Hello! I’m Laura, a returning CLM intern working for the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management (BLM-NM)’s state office (NMSO) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was a CLM intern in 2016 collecting seed for Seeds of Success (SOS) for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank in Staten Island, New York. I collected seed across Long Island, New York, for conservation seed banking and restoration projects for coastal ecosystems degraded by Hurricane Sandy.

An East Coast prickly pear (Opuntia humifusa) in Long Island!

Three years later, I’m assisting the state botanist at NMSO develop outreach materials for BLM-NM’s Plant Conservation Program, using ArcGIS to find suitable habitat for sensitive species in an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and preparing for the 2019 seed collection field season.

In March, I presented a poster on the BLM-NM’s Plant Conservation Program at a restoration conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. The HAR SER-RM 2019 Conference was jointly hosted by the High Altitude Revegetation Committee (HAR) and the Society for Ecological Restoration-Rocky Mountain Chapter (SER-RM) to explore the possibilities of ecological restoration and revegetation in diverse ecosystems.

Presenting a poster on the New Mexico BLM’s Botany Program at the HAR-SER-RM Conference

It was inspiring to see non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, state and federal agencies, and private companies and landowners collaborating from different perspectives to protect and restore natural resources that affect all of us. Presenting the poster and networking with other conferees reinforced how science, restoration, and natural resource management are interconnected and synergistic.

The BLM-NM is tasked with the huge task of managing over 13 million acre of land in New Mexico—the state with the fourth highest floristic diversity in the country. There are many threats to plant communities in New Mexico, and conversely, many opportunities for restoration. BLM-NM oversees ecological monitoring, rare plant monitoring, and native plant materials development.

BLM offices throughout the country use the Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) Program to monitor botanical, soil, and ecological resources on public lands. BLM-NM AIM crews have collected data from three field and district offices throughout the state. I actually was an AIM technician in Kemmerer, Wyoming with the Great Basin Institute in summer 2018!

Sagebrush Steppe in Wyoming

BLM-NM also monitors rare plants. Started in 2017, the Rare Plant Monitoring Program has established over 75 demographic trend monitoring plots for seven rare species. These species were selected because their restricted ranges overlap with high impact zones, mainly related to energy development and recreation.

The program I’m most involved with is native plant materials development. BLM-NM is part of the Southwest Seed Partnership (SWSP), a collaborative effort to improve the supply and diversity of native plant materials in the Southwest. To supply ecologically appropriate plant materials, the SWSP develops target species lists, collects seed, and works with farmers to increase wild-collected seed in seed production fields. The SWSP was started by the Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE), BLM-NM, and Forest Service Region 3 in 2015.

I was an intern with IAE in the fall of 2018 collecting native plant seed for the National Park Service (NPS) throughout Northern and Central New Mexico. Working with IAE and the SWSP connected me to BLM-NM, and my current position. Seed collection is one of my favorite types of fieldwork. It’s a tangible way to contribute to conservation and restoration—collecting living seeds that have the potential to become plants that stabilize soils, prevent erosion, enrich soils with nutrients, and provide food and habitat for wildlife and pollinators.

Red whisker clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra) at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico

In 2016, I hoped that I would be collecting seeds again, but I couldn’t have guessed that my career would take me to the diverse landscapes of New Mexico and conferences in the Rocky Mountains. Thank you CLM for providing me with these opportunities for growth and change—I wouldn’t be here without you.

Laura Shriver

BLM—New Mexico State Office

This past week has been a big step in rare plant conservation for New Mexico. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) New Mexico State Botany Department helped the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) host the New Mexico Rare Plant Conservation Strategy Roll Out Meeting, held March 26 and 27 in Santa Fe. Esteemed conservationists and botanists from several federal and state agencies convened to discuss ways to protect and monitor rare and endemic species across New Mexico. As an intern with the BLM, my responsibilities at the meeting included: 1) arranging tables and chairs, 2) making gallons of coffee, and 3) shmoozing. My fellow intern, Laura, was responsible for note-taking, which totaled 29 pages after two days. I don’t envy her at all.

Laura poring over her detailed notes from the meeting.This meeting presented various aspects of the New Mexico Plants Conservation Strategy. The organization was formed in 1999 as the NM Rare Plant Technical Council, which does the taxonomic dirty work of reviewing reclassifications and adding or removing taxa from the Rare Species List. The Technical Council is still at the core of the Conservation Strategy, but this meeting added other subcommittees that work on outreach, intergovernmental agreements, research, data sharing, and partnerships. All of these projects are interrelated, so I’ll detail the ones that stood out to me.

