There is a peacefulness to discover in the forest. A silence that descends when the canopy hides you from the world. A cooling of the blood as the fire of the city is replaced with the dew dappling the understory.

There is healing waiting at the sea. Pain released with the tide as it pulls away from the shore. Sins are washed away twice daily, a newly altered landscape revealed.

Camping at Buck Creek, along the Lost Coast Trail.

I’m a second season CLMer now! I arrived in Prineville, OR almost a month ago to work on botany projects, especially weeds and seeds on the District. My mentor and fellow seasonals are great and I’m enjoying the change of scenery compared to last year. Central Oregon has a pretty diverse landscape, and the weather here is crazy. You’ve got to be prepared for anything from 35 degrees and snowing to pelting rain to 80 degrees and sunny, all in one field day. I’m learning how to use GIS, which will probably be one of my greatest learnig curves this season. I’m in the middle of lots of exciting trainings, and have already had much variety on the job. I took a workshop on bumble bee conservation that was absolutley fascinating. Did you know bumble bees are the only pollinators that can access the pollen of the Solanaceae? They vibrate at just the right frequency for pollen to come shooting out of those closed off anthers. Pretty cool stuff!

A bunch of the SOS teams of OR got together this week to do seed collectors training and tour the Bend Seed Extractory. It was informative to get the perspective of the receiving end of SOS and watch all the machines and x-raying in action. As the SOS collector in Prineville, I get to hand deliver all my material to Bend, so I will be seeing a lot of Kayla and Sara this summer. I will be getting an OR state pesticide applicator lisence so that I can help the weed crew take care of nasty post-fire invaders. We will also be conducting a lot of weed mapping on these fragile areas. There’s been some sensitive species monitoring that has taken me off the beaten path to some of the districts’ best kept secret beautiful locations, and I’m looking forward to meeting more of our sensitive plants. Last but far from least, I’ve started scouting for our seed collections and developing strategies for prioritizing those collections. This office is very involved in restoration projects and grow-out utilizing the seed that is collected, so it’s a bit different from last year where we focused more on long term conservation storage. I’m looking for important Sagegrouse habitat forbs, workhorse grass species, pollinator collections, and then the opportunistic stuff that happens at the right place and right time. Everything is blooming! So there’s lots of work to be done. It’s good to be back in the CLM family again! Pictures coming soon,

Hannah

I have never written a blog before so this is all new terrain for me. I am starting my intership at the US Fish and wildlife office in Klamath Falls Oregon, in the Ecological Studies section of the bureau. Klamath Falls is a small town with a population of over 20,000. It is a little over half an hour south of Crater Lake National Park, which I visited a few years ago but had no idea what to expect of Klamath Falls.  I have had plenty of experience living in small towns all over, so I didn’t think it would be a huge shock.  My drive luckily was only about 7 hours from Seattle and I got to drive through the beautifully scenic Cascades. After a stressful and frustrating month or so trying to find housing, my fellow interns and I finally found a place to live in town.  Pheww.

A quick snapshot on my way to Klamath Falls through the Cascades.

My first week at the office was mainly formal training:  computer usage, defensive driving, work safety and electrofishing. Work for the summer will be spent on a variety of different projects. Mainly we will be dealing with two endangered species of fish, the Lost River sucker (Deltistes luxatus) and the shortnose sucker (Chasmistes brevirostris).  Both species are endemic to the Upper Klamath basin and were listed endangered back in 1988. Multiple research projects will be working towards their recoveries, with threats being loss/alteration of habitat, blockage to spawning areas, and over-harvesting.  One project consists of constructing net pens on the Upper Klamth Lake, where young suckers will be housed until they are a bit larger to be released. Another concern of recovery is the negligible amount of recruitment of adult fish. Additionally young suckers will be reared in constructed ponds for the next two years, where they can be closely monitored and knowledge of how best to rear suckers can be gained. This is all in an effort to preemptively help the suckers and their recovery before an even more major population loss or extinction occurs. With our section of the office dealing only with endangered species we will be working with Applegate’s Milk-vetch (Astragalus applegatei). This flowering plant is in the pea family (Fabaceae) and was listed in 1993.  It was believed to have been extinct until it was rediscovered in 1983. There are currently 3 extant populations known. The airport in town has proposed an expansion of one of their runways, which will require a biological assessment of its Applegate’s population before proceeding. The assessment will obtain the location and numbers of each plant, obtain seeds, and try to minimize the impact to the population.

