Hi all,

I have a tiny bit of bad news. My laptop deleted the whole album of pictures from my phone that I’ve taken since I moved here for my internship (“catastrophic failure”)! Unfortunately, that means not many pictures in this post – but we went on a collection trip last week, so I have some pictures from that one!

The past weeks have flown by. I’ve been here over a month already! It’s so crazy to me! But we’ve been putting in the hours for sure. Although our first collecting trip was more scouting than collecting, we managed to make collections of Vaccinium fuscatum in a few different locations, Bolboschoenus robustus from Buxton Woods Coastal Reserve, and a collection of roadside Gaillardia pulchella.

It never fails – every time I am making a collection, left with my thoughts and my counting, I think, “I’m getting paid to pick blueberries” or “Never in my life did I think that I would be doing this one day” or “I’ve never thought about this being a job” – (I hate using the word job for this internship… because it is such an amazing experience and a huge learning opportunity. I feel simply calling it a “job” comes with the negative connotations of a drudging 8-5, 40-hour work week, which although is true, it’s different).  And it blows my mind every single time. I love it! I recently visited my family over the weekend, and everyone asks me, “How’s the flower pickin’?” Honestly, it’s FANTASTIC! Everyone should want this position!

We went to a few other places during our first week, including Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve, Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve, Pea Island, and Pine Island. We went to some really beautiful places, and it is a shame that I don’t have any photographs to show it!

Our second collecting trip was north to Virginia and Maryland. We started in the Delmarva Peninsula – I don’t know if any of you have been here, but taking the bridge/tunnel to get there is insane! It looks like you’re going to drive right off of the bridge into the water, but the road dips down under the water into a tunnel (TWICE)! Our group had so many engineering questions that we had to google later on. Did you know that there are such things as engineers that dive? Obviously, there are… but it didn’t even occur to me until we started asking these questions! We visited about 12 places on our collecting trip last week, including:

First Landing State Park, Chincoteague and Assateague National Wildlife Refuges, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Robinson Neck Preserve, Horn Point Laboratory – University of MD, Tuckahoe State Park, Calvert Cliffs State Park, Point Lookout State Park, Smallwood State Park, Mason Neck State Park, and Belle Isle State Park. We made collections of Juncus roemerianus (thanks for the splinters) and Glyceria striata. We had to take canoes and kayaks out for some of our collections, of which I promptly thought, “I’m getting paid to kayak right now.” It was first thing in the morning, we were at our first sight for the day – it was beautiful, and I was kayaking out to a population of Juncus roemerianus. If you think that isn’t awesome, you’re wrong.

Big news for me, I finally saw Monotropa uniflora in the wild! I remember learning it in class, and I would always admire it in field guides, but now I’ve finally seen it with my own eyes! I got so excited. It’s the little things.

From our kayak out to some Juncus roemerianus.

Some more personal side notes:

I had a dream about Bolboschoenus and Spartina the other night. I’m still undecided on if that’s a good or a bad thing.

What I dream about

I’m finding myself doing a lot more roadside botanizing than I used to do.

I’m talking about plants a lot more, from which I’ve found the general public is not very interested. WHATEVER.

My farmer’s tan is off the chain.

Thanks for reading!

Melanie

I am close to two-thirds through my internship. I feel like getting to know the area and scouting populations was a distinct part of my internship. Making seed collections was a sudden chaotic second part of my internship. Since my last post to the blog, we at the Mother Lode Field Office have doubled our SOS collections, from 9 to 18. As I have revisited sites to increase the size and diversity of collections, I have been able to start collections of other species. Targeting multiple populations in one area has been an efficient way of making collections. Since arriving back from the training at the Chicago Botanic Garden, a Youth Conservation Corps team has been working at our office. The training helped prepare me for speaking with this crew about Seeds of Success as they have joined me in the field for collections. I have also spent considerable time processing the collections, i.e. organizing photos, scanning data forms, shipping seeds, and confirming species identifications at the UC Davis Herbarium. As for the remaining two months of my internship, I hope to make a few more SOS collections and then wrap up the post-collection tasks. Beyond that is a bit of a mystery. I will likely be working at a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Plant Materials Center. I am keen to learn more about where and how some of the working collections from this year could be utilized for restoration. Some collections were too small to incorporate into SOS, so finding a use for those is important to us. Thistle eradication, in part through rotational grazing, has been ongoing on some grass lands at our field office. The needle grass that I collected may be utilized there. As we have collected multiple species from particular locations, it would be great to see those species utilized together for restoration. For instance, larkspur, checkerbloom, and iris collected from one oak woodland could be established at an adjacent woodland. The chaparral near Mokelumne Hill that burned last year has been a prolific collection site, including Zigadenus exaltatus, Calochortus monophyllus, Camissonia hirtella, Scrophularia californica, and hopefully a couple more species soon. Maybe that suite of plants will be critical to future fire restoration in the Sierra Nevada foothills someday. Then again, maybe they will be incorporated into someone’s research of fire ecology. Either way, I hope to hear about it. Check out some of my favorite seeds of the season below, and enjoy your internships!