Daniela Roth, the state botanist at the EMNRD, has worked with other partners to assemble a Conservation Scorecard and an Important Plant Area map. These tools can be used together by land managers to evaluate strategies for conservation and potential impacts of development. The scorecard, which is incredibly detailed and evaluates threats, knowns and unknowns, population trends, and management and monitoring needs, is available only to Rare Plant Conservation partners. The Important Plant Area map is free to all on the nmrareplants.unm.edu website, although it doesn’t specify which rare plants are where. Conservation of rare (and often beautiful) species can be delicate; not all botany aficionados are interested in preserving biodiversity, and some will collect endangered specimens. The conference has moved towards a more inclusive definition of ‘rare’ plants, part of which includes making the broad list available to the public on the NM Rare Plants site. Since this website is a one stop shop for land managers and citizens looking for information on the rare flora of New Mexico, it makes sense to include as many species as possible under all possible definitions of rare. This website will be a hub for outreach and education, and there are plans to collaborate with graduate students from UNM and NMSU to expand our baseline of knowledge on rare species.

Another big push from the meeting is to get rare plants included on the New Mexico Game and Fish Department (NMGFD) Wildlife Action Plan. Each state’s Fish and Wildlife Department submits these plans to the USFWS as a condition for receiving federal funding for conservation. These Action Plans are important because grant-giving NGOs such as IUCN and NatureServe give preferential treatment to the species they include. However, the NMGFD isn’t involved in plant conservation– traditionally, plants aren’t considered wildlife. That didn’t stop eight other states from including plant conservation in their Wildlife Action Plans, so there’s hope that the New Mexico Wildlife Action Plan will be updated. There’s also a favorable political atmosphere because the newly elected governor is more interested in natural resource conservation than her predecessor. Considering that the governor appoints the heads of various state departments, it’s looking hopeful that the newly-led NMGFD would be interested in joining forces with our coalition in order to better conserve rare plants.

Meetings like this can cause major headaches at times. A very respected and knowledgeable botanist objected to including a lichen on the list on the grounds that it’s not a true vascular plant. He also claimed that any lichen we have significant occurrence data for is too common for conserving, which is a strange Catch Twenty Two that wouldn’t leave much for the group to work on. The lichen was included in the end, because if the Rare Plants Conservation Strategy didn’t include it, no one would. This meeting was dominated by five or six strong personalities, and while their strength is needed to influence policy and secure funding, there were certainly tense moments. All this lowly intern had to worry about was keeping the coffee fresh and staying out of the way, so it was instructive to watch from the sidelines.

A field site at sucker springs on the edge of Upper Klamath Lake. Two Lost River suckers are spawning in the foreground. A USGS passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag reader in the distance.

The activities during our first three weeks in Klamath Falls were very diverse. Our first day, we finished up all our paperwork. Then, we did a tour of the field sites where one of our species of interest, the endangered Lost River sucker (Deltistes luxates), spawns. We even got to see them in the act. Our first day was a window onto the significance of the work that we do, even though we may not be in continual contact with organisms everyday. A contingent of folks from California Fish and Wildlife was a part of our tour group, and we received a short demonstration from some folks from USGS. I was surprised by just how much collaboration there was between organizations and how many government organizations have offices in the relatively small Klamath Falls.

Each sucker to be released was PIT tagged, weighed, measured, and had a fin clip taken in order to possible perform DNA analysis in the future.

We spent the rest of the week working as part of the sucker rearing team. This involved constructing new tanks for juvenile suckers in the morning, and preparing for and releasing some 2-year-old suckers into the lake in the afternoon. We got to handle individuals while we were tagging and measuring them and while transferring them into the soft-release pen, but we couldn’t actually see them when we removed the net to release them into the lake -due to the low visibility on the water. Some tasks are more rewarding than others, and sometime you gain satisfaction from the goal and the idea of the deed rather than its execution. Sidenote, I hadn’t realized how large Upper Klamath Lake truly was until I was on it. It’s huge! It takes 25+ minutes to go from the southernmost to the northernmost point on plane in a powerboat.

Floating soft rearing pen. Klamath Falls Fish and Wildlife Office (KFFWO) is currently testing different methods to improve growth in juvenile suckers. One method is rearing them in net pens on the lake.

The hatchery is being expanded to account for an expanded effort (rearing 30,000 opposed to 10,000 suckers this year).

A LITTLE BACKGROUND: 

There are three species of sucker that are endemic to the Klamath Basin. Two are endangered: the shortnose sucker (Chasmistes brevirostris) and Lost River sucker. One is not: the Klamath largescale sucker (Catostomus snyderi). 

