A few Plants from the Shoshone Field Office

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Life in Idaho has been nothing but interesting, there is a unique nuance and dynamic of place here that words cant really describe. Instead, I’d like to focus on the plants I have seen in the district and provide the internet with my very own Twin Falls District informal plant list. I took out the doubles and tried to add dates and general location.  Please, enjoy this review of plants (native, exotic, and weedy) of the sagebrush steppe of Southern Idaho.

4 May 207: Jim Brown Road

Lithophragma glabrum

Collinsia parviflora

Ribes aureum

Paddelford Flat

-Frittilaria pudica

-Ranunculua glaberrimus

-Viola beckwithii

-Lomatium triternatum

-Agoseris glauca

-Microsteris gracilis

-Gymnosteris nudicaulis

-Astragalus sp. (x2)

-Crepis acuminata

-Phlox hoodi

-Alyssum desertorum

-Cymopterus terebinthinus

-Chamaebataria millefolium

-Allium acuminatum

-Purshia tridentata

-Arabis sp.

-Antennaria dimorpha

-Lithospermum ruderale

-Microseris sp.

-Balsamorrhiza sagittata

-Chorispora tenella

-Draba verna

 

5 May- Murphy Complex

Toxicoscordion venenosum

-Poa secunda

-Astragalus purshi

-Phlox aceuleta

-Phlox hoodi

-Machareanthera canescens

-Elymus elymoides

-Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus

Ericameria nauseosa

-Lepidium perfoliatum

-Sisymbrium altissimum

-Ceratocephala testiculata

-Epilobium ciliatum

-Crepis acuminata

-Lomatium foeniculaceum

-Castilleja angustifolia

-Astragalus astatus-inseptus

-Lomatium cous

Lepula redowski

-Erioginum ovalifolium

-Pseudoroegneria spicta

-Viola vallicola

-Artemisia tridentata ssp. wymoingensis

9 May – Preacher Bridge

Agropyron crustatum

Phlox longifolia

Astrgalus purshii

Bromas tectorum

Tetradymia canescens

Epilobim brachycarpum

Poa bulbosa

Laidlaw Park

Artemisia tridentata ssp. tridentata

Penstemon acuminata

Descroina pinata

Artemisia tripartita

Ribes aureum

Ribes cerecum

Penstemon deustus

Mimulus suxsdorfii

Chaenactis douglassi

Delphinium bicolor

Senecio integerrimus var. exaltus

Snowdrift Crater

Leymus cinereus

Viola purpurea

Dean Brown Road

Linum lewisii

Astragalus fillipes

Onobryhchis viciiflora

Chondrillo juncea

 

10 May Dietrich Butte

Traygopogon dubious

Onapordium vicciflorus

Lomatium dissectum

 

11 May Bray Lake (seed site)

Artrt

Artrw

Artrv

Vulpia octoflora

Agropyron sibericum

Achillea millefolium

The Rim

Artemsia arbuscula

-Trifolium macrocephalum

-Erioginum sphaerocephalum

-Nothacaulis troximoides

-Haplopappus stenofalus

Erioginum thymoides

Antennaria rosea

Stipa thurberiana

Castilleja pallescens

Erioginum cespitosum

-Erigeron afinactis

-Penstemon cusickii

 

Bennet Hills

Lewisia rediva

Ranunculus andersonii

Hesperochiron pumilus

Populus tremuloides

Veratrum californicum

Asclepias speciosa

Ceanothus velutinus

 

Artemisia cana

Balsamorrhiza hookeri

 

Camas Praire

Camassia quamash

Wyethia helanthoides

 

16 May Office Mystery Plants

Polyctenium fremontii

Myosurus ristatus

Boechera retrofracta

 

18 May Burley

Frittilaria atropurpurea

 

24 May Bear Trap Williams

Oenethera caespitosa

Lupinus argentus

Sphaeralcea grossulariefolia

Layia glandulosa

Astragalus filipes

Astragalus viscidiflorus

Navarettia breweri

Phacelia hastata

 