Phacelia cicutaria

Delphinium hansenii

Sidalcea hartwegii

John Woodruff

BLM Mother Lode Field Office, CA

The weeks since Chicago have been so busy and exciting! I was thrilled to get back to Washington–that brief time spent in the the dense, muggy Midwest renewed my appreciation for my new home and was enough to remind me why I am never, ever moving back to that climate! I’m forever grateful that I was placed in Washington–it’s funny how sometimes you don’t even realize a place is wrong for you until you move somewhere else.

Now that the constant stream of traveling and training that defined our spring is over, we’ve been getting down to business with our ESR work and making plans for the rest of the field season. With this planning comes the realization that the task ahead of us is nothing short of monumental. On a map, the many parcels that we need to survey for weeds look small and manageable. But after being out to some of the smallest, and still spending hours and hours combing these areas for noxious weed populations, I admitted to myself that it’s going to be a lot slower going that I’d imagined. I’m not complaining–the work is tough, but enjoyable–but I’m definitely overwhelmed. Managing land, even the relatively small amount of land that the BLM owns in WA, is a HUGE job! There’s just so much area to cover, and so little time. Luckily, the fact that we are only surveying areas that burned recently narrows our focus a bit. Not much though–last summer was one of the worst wildfire years in Washington’s history.

Last week Katherine, Gabe, and I camped out for work for the first time. I wasn’t sure how well I’d handle it, since I REALLY hate going to bed dirty, and trekking through the burns somehow coats even the clothed parts of me with a layer of dirt and ash. I toughed it out though, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected (at least, not once I’d used half our water supply to scrub my legs clean! I’m only exaggerating a little here.) We’re camping again tomorrow night, so this time I’ll be sure to bring my own, personal water supply!

Lilium columbianum. Exciting!

I had been waiting to see Clarkia pulchella for ages, and my patience was finally rewarded!

Since we had both Friday and Monday off this past weekend courtesy of our 4-10 schedule and 4th of July, Katherine and I took advantage of our four days off by heading up to Vancouver and taking a mini-vacation! Highlights of the trip included a hike in the breathtakingly beautiful temperate rain forest, a trip to the aquarium, a brewery tour, dinner at Dark Table (a restaurant where you eat in the pitch black!) and making fun of the way Canadians say “out” and “about”. Though we were sad to leave, the bacon cheeseburgers we had upon our return made me glad to be back in the good ol’ USA.

Vancouver!

Pictures couldn’t fully capture the beauty of the forest

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee, WA Field Office

Hello!

I’m Laura, one of those rare East Coast CLM interns. I’m working for the Greenbelt Native Plant Center in Staten Island and living in Brooklyn. Being placed in New York City was not what I expected, though it was definitely a blessing in disguise, even though living in a big city with all its crowds and traffic can sometimes be a lot.

Anyways – onto the plants! I’m working for Seeds of Success – a program through the Bureau of Land Management that aims to collect wild native seed for research, conservation, and restoration. As interns, our goal is to make 100 seed collections per team, each of 15,000-30,000 seeds. Since most seed is ripe in the fall, the first few months of our internship mostly consist of getting to know our target collection species and scouting out different parks and preserves to see what’s growing, if there’s enough to collect, and monitoring its phenology (when it blooms and when the seed is ripe).

Getting to know 200+ species is definitely a challenge, but I’m getting better at it the more I slow down, make careful observations, and consider the habitat that the plant is growing in. Some plants are easier to remember than others because, well, they’re really cool – something all plant lovers will understand. Here are a few of my favorites:

Salicornia depressa:

This little squirt, the common glasswort, grows as the edges of salt marshes and turns bright red in the fall. Its small, squishy, and adorable.

