At approximately 8:30 AM the challenge was accepted. The players: two Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists, two Alaska State Wildlife Troopers, one safety officer, one BLM wildlife biologist and two interns. The stage: Chicken Ridge and surrounding area. The foes: careless and conniving hunters, egregious crimes against sportsmanship, testicle-less caribou. The departure time: 10:00 AM. YIKES. FRANTIC PACKING. TRIP PLAN. STOP FOR BREATH. FOOD ACQUISITION. Six hours later our heroes arrive to the Chicken Field Station. They rest their weary heads and prepare for several days of sore legs, thumb cramps, tight backs, caribou blood and hunter’s tales. Day 1: Teams assembled and assignments handed out. ADF&G (Jeff, Bob) along with BLM (Ruth) will patrol the road from Dead Man’s Corner (where last year a hunter took his last breaths in his truck parked on the side of the road—breaking character to tell you that this is actually a true story, troopers drove past this guy several times before becoming suspicious enough to check it out…inside the found, you guessed it, a dead guy) to the Y and everywhere in between. Male Trooper (Russ) and Intern #1 (Steve) will head to the border. Female Trooper (Maggie), safety officer (Leo) and Intern #2 (Katie) will take on Chicken Ridge Trail. All teams mount their trusty 4-wheeled steeds and speed off into the wilderness. Dawn breaks above Chicken (ok, it was actually 9:30 AM, this part exaggerated for effect). Our story follows team 3. Thumbs primed, hand warmers engaged, spines sturdy, team 3 tears up Chicken Ridge Trail in search of transgressing hunters. Quad wheels grip dirt and gravel, splash through puddles, climb treacherous hills, tilt sideways against mountain sides and traverse ridges. In past years chaos has reigned—antlers abound, tattling sportsmen, echoing gunshots, a blood bath, a meat market. This year however, all is quiet. Merely the grumbling of whiny hunters and the groan of four-wheeler engines giving up on the hunt after only a few hours. Skies are blue and views are gorgeous as the crew progresses along the ridge, branching out to investigate side paths, cruising up and down streams (as intern #2’s environmentalist soul cries for the gas and other chemicals leaked into the clear water). With no crimes to avenge, the group merely investigates camped hunters and chats with them about weather and lack of caribou. As the day progresses, weather takes a turn for the cold along the highest ridgeline. Hail strikes the enforcement team and nearly puts holes through their exposed noses. Views remain beautiful. The weary and unfulfilled team crawls to the farthest extent of the trail then and turns around, pounding pavement back to the field station. End of day: 10 PM. Day 2: Teams prepare for another uneventful day. The only intel: caribou between Chicken and Birch Creek, up to 80 miles away. Our crew again speeds off towards Chicken Ridge. Today the sights are similar: whining hunters and a parade of ATVs giving up after mere hours of effort. “Where are the caribou?!” demand the hunters. “How could Fish and Game do this to us? We took off work for this!” exclaim the whiners. The team forges on and is rewarded for their perseverance: two sets of caribou antlers float towards us atop mounds of camping and hunting supplies. Their owners slow their ATVs and prepare to be inspected by State Trooper #2. Conversation ensues, meat is unpacked and inspected, antlers are measured and… what’s this?! A testicle-less caribou is presented. Under state law failure to provide proof of sex (both male and female caribou have antlers) is grounds for a fine and confiscation of the animal. Trooper #2 explains this to hunter #2 while hunter #1 rudely sidesteps questions and barks at us to hurry up. Hunter #2 immediately turns sour and explains that he is on probation and will surely go to jail if ticketed. Trooper #2 holds strong and writes the citation. The hunters pack up and ride, grumbling, away. Later in the evening the plot thickens. Other hunters tell of a fellow sportsman who has had his fishing and hunting guiding licenses suspended numerous times for foul play (baiting animals, running business under wife’s name while suspended etc.). Said sportsman is currently on probation. Said sportsman just rode off with caribou antlers on his wheeler and an accomplice. Said sportsman left much of his caribou meat at the kill site (another citation, hunters are required to harvest as much meat as possible—leaving neck and rib meat is not acceptable). After writing a sad, albeit lessened, citation to a young Guatemalan woman who shot her first caribou while possessing the wrong hunting permit (an honest mistake) the team splits up. Intern #2 heads back to the field station around 7:00 PM. Trooper #2 and safety officer prepare for another 5 hours of work. They ride off further along the trail, return to the kill site, inspect the left behind meat, finish cleaning the animal and haul all the wasted meat out, returning to the field station at midnight. The meat is weighed and it appears justice will be served to the shady huntsman. Day 3: Mission called to lack of activity. End Scene In all seriousness, hunt monitoring was an extremely interesting experience. Most of the hunters we talked to were very nice and had admirable goals of shooting caribou honestly, harvesting the meat correctly and enjoying the prize with friends and family. Some were less friendly. All though, had an irritating sense of entitlement about hunting. This specific caribou hunt takes place in and around Chicken in September. It opens on a certain day and closes whenever a set quota of caribou is met. Often the hunt only lasts a few days and sometimes it is over in a day. This is because hunters swarm the area and pick off caribou from the trail as they migrate through in a large herd. In past years it has been absolute chaos with gun shots ricocheting everywhere, caribou falling all over the place, and arguments abound among hunters. Altogether way too easy of a hunt agree the staff from Fish and Game, BLM and Law Enforcement. F&G, who organize the hunt, say it is a wonder no one has been shot. Because of this precedent, hunters are used to coming in at 8 AM, setting up a small camp and having a caribou shot and cleaned in time to have lunch and head out—easy. This year, when that didn’t happen, all hell broke loose in a different way—a cacophony of complaints. They feel entitled to a caribou rather than privileged to be able to take part in the hunt. I certainly don’t pretend to know much about hunting but this attitude seemed wrong to me. Hunting is a sport that should require skill and patience. In other news, I spent this past week teaching wildlife ecology to 7^th graders at the Lost Lake Outdoor Camp.  It was an absolutely wonderful, exhausting and rewarding experience.  I loved getting to know, impart knowledge to and have meaningful conversations with the middle schoolers and they constantly surprised me with their passion and creativity—especially since I was expecting lots of apathy and attitude.  The camp taught me lots about how to translate my knowledge so that it can be shared in a fun and meaningful way to others.  Having never been to camp myself, I was excited to finally have this experience and help make it magical for the kiddos. Back in the office I am slowly working my way through a leaning tower of unidentified pressed plant specimens dating as far back as 2006.  Lots of hours spent with me, myself, my tunes and my scope.  In all honesty though, I enjoy the challenge and puzzle of plant ID—although I will admit the pile of grasses and sedges remains largely untouched…  After identifying plants, I am mounting them for filing in our office’s small herbarium.  This part of the process is a wonderful creative outlet. Peace, Love and Botany Katie O. Fairbanks

