A Myriad of Experiences

Well, another 3 weeks have flown by! It is hard to imagine that so much time has passed. As the title of this post implies, I have had countless experiences. I will just touch on a few I found most meaningful.

First, attending the CBG Workshop in Chicago was by far one of the greatest learning experiences I’ve had thus far. The knowledge I’ve gained gained on plants was heavily reinforced and jogged many memories from my graduate classes in Nebraska. Also, simply the real-talk on getting jobs after this internship were beyond beneficial. I feel slightly more prepared to apply for and get a job after the CLM Internship.

Second, we began monitoring the riparian systems the allotment we were assigned for the field season and continued monitoring the cattle. Having never worked on a riparian system, I was excited to learn whatever I could from my mentor and the permittee that accompanied us the first day. Just hearing the permittee’s thoughts on the land and management practices was amazing. The plethora of knowledge he had was quite surprising as well. I believe that his accompaniment further enhanced the learning process. He even went so far as to test us on the land formations around us after he taught us the names. That was unexpected pleasure and helped ingrain the names into my mind. My partner and I practiced saying the names of the formations while doing compliance checks for cattle.

Surveying for Cattle Compliance Within a Previously Burned Pasture

Last, the amazing views and critters I have seen while monitoring have been awe-inspiring. The abundance of Pronghorn still surprises me. The young of the year have grown so much in the past few weeks. It is interesting seeing how many are very timid and run at the sight of our truck but others wait until we get fairly close before bounding off with their mother.

Other critters we’ve seen thus far include sage grouse (with young!), Golden Eagle, Lark Sparrows, Lark Buntings, Mule Dear, and horny toads! I thought a horny toad was horny, toad but was surprised to find out it is a lizard (I honestly have not heard of them until coming to Wyoming). The horny toad was super cute and made our day in the field that much more pleasant.

Horny Toad Found While Doing Vegetation Monitoring

Photo from “Above the Rim” Near Our Allotment

I look forward to the weeks ahead in the field. Fingers-crossed we don’t get stuck or have a flat tire anytime soon!

Until next time,

– James Noyama
Bureau of Land Management – Lander Field Office                                                 Lander, Wyoming

Boatloads of Fun in Klamath Falls

A beautiful day on the Gerber Reservoir

Spring has quickly progressed to summer here in the Klamath Basin. Nights are still cool, but the daytime temperatures have gotten to be a very comfortable 75-85. With the warming weather, work is shifting from in the office to in the field, a most welcome change. Although I will admit that Marissa and I recently remodeled our cubicles, and they are both looking mighty cheery these days. Speaking of Marissa, at the time of this writing she is off at a conference in Hawaii, and I’m holding down the fort here in Klamath Falls.

On another note, I would like to point out that cattle love to poop. It must be their favorite hobby. Either that, or standing in the middle of whatever road you find yourself driving down. Biologists are generally less concerned with why the cow failed to make it all the way across the road. We like cow poop. Sometimes cattle poop in unfortunate areas, like in and along streams and ponds. And where there are cattle, there are cattle trails. Cattle can expedite the process of erosion, change the composition of the riparian habitat, and decrease water quality. In the case of streams serving as critical habitat for endangered species, these effects are notably unwelcome. A few weeks ago, a few of us from the office set off on a mission to confirm and/or deny that cattle were accessing certain stretches of a few remote rivers. Ladies and gentleman, enter the enthralling sport of cow-pie hunting. We would leave early in the morning, drive four-wheel drive roads, get lost, encounter snow, hike off trail, and be deterred by dangerous river crossings. All in the pursuit of poop!

Heading off into the Williamson River delta with a boatload of wocus plants ready to be transplanted

Getting ready to sink an array of wocus plants

Poop is fun, and so is underwater gardening! Just this week I donned a dry suit and hopped in a roadside wetland. Submerged up to my neck, I followed the stems of lily pads down to the muddy sediment below. In this rich muck, I felt blindly for the big, hunking tuber of the wocus. With a circumference larger than a coffee mug and a texture resembling a pineapple sans spines, I would scrap, pull, push, chop, wiggle, and heave at the often several-foot long tuber to free it from its benthic home. Once free, the tuber would float on the surface, giving no indication that in fact prefers to be buried several feet down below the surface. These wocus plants will be transplanted to a Nature Conservancy property in an effort to reestablish the natural wetland areas that were once there.

Pulling in a fyke net to sample for suckers!

Whether poop hunting or extreme underwater gardening, the field season here sure is heating up. Other activities have or will soon include electrofishing, zooplankton sampling, larval fish studies, goose banding, and fish netting. I’m glad my work here has offered up plenty of opportunities to explore, learn, gain professional experience, and hone my underwater gardening skills.