In recent years, there has been a decline in the total population of the two endangered species as the older individuals die off and juveniles fail to be recruited into the adult population. The cause of this is not quite known. Adult suckers are extremely hardy and can withstand large changes in pH and temperature. Juvenile and larval suckers are possibly troubled by increased turbidity in the lake (which would affect their ability to hunt for the zooplankton that they eat) caused by effluent from adjacent agricultural fields. There have also been harmful algal blooms that occur in the summer, which juveniles cannot withstand.

To combat this, KFFWO captures larval suckers as they drift towards the lake from spawning sites in the Williamson river. They then raise them for 2-3 years and re-release them into the lake. The hope is that larger fish will be able to survive to adulthood.

Our second week we worked the night shift. Larval suckers have some control over there moment and drift downstream at night, the peak flow is from 3am-5am. This meant that we spent a week working from 2am – 10am. We would attempt to collect larvae using plankton nets from ~2:30 – 4:30. We didn’t catch any our first week, and it’s hypothesized that the weather is was a bit cold for the season. We spent the rest of the time continuing to prepare the grow site for fish. It was a very sleepy week. We’ve got another five weeks of a similar schedule on the docket. I hope I’ll get used to it by the end.

This week we’ve been working on our electrofishing certification to prepare for a later project. It’s pretty jarring to go from the night shift in the field to the desk in a cubicle, but it must be done. To top it off, they caught the first larvae on Monday this week! The first day we didn’t take part. We’ll have something to look forward next week when we roll out of bed at 1am.

Brianne Nguyen

USFWS, Klamath Falls Fish and Wildlife Office

GIS is the backbone of many scientific investigations and fieldwork. Spatial analysis is so much more than making maps; it allows us to link data across many variables to a point in time and space. It’s a crucial resume item for many fields these days.

The problem is that doing spatial analysis with ArcGIS takes up a lot of storage, a lot of processing power, and a lot of patience. Files get corrupted, geoprocessing tools run for 15 hours and then break, and inconsistent data entry causes headaches for analysis. I had a little GIS experience from college, but had never taken part in big spatial analysis projects.

The New Mexico State Office has been running a Rare Plants Monitoring program for three years. This program, supported by the ERNMD and New Mexico Natural Heritage Program, aims to gather consistent population monitoring on rare plants around the state. In 2017 at the program’s inception, six species were being monitored. In 2019, we’re aiming to monitor ten species across New Mexico. For many of these species, there’s little hope. Between resource extraction, habitat fragmentation, and climate change, too many subpopulations are disappearing, and reproductive effort is compromised.

The Pecos Sunflower (Helianthus paradoxus) is not such a hopeless case. This annual sunflower loves seeps and sandy banks along the Rio Grande and Pecos River. Some populations fluctuate between hundreds and hundreds of thousands of individuals year-to-year due to a robust seed bank, and this habitat isn’t threatened by oil and gas development. The major threat to this sunflower is water table depletion that dries up the cienegas that it depends on. The NMSO Rare Plants Monitoring crew will be monitoring known populations and searching for new ones this field season, and this project begins with a lot of GIS prep work.

This is how beautiful GIS can look. Layers are wetland habitats and EcoSites along the Rio Grande.

By comparing the habitats (Ecosites, soil, and landform data) of known populations to the combinations of factors that exist in the landscape, we can model potential habitats for Pecos Sunflower. After generating multiple models that weight different variables different amounts, we just need to see which are on BLM lands and head to the field to find them. Simple, right? Wrong. Even bringing in the right data from data.gov can be a whole-day task, and processes often take 20 hours to run. Imagine a photo of New Mexico with a 10 meter resolution, and then imagine comparing dozens of those photos, pixel by pixel, to generate more. Lots can go wrong, and sometimes you don’t know until much later.

This process has been frustrating, enlightening, and very interesting, and I’m very thankful I’ve got the resources to learn more about this crucial system in my first month at the BLM. These skills are transferable almost anywhere, and it’s exciting to get so much hands-on experience in GIS early in my career.

Mike Beitner

BLM — New Mexico State Office

After ~8 months, I am saying goodbye to Cottage Grove, OR and the folks at the Dorena Genetic Resource Center. They have been wonderful, funny, and incredibly supportive, especially through the government shutdown and graduate school applications. As I reflect back on these last few months, one of the things that really stands out is the range of people I got to work with.

