Wild horses within the Lander BLM Field Office

Just two weeks ago we were arriving in Chicago for our week of training at the CBG. The training, as well as the symposium that was held at the end of the week, served as a great opportunity to grab hold of the cause that we are working for during this internship. It’s always helpful to widen your perspective to a bigger picture of the conservation goals at stake and to identify your role in making those become reality. It’s great to continue on into the season with this vision – knowing that some of our days may be long, hot and tiring, but also knowing that we’re making a contribution toward the progress of largescale native plant restoration and to the science that will keep these western ecosystems healthy.

Collecting the height of key species to monitor rangeland health

Now armed with our matching muck boots, we’ve begun collecting rangeland monitoring data, measuring the stubble height of key species in riparian areas to determine if grazing has been too heavy in an area. Eventually Erin and I will be on a monitoring rotation, visiting the same sites every couple of weeks. The riparian sites we’re collecting data from are where cattle particularly love to spend their time mowing the grass to the ground, but which are also some of the most important sites ecologically. Other than grazing the grass down too short, the cattle also have the potential to cause something called hummocking, which is severe small-scale mounding of the ground (see photo). Since the soil in riparian areas is so wet, the cattle’s hooves cause depressions where they walk, leaving mounds around the areas where they have not stepped. Over time these will worsen and water loss can become a problem. Less water is held in the soil and protected from evaporation or simply flowing down stream, which changes the function of the ecosystem on an essential level.

Monitoring rare Astragalus sp. in Dubois , WY

The field season is getting rolling! Our schedule has Emma and I doing roughly three days a week doing vegetation monitoring and two days doing Seeds of Success seed collection work. The vegetation monitoring involves identifying key species and evaluating how grazing is affecting them. This is done by taking stubble height readings across a specific area and taking an average. From this information, we can decide how much grazing can continue in a certain area and when the cows need to be moved. We have a handful of sites that we visit in rotation every couple weeks. I enjoy visiting these sites because we travel on the ACTUAL Oregon trail to get to some of them. I think this is incredibly cool because the landscape in this area is unaltered and would have been exactly what the pioneers would have seen on their journey.

Our Seeds of Success work has just gotten off the ground. We are learning the target species list, and trying to find big enough populations of each plant in the field. For each seed collection we make we need at least 20,000 seeds, so we need to find fairly large populations. We also are only allowed to take 20% of the available seed so we don’t decimate the population. This week we found a large population of a Cryptantha species while monitoring, I think it will be perfect for a Seeds of Success collection!

We also went into the field one day to help our botanist search for a rare species, Dubois milkvetch (Astragalus giviflorus var. purpureus). It is a species that is endemic to Dubois, Wyoming and grows on steep hillsides. We actually found the plant without much trouble, and found a good sized healthy population.

The rare Dubois milkvetch!

We have seen much more wildlife in the field. I have seen many sage grouse, which are much bigger than I expected them to be! We have also started to see many baby pronghorn. My favorite, though, has been the wild horses. One day we saw a herd of about 100 horses, it was a very cool thing to see.

A few of the wild horses we saw in the field

This month also included our week long workshop week in Chicago. The workshop was held at Chicago Botanic Garden, which is absolutely beautiful. We attended classes such as botany of the west, inventory and monitoring methods, and S.O.S. instruction. We received career and graduate school advice, and attended a symposium on large scale restoration efforts. When not in session, we explored the 385 acre botanical garden and visited downtown Chicago. Overall it was a wonderful week, it got me really excited to be a part of the natural resource field.

The beautiful Chicago Botanic Garden

I have also been exploring the Lander area more extensively. The road into the mountains was just opened last week, and luckily my family was visiting this weekend. I took them up to the alpine lakes in the mountains, which were stunning.  It is very nice that we are able to escape the heat by going up in elevation! I can’t wait to explore the mountains more.

One of the lakes we visited up in the mountains

A field of wildflowers in the mountains

Lander is a beautiful place to live, and it is pretty wonderful to be able to work amidst all this beauty. I feel pretty lucky to be able to call this place my office. Until next time!

– Erin   Lander Field Office, BLM – Wyoming

2 months have flown by in Prineville, Oregon. The last few weeks (besides the CLM Workshop) I have been working on many different projects including eagle monitoring, habitat assessment for sage grouse, GIS training webinars, and lifting wildlife closures on trails.

Every year the Prineville district hosts an environmental education day for Crook County 4th graders, located at a beautiful campground by the Crooked River. Luckily, I got to help run the wildlife station this year. We had pelts and/or skulls from cougar, porcupine, wood chuck, coyote, beaver, badger, and red fox. We taught the kids all about habitat, and what different animals need to survive. Some of the 4th graders were extremely knowledgeable.

Mountain Big Sagebrush glowing blue under blacklight

I’m living in Bend, OR, about 45 minutes away from Prineville. It’s a pretty big town with almost 90,000 people and I’ve been making awesome friends. Weekends have included hiking, birding, camping, boating on Lake Billy Chinook, exploring Bend, and of course watching the Women’s World Cup (GO USA!!)