June 2017

The last week of June has been glorious in terms of weather but the rest was very hot and humid.  I had the opportunity to participate in a few non-plant related activities recently.  I assisted with a breeding bird survey and tagged along with the park’s geologist intern to visit some caves and poke around for fossils.  I still got out to do some plant surveying though.

One plant that occasionally gets overlooked by some is Polygonatum pubescens (Hairy Soloman’s Seal).  It grows alongside and appears very similar to another species within this genus, Polygonatum biflorum (Soloman’s Seal).   Fortunately, once you are aware of the two species they are easily distinguished even without flowers.  The leaves of Polygonatum pubescens have lines of hairs on their underside while Polygonatum biflorum’s leaves are glabrous throughout.

Polygonatum pubescens (Hairy Soloman’s Seal)

Polygonatum pubescens (Hairy Soloman’s Seal) A close-up of the leaf underside showing the rows of hairs along the veins. Folding it over the finger like this seems to be the best way to see them. A hand lens is not required to see them.

I feel obligated to mention that distinguishing the genus of Polygonatum in a vegetative state from other similar genera took me several seasons to learn.  Some of the genera that can look similar to Polygonatum in the eastern U.S. are Maianthemum spp., Uvularia spp., Prosartes spp., and Streptopus spp.  It’s also worth mentioning that the synonym for Maianthemum is Smilacina while the synonym for Prosartes is Disporum.   Distinguishing these genera when in flower is a lot simpler.  However, typically Polygonatum spp. can be separated from Maiantheum racemosum by leaf margin characters and these two genera I just mentioned can be separated from Prosartes spp. and Streptopus spp. by whether or not their stalks are forked.  I have never personally seen Streptopus spp. in the field.

I also found Ruellia strepens (Limestone Wild Petunia) in flower this month and realized just how inconspicuous it is when it is not in flower.  The common name of this plant is slightly misleading.  Although it may grow predominately in limestone areas it is not limited to them.  One of the populations I found was around the Potomac Gorge area in a floodplain forest.  This species is listed in Maryland as a S2S3.

Ruellia strepens (Limestone Wild Petunia)

Ruellia strepens (Limestone Wild Petunia) The calyx lobe width is an important character in distinguishing species within this genus.

Not far from where I found the Ruellia I checked out a rocky river outcrop along the Potomac and found two other state listed species.  One of those species was Trachelospermum difforme (Climbing Dogbane) which I discussed in a blog entry last season and is an S1 (Endangered) species.  The other was Hibiscus laevis (Halberdleaf Rosemallow) an S3 (Watchlist) plant.  I guess the interesting thing about the photos I took is that they show each plant in an immature state.

I should note as I stated in my previous entry that leaf shape for climbing dogbane is listed as “variable” in the manuals.  To my eyes the young leaf grow was linear and narrow with more vigorous/older stems showing the orbicular and wider leaf shape I was used to seeing.  With that said I can’t be certain if these young “narrow leaves” will retain their shape as they grow or morph into the orbicular form.  I also can’t be certain whether or not this narrow growth is a result of physical damage to the stems.  The stems are exposed to potential damage from flooding and visitor trampling.  Additionally, in my previous post I neglected to mention that some species descriptions for climbing dogbane state that milky sap is not always detected when its tissue is broken.  As with all populations I have encountered on the Potomac, these plants did have milky sap.

Trachelospermum difforme (Climbing Dogbane)

Trachelospermum difforme (Climbing Dogbane) The population was in fierce competition with Campsis radicans, Toxicodendron radicans, and the non-native shrub, Ulmus pumila.

Halberdleaf Rosemallow is not especially uncommon along the Potomac River.  The pictures I took captured it at about the half way point in terms of its growth height.  The leaf shape is very distinctive.  It could be confused with Hibiscus moscheutos (Crimsoneyed Rosemallow) which can have slight lobing of the basal portions of some leaves.  Typically Halberdleaf Rosemallow holds true to its name and possesses well defined lobes throughout.  One of the interesting observations I noted from this population was the deformities in the leaves as seen in the pictures.

Hibiscus laevis (Halberdleaf Rosemallow)

Hibiscus laevis (Halberdleaf Rosemallow)

Hibiscus laevis (Halberdleaf Rosemallow) This picture shows an example of the leaf deformities I observed. This type of deformity occurred in every clump of plants though varied in abundance on each stem.

