As I’ve written before, my original internship period, which focused on developing priority species lists for restoration sites in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, has been extended into the fall in order to work on the next phase of this project. In this extension period, I have dramatically switched gears: from a mode of observation of how species in the low desert of southern Nevada and California operate to one of prediction. What is the scope of distribution for these species? What environmental variables impose limits on the breadth of their occurrence? And how can we make this information as accessible and useful to land managers as possible?

From the list of priority restoration species for the Mojave Desert, my Principal Investigators and I chose 50 species with which to take the next step: creating species distribution models (SDMs) to be incorporated into an adaptive management tool for BLM land managers. This tool would further expedite the restoration process by allowing BLM agents to create “seed menus” for recently disturbed sites. The idea is that land managers would be able to input coordinates for the site in need of restoration into this tool, and up will pop not just one, but a whole suite of plant species suited tailored for the restoration needs of that location, as well as viable seed source locations and information on ecosystem services (specifically for desert tortoise and pollinators) that those plants provide.

My main task in this endeavor has been to gather and vett species occurrence data to use as presence points in our models. My main sources for this information have been unpublished data sets from vegetation surveys taken across the Mojave and herbarium records from public databases such as the California Consortium of Herbaria and the Southwestern Environmental Information Network (SEINet). After a few weeks of gathering a robust number of points and giving them a thorough cleaning, we are ready to actually make some SDMs!

Ephedra nevadensis, one of the species for which we are producing distribution models for our Seed Menus project.

Our process involves three algorithms: 1) a General Additive Model (GAM), a crossbreed between General Linear Models and Additive Models, 2) Random Forest, which is basically a decision tree on steroids, and 3) MaxEnt, the famed maximum entropy algorithm. We first produce an equal number of pseudoabsences (randomly generated points from likely habitat) to go with our presence points. True absence data are rare in vegetation data, so generation of these pseudoabsences is necessary to provide a comparison to presence data. To reduce bias in the data, we thin the presence points to one per grid cell (size of grid cells) and weight ones that are highly isolated from any neighbors. A further bias test we do is cross-validation, in which different models are tested with 75 randomly selected points for a preliminary analysis of goodness-of-fit. After that, we go through each algorithm and formulate response curves of our points to different environmental variables – this helps us determine which variables best explain variance in the data. We then choose a few preliminary models of the best-fitting response curves, and take the mean of these models for each algorithm. After going through all three, we take our top model choices for each algorithm, and take what is known as an ensemble mean. Once this is done, we conduct a last evaluation of performance using the Boyce Index and mask any impervious surfaces in our layers. And voila! We have a robust distribution map for one of our species.

Models of sample data produced with GAM, Random Forest, and MaxEnt algorithms, as well as an ensemble model (the mean of the previous three outputs).

This one-at-a-time approach takes quite a while, but it’s worth it to get sound results for each species. There are alternative modeling methods that are faster (such as Canonical Correspondence Analysis), but the results they produce are not as robust in terms of individual species. Our method aims to produce the most accurate and useful information possible for land managers in the Mojave Desert. With more disturbance happening in the Desert Southwest than ever before, it’s imperative that we have the tools to make sound, on-the-fly decisions. I’m excited to see this tool be put to use in the coming years; to get a better understanding of its strengths and limitations.

Over the past month, I have had the opportunity to work on many new projects. The first being a hike through Sweetwater Canyon. This hike occurs every year when the Aspen and Willow leaves just start changing color. We were split into two teams; each team taking half of the canyon. The goals for the hike were to document changes in vegetation along the greenline, find, re-take, and GPS record location photos, and to find any stray cows that may have been missed. Though challenging, finding old photo locations was fun (we only had old photos to go off of) and rewarding. My team also looked for signs of Boreal Frogs in the canyon as we hiked and salamanders on some riparian areas outside the canyon where they had previously been recorded. Sadly, we didn’t find any.

After the canyon hike, we had a few days of not so pleasant weather. With that came a lot of office work. Office worked involved filing (which I enjoy a few good hours of filing), creating a master allotment file for the Wildlife people to use, and assisting with billing catch-up. Billing was an interesting task. We ended up having to redo a bunch of letters we had made because we were informed we did something wrong through no fault of our own. The person teaching us how to make the letters forgot to tell us about a portion so we ended up spending an extra day fixing our letters. This was no problem at all since the field was inaccessible.

Snow…. I was not expecting you so soon.

