It’s been a while since my last post…Oops! I honestly have no idea how the time went by so fast. I want to share all of what I’ve been up to in the past two months, but there’s just too much to be able to give a full rundown –  ESR Weed mapping, Rare plant monitoring, Land Health Assessments, assisting our Great Basin Institute colleagues, and plenty of trainings!

The majority of my time has been spent mapping weeds on land that has burned within the last 3 years as a first step to rehabilitating this land. Gotta know where the invasions are before you treat them! On this project, one thought that keeps on coming up is “How are they going to treat all these weeds?” Many of the sites that we visit are very steep and difficult to access for mapping – let alone with a backpack sprayer! In talking to my mentor about this he mentioned a beetle that can be used as a bio-control for Dalmation Toadflax and hopefully in the future using a fungus known as black fingers of death (yes, that really is the common name), or Pyrenophora semeniperda, to control cheatgrass once it has been federally approved.

Weed mapping above the Columbia.

One of my highlights from the past few months was attending a training for Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health in Rock Springs, WY. This is an assessment method used here in Wenatchee, and many other BLM offices, to get a quick snapshot of how an area is doing. The current state of the area is comparing meticulously researched reference conditions using 17 indicators as a framework for this report card, so to speak. I’ve been fascinated by how we define and measure “ecosystem health” for a while now and this training showed me one method being nationally used. In addition, I got to go out in the field with the inter-disciplinary team from the Wenatchee Field Office and see this method put into practice.

(Awesome side-note: I’m pretty sure this training also helped me land my next job! Shout out to Erik Ellis for letting me go.)

Field deliberations over the 17 indicators. Moderately departed from reference conditions? Maybe…

Weekends here have been pretty hot and smokey from all the fires. (Apparently now there are something like 30 fires going at once in the state of Washington!) I’ve managed to have some pretty good ones though, namely hiking through the Enchantments and attending the Washington Native Plant Society study weekend near Mt. Baker.

The Enchantments! Prusik Peak in the background.

Wonderfully wet Mountain Ash. It was nice and cool on the west-side.

My fifth month at the Colorado State BLM Office has come and gone, and I am now entering into my sixth. Luckily, I have been extended for another five months here in wonderful Colorado, which will bring me into the new year.

The last two months have been packed with a variety of species and a variety of work. Early in July we traveled down to Monte Vista in the San Luis Valley in southern central Colorado to meet with Joel Humphries and his AIM crew. It was very interesting to see his crew working through the AIM protocol in the field. I don’t have experience with AIM, so I was glad to gain a better understanding of its protocol. It was also helpful to talk with people who have been doing AIM for a season or more and get their opinions on the protocol as a whole. It seems like a good way to standardize data collection across the BLM landscape in order to get a complete picture of its health.

A little later in July we went up to Meeker, CO in Rio Blanco County to monitor Physaria congesta and P. obcordata. They’re two rare mustard species that grow in shale barrens, primarily on hill slopes. We monitored two P. congesta sites and two P. obcordata sites. Luckily we were able to install a new P. obcordata monitoring plot this year, since we previously had only one.  We have not seen a significant change in population numbers at either P. congesta locations, but have seen a significant increase in population number at our one P. obcordata site this year, as compared to 2011 when the study started.

The last week in July was full of Eutrema penlandii. I had been working on putting together a picture guide for the alpine species in the Mosquito Range (where this species exists) up until this trip. Phil, a previous intern here, started the guide and I finished adding the photos and brief descriptions. I was surprised and happy to learn that several of the other people on this trip found the guide extremely helpful, and I’ve recently finished adding the new plants we found this year to the guide.

E. penlandii is such a fun plant to monitor. E. penlandii is a rare alpine mustard that grows in micro-habitats that stay consistently wet at 11,800’ – 13,280’. This species is extremely inconspicuous, growing 3-8cm high, among graminoid wetland vegetation on Colorado’s Mosquito Range. We currently have five E. penlandii monitoring sites, in some of the most beautiful alpine habitat, and two modified-whittaker plots. Our modified-whittaker plots are long term vegetation studies that measure biodiversity in the face of climate change. This was the second year for both of these plots, and we are starting to get a clear picture of exactly what species exist there. It will be interesting to see how these alpine habitats change over the years as the global climate changes.

This is one of the best species to monitor if for no other reason than its habitat. The alpine ecosystem, and the views that come along with it, are some of the most beautiful and fascinating. And on top of the plethora of views and plant species unique to this ecosystem, the trek up to our sites are fun. We don’t have many monitoring sites that require much of a hike, for a variety of reasons, however most of our E. penlandii sites require it. I found it refreshing to hike 20-30 minutes to a site, to get our heart rates up as we marched up the mountains, and take in the mountain air. We were also very lucky this year to have good weather; it can be quite windy, rainy, and cold above the tree line. We encountered strong chilly winds only one day, and a slight drizzle as we wound up our monitoring on another.

