With the plant field season coming to an end, it has been time to change gears.  I’ve been tasked with the impossible: Find water in the desert.  The hydrologist at the field office has a set of GPS points of possible water sources.  He used aerial imagery to search for areas of green vegetation, hoping that plants are growing there because water is present.  My new job is to go to these locations and ground truth them.  Although my success rate for finding water is pretty low, the job is actually quite fun and interesting.  Even though there isn’t much water to be found, I have gotten the chance to explore remote areas of the field office and I’ve seen a lot of cool things along the way.  In one week I saw wild horses, wild burros, a coyote, sage grouse, burrowing owls, and countless antelope.  I’ve also gotten the chance to summit a lot of the peaks in the field office and enjoy the views they offer.  One of the best was Hot Springs Peak, part of the Skedaddle Mountains.  It did not have any springs, let alone hot ones, but the view was still great.

View of the field office from the top of Hot Springs Peak

Wild burros near Lone Willow Spring

Coyote

Wild Horses grazing

I just found out this week that I am getting an extension added on to the end of my internship.  I will be staying in Susanville through January.  I am really excited to explore more of the field office, and to work on more interesting projects like this one.

-Sam

BLM Eagle Lake Field Office

Susanville, CA

Today is my last day in the Shoshone, ID field office. It is sad to say good bye to such a small town filled with wonderful people who treated me like family. Walking home from work the other day, a man in his garden offered me fresh carrots, peppers, and cucumbers and our lovely neighbors gave us beautiful ceramic bowls that their parents made. In only five months I feel like we have become part of this small community and I am grateful to have met everyone. One thing I will miss in an odd way is, the Union Pacific Railroad, which ran right through the center of town about 30 times a day. Though highly annoying when trying to make a phone call or at 3 in the morning when you’re sleeping, the railroad is why Shoshone was established and is fascinating to watch speeding by.

I will also miss our neighbors; Justine, Shelby, their dogs Bessie and Shimmer, and the cutest kitten in the world, Tater. Always down to BBQ or just hang out and drink a beer they made Shoshone feel like home. And just so everyone knows, Shelby’s softball team won the league championship…Booyeah!!

Shoshone has been such a pleasant surprise; full of vast landscapes, great people, and a productive field office filled with professionals who truly know how to manage the land out here. There was never a dull moment this summer and I could not have asked for a better internship. Ranging from vegetation monitoring to bat surveys to collecting native seed I have learned much more than I hoped for. I have become more familiar with GIS, identifying riparian vegetation and a better over all understanding of what it is like to work for a federal agency. I hope everyone is taking advantage of their internship, learning as much as possible, and leaving a positive impact where ever you go.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the Shoshone field office, enjoy!

Very clever

Happy sheep dog

Rainbow over Shoshone

Avery with our rescue lambs.

Megan descending into Pot of Gold

Flat Top allotment

Pot of Gold Cave

Aragonite inside Pot of Gold Cave

The phone hummed, buzzing on the book next to Cooper’s mattress. An electric guitar cried out the tune of “Up Around The Bend.” Cooper awoke with a start, frantic to subdue the noise before it woke up his housemate down the hall. Without a second thought about the dream he was having about biking through the woods of an old-growth forest, Cooper sat up on the side of his bed, feet planted firmly on the wooden floor.

Another day was unfolding before Cooper, another day that, even though he had a comfort and routine with his work as a CLM intern at the Four Rivers Field Office in Boise, would more than likely bring about something unexpected. Omelette with toast for breakfast, carrot sticks, trail mix, and rice and beans in his pack for lunch, Cooper slipped out into the cool early morning.

The sun illuminated the sky like a mother watching her son grow. More and more the sun would rise but only until you looked away would it become evident how quickly it was changing, how quickly it was rising to warm the earth below it. Cooper loved this moment of the day. He especially loved the days in the field that would have already begun well before sunrise, so that he could walk through the grasses and feel more than see the sunrise.

Today was no such day. Today Cooper arrived at the office to hear that both he and his co-explorer, Prairie, would be seated upon their thrones in the great hall that was their cubicle. The posters hung, woven from the finest fibers, the text books rested, breathing slowly with their old age, and the two computers blinked, waking from their slumber. A fresh stack of DIMA-data sat upon their desk, letting off a sweet aroma of printer ink and pencil lead. With the click of the mouse and the tap of the keys on their keyboards, they were off. Soaring through plant codes, ground cover types, and sagebrush heights, the two interns sat stoically perched upon their computer chairs. This data would be reported throughout all the lands, both public and private. It was of the utmost importance that it be entered with diligence and care. Cooper and Prairie had grown to love each plant code as their own, subspecies after subspecies, each more cherished than the last.

