze and help manage the land. While driving away from a field site, we saw one group of such bison. Within the field sites, animals tend to run away quickly or hide from us. Try to find the frog hidden in the photo below.

June was a month filled with discovering new sites, seeing many plant species for the first time, and collecting populations of successful seeds. I am excited to see what July brings.

Life’s a Hoot in Ruidoso, New Mexico

Posted on 3 July, 2023 by Evie Sanchez

The fascinating thing about moving to a new place is the people you get to meet. Sometimes you never know what type of connections you will develop, the stories you will hear, the advice you will receive, and the memories you will make. More importantly, the opportunities the future will hold because “It’s all about connections” as stated by Kathryn, the FS Southwestern Regional Botanist, over lunch in Santa Fe.

Taylor, one of my CLM mentors at the Smokey Bear District, pointing to the different mountains surrounding Lincoln County to Peter, CLM co-intern, at Windy Point Vista Point of Interest.

My CLM mentor, Larry, is all too familiar with this concept. On more than one occasion he mentioned one of the factors that led him to become the Wildlife Biologist at Smoker Bear District for the Lincoln National Forest was because the HR person was someone that knew him from a previous job in Oregon. Of course, the HR individual put in a good word for him. Nearing end of the story, Larry mentions he genuinely loves his job because for the past 35 years he worked closely with Mexican spotted owl across the Lincoln NF. This raptor species was another reason why Larry took the job here as he previously worked with the Northern spotted owls on the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie NF.

A pair Mexican spotted owl fledglings perched on a white fir branch in Lincoln FS.

A female Mexican spotted owl feeding a dead mice to one of her fledglings.

Unfortunately, the Mexican spotted owl is federally listed as a threatened
species under the Endangered Species Act. The decline of the species is due
to habitat loss and alteration caused by timber harvest and wildfires over the years.
Therefore, part of Larry’s job is to conduct owl surveys, which determine the
location and distribution of owl pairs and nest sites and determine if they are
successfully producing offspring.

Luckily, Larry took us with him on an owl survey on our third day on the job. As we drove into Lincoln NF, I didn’t know what to expect other than Larry was looking for the owls while we did some botanizing along the way. However, Larry explained the survey process starts by hiking into the forest with a known pair activity, in other words, where owls were known to nest. Often occurs in the Canadian life zone, which consists of mixed conifer forest that includes species such as white fir, Douglas fir, southwestern white pine, ponderosa pine, etc.

Mixed conifer forest found in Lincoln NF.

Once at the area, owl calls are played off a recording, or if you are like Larry, different
owl calls are imitated to entice the owl for a response. Usually, this part of
the survey process would happen in the night. If there was a response, they
would go back to the area the next morning and look at any owls or fledglings
on the surrounding trees. Once an owl is located and no fledglings are in sight,
they try to locate the nest by offering a live mouse to the male or female owl
hoping it will take it back to their offspring.

Unfortunately, there was no response in our first location. However, at our
second location, Larry was able to locate the fledglings after seeing the
shadow of an owl fly over him when he imitated different owl sounds. You can
hear his excitement as he called out to us to come over where he was.

As I approached where he was standing, I saw a bundle of football size white fuzz on a branch. It was my first time seeing a pair of fledgling and I didn’t expect how odd
looking they were going to be. Nonetheless, it was a sight to see. Larry then
located the female owl nearby, which was difficult to spot as it camouflaged
with the bark and branches of the trees. Larry then carefully removed a live
mouse from a container and placed it on a nearby branch. Watching, we saw the
owl position itself for flight and take the mice without making a sound. Eventually,
taking the mice to one of the fledglings.

As Larry shares information to the group about the species, a male Mexican spotted owl “successfully” takes the mice that was placed on a branch.

We continue marvel at the raptor species, but eventually, it was time to head back to the office.

New surroundings and a love for the unknown at Umpqua National Forest

Posted on 3 July, 2023 by Nolan Oppelt

Umpqua National Forest, a land of many tall trees and rushing waterfalls, has become my home for the next six months. It was initially terrifying having just graduated school and moved across the country, however, now it has all become so familiar. Everyday visits from the blue jays and other winged pleasantries are an everyday occurrence that starts the day with a sense of joy and peace. One of the things about moving across the country and living all by yourself post-graduation is a journey of self-discovery. Something you may have once held true twists and turns and becomes a completely different reality when you’re abreast with the solitudinous of nature. Being immersed with the entities that this planet calls its children puts into perspective the true purpose of oneself. A quote from Anne Frank reads, “I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” As you enter the grand domain of nature you start to find those worries and anxieties that you hold so tightly to your chest peel away as if they were never there in the first place. Personally, living within the natural world has helped quell an incredibly anxious time of existential dread. Umpqua National Forest has become the perfect antidote for this never-ending disease.