View from parking spot up to Horseshoe Cirque

On the way up to Mosquito Pass

Hiking to Cameron Amphitheater plot

Working in Cameron Amphitheater

Plants in Cameron Amphitheater

Primula parryi

Working on Hoosier Ridge

Last week we worked on Phacelia formosula, a short-lived or biennial species in the Hydrophyllaceae that only occurs in the North Park region of Colorado. We spent a few days monitoring the three sites already established and setting up and reading two new ones. This is the first short-lived species I have monitored here in CO, which changes the sampling design of our plots. So it was great to see how and why we monitor this species differently than our other longer-lived perennial species.

We most often use long term permanent transects within a macroplot where we measure plant density in order to understand population trends. However, since this species is short lived there is not a strong relationship between plant location in one year to plant location in the next, making permanent transects less effective at measuring population trend. So, for our plots we use permanent transects within the macroplot, and temporary quadrats within each transect.  Also, instead of measuring density, we measure the frequency of P. formosula, because frequency is more sensitive to changes in spatial arrangement. For example, one of our macroplots is 20m by 60m with 12 permanent 1m by 20m transects at every 5m, staring at 4m, along the baseline. Then within each transect we randomly place ten 1m² quadrats every year where we measure frequency (is the plant present or absent). For this plot there are a total of 1200 possible quadrat locations, and we measure 120 each year.

Only one of our three sites, California Gulch, has shown a significant decrease in plant frequency this year compared to 2013. This was an interesting year for a few of our sites. California Gulch was interesting because it had so few plants, and another of our sites had few, if any, rosettes. Nearly all the plants at that location were reproductive, despite size. Next year it will be interesting to see how/if this changes.

And today I leave to do Scelrocactus glaucus surveying on the Gunnison River. I have yet to do a river trip, so I am really looking forward to this week. Floating down the river will be beautiful, and S. glaucus is a beautiful cactus as well.

On a less professional note, the last few months of my life have also been very interesting. I recently went rafting for the first time. I was afforded the amazing opportunity to raft down the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge with some fantastic friends. It was an amazing experience, and one I’ve wanted to do for a while now. When in Rome, right? It was breathtaking to see the gorge from the bottom. This was my first time visiting, and I was in awe. Most people get to see the 1000ft drop into the gorge from the infamous bridge, so it was interesting to see the 1000ft rise to the bridge from the water. Obviously the actual rafting was a thrill as well. We went through some class 3 and a class 4 rapid, which was perfect for my first time rafting. We got turned around at one point, and thrashed around a fair amount, but no one fell out. The whole trip was a huge success.

Earlier this month I also flew home to IL to stand up in two of my very close friends’ wedding. It was the first time I’ve stood up in a wedding, and my first wedding since I was 14, so it was quite the experience. It was a huge honor and the wedding day was a lot of fun. I can’t believe we’re at the age where people are getting married! Last month I also went to Portland to visit my boyfriend, where we hiked the most beautiful trail in the Columbia River Gorge. It’s such a lush environment with the amount of rain they receive; such a beautiful contrast to the drier parts here in CO. I’ve also been exploring CO on my weekends. Most recently I went up to Mohawk Lake near Breckenridge. It’s quite the incline, with a bit of bush whacking near the end after Lower Mohawk Lake, but that’s because we lost the trail. This time to the alpine I knew most of the plant species and had a blast pointing them out to my boyfriend. My parents and brother are also planning a visit in early September for a week, so I’m very much looking forward to that, and my sister and close friend will visit mid-September. I think my family gets just as much enjoyment out of my moving around as I do.

Most of the wedding party

Mohawk Lake, CO

Trail up to Mohawk Lake

Tunnels Falls, Oregon

Until next time,

Colleen Sullivan

CO State BLM Office

Recently the New England SOS team and myself had the opportunity to travel up to a Bog. We headed to the Foster Point Bog, which was located near Waterville Maine. Our Mission was to survey plant populations and determine if plant populations are large enough to collect seed from. After you enter into a bog such as this, your life is changed! As we stepped onto the sphagnum mat, it felt as if we were stepping onto a floor of pillows. As we moved through the Bog we found ourselves surrounded by Pitcher plants with strange flowers towering towards the sky.

Sarracenia purpurea in flower

Pitcher of Sarracenia purpurea 

Before this experience the closest I’ve been to a bog was in my college biology classroom where we would study these unique ecosystems via power point slides and scientific papers. We learned about the carnivorous plant Sarracenia purpurea (Purple Pitcher Plant) and how they have modified their leaves to capture insects. Evolving these carnivorous pitchers allows the pitcher plant to thieve in nutrient poor ecosystems. Once insects are captured inside the pitcher of S. purpurea acidic serrations and enzymes are produced, which are accompanied by bacteria. This concoction inside the pitcher actively breaks down the captured prey into nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen, that can then be taken up by the plant.