Teo: the somewhat grouchy (and incredibly loud) nursery crew member

The nursery crew itself has been a blast. We weren’t always working on the same project, but when we were, we would chat about everything from the band one of my coworkers was in to the benefits/downsides of coffee drinking and the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir. During much of my time there, I was out in the greenhouses or collecting seeds around Oregon. Towards the end, most of my time was spent in the seed plant under the guiding hand of Haley Smith, who works near miracles managing all the seeds that we process and collect. She encouraged a combination of diligence and creativity, pushing us to question what we were doing (even if she is the one who taught us how to do it) and see if we could find ways to do it better.

Some of the nursery crew transplanting seedlings

As fun as the nursery crew is, there are a bunch of other folks at Dorena that I got to know. I got to work with Doug Savin and Richard Sniezko a bit on a side research project that I will be continuing to work on relating to Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii). I also got to work with the Port Orford Cedar (POC) group (mainly Erin Hooten and Evan Heck) on POC cone collection and inventorying. The inventorying was more challenging than one might think because the trees have a habit of falling over in the wind and ending up in a new location. That and they die without telling anyone so they seem to just disappear from the inventory.

The other largest group of people is the rust crew, which is similar to the nursery crew I worked with but focusing on disease resistance building rather than horticulture. One of the times we got to work with the rust crew was during inoculation. Inoculation was a crazy experience. The basic premise is that we are testing various species of five-needle pines for potential resistance to white-pine blister rust (caused by Conartium ribicola). There was an effort to help save these species by removing the other required host species (mostly Ribes spp.) but that is both incredibly resource-intensive and largely ineffective. So Dorena is going at it by trying to breed individuals that can survive the disease rather than stopping the disease itself.

Covered boxes of seedlings during inoculation

What that looks like for the employees is first a mad dash to collect Ribes leaves with the spores on them to use to infect the trees we want to test. Then we place the leaves over the trees and wait until you have around the right spore count on the seedlings to ensure that they will be infected. Then, usually around 1 or 2am, you call people in to check the spore counts and, once they hit the target number, quickly remove all the leaves. Then for a few days you have to have at least one person watching the chamber with the seedlings in it 24/7 to make sure the humidity and temperature are at adequate levels. We only did this 3 times this year. Apparently, they did it 5 times one year and by the end of it I think the sleep-deprivation was getting to people. However, 3am is a great time to have somewhat delusional conversations and get to know people. It was especially fun since I was with people with whom I rarely worked and working on a project that was also relatively new to me.

Box of seedlings with the top half planted and bottom half to plant

The nursery crew got to work with them again while planting next year’s batch of seedlings to inoculate outside in the pouring rain. Though also a good bonding experience, it was admittedly somewhat less conducive to conversation. Luckily, we had some umbrellas to huddle under (though of course there were not enough to go around) and good rain gear so the rain was more of a nuisance than a real discomfort.

It was wonderful to have the chance to not only work with the nursery crew, but also interact and work with a whole other set of people with a variety of backgrounds (anything from 27 years at Dorena to 10 years fighting fires to a PhD in plant breeding). The center manager, Lisa Winn, and the center horticulturist and head of the nursery crew, Lee Riley, are both incredible resources and fun people to talk to. It is a lot easier to work somewhere when your coworkers and bosses are people you both respect and enjoy spending time with.

Dorena gags (always fun to walk into a greenhouse to find these guys hanging out)

As I have been going through the PhD application process, the people at Dorena have been incredibly helpful, offering good advice and support along the way. Part of the reason I took this internship was to get a sense for what it’s like to work in a government agency and see if I could do the type of research I like in that type of environment. Admittedly, there were some definite downsides of working for the government (i.e. not being allowed to work for them for 5 weeks), and a lot of good people end up leaving because they are frustrated or feel unappreciated. However, there are still good people working there and the work they do is, at least in my view, important. At the very least, I had the chance to speak with some people who have been working for the government and get their perspective on the experience, which has majorly informed my graduate school decision-making process. I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity and hope to keep in touch going forward.

Dorena sunset

Each day of this internship has been an incredible experience.  I’ve gained so much knowledge working on the Monongahela National Forest, and consider myself very lucky to have been able to work in such a beautiful place.  Every day spent in the field provided incredible scenery and an opportunity to learn something new about our natural world.  I loved seeing the fog slowly lift from the valleys in the mornings while we spent our days in the lush green mountains of West Virginia.  I’ve never lived in an area where the Milky Way is visible by simply walking outside your door, or where I can sit on the porch and watch hundreds of lightning bugs flicker on June nights.  This area really is something else.