Go USA soccer!!!

Coming up in July, I’ll be working exclusively on a Western Long Eared Bat telemetry project, but more on that next month.

Rattlesnake in our campsite

Central Oregon has been a blast so far and I love it more here every day. If it’s outdoors, we’ve got it. There are endless places to explore; obsidian flows, ponderosa forests, scenic riverways, mountain biking hotspots, and the list goes on. The landscape is varied and with all this volcanic geology, never boring. On the cultural side, there is the happening city of Bend, real rodeos, breweries, great local food scene, good music and friendly people. There are these little espresso shacks all over the place, even in the tiniest towns. I’m told it’s a northwest thing. It’s kind of dangerous because I never had a coffee habit, but am steadily developing one here. Who could resist?

Work life in my second internship has been fulfilling and informative. I’m swamped with seed collections and spend 95% of my time in field, which is great! I am particularly excited about some surprise plant populations I found that will be collected for pollinator conservation. I’m also learning a lot about invasive plant species here and how to control them. One of particular interest is medusahead rye, Taeniatherum caput-medusae. It is a shrimpy little annual with crazy long awns and packs a wallop. When it dies off, the dead material creates a mat that does not break down quickly in this dry environment. The mat prevents other plants from competing and encourages a medusahead monoculture. It’s also a wildfire hazard.  Part of my time in the field is spent hiking remote areas that burned in last year’s wildfires and mapping the weed infestations that have moved into these areas. These are long, sometimes hard several mile days, but I am thrilled to be getting so much more familiar with how to use the GPS units, spend the day observing wildlife and flowers, and soaking up sun and cool breezes on desolate ridgetops (all while seeking out those nasty plant invaders). Plus it’s pretty good exercise! I have seen 3 rattlesnakes so far, after never meeting any my whole season last year. I reviewed first aid procedures for an encounter with these fellows, although so far they have been politely reserved. They are beautiful animals to see at a respectful distance, so I consider myself lucky. Anyway, it’s back to work for me! There are seeds that need a’collectin’, and I’m the gal for the job!

Lupinus in the rain

Salvia dorrii – an upcoming pollinator collection

Minding my own

The first week back from Chicago has been jam packed. We’ve completed 3 collections this week, which have given us the opportunity to surpass the recommended 10,000 steps per day. The first collection left our hands sweet smelling after the once vibrant purple flowers had dried into a light pink. Purple Sage (Salvia dorrii) scent now fills the office shelves while the seeds dry, as we continued to fill the shelves with Thurber’s Needle Grass and another seed, so white and fluffy, Taper’s Hawksbeard (Crepis acuminata).

After hiking and collecting all week, we decided to head out to hike some more at Lassen Volcanic National Park. We set up camp and went out to Bumpass’ Hell, and checked out the sulfur filled streams and watched the vapors pour out of the rock. We made s’mores, hobo dinners, and waited for the stars to come out before heading to bed, setting our sites on hiking Mt. Lassen in the morning.

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At the summit, 10,000 something feet, with freezing hands, we had to enjoy the perfect moment for yet again using the selfie stick. I feel like these two pictures easily encompass the honest joy and comfort that we all find in nature, and that I find when finally having that feeling of accomplishment when you complete what you have set out to do.

The views were astounding, and there was even the little educational signs along the way, letting us know about the volcanic history of the mountain, 100 years after the last eruption. The signs also let us know how much longer we had to the summit, I don’t know which part was better. Until next time.

Andrea Stuemky, Eagle Lake Field Office, BLM

Susanville, CA

Got started surveying the local airport for an endangered flower called Applegate’s Milk-vetch. The airport has the largest population of the flower so its vital to gather data on the population. The airport is proposing an expansion of their taxi way and to do so they must conduct a biological assessment. We worked together with private contractors hired on by the airport to conduct the survey. Surveys were done doing random transects in each area of the airport. With one person walking a transect with a 3 m pole while another walked behind to search and count plants.

Applegate’s Mik-vetch (Astragalus applegatei)

To add to the excitement of surveying, we got to experience F-15 jets take-off, train and land right next to us. The airport is the last base in the U.S. to train F-15 pilots.

F-15

There’s plenty of wildlife on the airport as well. Even found a horned larks nest that had survived the mowers.

Baby horned larks

At the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge in California, ponds were made to raise sucker fish for 2 years in another strategy to save the species. Before placing young fish into the ponds, traps have been placed to see if any other fish have made it into the ponds, which may be possible from the ponds’ water source. Predator surveys of mammals and piscivorous birds were conducted as well.

Nicki and Erica collecting traps at one of the ponds.

We began building our net pens to raise young sucker fish in for the summer. Construction of the dock took all day, but finally git it pieced together. The dock was then towed out into the bay.