Once the weather cooperated, we made our way back out into the field in search of cattle! By this time, most cattle had left the allotments in which we worked. We did find a few stragglers but they made it home. In searching for any cattle that may have been forgotten, my partner and I noticed many more horses. We couldn’t tell if we had just never noticed them because of our fixation on cattle or if more had shown up. Seeing them in such large herds was beautiful.

We came across a huge herd of horse while searching for cattle.

Looking out across one of the pastures scanning for any left cattle.

Scanning for the ever elusive cattle. None were to be found!

Currently, we are finishing up some final measurements in our key riparian areas, making some new fences safe for Sage Grouse, and starting an Environmental Assessment (EA) so we can get more experience with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). I look forward to the last month of this internship and all of the continuing education and experience I shall gain.

The last three months of my internship has been focused on Seeds of Success and a plethora of other seed related activities!

My team was able to collect 43 species and had a great time scouting, keying plants, taking herbarium vouchers and processing the collections. The Medford, OR district BLM has been involved with the program since the founding of the program in 2010 and has one of the largest number of collections, currently at 1068! This posed some difficulty for us but also lead to opportunities to find unique collections such as a succulent and riparian species.

We were also able to work in two Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). French Flat and King Mountain and collected seeds of two federally listed species Hackelia bella (Greater showy stick seed) and Sidalcea hickmanii ssp. petraea (Neil Rock sidalcea – We hiked up to the only know endemic population!) One of the collections I really enjoyed was Xerophyllum tenax (Bear grass), here is the plant and one of my favorite pictures I took this summer.

Xerophyllum tenax at King Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern

Hackelia bella (Greater showy stick seed) collected from the Cascade Siskiyou Monument. Vouchers can be so beautiful!

Along with SOS, we participated in various other seed activities.  For a few days we filled seed orders for fire remediation and restoration projects. We would go into huge seeds coolers to search for the seed lot then weigh, mix and packaged seeds. We mixed orders up to 950 lbs in a kiddy pool! (Deschampsia cespitosa seeds are one of the softest materials I have ever felt!)

I also attended a Nature Conservancy restoration volunteer day at the Agate Desert preserve. In the spring they did a control burn across the property and have been spreading seed in vernal pool communities this fall. The day I helped we spread 19 lbs of federally-listed endangered Lomatium cooki (Cook’s desert parsley). I hope to stay around the area and see how this bare land blossoms in the coming year.

Federally-listed endangered Lomatium cooki (Cook’s desert parsley) at The Nature Conservancy’s Agate Desert Preserve.

I also had the chance to help out this week at the USFS J. Herbert Stone Nursery. The nursery is 311 acres, including 240 acres of native plant production! We helped package one-year old tress to be sent out around the Pacific Northwest and got a great tour of the facilities. Many of the seeds collected through the SOS program are grown out here for seed increase to be used in a variety of projects from restoration to fire remediation.

Another cycle is coming to an end, for me and the seeds. Cant wait to see how we blossom next season!

Pseudotsuga menziesii saplings at Stone Nursery

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sienna M. Grants Pass, OR – BLM

There is an old site called American Flat

That was once an old building infested with rats.

BLM tore it down just a few years ago

And now it’s an empty cheatgrass-covered plateau.

We’ve been there a few times already this year

To pull out the thistles that always appear.

It was the very first field trip we took as a team

When the snow was so white it still let off a gleam.

In spring, we cut tops off some new willow shoots

To be buried in bags hoping they would grow roots.

And hooray! That they did! To new roots they were bound

And my co-interns planted them right in the ground.

For a while we forgot about this little site

While distracted by fruits, weeds, rare species, new sights…

Just last week, though, we opened our GIS map

And unearthed pounds of seed we had stored in burlap.

We calculated seed mixes for each polygon

And even though a few species were already gone,

We brought what we had to measure, mix, and pour

And then picked up the nifty hand seeders we wore.

They dispersed through a field dominated by weeds

But the first mix we used was just super light seeds.

Those wee particles just got caught and got stuck

But we had an idea! The seed bag must be struck!

As one intern turned the seed wheel with a wrist

Another walked beside, punching it with a fist.

Alas, not all of our mixes required this tactic,

But after two days we all needed chiropractic.

We’d set out native seed, a few hundred pounds,

Then we headed on home on the road back to town.

That was all we could do for those small plants-to-be

Now all we could do was sit tight, wait and see.