Our steeds for the week.

Hunt monitoring=long hours. Dusk along Chicken Ridge Trail.

Stopping two of the very few successful hunters to inspect their kills.

View from along Chicken Ridge Trail

The collection season is continuing in full swing in Farmington helped along by recent heavy rains. This past weekend it rained more than an inch in less than 24 hours! If that doesn’t sound like a lot, consider that this area only gets about 8 inches of precipitation in an entire year.

Last week we were fortunate enough to take a camping trip up to Disappointment and Big Gypsum Valleys in Colorado where we were able to make four collections over two days.

Disappointment Valley, Colorado. The purple flower is Machaeranthera tanacetafolia (Tansyleaf tansyaster), a target species for SOS Collections in the Colorado Plateau!

A few weekends ago we climbed Hesperus Mountain! Although we didn’t summit, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery. As we were leaving, it began raining, producing many rainbows and a perfect Polaroid moment with the stunning stripes of the mountain and blazing yellow Aspen:

Hesperus Mountain, Colorado. The beauty of this place makes it easy to see why Hesperus is the Navajo People’s Sacred Mountain of the North (Dibé Ntsaa).

As many of you know, September 27th was National Public Lands Day. Farmington held a clean-up of several recreation areas near town. In total, we collected over 120 cubic yards of trash, including refrigerators, mattress, toilets, televisions and several dozen tires. We had a great public turnout for the event, including a 97-year-old, a volunteer who rode to the event on his donkey, as well as several people who scouted for trash from their dirt bikes.  As CLM interns, Hannah and I played our part by becoming Seymour Antelope, the BLM Mascot. We enjoyed our day out with the public as an antelope.

I transformed into Seymour Antelope for National Public Land Day!

Some authentic Seymours (Antilocapra americana) showed up to National Public Land Day as well. Photo credit: Tamara Faust

This particular volunteer was a little apprehensive to meet Seymour. Photo credit: Tamara Faust.

The smoke from the King Fire finally cleared up last week, and we can finally breathe easy. I’m from the Midwest, so I grew up around tornadoes and floods, not fire. I’ve never checked the weather forecast and seen “smokey” as an actual weather condition. It’s almost unbelievable that the King Fire burned tens of thousands of acres, and nearly 8,000 firefighters were fighting the fire. The cold front and recent rains from last weekend definetely helped in the containment of that fire. There are even snow capped mountains now, which is a lovely site.