And so this glorious DIMA-data entry day came and went. A beautiful reminder of the things and places we hold dear, the moments of the day we look forward to, and the joys of what being a CLM intern brings.

*The character names in this piece were inspired by a couple of raptor friends that we were privileged to get to meet and see this past week. Thanks for letting me get a little prose-y. Thought it would be fun to re-imagine the office days that are sometimes harder to love than the field days. Hope all is well with everyone!

p.s. I apologize for the tardiness.

Banding a Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) near Snowbank Mountain, Idaho.

Top of a switchback along Alice Lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area.

Campsite at Toxaway Lake for our weekend hike in the Sawtooth Range.

Me and my boss heading out at sunrise to do yellow billed cuckoo surveys

Round-tailed Horned Lizard. These lizards are rock mimics

Very hard to see but there is a burrowing owl in this picture

Aloha from Carlsbad, New Mexico. A few weeks ago I finished my work on the Dune Sagebrush Lizard. I am proud to say that my team was able to catch 15 of these little guys and we were also able to catch some in areas where no one had ever got close to trapping before. It’s safe to say that after digging over 300 holes to set pitfall traps I have become quite good at digging holes.

I have now shifted my focus on several riparian areas near Carlsbad. Specifically, I have been conducting macro-invertebrate, substrate, and water quality samples to determine steam health and community composition in the Pecos, Delaware, and Black river systems. I also conducted multiple yellow billed cuckoo surveys across the aforementioned rivers to detect a presence or absence of the birds.

One of my favorite days was conducting burrowing owl surveys where a potential oil line may be placed through. Several burrowing owl colonies were discovered in the oil pipeline right of way, so the construction company will have to re-route the pipe so they do not disturb the birds. The owls are quite personal and I was able to observe some of their natural behaviors in a beautiful part of the state. Being a herp nerd, I was pretty excited about seeing my first round tailed horned lizard Phrynosoma modestum while conducting some of these burrowing owl surveys. In the next few weeks I should start work conducting prairie chicken surveys and capturing and tagging birds found in riparian areas around Carlsbad.

The weather is starting to cool down and I am still exploring as much of the state as possible, and thoroughly enjoying myself. I can’t believe this internship ends in about a month. Until next time.

After a lull in collecting, we are at it again, this time with late season Eriogonum species (elatum and strictum), yellow rabbitbrush, and hoary tansyaster. We also are going to do a second collection of Erigonum umberllatum found from a late-blooming population up high. During my time here as a CLM intern I really have gained an appreciation for the rough-and-tough, grow-nearly-everywhere nature of buckwheats. From scorching desert rock outcrops to wind-whipped alpine tundra, from the ashes of recently burned areas to gravel substrate at a 65° slope, buckwheats prevail. This genus not only colonizes and thrives in areas other plants may be too picky, or too “high maintenance” for, but it is one of the most important plants to have around for beneficial insects, and it helps suppress weeds. My mentor recently found a paper published this past May elaborating on how fantastic buckwheats are for conservation, restoration, and pollination. You can read it here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1603/EN13342

I guess my love for buckwheats is a living metaphor for my love of the West.

Growing up in Colorado I may have taken the breathtaking mountains, the sweet, but bitter-sharp smell of the aspens, and the laid-back warmth of the people for granted. It was really never until this summer, traveling between Idaho and Wyoming, spending every single weekend climbing, hiking, or exploring new towns and new wilderness that I realized how amazing and special the West truly is. Eriogonums to me are a symbol of the West—ever progressing, gloriously rugged, resilient, adventurous, and determined in spirit. Their spherical pom-pom inflorescence is like something only from fable and are often overlooked by most, but are sought after by those who realize their importance and character. My eyes have opened to the workhorse that the West is, much like the buckwheat, and how important public land—just like the buckwheat—is to conservation and restoration and producing resources. So here is a sticker-clad worn water bottle toast to buckwheats and to the spirit of the West, and may both ever endure…

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act being signed into congress, here are a few photos from my past two weekends: This is El Capitan above Alice Lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness

Did an awesome 21 mile backpacking trip through the Alice/Toxaway loop in the Sawtooth Wilderness with Joe, our mentor, and Zander. The moon was so bright, it was the first time we had experienced moon-shadows!