I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.  Her expertise and knowledge of the forest helped me to feel comfortable in these new surroundings, where many of the plants were unknown to me before coming here.  I feel lucky to have the opportunity to learn botany in an area with such incredible plant diversity.  I’ll admit that I was intimidated at first (and still am a little) at the sheer number of plants on the Monongahela, but I’ve come to love the challenge of doing botany in an area with so many interesting types of habitats.  I don’t know of another forest where within a two hour drive you can pass through high elevation spruce forests and sphagnum bogs (glades), heath barrens, grassy balds, hardwood forests, and dry shale barrens.  It’s incredible, and there’s always something new to learn about. Also, being a self-identified lichen nerd, this forest contains incredible lichens because the pollution levels are so low.  That was definitely an added bonus.

Knowing that the work we did will make an impact for the future health of the forest will always be something that I’ll value helping with.  Collecting native seed to be used in mine-land restoration sites, and working to restore the red spruce forests of the Appalachians, will be something that generations beyond my lifetime will be able to appreciate.

I strongly recommend to anyone that is interested in botany to participate in the CLM Internship.  It will be an experience that you will value for a lifetime, and working in the field is an unmatched way to broaden your plant knowledge.  I’m very happy that I was accepted into the program.  Krissa and Chris at Chicago Botanic Gardens were amazing, and the training week spent at the gardens was well worth it.  I’ll always look back on this time fondly, and will take the skills I’ve gained with me throughout my career.

Emily Magleby

USFS – Monongahela National Forest

In August, I participated in endangered black-footed ferrets surveys! They were amazing, to put it shortly. Not only did we look for them, but we trapped them too!

Each of the interns were given a partner and truck. The night consisted of surveying in the truck and surveying on foot. It was overnight because BFFs are nocturnal, so we used their unique blue-green eye-shine to spot them. From the inside of the truck, my partner (a writer for Defenders of Wildlife) drove while I scanned the horizon with a truck spotlight, both of us going very slowly. On foot, it was basically the same idea. So when we saw eye-shine, we had to be sure it was a ferret and not a fox, cow, pronghorn, or something else. Figuring it out was actually really fun! If the eye shine looked more like one eye than two eyes, that meant the eyes were close together and small, perhaps belonging to a ferret. If the eyes bob up and down, moving fast along the ground, that’s probably also a ferret! We knew eye shine didn’t belong to a ferret when they were yellow and motionless because that always belonged to the cows. However, sometimes we were surprised at what we saw. For example, a couple times  we thought we were looking at a fox or a pronghorn, but we were actually looking at a ferret!. It goes to show, always be sure and don’t trust your first perceptions!

After determining it was a ferret, there were several steps we had to take to complete the whole process.

1. Spot the ferret eye-shine.
2. Keep handheld spotlight on ferret while walking towards it, bringing a pack with a couple traps, transfer tubes, markers, and plugs (containers used to plug burrows).
3. See the ferret in the hole! Rejoice! Set the traps, place the traps, find other holes to plug.
4. Leave the site, continue in truck or on foot surveying for ferrets.
5. Every hour, check the traps for ferrets.
6. When you see a ferret in the trap, try not to squeal with excitement like I did! Carefully transfer them into a transfer tube!
7. Carry the tube of ferret gently but briskly back to the truck and drive to the processing trailer.
8. Once at the trailer, the specialist anesthetizes the critter. Then, she’s able to PIT tag the ferret (if not a recapture), get a hair sample, take measurements, sex it, age it, check for ticks and fleas, and the most important part: vaccinate it for canine distemper and sylvatic plague!
9. Tattoo the fur of the ferret so that we can recognize it as a recapture.
10. Finally, we take the ferret in a kennel back to its home and release it! This is one of the most rewarding steps of the night!

While experiencing all this, I did a lot of reflecting. I could definitely see myself doing ferret surveys, or other small mammal surveys, as a career. I fell in love with these animals, and now I’m going to share why!

SO, everyone knows the black footed ferret story and how they’ve given hope to conservationists. Previously thought to be nearly extinct, a small population was found thanks to a rancher’s dog bringing home a dead ferret. Years later, a program of captive breeding and reintroduction proved to be successful, and now similar programs across North America are helping to continue the recovery of black-footed ferrets! The BFF’s story lets us know that captive breeding and reintroduction can work. Humans can fix at least some of the problems we have caused! Conservation is not a hopeless line of work!

Having to be awake, alert and working from 7:30pm – 8am for three nights was 100% worth the experience. In those nights, my partner and I identified at least 9 ferrets one day (I didn’t get a chance to tally up how many total for three days, but the number for the other two days shouldn’t be too far off) and successfully trapped 5 total! This is really exciting for me, considering how rare they are to find. We must have hit the jackpot location! Our first ferret was a sweetie, the second was a demon, third was possibly the first ferret’s offspring, and we think our fourth and fifth were brothers. Even though the surveys gathered general data on the ferret populations, it was also a teaching moment on animal personalities. One of my favorite experiences of the night was getting to witness all the different personalities!