Opuntia humifusa:

Did you know that the east coast has a native cactus? The eastern prickly pear grows in sandy areas along the coast and has showy yellow flowers that pollinators (and botanists) love. Each flower lasts a single day, but each cactus pad produces many flowers that bloom throughout late spring and early summer.

Kalmia latifolia:

I’m used to seeing the flowers of the great laruel (Rhododendron maximum), but I was instantly drawn to the flowers of its relative, the mountain laurel. They’re unique and delicate, and they go quite well with its elegant evergreen leaves.

Lathyrus japonicus:

The beach pea! All Fabaceae (the pea/bean/legume family) are adorable, but the beach pea really takes the cake. I actually took this picture on a beach in the south shore of Massachusetts – it would have made a great collection if it was in New York!

Until next time,

Laura Shriver

Seeds of Success Intern

Greenbelt Native Plant Center, Staten Island, NYC

Wyoming- big skies, big landscapes, and lots of sagebrush. While there are some things I don’t enjoy (mostly the heat), Wyoming is a pretty great state. I love watching pronghorn run across the sagebrush and dodging young calves as they scamper away from our car as we drive to our field sites. Even the afternoon thunderstorms add a certain excitement to the day.

Pronghorn fawns running across the road

Lander is a great town. With a population of 7,400 people, it’s big enough to have almost everything you could need- two grocery stores, one movie theater, a library, and gas stations galore. Plus, the mountains are only six miles away- what more could you ask for?

View from a weekend hike in the Wind River Mountains

It’s been a month since I started work at the BLM. Over the past few weeks I have gone out with field crews monitoring prairie dogs and sage grouse, visited rare plant populations, met some of the other CBG interns at the workshop in Chicago, and identified lots and lots of plants.

One of my favorite days was during my first week of work. It was the day we visited the main population of Yermo xanthocephalus, a rare plant that is endemic to Wyoming and can only be found in the Lander Field Office. The plant was not discovered until 1991, when a botanist came across it while doing surveys for a proposed gas pipeline. Needless to say, the pipeline was laid elsewhere.

Yermo xanthocephalus from the original population

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the second Yermo population with our field office’s botanist. She had received reports of strange activity in the area, so we went to investigate. When we got to the site, we thoroughly searched the areas that the plant was last seen in. One of the points no longer contained any plants, and another had only one. There were PVC pipes in the ground around the area, and new tracks near the population. On the bright side, the view from the area was incredible.

The view from the second Yermo population

It was amazing to see such a rare plant and all of the effort that goes in to monitoring it. While I don’t think rare plant monitoring is in my future, it was interesting to learn about the process and politics of protecting plant populations. It is important work, and hopefully it will allow rare plants like the Yermo to exist long into the future.

Hour 1 of downtime in the office waiting for the conference call. First time in weeks that                           we’ve been stagnant.

Hour 3 of the post-holiday struggle. Few hours of sleep and an early start means a rough                       morning and the hope of a nap.

Hour 8 of quiet after the fireworks ceased. The entire city went a little crazy, and the                               neighbors put on an impressive display.

Hour 22 since the parade began. Most of it was an all-out war with spectators chucking                         water balloons and paraders flinging candy.

Hour 48 of having no voice. The sore throat of last weeks progressed to a cold, and                               pushing through the weekend cost me the ability to communicate.

Hour 88 since the first guest arrived. Out-of-town CBG interns and friends visited for a                           fun, high-energy weekend.

Hour 111 of being out of cardboard for the press. The many voucher specimens are slow                       to dry without a functioning space heater in the drying cabinet.

Day 43 of loving Lander.

***To some extent, I live day-by-day here. This is a snapshot of my current experience. There is so much more to this internship than is implied here ~ and maybe the next blog post will reflect this ~ or maybe not.

BLM – Lander Field Office.

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Deleware

The exposed mudflats of Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in the image above reveal the current state of one of the largest ever salt marsh restoration projects on the East Coast, spanning 4000 acres. Before Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the refuge had long been managed as impounded freshwater wetland habitat to suit the preferences of fishers and hunters, but the powerful storm sent saltwater rushing into where it once belonged, killing the life which could not tolerate it. Our good friends with U.S. Fish & Wildlife decided it would be best to create a salt marsh where salt marsh once stood.