A great view of the North Umpqua scenery atop the Pine Bench Trail

Besides the philosophical transformation taking place within the forest, I have been put to work and have made great progress in plans to collect seeds. My co-intern Casey and I have begun to map different collection points for the particular collection species native to Umpqua, my personal favorite being the yarrow. Although we have begun to make progress, much of our duties insofar have been delegated to the removal of invasive species such as himalayan blackberry, scotch broom, and certain thistles. Most of our days include mapping of treatments for invasives and getting stabbed by himalayan blackberry while treating. As well, we have also had the luxury of doing rare species monitoring at Tiller Ranger Station, climbing Mt. Fuji in the Willamette National Forest to identify White bark pine, and plenty of other out of the ordinary training opportunities. One especially important to me was being able to get my felling and bucking license after not being able to get it the previous summer. I’m sure there will be plenty more training opportunities in the future for us to capitalize on.

Lastly, I feel it is important to talk about the incredible coworkers that I have that are making this experience that much better. Everybody who I have run into at the Botany Department has helped me in some sort of way whether it be in plant identification or just making me feel welcomed. As everybody knows coworkers can make or break a job. I can tell that mine are going to make it better. Until next months post…

(Some extra pictures to finish off the post)

Western Rattlsnake Plantain (I thought these only existed out East!)

A Land of Extremes Indeed

Posted on 30 June, 2023 by Tori Bauman

Well. This week, my first, went about as well as I had hoped it would. Despite the majority of the week being set in necessary trainings, I had a wonderful time getting to know my fellow co-workers. One thing I really enjoy about field work is its attraction of transient folks coming from all different kinds of places. Through the lens and experiences of others, I feel like I am traveling from each story I hear. Towards the end of the week, I was able to find time between all the trainings for a field day with my co-intern here in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forests. She has been here for approximately a month longer than I, which means she is an excellent guide and resource to me as I get started here. I am incredibly grateful for this fact and for her patience with me and my various questions. I am curious about the plants (of course!), the landscape, office ins-and-outs, potential populations to collect from, her personal experience so far, habitat typing and how it relates to seeds, and many more questions surely to come.

As we make our way from the bunkhouse towards Monarch, MT and down and around various Forest Service roads, we get to know each other through light conversation. We make our way through Douglas Fir forests, Lodgepole pine forests, before the forests open up to a beautiful and lush meadow. Here, we note Geranium viscossissimum, or Sticky geranium, which is fully in flower. It has a beautiful pink-magenta colored flowers, and because it is a perennial species, it seems to stick out just slightly above its surrounding counterparts. It’s a wonderful addition to the landscape and I am happy to be on the lookout for it.

Suddenly my co-intern is stopping and safely pulling to the side of the road. She’s spotted a rocky outcrop that could house another one of our target species: Phacelia hastata. She hops out, dutifully dons her Forest Service issued radio and bear spray before making her way to the outcrop, a procedure with which I will have to quickly become acquainted. “It’s here!,” she shouts to me as a scramble up the slight rocky slope to join her. The silverleaf scorpion weed. What a beauty. It’s low-growing and on an otherwise mostly barren hillside aside from some distant roses. It’s hard to believe that this rocky, seemingly nutrient-deficient place is where anything would choose to grow. Then again, I guess a seed doesn’t have too much choice in where it is grown.

We make our way through this long meadow and again through some forested areas. The habitat seems to change every few miles as we ascend and descend, loop around and back down, etc. Suddenly, we are bumbling up and along a narrow, steep and rocky road that made me forget to look around completely! As the road widens and flattens out, I am drawn again to my surroundings and find the trees up here on the hilltop are much smaller and more sparse…Ponderosa pines. Wildflowers here are abundant and my co-intern again is very helpful in pointing out new ground-dwelling friends, along with some features of each that set them apart from look-alikes. We are on the hunt for a specific set of 40 or so wildflower friends from whom we will hopefully be able to harvest their babies in the coming months… Kind of weird when you put in that way.

