Well mates, what can I say? It’s officially time to call down the final curtain on my experience in Idaho. It’s a strange feeling. I honestly couldn’t summarize my experience in a little blurb or string of sappy adjectives. Because my whole time out here, from April to October has been made up of these little moments (milliseconds really if you look at it in the grand scheme of life) that have made me smile, think, learn or laugh uncontrollably and I could not hope to describe their meaning and significance.

It’s amazing to me how much Idaho has become part of my life—even the little things, like visiting the library or the long daily drive out to the field sites. I came out to Idaho back in April with little idea of what to expect, since this was my first time out west. It was a whole new landscape, set of plant species and environment but I ended up learning so much about working in an agency, fieldwork, plant identification and western history and culture. I never imagined how beautiful my CLM state and neighbors would be, or how many adventures I’d go on!

I think I can speak for all CLM interns when I say we all moved out somewhere foreign and made a new life for ourselves. New routine, new people, new lifestyle. We should all be proud of ourselves for being able to do that…as well as grateful for that opportunity. I feel incredibly lucky to have been an intern on this program and met amazing people and worked in a government agency. I not only had the opportunity to complete different types of monitoring, wetland delineations and rare plant surveys in crews, but also to shadow staff in my field office to experience what their work entails, which provided me with insight on what career path I would be most interested in. I was constantly struck by how kind and open-minded all my co-workers and BLM staff were, welcoming us into their office and sharing advice and their experiences with us interns.

I think the perfect way to say goodbye to Idaho was returning to the beginning of our crew adventures when we camped at the Diamond A. This last week that I worked as an intern, we went back to our Big Cottonwood campsite near Murphy Hot Springs. We marveled at how much it had changed with the seasons passing. We first camped there in spring when the river rolled by so fast and the canyon had not fully greened into summer. We continually visited the area in the summer and as I discussed in a previous post, a lot of memories were forged in this site. But this time the cottonwoods were yellow and the grasses were golden.

The air was crisp, but there was this stillness to it that made one feel like the canyon was holding its breath. And the colors! It was as if someone had taken a paintbrush and painted all the leaves yellow! It was beautiful. While I missed the green leaves and warm summer days, but at the same time, I collected some yellow cottonwood leaves. It seems that everything has its time, but it can’t last forever. The things that truly matter, that mean the most to us, we always take with us and revisit.

And so, with that my dear Idaho, I bid you farewell, knowing that when I direct my myself east on Route 30 to leave Twin Falls behind, there is no doubt in my mind that someday I will return.

So long for now,

Maria Paula

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

Twin Falls, Idaho

It’s September and fall has finally come to Idaho! It really surprised me how colorful the foliage gets out here and how distinct the change in seasons is. We don’t have a lot of trees out here, but the willows and aspens are changing and if you go further north in Idaho towards Stanley there are many more trees changing to shades of red and gold.

And speaking of gold, a spectacular change has come over our field office. The green grasses have given way to the steady sunshine, turning into a sweet gold that is swept around by the whims of the crisp autumn wind. Makes me smile to walk through it as we do Lepa surveys and reminds me of the Eva Cassidy song “Fields of Gold” (that reference was for you, my dear Emily).

This month, I was able to experience fall in the most unique of ways—visiting Yellowstone National Park for the first time! Ricecake, Avery and I went on this adventure and had a blast. This was my first time and although I grew up reading about it, I wasn’t sure what to expect. We spent the first day looking at geysers around the western side of the park near Old Faithful. The geysers were so cool! While exploring the paths around the geysers, we even saw a coyote. Later that night in our campsite, as I curled up in my sleeping bag against the cold night air, I heard the unmistakable bugle of an elk. There was some commotion near our campsite, and it seemed that the elk was very close-by. It was so thrilling to hear it bugle as it continued on and off throughout the time I was awake…the sound was ghostly, almost ethereal…yet mournful at the same time, I’d never heard anything like it.

Throughout the time of our stay, we saw bison, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, elk, mule deer, a badger, hot springs and an endless array of lovely landscapes.

My favorite part was Lamar Valley, which is where the wolves are most populous. I knew it was a long shot to actually see one, but I was most excited to wander around their territory and imagine them watching us from the shadows. We found some wolf scat and prints, which I was rather shamelessly excited about.

The Lamar River was a beautiful place to eat lunch! Later we climbed down to the riverside to become children again, scrambling around the shore rocks yelping in delight at each colorful rock or piece of petrified wood we found (and of course did not collect). We kept finding the coolest rock ever, and then someone would find one even cooler and then someone else would a find a green one…no this white one! No! This piece of petrified wood! Look how pretty it shines in the stream water! Look at mine! And it went on until we chose the best ones to photograph. Truth is, I could have spent the whole day along the Lamar River making all these awesome finds. I can’t tell you what part of the visit was my favorite, but this riverside romp comes pretty close!

This week we’ve been checking the condition of fences for cattle access, especially in canyon areas where they may try to sneak down to get to the streams and riparian areas below. It may sound like really mundane work, but I think for me at least, it’s been one of the most exciting parts of the internship.

