In southern Alaska, Colorado’s aspens and canyons are replaced by yellow and red cedar, by spruce and vast ocean. Utah’s diverse plant life – small geniuses in the art of conserving water – exchange places with green ferns and mossy forest floor, well-acquainted with rain and hungry for speckled light that dances slantways through dense canopy. Here, in southern Alaska, bald eagles attach to telephone wires, and locals are accustomed to the great bird’s presence. Bears follow your scent and encourage you to maintain conversation between field partners, to keep your eyes alert and to pay attention. Boats are about as common as cars for transport, and the concept of vast and grand exceed their common definitions.

Working on the Tongass National Forest this past month has meant a lot of different things. My field partner and I spent many days scouting and vouchering at potential seed collection sites, and there we collected data on the various native plant species in the area – their phenology, their population density, when we can anticipate they will go to seed. We helped out on a stream restoration crew, jamming logs into stream banks to restore meanders and a diversity of water-flow and attempt to build back habitat for spawning salmon. On one Saturday, I helped local kids paint imprints of salmon on blank T-shirts. On other days, we spent time training in safety protocols and herbicide use. We visited timber-harvest sale areas and while they looked at the trees, we looked at the understory with an eye out for anything rare, or lacking in abundance.

While doing so, I have learned several things:

• Plants, being immobile, have one of the broadest ranges of living beings.
• Muskegs are the definition of the abundance of the small.
• Skunk cabbage can grow taller than me, and spread wider too.
• While plants in the desert might be smart in the conservation of water, plants in the rainforest know how to use water to their full advantage.
• Rare plants, when you find them, feel like the most precious thing in the world.
• Everything, that is, everything… is slippery.

Each of these lessons stem from impactful experiences, yet perhaps the most impactful moment for me on the job this month occurred when we were conducting rare plant surveys and monitoring projects. While attending a forest-wide botany training on Prince of Wales Island – a remote four-hour ferry ride from our home Ranger District in Ketchikan – one of these rare species we were surveying and monitoring for was Yellow lady’s slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens). Often only showing a small, lush leaf or two, the elegant and plump lady’s slipper hides among large ferns and nestles in muskegs. She revels in the company of grasses and is what we call a “roadside rare.” How strange that such a scarce plant tends to grow best along the marginal edge of gravel roads. There are only four documented clusters of this variety of Cypripedium parviflorum on the Tongass NF. We located all four. At each site, we had multiple sets of eyes scanning every inch of ground for stems – for they are not only rare, but difficult to find. The first three sites were relatively abundant and some were in full flower, but the specimen we found at the fourth site was in poor shape. Reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) reaching heights of four or five feet nearly covered the entire plant, and tree debris from a recent brushing procedure almost buried the few stems that were left.

The leaves were visibly chewed through and drooping. The chances of this fourth plant surviving seemed slim. I found myself questioning what to do. How do we choose to manage our forests? How do we decide to put our resources toward doing everything we can to attempt bringing this small cluster of stems to thrive again or acknowledge that we might not help this one, and to divert our work elsewhere? Conservation and land management is a complex task. It means making decisions about living beings other than yourself, while also managing for and understanding the impacts of your own species. It means taking the time to find the rare in the abundant, so that the ones not often spoken for might be.

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.

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:

• https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/flora-of-chugach-national-forest
• Trail of Blue Ice Wildflower Viewing Area · iNaturalist
• Turnagain Pass Wildflower Viewing Area · iNaturalist

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!

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.

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)