30 May 2017

Calochortus nuttali

Achnatherum hymenoides

Stipa comata

Stanleya pinnata

 

1 June 2017 Horse Butte

Allium nevadense

 

5 June 2017 King Hill

Grindellia squarosa

Lomatium nudicale

Penstemon palmeri

Crepis modosensis

Bromas arvensis

Erigeron afinactis

Artemesia arbuscula

Blepharipappus scaber

Agropyron saxicola

Erioginum micranthes

Garyia spinosa

While it may seem long, this is really just the short list, Southern Idaho has more diversity than I initially imagined.  Now that you have made it this far, here are a few pictures of my personal favorites.

Gymnosteris nudicaulis

Viola beckwithiii

Balsamorrhiza sagittata

Mimulus suxsdorfii

Draba verna

Lomatium triternatum

Lewisia rediviva

Ceanothus velutinus

Asclepias speciosa

Garrya spinosa

Penstemon deustus

Penstmon cusickii

Penstemon palmeri

Linum lewisia

Allium nevadense

Stanleya pinnata

Calochortus nuttali

 

Frittliaria atropurpurea

Wyethia helianthoides

Ranunculus andersonii

Castilleja pallescens

Trifolium macrocephalum

Lewisia rediviva

Veratrum californicum

Lithophagrama parviflorum

Fritillaria pudica

Phlox hoodi

 

 

 

 

Enter Lander Wyoming

After driving 30 hours I finally arrived in Lander, Wyoming.  After recovering our first late night we went to see how our daily commute was going to be and explore the town a bit.  We found that our daily drive into Lander is as picturesque daily commute as one could hope for.

After exploring the town, we looked outwards to Sinks Canyon, a large public area managed by the State Park Service.  We found that the river flowing through the canyon was very high and were later informed that the annual snow pack was over 270% of normal resulting in flushed waterways all over the Lander Field Office.

A few days later we had gotten our bearings being in a western state.  We found ourselves being bombarded by (what the locals say hopefully will be) the last snow of the year.  My family back home enjoyed informing me of the 90 degree weather in Virginia while we were at maybe 20 here in Lander.  Though the snow quickly melted in Lander, the snow pack was left at 320% normal.

The increased snow pack quickly melted and the still somewhat common evening rain has left the field office very lush and many places are flowering very heavily from the usually pretty lush Sinks Canyon.

To the usually very very dry desert we are experiencing our own little super bloom in the Lander field office.  This promises to be an excellent year for seed collection, particularly for collecting those usually small populations and those less likely to produce enough seed in a normal year.  We found places covered in balsamroot (not really uncommon) and other drier places covered with evening primrose of scarlet globe-mallow.  I am very excited for the chance to collect such species and get the season really underway.

  I hope every CLM intern is having as much fun and beneficial experience as I am.  Hope everyone has a great summer.  Thanks.

Chris, Bureau for Land Management, Lander Field Office

Local Adaptation in Widespread Species

Common garden experiments, a type of study in which individuals from distinct populations of a species are grown side-by-side, have provided a great deal of evidence to support the position that populations adapt their phenology and resource allocation strategy to local conditions. Environmental conditions that may vary across a species’ range include average annual temperature, minimum and maximum temperatures, timing and amount of precipitation, ratio of precipitation to evaporative losses, associated plants and animals, and soil characteristics. Some aspects of phenology and resource allocation strategies that may evolve include timing of germination, flowering, fruiting, or senescing, number of flowers, seed number and mass, and ratio of aboveground to belowground biomass. Adaptation to a given set of conditions may hinder survival under a different set of conditions, hence the need to collect and make available to restorationists seed from a wide variety of locally adapted populations of a given species.