Maybe next year, or later, they’ll sprout and they’ll grow,

The restoration process is nothing if not slow.

But we have high hopes for our small weedy plot,

And someday it could be a quite different spot.

Cattail, rabbitbrush, bitterbrush, squirreltail

They’ll make good habitat for the hare and the quail.

It might not be quick and it might not be neat,

But with just enough time, all the weeds can be beat.

The end is finally here. When I started this venture in June, I had no idea that it would fly by so quickly and that I would grow so much.

Throughout this internship, I have witnessed myself become much more independent, more experienced, more confident, more thoughtful, and more informed about my personal interests and future career goals.

Some of my favorite memories and most rewarding experiences include:

National Trails Day, the second annual release of the black-footed ferret, National Public Lands Day and increasing accessibility at our Hogan and Luce Recreation Area, Great Dam Day, and of course the solar eclipse.

One of the finished camp sites at Hogan Reservoir. This project was probably the most challenging one. It required a ton of collaboration, equipment, materials and physical work. I am very happy that I got to contribute and be a part of it from start to finish.

Many of the projects I worked on this summer provided me with new skills such as installing signs and trail guides, installing bear boxes, installing fire rings, installing picnic tables, digging trenches and installing timbers to delineate campsites, installing livestock tanks, increasing recreation site accessibility to meet ADA/ABA requirements, mixing and pouring cement, and spreading and compacting gravel. I also learned how to use a variety of tools that I had never seen before. These include a post pounder, an auger, a chop saw, a sledge hammer, a Pulaski, a rock bar, a tamper, a gravel compacter, a york rake, a power washer, and the list goes on and on. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed using them all. Except for maybe the tamper when I accidentally tamped down on my toe. Ouch!

I wish I had taken advantage of working with our GIS Specialist a bit more because I hope to keep building on those skills in the future. However, I did gain many new experiences and skills working in the field that I never expected to learn.

Valuable Lessons I’ve Learned:

I am not a botanist, nor do I ever want to be.

Don’t be so hard on yourself, you’re doing the best you can. Learn to give yourself some credit and reflect on how far you’ve come.

There is something you can learn from everybody you meet.

You can’t please everyone, nor should you try. Some people aren’t going to like or understand the goal that you are trying to achieve, and that is okay.

As one door closes, another door opens…at the end of October, I will be taking over as the new Administrative Support Assistant for the BLM Cody Field Office. I am sad to end my CBG internship adventures, but I am very much looking forward to all of the new opportunities this position will bring now and in the future. I am also very excited to call Cody, WY my permanent home and continue exploring beautiful Wyoming and the Greater Yellowstone Area.

In the words of Tom Petty “you belong somewhere you feel free”. For me it’s Wyoming…for now 🙂

Melissa Higley

Recreation Intern

Bureau of Land Management ~ Cody Field Office

One great thing about reading is that it can offer me a new (or old) perspective on a subject I think I know well. While reading Field Days: Journal of an Itinerant Biologist by Roger B. Swain, I stumbled across a chapter featuring the New England Wild Flower Society (NEWFS), where my CLM internship has brought me. Field Days is a 1983 publication anthologizing Swain’s essays about his observations of plants and animals in nature as well as his observations of people’s interactions with nature. In “Crowbars, Glaciers and Zen Temples,” Swain explains the earth phenomena and the human tinkering behind the landscape of New England. In “Bee Bites,” Swain revels in his companion’s reaction to learning the mechanisms involved in a bee’s sting. In “White Bloomers,” I was surprised to learn that NEWFS has a collection of albino wild flowers—and that these flowers are so prized that a few have been stolen from the grounds in years past. I shared the chapter with my boss one day while cleaning seeds. Even he was surprised by some of the information, commenting that the staff members named in the chapter might only be remembered by today’s most senior staff members.

I didn’t know I would be working at NEWFS, even a year ago, and yet, there was a whole history here before I arrived. It seems obvious to say, but that history is usually locked away in the memories of lifelong patrons, locals and past employees. Encountering this chapter was a glimpse into that elusive past.