Over labor-day weekend I explored the Absarokas in Wyoming. This is on the way up to Franc’s peak–the highest point.

Elk hunting in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness by the WY/MT border outside Yellowstone. Really trying not to get eaten by a Grizzly.

The Panorama view from Sleeping Bear Peak in the Absarokas. This time I was trying to see Grizzlies at a moth site

With our SOS goals met and exceeded, field season is finally coming to a close. At the end of August, we traveled to the remote town of McGrath to make our final SOS collections via helicopter. Three days and forty-two collections later, we met our 70-collection quota for the season! Upon returning to Anchorage, the following week was spent digitizing and organizing data, and on Thursday we sent our seed off to the Plant Materials Center in Palmer for cleaning and processing. Since then, we’ve been mounting vouchers more or less constantly.

Floodplains just west of McGrath

Nomex and voucher-material-collecting

The panoramic vista from our collection site at Mystery Mountain

Polygonal tundra!

.

Last week, I joined a handful of folks from the BLM Anchorage office, The Kuskokwim Corporation (a Native corporation), and the Army Corps of Engineers on a trip to Red Devil Mine. Red Devil Mine is a retired cinnabar mining facility is currently being rehabilitated by the BLM. Thus far, engineers have rerouted Red Devil Creek so as to minimize contamination from old pilings. My task was to collect seed and to scout for potential next-season SOS collections so that local seed sources will be available when the project reaches the revegetation stage.

Cinnabar! Presumably the namesake of the village, too.

On Thursday, we leave for our final stint with the NRCS Soil/EcoSite Survey crews. This time we’re headed up to the village of Central, which lies about 100mi NE of Fairbanks, and with the Alaskan Autumn already in full swing, it promises to be a chilly stint indeed.

Immersing myself in Alaska’s autumn ochre while backpacking in Kachemak Bay State Park

All in all, it’s been a wonderfully productive field season. I’m sad to see the long days fade, but I’m excited for the season of winter sports and kitschy sweaters to commence!

Until our return from Central,
BB

Trees!

Rain!

I’ve officially spent multiple days in the two things that make me happiest!

Look! Trees! In the distance! Soothes my displaced PNW soul.

Grand Tetons, looking across Jenny Lake. So dramatic and beautiful if really quite cold.

Fall seems to have hit Wyoming early this year. Suddenly, attempting to make our last few seed collections is becoming difficult. We should have had a natural lull between our grasses and forbs and our shrubs but now we struggle just to get into the field. Everything is too sodden. Constant rain and thunderstorms have practically stopped all field work (well, thunderstorms and my sinus infection; goodbye 2-year, illness-free streak). Can’t have soaked, moldy seeds and can’t drive on clay roads in the rain. Can’t really function with your head on the floor or feeling like it should be although you swear you’re sitting upright.

However, as our mentor likes to say “the seeds come first.” So, in the last weeks we’ve finished 18 collections, have one partially complete, all data sheets are up-to-date and all information is written in standardized format, half our collections are shipped, and everything is verified. Now, if it will only pause in the unseasonable rain and let us finish our last Psoralidium lanceolatum, Elymus elmoides, Geranium richardsonii, both our Krascheninnikovia lanata, and both our Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus collections we will only have to wait for our Artemisia collections and we will be done!

I do love grey, stormy weather, I do love rain, but this is August. I just want to finish those collections so we can help with new projects. For example: next week we get a rare break to take two days to help the fisheries biologist survey Muddy Creek, an area of special interest as it is prime habitat for four fish species endemic to the Colorado Basin; Colorado River cutthroat, bluehead sucker, flannelmouth sucker, and roundtail chub. Coal and natural gas development in the area cause huge amounts of waste water that has not always been properly disposed of, often making its way into the riparian system. Agricultural runoff, grazing, and a naturally high sediment load further stress this watershed. Finally, invasive species prey upon and have begun hybridizing with the native species. I really just want to get back to some solid hydrology work. I miss working survey and hydro and I’m pretty stoked to get to learn a new protocol and help with a new project.

Outside work, I spend most of my time trying to find ways to stay sane. Sometimes, sanity is really difficult to find and to keep in a place like Rawlins, WY. So, I run away on weekends. Or I dog sit. Dog sitting is good. I don’t have to stay at the barracks. I get to breathe for a second when I dog sit. I also get a lot of free salmon, antelope steaks, white tail burgers, white tail tenderloin, and ground elk. I never ate much meat before coming here but this is different. This is all sustainably hunted and processed, hormone-free, fantastic, tender, game meat. Shoot, never thought I’d say or write such a thing: I get paid in meat. Ha!