 

[Lewisia rediviva, the bitterroot]

The bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva, offers a good case study of a plant that lives in widely separated areas which receive precipitation in very different amounts and at very different times. While the plant is reported from all western states and British Columbia and Alberta, I’ll make a short study of only three reported populations (Coconino co., AZ, Humboldt co., NV, San Joaquin co., CA) that experience a range of conditions across the southwestern United States. The Arizona population, reported from near the south rim of the Grand Canyon, receives roughly 16 inches of rain per year spread over a winter and a late summer rainy season. The Nevada population, reported from near Winnemucca in Humboldt Co., receives roughly 8 inches of rain per year, almost entirely in the winter. The California population, reported from northeast of Stockton in San Joaquin co., receives roughly 14 inches of rain per year, almost entirely in the winter. While it does not appear that any common-garden studies of this species have been conducted, it does seems unlikely that an individual from a population that is adapted to high rainfall (i.e. an individual from the south rim of the Grand Canyon) would prosper under the much more arid conditions around Winnemucca, NV. In the same vein, an individual transplanted from San Joaquin co., CA, which lacks a summer monsoon, might not prosper when planted among the south rim population due to a lack of adaptation to the local timing of rainfall.

[L. rediviva on high, dry ridge – the small white forms in the center are Lewisia flowers]

Fun With Forbs

Upon Arriving at my CLM Seeds of Success mentorship location in Rawlins, Wyoming, all I could see was sagebrush. Fat ones, skinny ones, low ones, tall ones- but all sagebrush. My thoughts were- “What forbs could I possibly find in this environment?” and “Gee, what a monotone, diversity-lacking ecosystem.”

After the first week of getting trained and acquainted with the field office, these thoughts quickly dissipated from my mind. Our Seeds of Success crew, consisting of me, my coworker Kyle, and mentors Frank and Ray, would set out on daily adventures in the field. Each day would (and continues to) hold exciting botanical explorations. Fields of yellow (Lomatium foeniculaceum), orange (Sphaeralcea coccinea), and purple (Astragalus spatulatus) would greet us with a warm embrace.

Sphaeralcea coccinea, Scarlet Globemallow. Found near the Adobe Town Wilderness Study Area

Cymopterus bulbosus, Bulbous Springparsley. Found in the Red Desert area.

Oenothera, Evening Primrose.

Finding these pops of color is something that I look forward to every day. When I think back to my initial feelings regarding this high desert ecosystem, I realize how wrong I actually was. Because this environment is so extreme, it harbors a great diversity of plants who have evolved to withstand its intensity. Knowing that these perennial plants go from highs of 100 degrees in the summers to lows of almost 40 degrees below zero in the winters, cultivates a feeling of respect and admiration.

In addition to the plants, I have also been exposed to the great diversity of landscapes and ecosystem types in the Rawlins Field Office District. We have focused most of our time in an area known as the “Red Desert.” Above ground there are many extremophile plants living in clay, saline soils. Below ground harbors rich deposits of oil and gas. It is because of the below ground mineral content that we spend our time in this area. One of Wyoming’s largest sources of income is energy production in the form of oil, gas or wind. With the production of this energy of course comes disturbance, and with this disturbance comes a need for reclamation. As a Seeds of Success team, we hope to gather seeds in order to assist with this reclamation process. I find that being able to see gas pads and other disturbances in a real-world setting gives me more of a drive to do what I do. Our country has a need for energy, making these disturbances nearly inevitable. At the Bureau of Land Management, it is our job to manage the land. Making sure that disturbances due to energy production are minimal and that the areas are reclaimed in order to restore habitat, are just a few modes of this management.

A “gas patch” area with several oil/gas pads in the distance.

My first month as a Conservation and Land Management Intern has treated me extremely well. Each day holds new curiosities and treasures in all types of forms. From the land itself, to the sprinkled pops of color which are extremophile forbs, and the BLM. I look forward to what the rest of the season holds.

Updates and Thoughts

Summer is officially here at the Palm Springs, CA field office and most days have been 100+F. We are now practicing waking up early to begin our days out around 5/6am to beat the heat! I have also really learned the importance of staying hydrating and have finally figured out how much water I should be bringing with me into the field–very good things to know when working in the desert.

Collecting for SOS has begun to slow down as well since many of our target species are past their reproducing season or will not have seed ready until later in the summer/fall. There is still much to do and learn though and I am feeling the time crunch with the nearing of mid-June and the approach of the end of my internship.