I’ve crossed the halfway point of my internship once more.  July will be a busy month because many of the G1-G3 priority species on my list are flowering in that period.   July on the Potomac is particularly exciting for me because the decrease in rainfall that usually occurs opens access to certain islands and scour bars on the river where so many interesting and rare plants grow.

Southern Idaho at First Glance

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Hello there from Shoshone, ID!

Wyethia field in Sawtooth Mountains

 

 

My name is Patricia, and I am working primarily on SOS with Danelle Nance for the BLM. I came out here late May from Phoenix, AZ and life in Southern Idaho (so far) has been treating me very well. (A pleasant surprise! — Sorry, I have to be honest and admit that I was definitely a skeptic about Idaho before I arrived here, but I couldn’t be happier that I just went for it with this one.)

With Danelle and my SOS partner Jenny, and Harpo (another CBG intern) in the Bennett Hills scouting out potential SOS populations of our target species (field of Yarrow on right)

Dierkes lake at sunset – great rec site located in Twin!

One of my favorites so far this summer – spiny hopsage *Grayia spinosa*

SOS partner and new friend (Jenny) killing it on a climb at City of Rocks – definitely recommend going if you’re into climbing!

Similar to a lot of the other interns in my office, I am living in Twin Falls, which is approximately 30 minutes south of the Shoshone Field Office. Compared to Shoshone, Twin has a little bit more going on in regards to groceries, people, and not feeling too isolated. It is in a great location — Sawtooth National Forest, Yellowstone, City of Rocks, Sun Valley, etc. are only a short drive away! Plus, there is also a ton of great local climbing, biking, and hiking spots too. Dierkes Lake near Shoshone Falls, in particular, has been a great place to boulder, sport climb, run, and swim with both work and new friends. I think that this effort to explore my new surrounding area extensively after work and during the weekends has helped me immensely in adjusting to this new environment.

In regards to work, I cannot express how awesome Danelle has been as a mentor.  She truly has been an approachable and helpful guide these first few months: helping me feel comfortable in the office and pushing me to take advantage of the ample learning opportunities here in our field office. With that said, my knowledge in botany for the area, plant identification, and field skills have all been strengthened immensely, and my interests have become much more apparent to me.

Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls – great spot to watch and meet crazy base jumpers who come from all over the world!

Until next time.

WYldlife Encounters (Lander, WY)

When I learned my placement would be in Wyoming, my first thought was “Wow! The birds are going to be so different”.  What I didn’t think about was that almost everything would be different. Coming from the tallgrass prairie in Iowa, where I completed my undergraduate degree, I was in for a big change. When I first arrived, I was a little overwhelmed by my inadequacies in identifying the plants and my unfamiliarity with the birds of the area. The overlap in wildlife between Iowa and Wyoming was greater, but being in a new ecosystem has really been stretching my knowledge. While I am a wildlife biology intern, I spend a lot of time identifying forbs, grasses, and trees. Going from Iowa, where I was capable of identifying most plants in my research site at the species level, to Wyoming, where I was only able to identify plant families opened up a whole new area of learning. Keying plants and making lists of genus and species characteristics, I am working my way to familiarity with new organisms.

The new wildlife has been easier to learn. It’s hard to forget such charismatic animals such as black bears, foxes, sage grouse, elk, and antelope.  In my short time here so far, I have been greeted with many familiar wildlife species. Hairy woodpeckers followed me and my field partner through the woods one day, my lawn is home to a small gang of rabbits, and today I saw a badger.  When I learned I would be starting a new project doing amphibian surveys, I got the chance to interact again with some other familiar friends – Tiger Salamanders, Leopard Frogs, and lots of macroinvertebrates. The amphibian survey consisted of walking through the marsh with an 8 foot net, digging through mud, and looking for evidence of amphibian reproduction.  Pictured above I introduce to you a slightly dead elk found in the woods, a tiger salamander larva, and myself, during an amphibian hunt. Hopefully, as the wildlife biology intern, there will be more wildlife encounters to come!

CLM round two

Wrapping up my 5th week at my internship in Shoshone, Idaho, it’s hard for me to decide what to write my blog post about! There has been so many exciting moments that it’s hard to choose! This is my second gig with the CLM program, but my experiences have been vastly different. Last summer I worked at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank, doing Seeds of Success work. I was stationed at Staten Island, NYC and I lived in Brooklyn. Now I am here in Idaho working for the the BLM and it has definitely been a change in pace. Although I really loved New York City and having such a unique CLM experience, I can really appreciate the quietness of Idaho.