I also ramble, I knew that though. Here, pretty flower pictures! Cool bugs!

Scarlet Gilia, Prospect Creek Road, S of Riverside off 230 E toward CO.

Geranium richardsonii, Prospect Creek Road.

I also apparently forgot to hit the “submit for review” button so this is now quite late. Whoops!

BLM Rawlins, WY

Sorry everyone! I am a week late! o_O I have been very busy with all sorts of projects and adventures! No worries, this blog entry is going to be shorter than my other entries… I think ^_^;;

Wildlife Society: Wyoming Chapter Annual Conference

For a couple of days, all of the interns had the opportunity to go to the Wildlife Society’s Wyoming Chapter Annual Conference! This conference was located in Sheridan, Wyoming, which was a thirty minute drive away! We went to many lectures that involved the study of ungulates, diseases, rodents, birds, lizards, and bat surveying. Most of the lectures involved sage grouse, mule deer, and moose. We learned a lot about the inner workings of what the wildlife biologists and policy makers in Wyoming and other Central Plain states do for a living. This was a great place to make connections, network, and learn about new research opportunities. We even met two other CLM interns, Lila and David, from Cheyenne, Wyoming! Since I did not go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens this year, it was nice to see other interns and hear about what they do for their job. Overall, the conference was very educational and I learned a great deal about GIS, wildlife biology, and the importance of restoration/ mitigation studies.

Heather, Myself, Jill, BLM Legend Don, and Sara at the Wildlife Society Conference! \(^_^)/

PRBR: Powder River Basin Restoration Program

Heather had the fantastic opportunity to work on the PRBR program. This study helped with the restoration and enhancement of sage grouse habitat. She would take us to different sites to do an assortment of ground truthing projects. Heather wanted to make sure that the ground truthing/ ocular estimates were similar to the supervised classifications developed from the ArcGIS program. This would help with an accurate assessment later in the planning stages. We mapped different juniper stands, looked for prairie dog towns, and estimated cheatgrass cover density. The results would help with future restoration projects involving the spraying of cheatgrass and the planting of sagebrush and other native plants in the area to promote ideal sage grouse roosting conditions. (Heather could give you a more detailed explanation of the project… I am just giving the cliff notes. <_<;;)

Determining cheatgrass densities using the ocular estimate method.

When we would go out to some of the sites, we would draw the landscape on a paper map with colored pencils showing where there were cheatgrass patches, sagebrush, warm season grasses, and bare ground areas. Heather would then use a detailed scale form to assess the landscape. All of the sites we visited had fire history, so we were looking within the fire perimeter for disturbed areas and cheatgrass densities.

When doing PRBR assessments, we would go by prairie dog villages and see burrowing owls. They were pretty hard to find. If you look carefully, you can find one in this picture! ^_^;;

Office Work! Into the BLM Catacombs!

Did you know that the Buffalo BLM has their own hallway-road system within their office? They labeled each hallway with a specific name and there were maps of the office layout in different cubicles in case you were lost. Especially in the beginning of my internship, you could easily get lost within the building when trying to find the filing system. That was just a fun fact! ^_^;

An over exaggerated representation (brought to you by my imagination) of what I thought the BLM office looked like when I first arrived for my internship.

Anyways, Sara and I were very busy with all kinds of office work relating to our 2014 field season.  Our main job would be to work with DIMA (Database for Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment) and make maps with the ArcGIS. DIMA required a large amount of data entry involving habitat quality, species list, detailed notes, sagebrush densities, topography, slope, fire history, grazing history, invasive plants, water sources, climate, transect data, and soil profiles to name a few. We also had to develop detailed maps of our study area to help with future monitoring efforts. My goal would be to make the most detailed and accurate maps ever. After DIMA and the maps, photograph files of the transects for each site would have to be developed. In the end, we would have to enter the catacombs of the filing system room and create folders for each of the allotments we monitored. All of our data entry would be printed out and put into a folder within the filing system.

The Return of Russian Thistle

Watch out! Russian thistle is ready to take over! Luckily the Buffalo CLM Interns are ready to weed!