Looking forward to what the next month and a half holds for me in the desert.

Regards,

Elysa DuCharme

Palm Springs, CA BLM field office

 

April Showers Bring May Flowers, but What do May Showers Bring?

The saying is true, ya know. April showers do indeed bring May flowers; they’ve been popping up left and right, and in front and behind everything! I’m getting to see more than the Lomatiums and Balsamorhiza after a month of monitoring our lands! It’s so exciting to see the newcomers everywhere I go. What we’ve all been surprised about in the office is all the rain we’ve been getting as of late. The past couple of years the main concern wouldn’t be if a flooded road could be crossed or if your rig would get stuck in the mud, but rather if driving on a road would spark a fire. Although, I’m sure that will be our concern soon enough.

While I definitely would have loved to be out in the field spending some quality time getting to know plants and lands while monitoring for potential collection sites, I am taking advantage of the stormy days. I’ve been slowly picking up on how to use arcGIS and making my own maps. In fact, I’ve already mapped out that population of Cryptantha spiculifera that I stumbled upon last week! It was a great feeling making my first map. I can’t wait to learn more about the ins and outs of arcGIS!

Before we got stormed in, I got the chance to meet the botanist before my mentor, Denise. We spent the day out in a couple different lands, monitoring for another rare plant, Polemonium pectinatum. We were checking a location given to Kim by one of the Range Specialists in the office, and found it exactly where he said it would be.

Polemonium pectinatum, Washington Jacob’s Ladder

Thanks to all the rain we’ve been experiencing in the Spokane District, my target list is constantly growing. One of my favorite additions to the list is Iris missouriensis. It’s everywhere!

Iris missouriensis, Rocky Mountain Iris

While May was still decently rainy, we did have nice breaks of sunshine! During Memorial Day Weekend, it was sunny with highs in the 80’s! I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and make my way to Glacier National Park; boy, was I happy I did! While most of the park was still closed due to snow and somewhat frequent avalanches, I was able to venture to a glacier! While Spokane has reached May weather, it seems West Glacier is just now arriving to what could be considered April weather in terms of botany. The glacier lilies were just blooming, and I stumbled upon a familiar friend, Trillium ovatum. I was so excited when I saw it blooming, the leaves so familiar as trillium is quite common back in Indiana. I also saw Alpine Forget-Me-Nots, but as far as flowers, that was it really.

Trillium ovatum, Pacific Trillium

Myosotis alpestris, Alpine Forget-Me-Nots

I made my way up Avalanche Trail to get to Avalanche Lake, where the backdrop is the Sperry Glacier. I started my morning early, to try to avoid the masses, and I am glad I did! The trail was decently quiet, allowing for maximum enjoyment of the sights, sounds, and smells! Seriously, I could not get over how magnificent it smelled out there. I would have loved to bottle the smell up and fill my apartment with it. Anyway, after about 2 miles, I made it to Avalanche Lake and was washed over with a sense of serenity. The view was so beautiful, the sun was shining, and the nearby glacier kept the temperature perfect. The moment reminded me a lot of when my 11th grade English teacher prompted us to spend the class period out in the wilderness reflecting, as part of our Naturalism teachings; I was grateful that Mr. Kreibel had taken the time to teach us to appreciate nature while in nature, not just in literary contexts. It was here that I decided to sit and just take it all in. It really just made me so grateful to know that there are so many dedicated people that want to protect the freedoms we have that allow so many of us to do what we love.

Glacier National Park

views along Avalanche Trail

Avalanche Lake

It was also there at the lake that a curious chipmunk befriended me and my bright yellow water bottle. As far as the wildlife goes, I didn’t come across any bears, just my new found friend.

Spunky chipmunk that attempted to steal my raisins and climb in my pack!

In case you were wondering, Kim and I have decided that the answer to my cliche title is definitely ticks and mosquitoes. While it does not rhyme, it’s the truth. Lucky for me – Kim is a great supervisor and whenever we go out, she’s the tick magnet. Also bug spray has quickly become our best friend.