I’m originally from Florida, so about 10 days before the start of my internship, my cat and I drove out to Idaho. It was a 48 hour drive and luckily I have a cat who weirdly loves the car! Driving across the country was definitely an experience. I had never spent any real time out west before and driving through  Wyoming felt like I was being awoken to the amazing-ness of the west. As I drove into Twin Falls (the town I live in), I am taken by surprise as I cross over a bridge with a GIANT canyon (now I know it’s the Snake River Canyon)! This was just the beginning of the beauty I have discovered in Idaho so far. Seriously, my phone storage has been hating me ever since I moved here.

Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, ID!

One thing I really love about my job so far is the diversity of things that we get to do. We started out doing a modified version of AIM (Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring). Doing MAIM has been great so far and I really love learning new species of plants everyday. We get to visit beautiful spots and *maybe* one day I will be able to easily identify the different species of sagebrush! However, we are quickly wrapping up that part of the job and are moving on to other projects! We get to help out on various projects with Idaho Fish and Game, which really excites me because I have a degree in Wildlife Ecology and have a love of both plants and wildlife! Today we went out and did bat and invertebrate surveys in three different caves. This was such an awesome experience, even though we did not find any bats unfortunately. Tomorrow we will be helping out on pollinator research! Very exciting stuff!!

Bat and invertebrate surveying

The workshop at the Chicago Botanic Garden was also a great experience. They were lovely hosts and it was so nice getting to meet interns from all over the country!  The “Butterflies & Blooms” exhibit at the garden was amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits the garden.

 

Butterfly or leaf? Found at the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit at CBG

Hiking out to our field site!

Overall my experience has been wonderful and I am looking forward to more to come (and to eat more potatoes).

Signing off from Shoshone, Idaho!

Barbara Garrow

Six Weeks In

I wouldn’t consider myself an eloquent person, particularly when it comes to reflecting upon experiences I’ve had. This perception of myself has made it difficult for me to sit down and write this blog-post. Thus, I’ll try to keep it concise.

This internship has forced me out of my comfort zone in more ways than one. I find myself stumbling upon new plants and wildlife that, as a native east coaster, seem otherworldly. From a political perspective, I am absolutely a minority as I’ve relocated from New York, possibly the liberal epicenter of the country, to Wyoming.

This internship, although I am just six weeks into it, is exposing me to more than just a potential career with a federal agency or as a botanist. It is introducing me to new people and perspectives I wouldn’t otherwise come across. It is forcing me to change the way I discuss the environment and other issues I feel are important.

I don’t want to spend too much time talking about my workday since many of the other blog posts seem to focus on that, but also because thus far, the most valuable experience for me as a result of this internship has been the culture shock of relocating my life to a completely new place. I’ve adjusted plenty over the last six weeks, and I look forward to finding out what the rest of this internship will introduce me to.

E. Grapstein -–Buffalo Field Office, Buffalo, WY

Flowers Everywhere!

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In the past couple weeks of work, my crew and I finished training (yay!!) and have begun our work in the field! Our main task is to use the AIM monitoring methods to gather baseline data for new monitoring points in our field office. Our data will be used to inform future land use plans, especially focusing on sage grouse habitat. Every day we get to visit a new place in our field office, and it seems we encounter a neat new plant everywhere we go! A couple of my favorites: Opuntia polyacantha (plains prickly pear caci are flowering everywhere right now!) and Astragalus ceramicus (painted milkvetch, a fitting name for obvious reasons 🙂

We took a week to attend the CLM workshop, where I not only enjoyed meeting all of you other interns, but loved the amazing gardens we were able to wander through between sessions. A personal favorite was the arid greenhouse, filled with gigantic cacti.

Since coming back to Wyoming we’ve been working again on our AIM monitoring sites, but have also had time to explore new exciting places on our weekends. Even as a “local,” I’ve enjoyed discovering, or rediscovering, some gorgeous places in the Bighorn mountains, where the wildflowers are just starting to hit peak season. Below is an amazing meadow purple with lupine for miles, including the rare all-white lupine, one of the Seven Brothers lakes, and my personal favorite flower, Myosotis alpestris. I’m looking forward to what we find in the weeks to come!

 

Here we go, New England!

Hello from my front porch in Somerville, Massachusetts! I am currently enjoying a hot cup of tea, the sounds of the city, the lingering smell of warm afternoon rain on asphalt and cement, and a moment of reflection on the incredible first week I have just had with the internship of my dreams at the New England Wild Flower Society’s Garden in the Woods .

Studying plant ecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I never forgot how privileged I was to grow into my passion for the subject in such a rich botanical area. When I applied to the CLM program I steeled myself to head west and say goodbye to many of my favorite plants. I was excited to learn the botany of a new area but sad to leave the extreme diversity of my eastern home state. Imagine my delight when the offer from NEWFS’s Seeds of Success team came through my inbox carrying the promise of six more months with all that familiar diversity (and then some – our collection list includes over three hundred target species!).