Currently, I’m 2.5 months into my internship with the BLM in Burns, Oregon. I’ve learned life on the range is not easy; hot 80 degree days, chilly  30 degree nights (who can thermoregulate with these temperature fluctuations?), and a scarcity of water for miles. But perhaps more difficult than adapting to the physical struggles of living on the range, are  navigating the politics of managing them. Trigger words such as “sage grouse” and “crested-wheat grass” cause a passion of emotions according to who you talk to. Some believe that “the sage grouse agenda is going to cause the destruction of the range” or that “the BLM’s preference to seed with crested hasn’t created a market that makes natives affordable to  grow or purchase.” In reality, some of  these assumptions and accusations are from more of an emotional than scientific standpoint. As a result, this often causes conflicts between environmental groups, policy makers,and range managers.  Due to the nature of politics, influential lobbyists may direct law makers (who are not in the field) to issue (mandatory) ordinances that will not necessarily translate to effective management on the ground. The reality of land manager is that funding is limited and every penny matters if one wants to prevent a burned allotment from changing into a field of BRTE or medusa head (invasives). So, is it better to seed a monoculture of crested that will be able to establish itself and compete with invasives or to seed with native perennials that will likely be out-competed anyway?  In this way resources and funding are wasted in the name of compliance.

Yes, the North Carolina Seeds of Success team is still making seed collections! This week, we travelled to Virginia to check out some National Wildlife Refuges on the coast. We visited four sites: Mackay Island NWR, Eastern Shore of Virginia NWR, Mason Neck NWR, and Occoquan Bay NWR. All four sites had species on our target species list! We ended up making seven collections total over the course of three days.

Cornus amomum (“silky dogwood”) berries

We’ve started finding some species we have yet seen in the locations we’ve visited thus far. One such species was Cornus amomum. Unfortunately, C. amomum fruits only contain one seed per fruit, so it was a challenge for us to get upwards of 10,000 seeds, the minimum number of seeds we need for each collection we make. Luckily, we found a big patch of C. amomum along a roadside at Occoquan Bay, and we were able to collect approximately 10,000 seeds in the course of just 45 minutes. Pretty impressive. Some other collections we made included seeds of Cakile edentula, Mikania scandens, and Borrichia frutescens. We also found a large population of one of our favorite species (or at least one of my favorites), Asclepias syriaca, which we’re hoping to collect next time we’re in Virginia.

Cakile edentula (American searocket) seeds

Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed) is getting ready to collect. So exciting!

Emily showing off our collections. That’s only the ones from two weeks ago! Not including the seven we made this week. Woo!

So there you have it! Our collections are slowly building up. Now we just have to find time to clean and ship all the seeds between all of our traveling…

Until next time,

Maggie

Today it is raining in the desert. I feel it must be a sign of some sort; things are changing. The summer monsoons have begun. The once parched wash nearby now brims and glistens. Thunder booms.

Not only is the desert transitioning but so am I. Today is also the last day of the internship, of course it is a day like no other this summer yet! Like the rain, I’ll travel away from here, soaking in the landscape as I stream across the countryside.

Today though, I am still here, still and able to reflect.

My season here at USGS began as the spring annuals bloomed after the winter rains. I characterized juvenile desert tortoise forage in the Mojave, observing the phenology shift from one phase to another, and analyzed our data. My skills in ArcGIS markedly improved – creating random points, maps, buffers, polygons – the list goes on! My plant ID skills also improved, helped along by the tiny desert annuals here that are difficult, yet thrilling, to identify – even more so when senesced!

I dove deep in Utah, unearthing and exposing insights into the murky mystery of oil well vegetation regeneration. The project demanded sifting through site selection, soil, and data, rooting around perennial shrubs, and uncovering and bringing to light the story of oil well land disturbance in Black brush plant communities of eastern Utah. Unfortunately, these wells are not ones the rain can fill with sediment and erase from the landscape, even after decades. A quick glance at the survivors will tell you this. The real mystery of course is which species regenerate and under what conditions.

In all, my experience at USGS has been incredible. From a Pediocactus survey to Night-time Golden Eagle prey surveys, increasing my knowledge of tortoises and herps in general, discovering the marvelous Mojave; this internship has been phenomenal.

Thank you so much to everyone at USGS and CBG who played a part!!

Amanda Cooke

USGS, Henderson NV

What great things will happen now, after the summer rains?