Until next time,

V

SERCal 2017: A week-long lesson in restoration history, practices, and future directions

As a veteran CLM intern who isn’t doing SOS work this season, I was given the option to do a training alternative to the week-long workshop at Chicago Botanic Garden. After a couple weeks of hunting for desert botanical classes at Zyzx and the Jepson Herbarium, I stumbled on the jackpot: the California chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SERCal) was holding its annual conference in mid-May at the University of California – Davis!

Private contractors, university professors, students, and nonprofit conservationists  converged on the UC-Davis campus, many of them restoration professionals who have been in the field (literally) for decades. Their collective experience fit well into the conference theme: ‘Looking back…Leaping forward’. Much of the research presented at the conference examined the success or lack thereof of restoration projects that were 30+ years old. In this field, it’s rare to keep up with monitoring for that long, and some of the findings were not what I would have expected.

For instance, one presentation by the long-time native propagator and restorationist Ed Kleiner (Comstock Seed, Inc.) revealed an interesting trend in restoration sites across the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. Initially, restored sites would be overtaken by invasive species like Halogeten glomeratus. However, after ten years of low-level maintenance that did not involve targeted herbicide spraying, Kleiner’s team found that the native shrubs they planted eventually outcompeted the Halogeten, and after 15-20 years, the site had matured into a thriving sagebrush community. I was pretty surprised at the success of this hands-off method, particularly in a region of the country that’s drowning in cheatgrass (Bromus). I guess only more time will tell if these restored ecosystems are as resilient as they look.

This year was also the first time that SERCal devoted an entire session to that ever-looming threat to ecological work: climate change. The talks in this session focused not so much on discrete studies as they did on frameworks for approaching climate-smart restoration and management. One presentation, by Tom Giraldi of Point Blue Conservation Science, highlighted the need for vulnerability assessments in restoration planning, and the use of past projects in predicting challenges. Another talk that focused on policy challenges advocated for “boldness in the face of uncertainty” – a not-so-subtle reminder that we are running out of time in which to act. Overall, researchers stressed the practice of asking smarter, more structured questions before and during the restoration process.

My favorite session (and that which was most applicable to my internship) was the one on native plant and seed source management. Presentations included germination work with rare species, the use of large-scale and sustainable agricultural practices for propagating native species, and the finer points of designing seed mixes for disturbed sites. Most touched upon the National Seed Strategy (NSS) and its importance in guiding long-term, interdisciplinary restoration projects, speaking of it as though it were a battle plan that could lead them through the uncertain mire of the future. As a CLM intern and a former SOS worker, I felt privileged to be part of a grand design of such importance.

Perhaps the most exciting take-away of mine from SERCal 2017 are the networks I built with the conservation professionals I met. One of them, Professor Neville Slade of Victor Valley College (VCC), located in the western Mojave Desert, is interested in helping his students plug into the NSS as CLM interns. In June, I’ll be visiting VCC to talk to these students about my experiences as a SOS/CLM intern. It’s my hope that I’ll be able to plant some seeds in these students’ heads that will grow into commitment to conservation and sustainable, long-lasting repair of the damage that we humans so easily wreak on this precious planet of ours.

 

Approaching Month 4 in the SLFO

As the third month of my SOS internship closes out and the fourth month begins, it’s hard to wrap my head around all that Theresa and I have seen and all the seed collecting we have yet to do. The beautiful Phacelia and Camissonia species we have come to love have already budded and faded, and all of a sudden most of the species we have been monitoring in various places of our field office seem to be about to have their seeds ready all at the same time. All. At. The. Same. Time. While the prospect of this seems daunting, it’s also exciting. I’m very much looking forward to the trials and errors of my first seed collections. Due to some tragic personal events, I missed out on our actual first seed collections and am now eagerly awaiting my chance to collect seed.