Our first ferret was a young mother who was very sweet and docile. If I had to pick favorites, it would be her! Seeing her face in the trap was one of the most precious moments ever because I was prepared for an aggressive animal (I would be if I were her!) but instead, she just stared at us with innocence and curiosity. She never hissed, barked, pounced, clawed at us, or bared her teeth–its like she trusted us. Of course, I have no idea what she was feeling or thinking. She might have actually been frozen with fear. Still, she wasn’t shaking like some of the other ferrets so I hope I’m right!

My partner and I had a lot of adventures in only three nights, but I’ll only share a couple that really stood out to me.

Our second ferret was somewhat of a disaster, unfortunately. He was a kit, or juvenile, and won the title for Most Aggressive Ferret of the Year in my book. Most of the ferrets we found in burrows were playful. They would hop in and out of burrows, sometimes giving us a chase, all the while watching us! He was one of those, but changed completely when we found him in the trap. Even just as we were approaching the trap we could hear him making a fuss. Transferring him from the trap to the transfer tube proved to be difficult because he kept pouncing and snapping at the trap door. He even bit my fingers when I tried opening the door! Luckily, I was wearing winter gloves and it didn’t leave a scratch. So, after we finally got him in the transfer tube, we could feel him shaking and hissing the whole way to the trailer. The trailer is where the real horror began. Everything seemed fine, the specialist was going through her usual routine of placing him in another tube for anesthetization. Except, it was taking a bit longer than usual for him to be knocked out. Finally, he was knocked out and the specialist slumped him out on the table. All of a sudden, I hear “Oh no” from the specialist. I look over and see that he is standing and looking back at all of us, seeming to be digesting his surroundings, and his neck is pink with blood. There was a moment of pause that seemed like a minute but was probably less than three seconds. In that time, what struck me was the blood, but what should have struck me was that he was awake. Then, chaos ensued. The specialist quickly made an attempt to grab him, but he was quicker and started trying to climb the walls. She turned around to look for thick gloves, found them, and then told us to keep the door shut. There were four of us all together packed into a trailer that’s really only big enough for one or two people. So the rest of us don’t make a peep, trying to be as small and out of the way as possible because now the kit is literally running around the trailer. Behind the desk, through the clutter of equipment, under the table, around our feet. A sharp, acrid smell starts to creep into my nostrils and invade my throat. The kit was so frightened it had urinated somewhere. After enough of this had passed, the specialist finally catches the poor thing and puts him in one of the cages we use to release the ferrets. After a breather, she explains to us that this boy has had enough trauma for one day and will be pardoned from the vaccines, anesthetic, and the rest of processing. She also explains the wound on his neck. I had feared that it was self-inflicted from being in the anesthetic tube, but she mentioned it was there when she saw him initially. So, it could have been from rough play with his siblings. Still, I couldn’t help feeling responsible for his trauma. I get tasked with carrying the cage of stinky ferret and we go back to his burrow. Whats interesting is that on the way back, we noticed he wasn’t shaking anymore. Either he had calmed down or had exhausted himself. Maybe, he was hoping he’d be on his way back home. Either way, he was less anxious and we were glad for it. When we set his cage down next to his burrow and I opened the door, he slowly walked out, paused to look at us, then walked down into the burrow. We were both happy he was back.

We caught our fourth and fifth ferrets in the same area as our second ferret and within an hour of each other. This was the craziest spot because we saw SO many ferret eye shines. We ran into a few problems: our flashlights died (common occurrence)  so we had to use our head lamps and our phones to search for the burrows, which is actually REALLY difficult at 3:00am in pitch black darkness. We even ran out of plugs and had to use random objects to fill holes, like rocks and our dead flashlights, and we kept finding ferrets when we were busy with another ferret! When we checked the four traps an hour later, none of them had a ferret. Luckily, we found ferret eye shine not too far away from one of the traps. So, when we got back to check our traps, we checked them in the order we set them. None of them ended up having a ferret, BUT, one of our traps seemed to be broken and it was laying on the floor, like a ferret had escaped! When we saw that, we also saw another ferret not too far away! So we grabbed that trap and found the other (or same?) ferret and trapped this guy! We left and preceded to the rest of our traps, actually, it was time to take them down so that’s what we did with the other traps. When we came back, we found a ferret in our trap! Guess what, we found ANOTHER ferret not too far from that one! BUT we didn’t have any other traps. So guess what we did. My partner went to look for the ferret while I hurriedly tried to unlock the trap door with my frozen hands and transfer the patient ferret to a transfer tube. It seemed like it took me forever, because this was an old trap and the door was stuck and I had trouble with not getting my fingers bitten by the pouncing (and not so patient) ferret inside the trap. Finally, I transferred the critter and let him rest in the tube while I brought the trap to my partner and her new ferret! So, we put the traps down and brought our ferret to the trailer. By the end of it, the specialist didn’t think there was enough oxygen for another ferret, so when we brought our ferret back to its burrow and checked the trap we just put out, we couldn’t bring the ferret to be processed. The specialist had us bring the pit tag reader so that we could at least check the ferret to see if it was a recapture from precious years. The crazy thing is, out of all the five ferrets, our last one was the only recapture! Which worked out perfectly for us because we wouldn’t have been able to bring the ferret to processing anyways!

