While the majority of my work days in my internship with the NPS-Fort Collins entails computer research, I have had the great opportunity to link up with the Rocky Mountain Network. This branch functions as a research-based division that monitors three parks in Montana and three in Colorado. I have spent five days in the field thus far, and each has lent me a new experience. The first four of these were spent monitoring pika along the slopes of Rocky Mountain NP. Essentially I spent the day tracking down predetermined locations with a gps unit and examining the habitat to decide whether it was suitable for the highly monitored pika. An additional associated project was to search for prime samples of pika scat for a conservation genetics project. Much of this terrain was very steep a high forecast for rock slides. The sites were spread to various reaches of the park and allowed me to drive and hike through some incredible territory in the northern Colorado Rockies. Along with a handful of pika sightings I had my first encounters with marmots, elk, and innumerable alpine wildflowers.

This past week I had a chance to freshen up on aquatic sampling techniques. I accompanied several crew members from the RMN to the headwaters of the mighty Colorado River, not but a mere stream where we were sampling. We spent a long day on the west side of the park sampling everything from bank dimensions, vegetative composition, macroinvertebrates, in stream minerals, and chemical properties of the lotic habitat. This was probably my best day in the field yet. I’m looking forward to doing alpine wetland sampling next week with the last of my field days.

My Great Lakes invasives project is coming along faster than expected. I’ve established much of my database and am now most of the way through profiling all the established species. From here I’ll move on to designing the website, creating a webinar, and enhancing the database in any way possible. Still four months to go for me here, so there remains ample time to explore the Rockies and hopefully more of the surrounding west.

In the past few months I’ve been busy visiting several places and taking part in plenty of different activities. Recently we had the Conservation and Land Management Workshop at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Chicago, IL. I had a great time meeting other interns and CBG Staff (my bosses), and exploring the gardens as well as the City on some of my own spare time.

During the workshop we had a few crash courses in plant identification, population genetics, and approaches to monitoring. There was a lot of valuable information I took back to Nevada with me as well as great memories. I learned about different approaches to monitoring and how to build a work plan where the most efficient monitoring methods could be applied to answer the questions you are setting out to uncover.  I was also impressed by the diversity of the entire intern group the CBG had recruited to take part in the CLM internship program. There were people from mostly scientific backgrounds but everyone was very unique and had different qualities to offer.

I was particularly interested when my mentor gave an Ethno botany talk about the many uses of plants as food, medicine, fiber, and regular products used in everyday life. As someone deeply interested in plants I found this talk inspirational and will share with you something Dean Tonenna shared with the group that night. He explained that all of the information passed on through the generations of native people about the natural world can sometimes seem lost but is really still out there sleeping, waiting for someone to take the initiative and look closely at the natural world around us and awaken that deeper knowledge. I liked this and not just in a cultural sense where one could delve into nature to find their roots but as a lesson to everyone that there are a lot of secrets we still have yet to uncover about the natural world. I feel like the talk instilled a sense of adventure and wonder that I try to take out into the field with me when I’m at work.

Finally the seed is ripening and the collections are adding up. After spending a few hours collecting Orthocarpus luteus that is used for sage grouse forage, we brought it back to the office to let the plants dry out a bit. To our horror little worms starting crawling out of the bucket onto the floor. Knowing that the other people in the office would not be overly pleased with our “runaways” we tried to figure a way to capture them as they emerged from the bucket. At first we tried to attach sticky tape around the rim in hopes of stopping them as they tried to escape. Unfortunately they were not phased and just moved across it as if it wasn’t there. Then we had the idea of making a moat with water around the bucket to catch them and hopefully stop them. After searching for an appropriate “moat” we came across a huge platter that we put the bucket in the middle of and filled it with water. Perfect! When we came into the office the next day we could see the dozens of worms that had tried to make a run for it, but failed. Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do? Anyway, we are thinking of dropping a few moth balls in the bucket and close it up for about 15 minutes in hopes of eliminating any stragglers. At least the people in Bend won’t be unpleasantly surprised when they open this accession.

As August rolls around, Lakeview, OR is feeling more like home. Work has become routine, collecting seed, filling out data sheets, and sending seeds off. My fellow intern and I have exceeded our seed collection quota, and still continue to bring in more everyday. At this point, I feel like I have one of the least stressful jobs out there; at least, it’s the least stressful job I have ever had.

It’s not only work that has me relaxed. My social circle in Lakeview has expanded enough to keep me more than busy. Between Thursdays at the Eagle’s Nest, weekend travels, and Monday barbecues with the fire crew, I have little free time on my hands. When I do, I try to play guitar or chip away at the job application block. Often these productive activities are pushed aside in order to watch the favorite sitcom of the trailer community, How I Met Your Mother.