We had to return to Welch Ranch Recreation Area to continue with weeding. Most of the field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) had been pulled, except for a few sneaky plants growing under the plastic tarps within the green needlegrass (Nassella viridula) section. With the absence of field bindweed, Russian thistle (Salsola tragus) wanted to take control and dominate over the southern section of the BLM Field of Dreams. Most of the Russian thistle was difficult to remove, because they had matured and developed a series of tiny spines. Each plant was the size of a softball with some growing to the size of a soccer ball. They love disturbed sites and each plant contained around 250,000 seeds! Fortunately for us, they were very easy to pull out of the ground. All of the interns used thick leather or rubber gloves and pulled a large amount of the Russian thistle. Now the bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) and green needlegrass were at peace thanks to the weeding efforts of the Buffalo, CLM interns. Looks like the Russian thistle would not make another appearance until next season.

CLM Interns weeding the Russian thistle. ^_^

To Newcastle, Wyoming! Where are you, Paper Birch!?

Jill was given the task by one of the Buffalo BLM fire planner staff members to go out into the field and collect seed from paper birch (Betula papyrifera) in the Black Hills region in the Newcastle District. The goal was to collect seed to help with future post fire restoration efforts. Jill, Heather, and I drove to the Newcastle BLM to pick up Caroline, who was another CLM intern who knew a lot about the Newcastle District. She helped us navigate in the back logging roads to the areas where there were paper birch! Caroline was talking about the forestry practices and helped us identify all kinds of trees. We went to two sites to look for paper birch. The first site was not very productive and we did not find a lot of birch trees.  We looked in different areas near ravines or valleys, but there were hardly any birch. We followed the map to the second site. When we arrived at our next destination, we found a huge population of paper birch!! They all had seed, but the majority of the crop was not ready to be harvested yet, so Jill would have to come back in a couple of weeks to collect some of the birch seeds.

On an adventure to find the elusive paper birch trees. We eventually found a huge patch!

Misadventures

Grand Tetons

On Labor Day weekend, all of the interns and one of the seasonal employees decided to visit Grand Tetons National Park! This area was my favorite place to visit! I must have been to this region at least twenty times in my life. Even though the weather was rainy and a little cloudy, we managed to do a couple of hikes, look at different visitor centers, visit Jackson Hole, watch all of the sunsets, take many pictures, and try to find as many bird species as possible. This place was so beautiful even with all of the rain clouds!

Some pictures of the Grand Tetons and their biological wonders!

Would You Like to Go Rock Hounding?

Wyoming offers an abundance of wildlife, trails, mountains, and festivals, unfortunately they do not have many areas to go rock hounding. Areas like Oregon, Montana, New Mexico, or California have a plethora of rocks, minerals, and fossils. The state of Wyoming does have plenty of fossils, but they do not have a lot of interesting rocks or minerals. One of the most bountiful objects that could be found almost everywhere in the Buffalo Field Office District was degraded petrified wood. Some areas have orange calcite and interesting gypsum crystals. Areas around by Worland do have agates, jasper, star impact calcite, but they were hard to find. I do have a nice collection of rocks including a small meteorite that I found in the field! I am still on the search for rare rocks and minerals. Hopefully, I would hit the jackpot soon! ^_^

Here is an example of the rocks, minerals, and fossils I found in the field!

Thank you everyone for reading!! Have an awesome day! \(^_^\)

Justin Chappelle
CLM Intern
Buffalo, Wyoming

And now…I will leave you with a picture of a bemused cow in mid-chew.

Bemused cow.

Hello,

The time here, in Carson City, as I presume everywhere else, flies fast. It is already autumn and I can’t believe that I’ve been here for more than half a year… Back in spring we saw all around vegetation sleeping, then flourishing and blooming. In the same way winter birds were here, then they left and are coming back already. As time is passing by, we try to be efficient, as usual, working on same projects but, of course, faster and better. As we spend three out of four week days in the field, a pile with completed field datasheets keeps growing. Which is logical and natural but at the same time, is always pleasant to notice. As we spent our summer primarily in the field, the oncoming events are going to balance our duties a little. This past weekend we had a Labor Day event at Sand Mountain, then we’re going to have a Public Lands Day and Tree Day. All of these recreational/educational events require an incredible amount of time for preparations. I’m sure we’ll do our best. The memories from the past weekend are still bright and vivid but after the Labor Day rest all efforts are directed to work again. Hopefully, along with decreasing temperatures the time flow will slow down a little too…

Until next time,

Andrii

Carson City, BLM