Howdy from Decatur, TX!
It has been an interesting couple of weeks, as I have began my journey with the CLM program with the National Forest Service at the LBJ National Grasslands. The LBJ National Grasslands are located roughly forty-five minutes from my home town. Meeting the crew has been an awesome experience as more of them pour in from fire details across the US. I have come to slowly realize that the world is a much smaller place than I had previously realized. Some of the crew are acquaintances of my recent professors at Tarleton State University, while others are related to friends of mine from my home town.

Welcome to the new chapter of my life.

I am humbled that I was allowed to go to the field on my own on the first week. My mentor has guided me toward the direction I needed to begin with this project. Recently, I have been going to the field with a plant conservationist from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Foundation to add to my botanical knowledge and skills. Now, I am recording occurrences of local milkweed species on the National Grasslands, collecting their seeds, and monitoring for monarch butterflies and their larvae. Although I have not had any luck with monarchs, we found a queen larvae on a very sad looking Asclepias viridis. (no worries the little guy was given a better home on the neighboring plant) The milkweed target species include Asclepias asperula subsp. capricornu, A. engelmanniana, A. viridis, and A. viridiflora.
Until next time…

Keagan Lowey

Recording coordinates of an Asclepias viridiflora.

Bumblebee pollinating an Asclepias viridiflora.

Stealth is key when trying to capture a picture of the mighty bumblebee in the act of pollination.

The queen butterfly larvae on a very sad looking Asclepias viridis on Unit 71 at the LBJ National Grasslands.

Gathering Asclepias species occurrences on Unit 49 at the LBJ National Grasslands.

Not a target species, but very beautiful Rosa foliolosa on Unit 71.

Recording the occurrence of an Asclepias viridiflora in bloom.

Asclepias viridiflora in bloom.

Hi everyone,

The wildflowers continue to still bloom in mid-August, and with rains bringing more moisture, new buds are still forming. It’s been a fantastic year in terms of rain, the forage is amazing and the pronghorns, deer, and elk are fat and happy. One of our sites near Capitol Reef has gotten so much rain that our Helianthus petiolaris collection has been blooming for three straight months. I’ve been lucky to be here on such a good year.

We’ve made 42 voucher collections and 37 seed collections so far. While many of the grasses and forbs of lower elevations have come and gone, we’ve moved up in elevation to montane communities. And, Bouteloua gracilis has finally arrived after seeing only skeletons for the first few months. I’m learning new plants everyday and have enjoyed seeing new plants bloom and thrive as the seasons progressed.

Soil color testing (with our field Jeep) in western Utah

Mounting voucher specimens in lab

Earlier this year our team toured recent treatments done to several areas around Kanab, Panguitch, and Cedar City. Pinyon pine and juniper has been rapidly encroaching on sagebrush and grasslands. Not many plants survive under the canopy and sagebrush almost if not completely disappears. A few target areas were bullhogged and seeded, and we went to check them out. The amount of diversity from treated to non-treated is amazing; non-seeded natives have emerged and thrived so much that they comprise many of our collections. I’d agree that the treatments were very successful, as we saw eight sage grouse utilizing the area near Panguitch. We’ve also seen countless pronghorn, deer, and elk in addition to many passerines. It’s exciting to see such areas succeed, it is definitely one of the most memorable experiences thus far.

Seed collecting Penstemon pachyphyllus in the House Mountain Range in western Utah

Our Buckhorn Wash site is so beautiful, it’s also just around the corner from the Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel

We hiked up to Bullion Falls after eradicating some spotted knapweed

Outside of work I have done quite a bit of traveling. In July I went to Yellowstone, and this month I’ve camped on Boulder Mountain and explored Grand Staircase. Pictures below!

My family came to visit and we went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes, our dog loved it! (picture just outside of the State Park on BLM)

The start to the Spooky Slot in Grand Staircase

Bristlecone pine pinecones are bright purple! Such cool trees

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone – amazing

Until next time,

Ellie Becklund

Richfield, UT

The last 2 weeks of July I was working night shifts with a crew of 2 other people using radio telemetry to track flying western long-eared bats. This was the most intense experience of my internship so far. A typical nightshift lasted from 7pm – 4am, except for a few nights when I did not get home till 8am.

It was amazingly difficult and sometimes frustrating work, especially when it was impossible to locate the bats. However, we successfully got enough locations to analyze 4 bats.

Luckily, there was almost a full moon for the last week of work! Coyotes, owls, poorwills, and cattle were frequently heard/seen every night.

After taking one day off to shift back to day time work,  I’ve spent the last 2 weeks in lodgepole pine forests measuring elk and mule deer hiding cover….. It’s been a pretty drastic change of scenery but I love the variety of projects I’ve been able to work on.

Cheers!

-Kathleen

My future boy-band album cover