In fact, Boston also has a rich history and historical record, and so do many places I have experienced through other internships and travels. Just outside Boston stand the homes in which Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born. They are next door to each other in what is today Quincy, on the same block as a Dunkin Donuts and along the public bus line. Our intern team recently discovered that one of our field sites in northern Massachusetts, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, was featured in a conservation brochure written by environmentalist Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring. She mentions the dune forb Hudsonia tomentosa, one of our first seed collections at this site. This population’s place in history, as elevated by Carson, gives me more pride in having collected it. I hope we have ensured its future propagation for both the sake of the Parker River ecosystem and for the sake of those who will read Carson’s brochure decades from now. Whether it is a place I have heard of and now am able to visit, or a place that I know well and now may learn of its past, learning the history of the familiar humbles me.

In particular, Field Days mentions that the Garden in the Woods run by NEWFS is famous for a white Trillium plant. Last time I drove to the garden, I passed their welcome banner. I had driven past it several times before, but I had never recognized its significance. There, plastered larger than life in ink next to the block letters naming the garden, was a brilliant white Trillium flower.

Checking in from Shoshone right now – what started as a summer with 9 other interns has now transitioned into me being the last one here. I was able to get a small 3 week extension that has allowed me to stay until the 2nd week of November. And, this has left me bittersweet.

While it was pretty sad watching everyone else go, I know that we all must move forward. It’s the next chapter, and I am extremely happy for my fellows CBGs.  Nearly all of them have been reunited with their loved ones. I’ve heard from one that she has found a job in her preferred town! And, a couple of my closest friends made this summer, are now (or soon to be) traveling internationally – onto their next adventure 🙂 It truly is exciting to see where everyone goes. Life is pretty sporadic during this time, and it is really up to you what you want to do. Anything goes.

Anyway, back to life in Shoshone – So, for me, work has been pretty laid back. It has been really great getting more time with my mentor and the other people at the office. I’ve felt like I’ve really established a trusted relationship and presence here. I am able to work independently, and with this, I no longer feel so much like “one of the interns.” I am blending into our office community, which has boosted my confidence and showed me that I think I am ready for a more stable, long-term job (or masters program? – that is still an IDK).

This CBG internship will be my second seasonal job. I graduated in May 2016, and the summer after I graduated, I took a 4-month AmeriCorps position with the Forest Service through the SCA. While both internships have taught me so much, both personally and professionally, and did wonders to my resume (giving me the skills and experiences I needed to find other jobs), I think I am ready for something a little bit more long term. Don’t get me wrong – it has been so beneficial for me to be able to “test out my interests” with these seasonal positions. And in the scheme of things, that is what I believe they are really meant to do. With this job, I’ve been able to explore: this field, this career path, a new part of the country, a new town, a new culture, etc. But, now, I am fairly certain what direction I want to take next, and I am going to just roll with that right now. I need stability. I need to live closer to my partner. I need community so I may build stronger connections and collaborations, which would in turn allow me to test my skills and abilities. And, I just need to give this all a try.

Well, that’s where this Solo Intern is at right now.

Cheers to my last 3 weeks working in Shoshone. Change is always weird, but this experience has thus far, been much more fulfilling and necessary that I could have ever predicted.

Wish me luck with the continuously dropping temperatures being that I’m an Arizona girl (and haven’t experienced a “real” winter in ~7 years.)

When I last left off I had traveled to Nebraska to see the Eclipse after which I asked myself, what could top experiencing the moon moving in front of the sun and turning the world dark for 2 minutes as humans all over the States stared in disbelief?

The obvious answer is collecting more data on Sclerocactus glaucus, of course!!

What finally brought us full circle for the field season here at the BLM Colorado State Office was the return of our crew to Montrose to gather data on both Eriogonum pelinophilum and S.glaucus. As we drove over the Southern Rockies on the 70 musing about our return to the cactus that we started this year off monitoring, we looked out of our windows at the changing of the Aspen leaves and felt a little bit of closure to the field season. What a way to go out.

The changing of the leaves

But what lead us back for more data collected after all these months? Basically the years and years of data collected on the Sclerocactus have come to a climax. Carol, my mentor, has spent much of her time at the BLM working towards de-listing this species, and now is the time. Our return to the cactus was brought on by a need for targeted data to make the reporting more sound and complete.

To be honest, when I type those words, de-listing, as an ecologist, I feel a little guilty. Why would we want to de-list a species when the Environmental Species Act (ESA), that it is protected under, is meant to, well, protect it?

I think this is one of the areas that has been the most enlightening to me throughout this internship. The more that I learn about topics that I had thought I understood, the more I realize that one can feel informed and still not actually fully grasp the subtle nuances of the complex field of threatened and endangered plants.