We continue down down down, then up and up and up until we come to a the top of a peak. Something pink flashes from the corner of my eye and triggers a memory of Pedicularis, commonly known as lousewort or Elephant’s head because of the shape of it’s flowers. It’s a gorgeous and striking little plant and I seemed to remember, from the brief look I’d had at our list, that there was one on it. I ask to stop, and we both get out to take a look. The guide to Montana vascular plants comes out. Not our guy; however, with the sun shining up above, the gorgeous view in all directions, and it being just after noon, it was a perfect time to stop for lunch. Another perk of the job.

After lunch we switched drivers and made our way around a large loop of mostly Forest Service land to continue scouting populations. As we made our way, one common theme repeated throughout the journey from peaks to rivers to meadows to dense forest: this area, the Little Belt Mountains, a small section of the Rockies, is as Victor, our mentor here at the Forest Service, put it, “a land of extremes.” It is evident from the drastic and sudden changes in vegetation, from the blown out tops of thick-trunked trees, the varying waterlines in creek and from the way seeds are willing to germinate in even the most destitute of places. Not only this, but if the weather I’ve experienced here in the Little Belts thus far in this the least extreme part of summer, is any indication of what might be imminent in the more harsh parts of summer and winter, I would say the plant life here must be prepared for all varieties of weather, and for changes at the drop of a hat. This is all a convoluted way of saying this is a land of extremes, indeed, and my interest is thoroughly peaked.

More next month!

First Month in Council, Idaho

Posted on 30 June, 2023 by Daniel Quinby

Young rattlesnake narrowly avoided while searching for needle-grass

Camas meadow in the West mountains near Council, Idaho

Castilleja in a recently burned area around Warm Lake, Idaho

The famous rapper(?) Supa Hot Fire once remarked “I ain’t a rapper, so quit rapping at me!” This line, now cemented in contemporary lore, previously described my feelings towards botany. If I had a dollar for each time I heard “I’m a little rusty but” or “could you say it in Latin please” I would need to find a hedge fund manager. Miraculously, this past month of work has seemingly thawed my cold indifference towards jargon and along the way, helped me learn more about plant identification than throughout my whole college career. After a successful beginning of the season we now stand ready to start our first collection with only a blogpost to hold us back. Successful identification of 17 different target species including fleabanes, lupines, cinquefoils, and buckwheats have taken long hours with floras in hand. I am looking forward to the transition from scouting to collecting as the season progresses, and having a visual representation of the fruits of our labor.

Check for that tomentose abaxial foliage or something like that,

Dan

My intro to the DRyiNG project

Posted on 30 June, 2023 by Kyle Thornton

It has been a little over a month now since starting my work on the DRyiNG (Drought RecoverY In Northern Grasslands) project out here in South Dakota and I have already learned a ton about the mixed-grass prairie ecosystem of Buffalo Gap. I’m currently able to confidently identify over a dozen species found in the prairie, many of which are grasses that look nearly identical to each other.

We spent the first week going over the defining characteristics of plant families we frequently come across and collecting some samples to enhance our visualization of some common species. Some grasses are easy to identify as they have very unique characteristics when compared to their neighbors. Pascapyrum smythii for example, is the most common grass we come across and it is easily identified by the purple coloration on its collar. Others are much harder like the three Bouteloua species we often encounter: B. curtipendula, B. dactyloides, and B. gracilis. These took me a while to get the hang of as they are all fairly simillar and usually only distinguishable by the location and quantity of hairs on the culm and leaves when not flowering.

So far, our daily tasks have consisted of collecting aerial cover and stem count data within quadrats. This involves first identifying every species in the quadrat, estimating the area covered by each species when seen from above, and then counting the number of stems per species in a smaller quadrat.

Practicing aerial cover estimation. The smaller quadrat represents 10% of the larger quadrat and the paper square is 1%.

When collecting data, boardwalks are used to prevent trampling in the plots.

So far, I have had a great time. Every day I learn new species and deepen my familiarity with those I already know well. I never imagined I would be able to go on a hike with my friends and not only annoy them by identifying all the cool flowers but all the grasses too! As the summer continues I am excited to continue my training as a grass wizard and learn more about other cool projects going on in the area.

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CLM Internship Program Blog

adventures of the clm intern