The Carson City team finished up the last of our fire monitoring transects recently, and now we’re wrapping up the Fire Monitoring ESR reports.  The actual fire monitoring process was informative, as we learned a lot of new techniques used to measure soil stablility, perennial vegetation, and other things.  Writing up the reports helped me see the big picture, and I was able to actually visualize how the sites we monitored were recovering. We monitored about 10 fires over the summer. I will never forget lugging some of that gear around over hilly, rocky terrain, sometimes having to hike over a mile to reach the plots. We saw a lot of beautiful sites in the process, so it was worth it. That’s all from Carson City, right now. Peace!

The Changing of the Seasons

The seasons were teetering back and forth between Summer and Winter here in Buffalo, Wyoming. Since we were closer to the mountains we got an unusual fluctuation of temperatures. We had two snow falls already with a couple of Summers thrown into the mix. I think the trees were pretty confused so they were slowly losing their leaves while keeping a couple of branches of leaves for insurance purposes.

The seasonal weather forecast for this week in Buffalo, WY.

The Office Frontier

I am very busy in the office doing all kinds of data entry and organization! I am finally finished with DIMA data entry! WAHOO!!! \(O_O\) That took a couple of weeks to do. The other DIMA entry that Sara did would have been error checked by Jill and I. After completing the error checks, I worked on the comprehensive reports for the S&G sites as well as our allotment sites Sara and I monitored this year. The comprehensive report showed the percentages of soil surface, different types of litter, and plant composition. I had to work with Access and Excel for great lengths of time. If the office had some kind of badge system that the Boy Scouts have, I would have definitely got the Microsoft Excel Badge. These reports would be printed out and included with the allotment folders.

My next step was to create a large amount of allotment folders. I followed the BLM format and added my own twist with each of the allotment folders. I included two different scaled maps, a directional photosheet of the site, the comprehensive report, and all of our notes and recordings from the field. I love using my GIS skills and making the maps look like a work of art while maintaining all of the needed information to help guide future monitoring staff to the transect area. One of the days I had to use the crazy label maker…we did not leave on good terms, but the job was completed! (The label maker had a huge ego and required the finest of yellow labels.) I am almost done with all of the allotment folders and my office looks like a filing system met a tornado. I call my cubicle the organized chaos filing system prep room. ^_^;;

Other interesting jobs our bosses had us do were car checks/ maintenance and do recycling trips! Jill and I would go to different trucks and check for supplies, fluid levels, anything that needed to be fixed, and tire pressure. We would fill out a report and organize receipts to be submitted to one of the offices. Usually everyone would do this, but it is hunting season and many people were away. It was a great experience and I was able to use my car maintenance skills. Heather and I did the recycling runs and took two trips to deliver all of the recycled paper, cans, and cardboard. Now our office was squeaky clean!!

Bird Monitoring

One of the wildlife biologists, the BLM Legend Don, asked if I was interested in helping him out with a bird survey since I knew a lot about birds and could identify them by their calls. I was beyond excited and started nodding saying, “Yes. O_O” before he finished asking me. He invited all of the other interns and wildlife biologists to Welch Recreation Area! I brought two binoculars and my National Geographic Bird Guide for North America. We stopped every five hundred feet along the river trail for five minutes and recorded all the birds we saw or heard within the general area. We saw American Robin, Spotted Sandpiper, Black Billed Magpie, Canada Goose, House Wren, Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Mallard, Orange Crowned Warbler, Black Capped Chickadee, American Crow, Spotted Towhee, and Red Tailed Hawk. We were sort of disappointed, because we expected to see a lot more species. We did have a great experience and we walked through some cool sections of the Welch Recreation Area. One section had the Coal Creek Fire. This was a fire that kept on burning for a couple of years without being extinguished. You might be wondering, “Justin, How is this possible?” Well, there was a fire that sprawled across the prairie and came across some underground coal beds. The coal caught on fire and has been smoking for a couple of years now. I thought that was fascinating and a little horrible at the same time.

Seriously, when we were monitoring, Black Billed Magpies were everywhere!

On a side note, I have been bird watching all the time in the Buffalo/ Sheridan/ Bighorns/ Gillette region for the Summer. I expected to see a lot more species of birds, unfortunately I did not see a lot.  I saw 131 species, which was a pretty nice number. My favorite birds to watch were the Lazuli Bunting, Yellow Headed Blackbird, Mountain Bluebird, Red Crossbill, American Redstart, Lewis Woodpecker and the Burrowing Owl. I did not see a Mountain Plover, but they were definitely living in the area southeast of town according to many biologists and bird watchers. I did not care for the Eurasian Collared Dove, they always coo’ed at 4:00am in the morning and liked to relieve themselves on my car. :/ Overall, the bird watching experience in Buffalo, Wyoming has been tough, but rewarding. \(^_^)/