Dock being towed

Then two nets were placed into the dock to hold the fish.

The fish will be raised till about September, then released back into the lake with the hopes of increasing recruitment into the adult population.

View from the dock

Hello everyone,

Another week is nearly over at the Cosumnes River Preserve and I am happy to say that things are progressing quite well on the Badger Creek Restoration Project. Though, everything is moving forward at a rate which still fits our timeline, I often have the feeling that I am sliding down the blade of an ever-sharpening knife. So far, I have managed to avoid any metaphorical life-threatening wounds.

Our team of biologists finished up their thirty days of trapping, and while they produced some interesting data, as expected, no giant garter snakes were trapped during this cycle. The yellow water primrose in Horseshoe Lake has continued to progress at an astonishing rate. As of my last visit on Tuesday, there were no areas of open water left within the lake. It is rather impressive, yet ultimately quite upsetting, that this lone weed has managed to consume nearly all available water in a 155 acre lake. The photo below was taken just a few weeks ago and in that time the primrose, has now covered the last visible areas of water on the surface.

I am currently working on the numbers to see if it is more advantageous/cost effective to have a helicopter spray the site instead of the highboy or tow behind tractor rig as originally planned. I have contacted local contractors and am waiting for the estimates to come in so we can reach a final decision.

On the positive side of the equation, the joint NEPA/CEQA document I wrote for the project is entering the last days of the public review period, and to this point we have received little to no resistance regarding the proposed restoration. However, I have been warned that comments often come towards the end of the review period, typically on the last day, so the minor celebration for reaching another completed stage will have to wait until next week. If anyone has interest in reading the document (and I say this with a certain level of sarcasm given your busy schedules/lack of desire to read a 70 page environmental document) it can be found using the link below. While much of the content (air quality, water quality, cultural resources, etc.) may seem dull/long-winded/unnecessary, it may be of benefit to those who will have to write documents like this in the future.

http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/folsom/cosumnes_river_preserve1.Par.80515.File.dat/BadgerCreekRestoreInitialStudyFonsiEA_Appendix_Reduced508c.pdf

Next week I will be meeting with potential contractors who will be bidding on the earthmoving/excavation work which will start (if all goes well) in early September. I hope everyone is having a great time out there in the field (wherever you may be). Since my photos of the project have been admittedly lackluster in this and previous posts, I thought I would leave you with a couple of photos of some of the splendid daily interactions/observations we have here at the Preserve.

Crayfish ready to throw down

Short-eared owl (Asio flammeus)

Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus)

This week I had the pleasure of traveling up and down the coast of Virginia and Maryland with the rest of the North Carolina Botanical Garden SOS East interns and our “fearless leader” Amanda. One spot in particular that caught my attention was Back Bay National Wildlife Reserve on the coast of Virginia just south of Virginia Beach. The land is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and encompasses 4,589 acres of protected area. Although birds are the main target as far as protection is concerned, there is a vast array of plant species, as well as some interesting animals. One such creature we encountered was this little guy:

Back Bay offers stunning views along the marsh lands as well as great spots for fishing along the Atlantic side.

Sound side

We picked an incredible day to visit Back Bay. We started out around 8 AM and got to feel the cool breeze coming off the Atlantic before the heat of the day took over.

Sand dune communities

We saw many species of plants that are on our list for seed collection, including, but certainly not limited to: Juncus effusus, Cakile edentula, Smilax rotundifolia, Typha angustifolia and Typha latifolia. Each of those listed will provide plenty of seed for us to collect in the coming months when they mature, especially the two Typha’s!

Sound

I cannot blame the many families we saw out there for visiting the site. It is a gorgeous place for biking, hiking, picnicking, birding, you name it! I can’t wait to visit time and time again for both seed collection and leisure!

Well, it’s been awhile since my last post. But indeed our schedules are pretty tight, almost without office work – all in the field. Based on what I hear around, it’s been a very long and cool spring for the Mojave, which of course favored us in a couple ways – nice and pleasant field work, and more time to get some of our projects done before the coming high temperatures. As a matter of fact we have had a few weeks already which were above a hundred degrees. I must say that without an acclimation time, it is pretty hard to stay active as usual, especially in town where all the concrete and roads contribute to a temperature rise. With that said, last week I was lucky to attend my training up north and reveal for myself at least a tiny bit of Bryophytes’ diversity. The workshop focused on identification of different non-vascular plants – Liverworts, Hornworts, and Mosses, which was very exciting for me. It was very new to me, because even having a general idea about mosses and its main taxonomical groups I never had a chance to get deeper into the subject. Discovering characteristic features of different groups of mosses and liverworts, seeing them under the microscope was very interesting, exciting, and certainly rewarding. I would highly recommend to all botanists who are not particularly familiar with non-vascular plants, of course given some extra time and a good opportunity, to pay a little more attention to this subject. In the meantime I will definitely keep exploring them myself wherever I am. Until next time,

Andrii

WERC, Henderson, NV