So far, every month has been marked by great learning experiences and this one was no exception. Perhaps the funnest, but also most challenging of these experiences was fish seining. Fish seining consists of dragging a net across a river as a way to catch fish. You add a windy day and rocky terrain that is not visible through the water and you get a good workout with some very lovely bruises. I look forward to continue seining this week although I do hope it won’t be painfully cold and windy.

One of our tasks this past week was to survey areas in search of the elusive pygmy rabbits. Searching can get a little monotonous and tiring, specially when you search and search, and there are no signs of pygmy rabbits. This also makes it that much more exciting when you finally spot their distinctive pellets under the sagebrush and you enthusiastically start hunting for occupied burrows. Then you spot a rabbit running through the sagebrush and it all happens too quickly that you don’t get a chance to get a good look or you find yourself disappointed as you realize it was only a cottontail. I’ve been eager to spot one, but can’t say with certainty that I ever saw one and chances are I didn’t. I went out on one of these pigmy rabbits hunts by myself and I’ve got say it’s quite a different experience being out solo. I felt it was pleasantly therapeutic. Experiences are a lot more pronounced and the sense of peace when you are out by yourself is very rewarding.

I am quite sad I am coming into the last week of my internship. It feels like there is so much more to do and learn. It’s too bad it’s almost time to say goodbye.

This past week my team and I set out on a week long seed collecting expedition in southeast of Yosemite. We started in the Bristlecone National Forest to find a population of Lipidospartum, that will be used in genetics research. While we were so close to the Bristlecones, we ventured up into the ancient forest on search of Methuselah, the almost 5,000 year old tree.

Bristelcone

After the ancient trees, we headed up Tioga Pass to Yosemite and collected some riparian species in a beautiful yellow aspen patch. We then drove towards the tufa shores of Mono Lake on the search of some Chenopods and Artemisia.

Our third night we stayed in a rustic town with natural hot springs. In the evening we were lucky enough to relax under the starry sky in hot tubs fed by the mineral hot springs.

As I review my internship and the past five months here in northeastern California, I am extremely grateful for all of the wonderful experiences and memories. I am especially glad my work helped contribute, in a small way, to conserving the Great Basin ecosystem. My supervisor was always a pleasure to work with and I genuinely felt like a part of team at my BLM field office. However, I can definitely remember some highlights.

Every time the other intern and I found a special status plant population was exciting. One of the most memorable of these moments was when the other intern and I got to visit a population of Ponderosa pine trees. If the trees alone weren’t special, they were also growing in a unique habitat – sand dunes! Since the site has been fenced since the early 1990s, there were a lot of healthy and unique plant populations to explore and we even saw a bald eagle nesting in one of the pine trees.

Another highlight of my internship was the two nights I was able to volunteer and help trap sage grouse. The first night I went out, we didn’t catch a single bird; but on the second night, my partner and I alone caught nine! It was really cool to see and handle these birds up close since much we certainly dedicated to protecting this bird and its habitat.

Lastly, when the field season was slowing down, I am also really happy I decided to undertake digitalizing my field office’s herbarium. Yes, data entry can be tedious, but entering the last (of 2,958) herbarium specimens felt like a serious accomplishment. I know it will be useful for my supervisor, the field office, and maybe even future interns. It is nice to know I am leaving a little behind and giving a little back in exchange for all the great times I had these past five months.

To end, I would like to thank both the Chicago Botanical Gardens and the Eagle Lake Field Office for this great internship! I learned a lot, got to experience a great part of the country, and highly recommend to people who are considering applying for this internship in the future.

Greetings from Medford. The fall colors are slowly becoming more and more prominent here and the changing weather is something I’ve long been waiting for. My favorite time to go out in the field is probably fall, so I’ve been going every chance I get.

Lately it’s been much of the same; lots of quarry and mining inspections, but I was able to partake in a recent reclamation project for a mining claim. A miner had left a rather large hole on the other side of a creek and our task was to fill it in since he has since abandoned his notice and operations. The problem was that since the hole was made, it had filled with water and a breach of the creek a few years ago allowed the hole to now be home to coho salmon. Before we could fill in the hole, we had to transfer as many fish as we could back into the creek, so we drained the hole down and then shocked many fish. Most were tiny coho, but the big winner of the day was an 18 inch steelhead who had somehow found his way to the hole. We transferred over 100 coho and several rather large Pacific Giant Salamanders. Once the fish were out, the hole was able to be filled in and reclaimed with heavy equipment. This is where I finally did something with a botanist! I was in charge of figuring out seeding the area, so I grabbed another intern here, Mason, and we went and seeded the area to hopefully eventually return to its natural floodplain state.

Fall seems to be the best time for adventures as well. I recently got to visit the Formosa Mine, a rather interesting Superfund site. The area is an abandoned nickel mine that is creating a lot of acid mine drainage. I believe the pH of the soil is around 2.5. Pretty gnarly stuff.

Formosa Mine. Yum.