Indeed, all along the Mid-Atlantic coast, restoration efforts are underway to re-create quality, more resilient ecosystems where Sandy has wounded the land. These efforts require A LOT of plant material, but as we botanists know, not all plant material is genetically equal for the conservation of life and land. Plants populations that have evolved to inhabit the shores of Long Island do not fare as well when planted on the shores of Delaware. Sandy has, in a way, done conservationists the favor of opening our eyes to the lack of stockpiles of genetically appropriate plant materials for disaster response in the East. The prudent folks at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank, which we affectionately call MARSB (mars-bee), are working hard to resolve this issue. Land managers up and down the coast are anxiously awaiting the seeds we collect for their projects. This, friends, is how I find myself as a wild seed collector living in the heart of Brooklyn. It has been a sweet dream thus far.

NYC, my home-base

My partner and I have been assigned the task of collecting in the state of New Jersey. Though we have barely begun to explore all of the diverse, beautiful conservation lands for which we have permits to collect, we have had our fair share of adventures, and have seen innumerable neat plants. One of my favorites is the swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosum), which made the trek through catbrier (Smilax) thorns, ticks, and mosquitos worth every bite.

Rhododendron viscosum— it smells as pretty as it looks.

We’ve explored dunes, saltwater and freshwater marshes, forests, swamps, and bogs. Those who know New Jersey know its famous Pine Barrens and the “Pineys” that call the infertile land home. Let me tell you, Pineys know how to claim a beautiful landscape for their home. I loooove the Pine Barrens. It seems that I’ve been too immersed in the beauty to snap a picture for y’all. Imagine sparsely placed pitch pine (Pinus rigida) and scrub oak (Quercus illicifolia), blueberries and numerous other Ericaceae members (my favorite plant family, which includes the swamp azalea), and the occasional naked patch of sandy spodosol (soil talk). Next time I’ll snap a photo haha.

So far, we’ve mostly been scouting out populations for future collection, but we have managed to make a handful of collections already.

prickly bog sedge (Carex atlantica)– collected at Peaslee Wildlife Management Area, NJ

Though there is so much collecting yet to be done this season and beyond, I dare say the next time a hurricane the likes of Sandy hits, MARSB’s vaults will be ready to dole out relief.

Well, I think I’ve spent enough time on the computer for today. It’s time I go outside and do some botanizing. There are loads of fun plants to see in NYC if you have the eye for them.  I’ll leave you with a few photographs before I go.

kayaking on Deleware Bay to reach distant stretches of salt marsh in Egg Island Wildlife Management Area

The preferred habitat of mussels is underneath saltmarsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora).

The native prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa) growing on the dunes with coastal panicgrass (Panicum amarum var. amarulum)

Susanville, here we go!

Susanville, CA

After a long week of car breakdowns and traveling, I finally arrived to Susanville. Overall, it’s been a crazy few months, so try to keep up!

About a month ago, I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Before graduation, I was on a very small island in the Sea of Cortez doing research on the Cardón cactus. The day after I finished school, I was on my way to Los Angeles for a couple of days before my flight to Chicago. After the workshop, I found myself packing up my things, again, and heading north. So, I haven’t had much time to process what it means to be a college graduate, especially since most of my life I’ve identified as a student. Part of me still thinks I’m going back in September…

I’ve only been in Susanville for a week now, but it feels much longer. I was very nervous to move to a place where the population is smaller than my school. I was especially nervous to be away from my friends and family, as this meant, starting over. But moving on is refreshing. Change is good, right?

During the Chicago workshop, I got to meet all of the other interns. Most of the interns had already started, so I got a lot of insight on their projects and what to expect from small towns. We shared a lot of great stories about the unique folks one comes across while being in the middle of nowhere…so many great stories! I even ran into a friend from UCSC, and got to meet Alia and Jillian, the other interns I’ll be living with for the next five months!

The workshop was great and I learned a lot about the history and relevance of the Seeds of Success program, but I am happy to finally be working. My first week at the Eagle Lake Field Office was tiring and hot, but awesome! My favorite part was being assigned my own Jeep, Callie, previously known as Trash Jeep, but now named after the genus Calochortus. On the first day, Alia, Jillian, and I, got a tour of Susanville, and the areas we’ll be working in. The following two days, we collected seeds from Elymus elymoides var. californicus (Squirrel tail grass) and monitored some special status plants, such as Ivesia aperta (Sierra Valley mousetail) and Astragulus pulsiferae (Ame’s milkvetch). We also spent some time familiarizing ourselves with the Artemsia spp, which took a long time, since they all look the same to me. On a more exciting note, I got to see Calochortus macrocarpus, which is about ready to fruit! Oh, and we also met a couple from the office who need dogsitting for the next three weeks! They happen to live in a beautiful house, with a beautiful landscape and four beautiful dogs!