When it comes to animals, I like to give the benefit of the doubt that they have feelings and emotions that might be similar to humans because we simply cannot rule that out. Sometimes I feel like I have a double identity of polar opposites. One half of me is made of science and logic and the other half of me is controlled by emotions and intuition. Even though I feel out of place in both scientific communities and artistic communities, I appreciate both sides because it gives me a mashup outlook on everything. In the case of the ferrets, my capability to empathize gave me the attention to detail to notice differences in personality between the ferrets we caught.

I’ve had two weeks under my belt now at the BLM office in Rawlins, WY as a wildlife intern with a focus on amphibians and reptiles. For the first two days, I was at training with other CLM interns for CPR, wilderness training, bear safety, HAZMAT and Hydrogen sulfide awareness. The following Wednesday and Thursday we went into the field! We went around the Rawlins field office, which is a confusing term because it means the land that my office has jurisdiction, and “dip netted” various ponds and streams near roads. Most of these bodies of water had very little vegetation, but we checked anyways for amphibians. After checking several ponds with no luck, my partner, who did this last year with the same BLM office and under the same supervisor, found two salamanders! They were both the western tiger salamander who never metamorphosed, so they were probably neotonic. I had never seen one before, and it was huge, and cute! Later, I found out that Wyoming only has one species of salamander, the western tiger salamander. I was a little sad because I love salamanders and did my senior independent study on them! So I was hoping to find more.

Autumn is a wonderful time of year. Leaves change color and occasionally there are four inches of snow on the ground. My favorite time in the forest is when the upper leaves have fallen allowing for light to reach the under story plants and illuminate their leaves.

I have been helping the summer seasonal crews finish up their work projects. Went out with the invasive species crew for a couple days, mainly focused on cut stump herbicide for glossy buck thorn and honeysuckle. A couple kids got their truck stuck in a deep hole, went back with them the next day to get it out. Rode in a couple mile on four-wheeler, cut up some logs and used a hi-lift to put them under the four tires, then used a come-along to pull the truck while I drove it out. Made it safely back onto solid ground.

I had the opportunity to do some stream work which had been delayed by heavy rains. Went sampling for invertebrates and taking measurements of the banks. When we arrived at one of the sites, the truck said it was 22 degrees outside, water temp was right around freezing. Couldn’t wait for the sun to reach us. No pictures, too cold and wet.

Also helped out at the nursery, moving flats of trees from greenhouses outside for the winter. The snow provides good insulation for the roots. Also some planting and moving irrigation pipe.

Alaska harbors a world of depths — deep oceans, interminable skies, mountains so high and snowy you could mistake them, at a distance, for clouds. Atop a mountain road, you can stare across a sea of black spruce that stretches miles unbroken to the horizon. The Last Frontier is also a place of great dangers to pair those depths, including big game (bears, moose, and wolves), active volcanoes, avalanches, biting cold, isolation, massive wildfires, Fata Morganas that create false landforms in front of your eyes, and more. On Friday morning, I was sauntering around an icy downtown Anchorage bus-stop when I heard a heavy cracking noise, like cement splitting. Seconds later the streetlights and surrounding buildings began to sway. The shaking that followed lasted all of 30 seconds but it jolted everything in the city to life.

I have learned in the past few months that Alaska is a place of natural wonders I could have never fully imagined without living here. When the earthquake hit, I knew we were in the midst of one of those stupefying Alaska moments — when you realize that despite all we as people know and can do, we live at the mercy of the world and its complex meteorology, geology, and tectonic shifts. As the world shook violently around me that late November morning, the Pacific plate was subducting beneath the North American plate, causing a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that began 10 miles north of Anchorage. Half an hour later, when I arrived downtown to report for work (oblivious as any East-coaster would be to the severity of the quake), the streets were dark and office workers had flooded out onto the sidewalks. Still reeling from the 1964 megathrust earthquake, which caused tsunamis and registered a magnitude of 9.2, (the most powerful recorded in North America), older Alaskans I met seemed especially on edge.