My second week was mainly Motorboat Operator Certification Course (MOCC) with a few days of night work, where we went out to collect larval suckers. Boat training is required since a majority of our work will be on the Upper Klamath Lake. The course consisted of three 8-hour days. The first day was all in class, mainly covering the basics of boating, parts of a boat, safety gear, knots, etc. The second day started out with a pool session. We got to experience the different forms of Personal Flotation Devices (PFD), heat lessening position, and how to rescue someone from the water back into the boat. The rest of the day was spent on the water. We practice with three different types of boats, each boat we would preform different practical tasks. The first one was object recovery and rescue. It entailed throwing PFD IVs, which are the ones you throw to someone after they have fallen overboard. Next was actual rescue of a “person” which was a dummy named OSCAR. Poor Oscar was flung multiple times back into the water to be rescued. Another practice was making a star turn, which is making a turn in a small area. Finally was boat docking, which can be an art in and of itself. And lastly off the boats we were tested in our knot making skills and being able to back a boat trailer, which is not very easy. Overall it was a great experience and I learned an amazing amount about boating. Three days is definitely not enough to learn it all, would take a lifetime. But we got the basics. I was nervous about testing, but passed with flying colors! I can’t wait to get out on our workboat this summer and start work.

A view from the bridge we started netting larval suckers from.

Hopefully better photos to come.

Alia Richardson

CLM Intern

Klamath Falls US Fish and Wildlife

7 years ago I moved out of Alaska, not knowing when I would get back. My father is in the Air Force so we were posted away from this great State way too soon. Since 2008, I have lived in three different countries and have traveled even more; however, nothing could compare to my home in Eagle River, Alaska.

I attended University in Kingston, Ontario but always had my eyes set on returning to the mountains upon graduation. I was beyond thrilled when I was accepted to the CLM internship program with Eric Geisler in Anchorage, Alaska!! I was literally jumping in my plane seat while flying northwest towards the Last Frontier. I also had the BIGGEST smile on my face when I caught my first glimpse of mountains.

Some Stellar Peaks!

Anchorage Skyline

My first weekend here was spent biking around the city and feeling a lot of deja view!

Work started on Monday, May 18th and I met my supervisor Eric and fellow interns: Joel and Charlotte. This week we have done a lot of training and have met a lot of people; all of which adds to the excitement of what is waiting for us during the remainder of this internship experience.

I don’t think I can express how happy I am to be back in Alaska and how much I look forward to working with the Bureau of Land Management out in the forests and fields all summer long. I am beyond excited to settle into a new town, adventure around the State and meet even more explorers and all the wonderful people who live, work, or visit this great place.

First day of work….I think I like this office space!

On the road to the field. Bug guts are always included

More posts about plants to follow 🙂

– Jen

AK BLM

Hello!

For my internship I am working with the Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank & Plant Conservation Program (RSBSB) in Portland, Oregon. This is my first year as an intern, but it’s the second year the RSBSB has partnered with CLM and Seeds of Success. Last year the CLM intern for RSBSB, Isaac Sandlin, made over 60 collections – an amazing/impressive (gulp) feat for a single collector! I had the opportunity to visit Isaac on one of his collection trips last year and decided I wanted to participate in SOS and the CLM internship program. Like Isaac, I will largely be on my own in the field. That’s not to say I am alone for my internship; I have been in contact with botanists in the Medford, Lakeview, and Burns BLM offices, Isaac Sandlin, several Native Plant Society of Oregon members from the area, and of course, my mentor at the seed bank, Ed. All have been very helpful and supportive.

Although based in Portland, I will be collecting seeds on the sagebrush steppe of Southeastern Oregon – a very long commute! For this reason, I anticipate two ten-day trips to the field each month. I realize this is somewhat different than the experience other interns have who are living much closer, if not at their main field site. My home while in the field is the campground and my tent. While I had assumed this would be a lonesome experience, my first trip has proven the opposite. I have found my fellow campers to be friendly and inquisitive, often inviting me to join them for coffee or dinner at their campsite. I even met the author of the Flora of Steens Mountain at the campground! He graciously verified some of my specimens and gave me pointers on where to look for other species on my list.