I have continued to explore Oregon. During the second weekend of August I made a quick trip up to the coast, visiting Newport and Depot Bay. Although it was not the first time I had seen it, the west coast took my breath away. The beach stretches for miles in spots, fading melding into the ocean before disappearing in the distance. Newport, Oregon has a phenomenal beach where constant winds have blown the sand into large dunes, four to five feet high. A friend and I did not let these cushy, mattress-like formations go to waste. Sleeping bags in toe, we had an old fashioned camp out on the beach. I woke up a few times in the night, confused and a bit panicked until I heard the soothing sound of the waves, and saw the stars overhead. It sure as hell beat paying for a hotel room.

All in all, life is good out West.

Newport Beach

Although I have been helping people in my office to reintroduce native plants (sage brush, buffalo berry and winterfat), check exclusions fences around campsites on the Missouri River, do call surveys for raptors and other odds and ends, my main task lately has been conducting point counts for birds.
Point counts are a tool often used by wildlife biologists to estimate bird populations, and they work like this- make a transect line (often a road or trail) and stop periodically to listen and look for birds, then record what species you found and how many of each. This by no means gives you hard figures, but rather something to compare to other areas and years. Back in 1998 our field office employed an avid birder who took it upon himself to get in-depth estimates of bird populations within our district. Now that it has been more than ten years I was eager to re-do his point counts, see how things have changed and estimate causes.
In addition to the satisfaction of getting the most up-to-date data, I enjoy conducting point counts because I see something new or unexpected every day. I am constantly having to look up new birds and calls and am expanding my knowledge base. So far I have been able to see neat things like Hawks fighting, curlews getting really up close to yell at me and rare birds like Sprague’s Pipits and Loggerhead Shrikes.
Loggerhead Shrikes, also known as ‘butcherbirds’, are a very interesting species who maintain the delicate body type and feet of a songbird but have evolved a hooked beak with which they can sever the spines of lizards, snakes and even other birds. As a result you have a sweet-looking bird with the not-so-nice habit of skewering prey on barbed wire to hold it in place while it tears off pieces- hence the gruesome nickname. Sprague’s Pipits are known for having the longest flight display of any bird (one was recorded going for three hours non-stop; a trick that would consume half of his fat reserves!)
I am now done with my rounds and on to analyzing data, and one trend I noticed was a decrease in sagebrush-dependent birds towards mid-story grassland favoring ones. This is a fairly common result of human activities, and is not surprising when that is what the BLM and ranchers manage for grazing.

This week has reminded me of the inherent divergence between human and plant scheduling.  Twice this week, I ventured to the field thinking I was going to collect a particular species and returned with a different collection than anticipated.  First, I went to the field expecting to get Malosma but instead got Hesperoyucca. Secondly, I went in search of Ceanothus and returned with Arctostaphylos (Manzanita).

The Arctostaphylos seed harvest was one of the funnest things I did in the last couple of weeks.  It took place on a 50% slope overlooking a valley.  I also gave the seeds a taste test, and they were surprisingly delectable. They tasted like rose hips. I am thinking about making Arctostahylos mead in the future.  I am having a blast collecting lots of seed in this bioregion that is new to me.

Coming out of July, I spent three days backpacking the Lost Coast in the King Range with two other BLM employees, Paul, a wilderness ranger and Aaron, a fish biologist. Access to the King Range is generally restricted to hiking; not just because of the wilderness designation but also the shear wicked topography limits wheeled vehicles. This black sands coastline has massive cliffs dropping straight down with intermittent rolling prairies, nothing like I had seen in Oregon.

Along the trail Paul was greeting fellow backpackers and answering questions, mostly about bears and suitable camp areas, while Aaron, placed temperature probes in streams. My purpose here was to map selected noxious weeds with the Juno unit and then pulling the exotics.

The last field night out some black bears raided camp, going straight for the bear cans and avoiding our tents that we were sleeping in altogether. The bears shook and rattled the cans, eventually waking everyone up as we shouted, “Hey Bear! Hey Bear!” until they wandered off into the night. Following the tracks next morning we assumed the bears probably checked out other adjacent backpacking camps for a meal.

Fast forward a week or two and Ive spent my time collecting seed for natives such as Curly Wallflower (Erysimum menzseii ssp. concinnum), which seemed to grow exclusively within patches of poison oak which definitely was not the most enjoyable seed collection. Yellowtinge Larkspur (Delphinium decorum) and Large-leaf Sandwort (Moehringia macropyhylla) both had their challenges but perseverance prevailed and we eventually had enough for SOS.