It is now Wednesday, December 5th. We have had thousands of aftershocks, including a 4.5 magnitude earthquake early this morning. The federal building where I work is damaged and still closed, but also still standing. So are most of the buildings downtown. It might not be the prettiest city, but Anchorage, like the Alaskan people, is resilient and strong. The world shakes like a snow globe in a child’s hands, almost no-one dies, and people move on. (For reference, it is estimated that over 200,000 people died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake of the same magnitude — eight years later, the island nation is still recovering).

After the 1964 quake that devastated southeast AK, the city was rebuilt for an event like this, and, despite the heavy vibrations we have received over the past week, life has resumed for most in a remarkably normal fashion. Alaska residents seem less daunted by challenges or unexpected events than those living in any other place I have lived. The ethic of self-resiliency in the state can be contagious, and while living here, I have found that I prefer a lifestyle and work environment that forces me to think and innovate independently. Big, new challenges make us smarter, stronger people.

Earthquakes aside, I would be remiss if I did not reflect on my CLM internship that brought me to this magnificent place. As I hinted in previous posts, I had a rocky start. When I arrived, there was little work initially planned for me and I began a motley range of assignments to fill my days — fixing picnic tables, trimming foliage on trails, random office work, et cetera. However, even on rough days out in my little outpost in Glennallen, AK, I did not regret the choice to come here. I lived in a beautiful wonderscape of clear lakes and immense mountains. I biked weekly along the surrounding highways through some of the most incredible terrain I have ever seen before. I learned to do things that had nothing to do with forestry, but were useful life skills nonetheless.

Things improved in the fall. CLM and BLM gave me the incredible opportunity to attend the National Society of American Forester’s Conference (an educational candy-land for us forestry folks) and to write my own forest management plan. I have spent the past couple of months working on (and struggling with) this management plan for BLM and have learned a great deal about Alaskan silviculture, subsistence hunting, and the history of public and private land in the state. I also refreshed my ArcGIS skills, made valuable contacts with people from a range of different fields in natural resources, and most importantly — learned that I am capable of researching and teaching myself more than I thought I could. If there is anything I have gained from this internship, it is a firm belief that self-reliance is not only important, but highly attainable. I feel more confident in my field and the idea that I do not need to be ashamed of what I do not know — I just need to be willing to learn.

My CLM internship ends in about two days, but the Alaskan landscape has wooed me to stay.  Next week, I will move into a remote dry cabin (without water or electricity) next to a glacier for a temporary job with the Park’s Service while I figure out my next steps. I feel good about it. Whatever happens, I am confident that I will rise to the challenge.

In the near future, I am hoping to continue to learn more about Alaska’s history and current environmental issues. While writing my current forest management plan, a number of articles I read mentioned that boreal forests are experiencing some of the most dramatic impacts of climate change. Not only has the landscape been significantly altered in recent years (it is hard not to notice a shrinking glacier), but there are more exceptional temperature increases in this part of the world compared to southern latitudes (different climate projections predict temperature increases between (6.3 – 13.5 °F by 2100). Boreal forests also store a significant amount of global terrestrial carbon — at least 24 percent — and warming in the Arctic is already contributing to a positive feedback loop of global climate change. These relationships are important to think about when we as a country are seriously considering an increase in mineral and oil exploration in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. At the moment, the economic benefits of such a project do not outweigh the costs — and those costs (including loss of habitat for porcupine caribou, permanently damaged tundra, and increased CO2 emissions) could be very great. Meanwhile, Alaskans are already experiencing the negative effects of climate change. This summer saw some of the worst returns of salmon in years (an important source of income and food for many Alaskans), while rising seas are rapidly swallowing up coastal villages like Newtok and archeological sites in Nunalleq. There is a deep part of me that hopes that the inherent strength, resilience, and innovation that I have seen in Alaska so far will continue to work to find mitigative solutions to the most pernicious effects of climate change. In the meantime, I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see Alaska as it is now. The incredible natural beauty and human diversity of the state is truly inspiring. It would be a shame to not do anything about the anthropogenically-caused climatic shifts that threatens that.

I want to send a big thank you to Krissa Skogen and Chris Woolridge from CLM and to my mentor Eric Geisler from BLM for giving me this incredible internship opportunity. I have learned so much and I am so grateful that I had the chance to begin my forestry career in Alaska!

November hoarfrost outside of Anchorage, AK.