Rocky field of Lomatium cous and L. bicolor var. leptocarpum

Hillside with Balsamorhiza sagittata

The focus for my SOS collections is on plants important to the greater sage-grouse for food and cover. Sage-grouse habitat is an SOS priority and is under consideration by the USFWS for possible listing under the Endangered Species Act. In Harney County, local ranchers and USFWS have been working together to protect sagebrush habitat on private rangeland for the threatened bird and its ecosystem (http://www.fws.gov/greatersagegrouse/). I find this type of cooperation between government agency and private land owner inspiring. Within Harney County is the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area where I have spent most of my days in the field. It too has brought together private land owners and government agencies to both conserve and manage the area. But, I must admit the rainbow checkerboard map of public, private, state, and tribal property boundaries can be difficult to navigate at times…

Greater sage-grouse photo: http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wo/Communications_Directorate/public_affairs/sage-grouse_planning/images.Par.14496.Image.600.424.1.gif

Since completing my first trip to the field last week, I am eager to return! I spent a great deal of my time exploring the maze of dirt roads in my monster truck, getting to know the lay of the land while scouting locations for targeted species populations. It also took a while to become familiar with the flora as this was my first trip and my first time working in southeast Oregon. Over the ten days I spent in the field I experienced a broad range of the area’s weather. High winds and below freezing nights welcomed me to my campsite at the base of Steens Mountain the first couple nights. Luckily, I was able to get quite a bit of scouting in before rain, snow, lightning, and thunder made its way to Southeastern Oregon. So far I have collected voucher specimens for 21 targeted species.

Castilleja angustifolia

Astragalus filipes with a weighty pollinator

Orobanche uniflora

However much needed in this drought stricken area, rain and snow made exploration via many of the soft dirt roads difficult, if not impassable, even in my 4-wheel drive truck. Wet, slippery roads or not, I can’t wait to get back out there next week to check on my populations and make new plant friends (the social life of a solitary botanist)!

Road looking east after the first full day of rain

Till next time,

Lindsey

Portland/Harney County, OR

If you’ve never ventured into a chaparral forest – as I hadn’t just a few weeks ago – it might be hard to get a good mental picture. The name is derived from chapparo, a Spanish scrub-oak resembling some of the shrubs that thrive on California’s mountains and foothills. It’s the same word from which “chaps” derives – in the past few weeks I’ve often thought a pair could be useful in navigating the dense and thorny vegetation.

A trail through the chaparral at Pine Hill Preserve

Three plants are considered characteristic of California’s chaparral, and are very common in the Pine Hill Preserve where I’ve been working – Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum), Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos spp.), and Ceanothus (Ceanothus spp.). These plants are all characterized by extensive root systems that travel far and wide in search of water. These root systems hold the soil in place on steep hillsides. The species are well-adapted to fire, readily producing new shoots after a fire destroys their above-ground portions. In a stand of chaparral, most shrubs will be roughly the same height and age, dating back to the last fire. In the first few years after a burn, herbaceous plants take advantage of the abundant sunlight and emerge in great numbers. Some of these plants even have seeds that are activated by fire. This is of special interest at the Pine Hill Preserve – herbaceous rare plants have been noted to flourish after burns, both prescribed and accidental.

Layne’s butterweed (Packera layneae), a rare aster found in Pine Hill Preserve

In my first few weeks of exploration, I found two plants to be particularly exciting. The leaves of Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon californicum), as my mentor Graciela explained, are medicinal and can be brewed into a tea or chewed raw. When chewed, the initial taste is bitter, but slowly begins to have a cooling and sweet taste and a thirst-quenching effect. This has earned it the nickname of “mountain gum”, and after a few chews I was sold.

Eriodictyon californicum

The second great discovery was a small, deep purple plant roughly shaped like a Christmas-tree – a native broomrape (Orobanche bulbosa). Its otherworldly appearance results from an aggressive survival strategy. It’s a parasite that doesn’t produce chlorophyll, instead relying on nutrients and water siphoned from the roots of neighboring plants.

Orbohanche bulbosa

On Tuesday, my second day with the Mother Lode field office in El Dorado Hills, CA, I was very excited to head to the field for the first time. Our first stop at a small plot known as “vernal pools” was a little anticlimactic. We weren’t surprised to not find any pools – even outside of conservation circles, the four-year drought has been a hot topic, with water restriction measures getting more and more stringent. Without the vernal pools, my mentor Graciela informed me, much of the native flora we might’ve found at this plot was absent.