Callie, the Jeep

Calochortus macrocarpus

I’ve been very excited about this opportunity, because I get to learn a lot about plants every day! The flora is a lot different from what I am used to seeing in the Redwood forest and on the coast. I’m also very excited for the three day weekends, because Susanville is located in such a pretty area. So far, I’ve seen Antelope Lake and Lake Almanor! I got some pretty amazing views of snowy Lassen while driving around the Plumas Forest. This weekend, I’m heading to Truckee for some socializing, and Quincy for some bouldering!

I’d say, life after graduating is not bad.

So there I was,in the heart of the Mojave Desert, minding my own business searching for rare plants. When I heard a sound. At first I tried to convince myself it was just the hum of power lines, but no. It wasn’t a hum–it was more of a click, and it seemed to be emanating from the nearest creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). Actually, now that I was listening for it, I realized that most of the creosote bushes around me clicking away as well. A number of explanations floated through my mind: sentient trees, maybe I’d finally found my way into Narnia, bowtruckles, dehydration?, maybe my field partner was punking me, or it could be an insect.

Occcam’s Razor states that the simplest explanation is the most likely, so while I was really hoping for Narnia, I decided to go with the idea of an insect. To test my theory, I picked up a rock and threw it at the bush. I expected a grasshopper or something to hop away and that would be that. However, rather than silencing the creosote or scaring away an insect, my actions caused a renewed volley of even louder clicks. Great, just great–I made it angry.

Fascinated, I grabbed another rock. A little further experimentation confirmed that the initial result held true for the bushes in the immediate surrounding area. At that point, my field partner Kate found me accosting the local flora and demanded an explanation. Without any further details to go on, we did what any self-respecting millennial would do–we Googled it.

According to Google, the most likely sources of the mysterious clicking were Desert Clicker grasshoppers (Ligurotettix coquilletti). Apparently, a male Clicker will likely spend most of its adult life on a single creosote bush. They are extremely territorial for both feeding and mating purposes–the word on the web is that shrubs are more desirable if they have a lower concentration of the protective phenolic compound nordihydroguaiaretic acid. (I guess the leaves taste better.) That explains why, rather than scaring the grasshopper away, a rock to the bush incited verbal reckoning.  

I guess I learned my lesson!

Don’t let the calm exterior fool you–this creosote was not happy with me!

Jessica Samuelson

Needles, CA Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

Almost a month ago I began my journey from the coast of Maine to my new home, Santa Fe, New Mexico, leaving behind the pink granite mountains I had come to know so well and moving towards the mysterious, warm hues of sedimentary mesas. My last hike in Acadia National Park, where I worked this spring, was on Sargent Mountain, one of my favorite places in the park and a mountaintop home to snowy owls in the winter and smooth green snakes in the warmer months. As I ascended Acadia’s mountains, the granite would scrape my palms, whereas the sandstone of the desert crumbles in my hands, leaving behind a rusty red dust.

I spent my first week of work at the CLM workshop in Chicago and have subsequently been exploring the southwest. Our first week of work here included training and getting to know our new crew. Our crew headed to the Valles Caldera National Preserve for botanical training with southwest botanist, Steve Buckley. At Valles we saw coyotes running through grasslands following elk herds, prairie dogs on the alert, short horned lizards, and countless new and exciting native plants. On our way to and from Valles we encountered dramatic, expansive, red landscapes.



Our first week of work also included our first couple of collections: baby aster and squirrel tail. The seeds of each species felt uniquely singular in my hands.

This week we met with a few other BLM botanists and restoration ecologists and did some collecting and scouting. We worked in several different areas including the Perea Nature Trail, La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs, and the Santa Fe National Forest. Each place presented new and exciting learning opportunities due to my unfamiliarity with the ecology of this place. New Mexico also has very rich cultural and artistic undertones. Petroglyphs, murals, and art museums present opportunities to perceive New Mexico through the eyes of other artists, I am feeling inspired!


This beautiful claret cup cactus, Echinocereus triglochidiatus, is one of my new favorite plants here in New Mexico.

That’s all for now.
Ella Samuel
BLM, Santa Fe, NM