The Medford District also has around 2,000 abandoned mining features. Some of the adits or shafts often become bat habitat. Since nobody is allowed to go in these mines, Bat Conservation International comes out to survey the mines for us. These guys walk through the ancient portals in order to look for bats. Watching these guys crawl into the shady adits is pretty crazy, especially when they come out in a quarry on the other side! Our survey that day found several bats, which likely means the mine will need a bat gate on it to preserve habitat, rather than closing off the portal entirely. All in all, a good day in the woods.

A portal to an old limestone mine. No bats in this one though.

Fall adventures hunting for chanterelles

View of Mt. McLoughlin

Cheers,

Morgan

BLM Medford

We all have less than a month of work left in Carson City, NV and we all went on a week-long seed collecting trip that took us next to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains. It was a unique botany experience to see the gnarled trunks of Pinus longaeva rise up out of the alkaline dolomite soil, in some cases the tangled roots wrap around large rocks forever keeping them from rolling downhill. The ancient P. longeava are a magnificent sight to behold.

Inyo Forest Bristlecone Pine Forest

At the top of the mountain I discovered a baby pine cone that held little nodules of sap between its tiny scales. As the sunlight reflected off of the little sap bubbles it gave the appearance of gold flakes resting between the tine blue scales.

A baby cone with glistening gold sap

Within the ancient P. longeava forest we chanced upon an old mine with dilapidated cabins and mine shafts still standing. Near one of the hidden dilapidated cabins there were trees that presented carved hearts in their trunks. Whoever carved these hearts carved them deep into the heartwood; they have left a lasting scar on the trees.

Old miners cabin

A heart carved deep into the trunk of a tree.

It feels like I just arrived in Buffalo and I am already rapping up my time here. The countdown is on and there are only a brief three weeks left at the Buffalo Field Office. The office feels empty since one of our fellow interns, Justin Chappelle, left. However, there is a lot to do before my time is up and there is no time for sulking!

Since all but one seed collection has been sent in to Bend, and almost all of the herbarium specimens have been mailed to the Smithsonian, I have been able to participate in a series of new and interesting projects throughout the office. First, I have been assisting a fellow intern, Heather Bromberg, in working on her PRBR Historic Fire project, in which we have walked historic fires through the core sage grouse area, mapping invasive species throughout like cheatgrass within its perimeter. Second, I joined the Montana Conservation Crew in assisting with seeding and weed mapping at a controlled burn site up in the Big Horns! That was an awesome way to get out of the office and talk to other young individuals working in the conservation and land management field. We were able to walk around the cliffs, hang out, and enjoy the scenery with some really cool people, and I gained a great deal of useful mapping and GPS experience in the process!

Working at Billy Creek with the MCC

Finally, we have started working on range improvements at the office, which means we basically get to go out and explore different patches of BLM land in various Allotments throughout our field office, while mapping different range improvements along the way. It is another great lesson on using GPS Trimble systems and Terrasync, as well as GIS. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to work Seed Collections for SOS this summer, but I am even more glad to have the opportunity to try out all of these other projects and to work with so many intelligent and interesting people!

Although the interns have been working hard, we have also been playing some to before I head back to Chicago for the winter! Last weekend we spent the chilly Saturday night backpacking to Lost Twin Lakes! It was both beautiful and exhausting, but well worth it for the view and the thrill.

A photo of the two of us over one of the Lost twin lakes!

Heather and I sporting the newest style for frozen backpackers.

Just an update to let you know I am still alive!

The season for most is winding down. Many interns are packing their bags and heading home as their internships come to a close. The Buffalo interns, however, have been offered extensions. One of our close knit group has left us already. Apparently the call of quality family time and the minor detail of bird watching in the Amazon was too loud to ignore. I mean, who would choose the boring Amazon Rain Forest over our exciting town of 4,500 people?? Not me, well, OK, that is a lie. On a more serious note, we have already felt the empty void left by our favorite, newly appointed BLM Legend, Justin Chappelle. WE MISS YOU, JUSTIN!!!

Our wonderful Jill Pastick has accepted a partial extension, but will only be in our company for less than one more month. Heather Bromberg and I are the last of the original four, and have plans to experience what Buffalo, Wyoming looks like in January. Kind of starts to feel like that book, And Then There Were None.

Many new opportunities have come our way since the Rangeland Health season has drawn to a close. Bird watching for population status, inspecting failed Sage grouse sites, providing local environmental and wildlife education to home and public schooled children, and inspecting retired gas wells are just a few of the various activities we have been provided to make our standard resumes transform into something spectacular.

Each week that passes our experience grows and so does our homesickness. The realization of being away from family and old friends starts to sink in when we realize we have been away for five months. Luckily, being busy has the perk of distracting us from this somber thought. Former intern from last year, Sean Casler, was able to get his hands on a vintage VHS documentary about the Big Horn Mountains. The remaining three of us have now made it our mission to locate some sort of device to be able to view this ancient time capsule of footage. Who knows what amazing secrets could be discovered in the twenty-three minutes of video dedicated to our own back yard.