Our second venture was more exciting. Graciela and I accompanied the staff’s botanist to Cronan Ranch to check out the progress of a grazing project there. The rolling hills in Cronan are currently dominated by invasive non-natives – mostly yellow star-thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) and medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae). The grazing project aims to give natives a chance to get a foothold by allowing sheep to chew down the existing vegetation and reduce the amount of viable seeds produced by invasives.

Yellow star-thistle

The 500 sheep had made quite alot of progress when we arrived. The hill they’d been grazing on looked dramatically different from the others – almost everything green had been eaten. Sure enough, most of the star-thistle had been chewed nearly to the ground, in time to keep it from producing seeds in a few weeks. The sheep had done less damage on the medusahead – perhaps because, as our botanist pointed out, the plant is so high in silica during parts of its life cycle. This makes it unpalatable and undigestible to grazers.

Yellow star-thistle thrives just outside of the enclosure, while inside only short stalks remain

A clear line between grazed and ungrazed turf

Hello CLMers,

My first month of working for the Arcata CLM has been an absolute blast! I have learned so much and I can’t wait to learn even more. What has been especially great about my internship so far is that while I am learning tons about forestry- a subject I had zero training or experience in before this appointment- I have also been able to work with many of the other resource specialists in the office. From taking out invasive scotch broom to working on archeological surveys with the Redding, CA BLM interns it has been great getting to know and learning about other topics besides just forestry!

One amazing experience I have had recently- while working with Kate the botany, range, and weeds CLM intern- was to hike the southern portion of The Lost Coast! I had never been backpacking before and I was definitely nervous about slowing our mapping project down, but in the end not only did I have an amazing time, but I was also able to keep up just fine! I always tell my friends and family that every time I leave the house I see something amazing in Cali, well The Lost Coast was no exception! From the sheer cliffs along the coast to the ocean itself, the trail was stunning! While it was a little stressful having to mind the tides- which make portions of the trail inaccessible at high tide- being completely locked in and totally isolated at our campsite was strangely calming. I don’t think I have every had a camping experience like the backpacking trip I took with Kate, and I honestly can’t wait to hike it again with my friends here!

Time and again I am reminded by how lucky I am to have chosen a field of work that gives me the opportunity not only to constantly be learning but also to be outside and see some of the amazing things this world has to offer! It is easy to be happy when you are doing something you love!

Keep Learning,

Steph

Sea Otter tracks along The Lost Coast

The Lost Coast

CLMer Kate McGrath the Botany, Range, and Weeds intern for Arcata, CA BLM

Look at me I’m backpacking!!

Hanging out with Redding, BLM interns after an Arch survey

It’s my second month working in Vale and I finally feel like I am getting to know the plants around here! In the last few weeks, my co and I have been busy visiting SOS sites and sensitive plant sites, checking on potential collections and monitoring a few sensitive species. Last week we started collecting Nothocalais troximoides seed, our first collection of the season! Unfortunately, it has been pretty windy and wet (very unusual here this time of year), making seed collection a little difficult. In the upcoming weeks, we are hoping to start collections of some Allium spp., Phlox longifolia, and orange globemallow. It’s exciting to finally be collecting seeds, and it’s fun to see how much each site changes with every visit.

Nothocalais troximoides seeds

The site where we’re collecting N. troximoides is one of my favorites because it is flat, and the volcanic rock doesn’t allow for much grass growth (walking through fields of cheat grass can be a pain). The site is also covered in one of my favorite flowers, Lewisia rediviva! We first visited this site at the end of April, when the flowers were in full bloom. I’ve wanted to see Lewisia in real life for a long time. It has been on my plant bucket list for a few years now (I’m not realizing just how nerdy it is that I have a “plant bucket list”). I spent probably 20 minutes trying to get the perfect picture on our field camera.

LEWISIA!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, we started monitoring several sensitive species including Hackelia cronquistii, Mentzelia mollis, and Stanleya confertiflora. Some of our surveys have been more successful than others. We have visited a few sites where the population has declined in recent years, or become potentially extirpated. Around here, population decline is usually due to fire, competition from invasive grasses, or grazing, and often a combination of these factors. We have also found a couple populations that have flourished since their last survey. One population of Mentzelia mollis in particular has grown drastically, increasing almost 30-fold in the last two decades! Seeing sensitive populations thrive is one of the many rewards of land management.

With the field season picking up, I am really looking forward to more collections and monitoring!