Let me explain, the ESA was was ratified in 1973, passed by a democratic-majority congress and signed by President Richard Nixon only a year before he resigned his office. This act was created in order to preserve not only the plants and animals that were under threat from human and environmental factors but also to protect the environment they existed in. That is a tall order for an agency like the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (and NOAA fisheries) that is tasked with its implementation. In the beginning, listing was used to protect anything thought of as needing protection under a myriad of potential threats including industrial growth (think reservoirs, mining, and human expansion) and recreational use (including our own species of interest Astragalus osterhoutii and potentially Corispermum navicula due to the Wolford Dam and off-road vehicle use, respectively). Also, in the beginning of the Act many plants were listed with good intention but with less than adequate data.

Here is where the problem lies. In Colorado alone there are 16 listed plant species of the around 900 plant species listed for the entire United States. Now, that may not sound like a very large proportion, but under the current funding level for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and given the amount of constant monitoring required for the responsible management of the populations across the states, it is a lot of work. That is where we come in and why Carol has worked so hard to monitor these species. This work is also done at the District Office level within the BLM CO, who would normally completely shoulder the load, but in this case they are treated with two levels of attention.

All of that sounds grand, but the issue becomes particularly thorny when, in the case of S. glaucus, we come to find that the species is more abundant than originally thought (recall the plants listed in the 70s with little data). Given the limited resources available for monitoring, it quickly becomes untenable to funnel precious resources toward monitoring and managing species that may never have warranted protection in the first place.

Here comes the reality of de-listing. Resources currently allocated to species that are more abundant that previously thought could be used to help a species that are actually in peril or to identify species that might not be known to be in peril. Just think that in the lifetime of the Act there have only been 31 de-listings of listed plant species. When you consider that the intention of the ESA is to recover imperiled species, that is not a large success rate.

Additionally, the use of the Act has changed over time. Remember how I said it was used to protect plants once they are listed? Well, an ESA listing triggers a series of mandatory regulations placed on the species, and the land that it inhabits. There are even critical habitats that are protected regardless of where the plant is found (public or private). Which, as you can imagine, is not something that landowners or entities that could make money off the land, appreciate. So instead agencies have been working to use the Act as a last resort, instead of looking to list immediately they instead promote conservation agreements which are agreed to by a range of stakeholders to protect the plant in question. This happens when involved parties recognize that it is in everyone’s best interest to avoid a listing and decide  to come to the table to proactively agree to terms to protect the plant to avoid listing in the future.

I am rather impressed by this idea because it means, ranchers, land managers, mining companies, energy companies, states, and other interested parties come together to resolve differences toward a common purpose. What a concept, but like I have mentioned with P. grahamii, conservation groups don’t always see these agreements as a win. Instead, these groups can be stuck in the old mindset that the ESA is the best way to protect any species. Unfortunately, if conservation groups get their way, that means that many individuals will be subject to regulations and restrictions forced upon them by the ESA, without much recourse save open rebellion against the US Government, which doesn’t typically end well as we’ve seen in the case of the Malheur NWR takeover of 2015. With a listing comes bitterness from industry and a lot more work for regulating agencies (cough cough BLM). It’s a delicate balance. On top of all this, often the protections that come through a collaborative stakeholder based approach can be better tailored to a particular plant and region.

So all in all it is a muddled up, bureaucratic quagmire that can be challenging for different parties to see from the other side’s perspective. But, fear not, that is why we have competent hard working people like Carol and Phil working on it!

Our last outing of the year was actually an overnight trip to Walden where we looked at Corispermum navicula, which, to be honest, was one of the more fun monitoring sites. This plant is an annual (the only one we monitor) and thus we monitor for frequency. This meant walking around the North Sand Hill Dunes for hours with the Esri Collector app on an iPad trying to place ourselves on 300 randomly selected points in search of the plant. What an adventure, with only a few cups of sand found in each one of my shoes by the end.

Brooke an I on the quest for C. navicula

Thanks goodness for winter! I always love the field season and love being outdoors for a while, but I can feel my hands itching to crochet and my sewing machine getting lonely (I know, I am a 1950’s house mom) and I am excited to experience Colorado winter (or any winter at all really)!!

oh, also I ran a marathon, which was painful

A bag of 1,000 Cercocarpus montanus seeds

Until next time when I write about mostly data management and Excel!

Taryn

Colorado State Office