An especially vibrant and somewhat blurry Kalmia about to bloom at NEWFS’s Garden in the Woods. A familiar face from my time working in the Southern Appalachians!

My SOS colleagues in the West are able to collect from huge swaths of BLM property, but the three SOS East teams work within a patchwork landscape that has been extensively occupied and developed on both geographic and temporal scales. Interns here face an additional stage in this early season: the hunt for permission. We are tasked with searching out properties of relevant habitat and adequate size and then directly requesting collection permits from land trusts and other conservation agencies. I have written a lot of emails this week! Fortunately, most conservationists in the area understand the significance of our project and are more than willing to allow us access to their properties. Though the East lacks the great open conservation lands of the West, it is truly amazing how many ecological gems you can still find tucked among historic cities and farmland, lovingly preserved by centuries of botanists, ecologists, and nature enthusiasts at large.

Of course, it wouldn’t be botany job if we didn’t sneak away from the office and hit the field for some flora study! Our awesome mentor Michael Piantedosi very transparently tried to make us all fall in love with New England this week (as if we needed any prompting) by taking us to two of the most gorgeous tracts of land I have ever seen.

First up was the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, a property of a staggering 4700+ acres of salt marsh and barrier sand dunes. It is truly something to look out over such a great expansive of marsh, broken up only by the alternating shades of Spartina patens, Juncus gerardii, and cuts of blue water. The dunes were equally beautiful and some of the tallest I have ever seen, held together by clumps of lichens and Hudsonia tomentosa and peaked with tufts of dune-building Ammophila breviligulata.

Not a tree in sight! Could this really be Massachusetts?

Hudsonia tomentosa (beach heather) in flower, framed by Ammophila breviligulata (American beachgrass). The guardians of the back dunes!

Yesterday we visited Ponkapoag Bog, a completely new habitat type for me. This location is remarkably just a handful of miles out of Boston in the Blue Hills but it feels like it’s on a different planet. We slipped and slid our way along the partially submerged boardwalk to scout out a number of Ericads and sedges, ooh and aah at the majestic Sarracenia purpurea, and squish a lot of Sphagnum. The next time we visit we’ll be armed with waders!

Michael Piantedosi leading the way through the bog and quietly suffering the loss of feeling in his wet feet.

My field notes are full of misspelled Latin after being introduced to so many new plants, but in just a few weeks I know my co-interns and I will be old hats at recognizing our target species and these feverish days of crowding around floras and cramming field characters will seem silly. I am not sure what stage of familiarizing myself with local botany I like better – meeting new species with fresh, eager eyes, or greeting them later as old friends.

My new favorite plant? Nuttalanthus canadensis, blue toadflax. See(d) you in three weeks when you fruit up!

Every day I have to take a moment to revel in the fact that this is really my life. I have never been so happy to go to work! I am endlessly grateful to the CLM program for this opportunity, and unbelievably excited for what the next six months hold.

Until next time!

-Alex

First month as a BLM Recreation Intern

My name is Kelsey Piepkorn and I am from Minnesota. I started my internship at the end of May. I am a recreation intern at the BLM Burns District Office in Hines, OR. The BLM Burns District Office is responsible for 3.5 million acres! There is a wide variety of landscape throughout the district from sagebrush to the historical Diamond Craters as well as the Alvord Desert to the Steens Mountains. My internship has been filled with a variety of activities such as collecting data from traffic counters, hiking to monitoring remote campsites and rivers for the ability to cross, monitoring Wilderness Study Areas, and spending most of my time getting to know the Steens Mountains area. The locals say the Steens Mountains is a bit of an unknown beauty because it is overshadowed by the west coast. I have not been to the summit yet because there is still snow on top of the Steens Mountains. I went up most of the way with a mentor and it truly is breath-takingly beautiful. I also attended meetings and helped with Burns’ first ever “Gravel Grinder” bike race. I now understand how much effort goes into planning a bike race such as meetings, thoroughly marking the course, having people directing riders during the race, and having an Emergency Action Plan set. I was very impressed with the collaboration during the race to keep all the riders safe. I am honored to have helped make the first annual Skull 120/60 Bike Race a success.

Until next time.

Kelsey Piepkorn

Burns District, BLM

On the Steens Mountains as far as we could make it before the snow drifts. This is my office for the summer!

Up in the Steens Mountains area, there is this cool lake formed from snow melt.

In the Steens Mountains area during a 7-mile hike along the Blitzen River, I monitored remote campsites.