Now its August and I’m saying goodbye to the Arcata Field Office. I have never worked with a group of such supportive and passionate individuals who not only care deeply about our natural resources but about maintaining positive public relations. I have learned a tremendous amount of field methodology and techniques, as well as acquiring a stronger understanding of the botanical realm. I feel lucky to have experienced Northern California in ways most people have never seen.  Because I started in March I can still get some summer road trips in before the real world takes over my life again. Thanks to the Arcata Field Office, my terrific boss Jennifer and of course, thank you Krissa and Marian!

I grew up in the Southeast, lived in the same place for 23 years, and went to a college in the same state.  I vacationed in a few places on the East Coast and I had never been passed the Mississippi River.  I envied all of my friends that went all across the United States and out of the country.  I was determined to explore the rest of the States and to leave my comfort zone.

Part of the reason why I applied for this internship was so I could make a major change in my life……

BOOM

I got planted on the other-side of the country leaving my friends and family.  I drove the across the entire country just so I could experience more of what is out there.  I really needed this major change in my life so that I could figure out what is important in my life.  The big idea here, is what is best for me.  Some may say it was selfish for me to leave my family, others may agree with me, but what mattered was, what I needed to do to make my life better.

Basically, I needed to  travel and see what other states/cities had to offer.  California is a huge state and has so many different climates/habitats/ecosystems, it is crazy to see them all.  Waking up to a view of the mountains in a city and then driving an hour to see a desert, and then walking a few miles to find a palm oasis is kind of disorienting, especially coming from a state where it basically is a temperate forest.

If I grew up in the West and moved to the East I may feel the same way about the East Coast having several different habitats etc., but it is refreshing to experience something new.  So I made it one of my goals to try and experience as many new surroundings as possible.

I just took a mini vacation to San Francisco which is about 8-9 hours from where I am stationed in Palm Springs.  I am working in the desert, where the temperatures reach about 120 degrees in the shade!  I get to San Francisco and I have to wear jeans and a jacket in order to keep warm!  It is baffling to realize that I drove that far and I am only halfway through the state.

San Francisco was a blast!  I went to the Golden Gate Bridge, the Golden Gate Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, and meandered through all of the neighborhoods that were located within the city.  I tried booking a tour of Alcatraz, but unfortunately they were full, looks like I just have to come back to do this!  It is definitely a fun city, and I could picture myself living there!

My other goals are to head to Death Valley, and then Sequoia National Forest, I can not wait to explore these areas!  Thanks Chicago Botanic  Garden!

Typical Bridge Photo! It was Freezing!! I did have a jacket!

We have been done with our spring SOS seed collecting for a couple of months now and have been stuck in the office doing loads of computer and paper work.  It took us 4 or 5 weeks to get through all of the important stuff and now we have some free time.  Hooray!  I’ve been taking advantage of the free GIS courses I signed up for through BLM.  I mostly self-taught myself to use ArcGIS, so learning the actual best way to do things is very interesting.  I’ve also gotten to help out on rare plant surveys and other projects that I don’t usually have time for.  We have some awesome trips planned for the Fall, so now we wait.  Even though I’m stuck in the office during the week, I still get plenty of time outdoors on the weekends.

I applied for this internship in the name of professional and personal growth. Writing blog entries aids in my reflection of my experiences and therefore facilitates self-awareness and growth. Thanks for reading.

My best friend, Quincy, and I in Ten-Sleep canyon

Day-to-Day
I am assigned to the Range division of the Resource department of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). I perform ecological health assessments of BLM rangeland leased for livestock grazing. This entails identifying grasses, forbs, and shrubs and estimating percent cover of the foliage. The data collected are then interpreted and compared to previous assessments to help determine how many animals can graze on the land without jeopardizing ecological integrity.

Data Collection –Reading Trend Plots

Big Picture
Almost everyday I journey to unfamiliar, remote parts of Wyoming. I can logically interpret my location from practice creating and reading maps. Before I started this job I couldn’t even open the GIS ArcMap program. Now, I feel comfortable navigating the program and creating maps that myself and others can follow. The ability to use this program has fostered independence at my job. This independence encourages creativity and has also given me a sense of ownership of my assignments.

Hole-In-The-Wall Ranch horses–Just another day in the field

Self-awareness
Living and working with a person who is just as smart, talented, interesting, and stubborn as oneself requires compromise. I’ve learned that some important elements to compromise are communication and humility. I try to practice compromise daily. Sometimes I fail, sometimes I succeed. I am learning that compromise can lead to a more balanced and harmonious relationship.