The field office is definitely buzzing with the huge amount of seasonals that have gradually came on in the last month. Our little intern area is no longer quiet; it’s now a beehive of activity between the 3 AIM crews, aquatic AIM crew, weeds people, and other seasonal vegetation crews. The competition for a computer might get quite fierce. Thankfully, Theresa and I are out in the field most of the time, so we can escape the office.

My favorite location in our field office, the Silver Island Mountains

Other highlights include our first camping trip for work (I remember now what being coated in dust feels like), finding some interesting forbs out in the West desert, and finally finding an acceptable Great Basin Wild Rye population.

Sunset from my tent during our first overnight

Trying to Stay Hydrated in the West Desert,

Corinne Schroeder

West Eugene Wetlands

I am two weeks into my internship at the West Eugene Wetlands.  My focus will eventually be restoration and invasive species management, but for now I’m just focused on catching up with all the various projects happening around the wetlands.  In my first two weeks here I’ve done all manner of different things.  I’ve monitored endangered lupines, helped run a volunteer day for some college kids, installed bird boxes, and chased after butterflies with a net, just to name a few things I’ve done.

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, but I’m looking forward to getting better acquainted with the area and my position.

Colin

West Eugene Wetlands, BLM

May 2017

I never cease to be amazed at how different a rich forest habitat can look from spring to summer.  Rock outcrops on slopes of these areas that once stood out as clear as could be in spring are often covered in thick herbaceous level growth by this time of year.  Unfortunately in some cases this is because an invasive plant such as Garlic Mustard has reached maturity in such numbers as to obscure the ground level.  Native undergrowth in more stable areas can achieve the same effect.  I have been spending a fair amount of time surveying in cool, shaded, north-facing forests associated with limestone rock outcrops recently.  One of my priority target species, Arabis patens, occurs here.  The genus Arabis, and the Brassicaceae family in general, can be a difficult group of plants to identify.  Recent taxonomic treatments have placed some species previously found in Arabis into other genera such as Boechera, Borodinia, and Arabidopsis.  This only adds to the difficulty.

Arabis patens (Spreading Rockcress)

Arabis patens (Spreading Rockcress) This picture shows the fruit, sub-entire to entire middle cauline leaves, dentate lower cauline leaves and the smaller basal leaves. I’ve found that leaf size, shape and dentation varies among individuals.

These limestone bluff forests contain some interesting geological formations.

Jeffersonia diphylla (Twinleaf) is not a rare species in Maryland but it has caught my attention over the years because of the bad luck I’ve had trying to catch it while it is in flower.  Fortunately I was able to catch it this season as I discussed in a previous post.  I also ran into huge patches of it in May.  I have observed patches stretching for acres that have approximately 80 percent cover throughout.

Jeffersonia diphylla (Twinleaf) The seed capsule has opened and fallen over, spilling its seeds onto the ground.

Jeffersonia diphylla (Twinleaf) The seeds look like ovate popcorn kernels. The out of focus plant next to them is a Twinleaf seedling.

Some other species I’ve recently encountered in rich woods, although not necessarily in north-facing limestone associated forests, were Viola canadensis, Maianthemum racemosum and state-listed Panax quinquefolius  Panax quinquefolius (Ginseng) is a well-known plant in the Appalachian region.  Because of its commercial value it has been extensively harvested throughout its range.   This exploitation has earned it a G3G4 global ranking from NatureServe.  I find this plant’s foliage quite attractive and its presence in an area usually indicates the habitat is stable and possibly high quality.

Viola canadensis (Canada Violet) This species can reach over two feet in height. The yellow throat of the flower is a diagnostic character.

Maianthemum racemosum (False Solomon’s Seal)

Panax quinquefolius (Ginseng)

I caught another well-known plant, although for much different reasons, in flower recently.  Toxicodendron radicans (Poison Ivy) is a common vine that for whatever reason I don’t see in flower often.

Toxicodendron radicans (Poison Ivy)

Lastly, May 19th was Endangered Species Day.  I participated in a youth event held in Cumberland, Maryland that discussed rare species with groups of 4th graders.  I got a kick out of one child who attempted to explain how “Bigfoot” was a rare species.

Coleman Minney