Top Five Invasive Plants in our Area

Every morning before work and during lunch time, I took time to read the updated CLM blogs. Yes, you all have a fan!! Even though I really do not comment, I find all of your blogs very VERY useful in identifying invasive and native species. I find it interesting how in different parts of the West, interns see different non-native or invasive plants. For example, some BLM offices in the West used Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) with their seed mixes to help establish soil after intense fires. Some BLM offices swear by this plant calling this non-native a very good soil stabilizer and a good plant to help other native plants establish themselves. When I worked for Burns, Oregon last year for my internship, this grass was very useful and did not seem invasive at all. When I got to Buffalo, Wyoming, this grass was everywhere. Many mining and cattle ranching conglomerate companies used this grass and in some areas it looked like it is the only grass within a three miles radius with the exception of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus). I heard some people say that it was an invasive grass and that it was taking over, even though I thought this grass did not behave like that.

Anyways, I was thinking if people who have read this section in my blog, if they could comment what invasive plants were trouble for them in their office, I think that would be great and give people an interesting perspective of what invasive plants were in each field office district. Here was my list of the top five troublesome invasive for the Buffalo BLM Office.

5.)Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis)

4.)Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium)

3.) Russian Thistle (Kali/Salsola tragus)

2.) Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia esula)

1.) Cheatgrass and other Unwanted Brome (Bromus spp.)

0.) Special Honor goes to our invasive, yet native cactus species: the plains prickly pear (Opuntia polyacantha).

1.) Yellow Sweet Clover   2.) Scotch Thistle   3.) Prickly Russian Thistle                           Alright…I really did not have a good picture of a Scotch thistle…so I inserted the selfie I took with one. /)_-) Yes… I do take selfies with plants, especially orchids.

Misadventures: North by Northwest!

Yay!!! Time for a comp time vacation! I really needed to use my comp time…it was over 100 hours. <_< I decided to go with my parents up to Glacier National Park and to Alberta, Canada. I have been to Glacier National Park and it was beautiful, but I have never been to Alberta, Canada! Glacier National Park was closing down in a week and we decided to visit the park. We saw brilliant fall color, awesome geological formations, and a grizzly bear! We moved up into Canada afterwards. We went to the towns of Calgary and Edmonton. Both were thriving and growing cities of Canada. Within the last year, 40% of all growth in Canada was in Edmonton!  My parents and I visited the badlands of Drumheller, which reminded me a lot of the landscape east of Rapid City, SD and west of Tensleep, WY. One of my favorite parts of the trip was traveling to the Rockies west of Edmonton to Jasper National Park. There were blue alpine glaciers all over the place!!! The landscape, geology, the clay blue rivers, the animals, yellow aspen, the flora, the eroded canyons and clouds were…incredible. O_O…….O_O I think my mouth was open most of the time, because I was in awe of everything. The ice fields in the south entrance of the park had the most glaciers and I was able to walk up to one!! This trip was amazing and I had a lot of fun!…Now back to work!! 😉

A sample of what I saw in Canada. \(^_^)/

Season Finale!

What!? Already???? Man, this internship flew right by. My next blog entry will be the Season Finale! I will talk about what I have learned, seen, and did on my Buffalo, Wyoming internship. Lost stories, comics, gifs, and other tidbits will be included.

And Now….Your Moment of Zen…

Very Zen…much beauty…such fall color…wow!

Howdy Folks,

The last few weeks in the Mojave have been an exciting and productive time for me. Following the monsoon rains we had in July and August, large populations of annual plants appeared and flowered all over our field office. As we have moved into early fall, many of those populations have been producing and dispersing seeds, which means that there has been plenty of seed collecting for me to do. And that is a good thing.

He’s a little shy

But this blog will not be about seed collecting. The temperature has been dropping for the last few weeks (Hallelujah!), and as it gets cooler the plants have certainly been reacting, but they are not the only ones. The cooler weather has also caused an increase in activity for one of the Mojave Desert’s very charismatic reptiles: Desert Tortoises!

Mojave Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) are a Federally Threatened species. So they receive much management attention in the Needles Field Office. Earlier this summer, I was able to go out on a tortoise-monitoring trip. We used radio-telemetry to track down and record data from tortoises (more affectionately called “torts”) that had already been tagged with a radio transmitter. Quite the fun trip.

This is a tortoise shell. I think it is rather beautiful.

But that is not quite as satisfying as finding tortoises on your own, so I have been thrilled to find five of them in the last three weeks! After the hot summer, during which the tortoises are fairly inactive, the cooler fall gives them a chance to spend more time searching for food before they head underground to hibernate through the winter. So the time is now for me to find them, and the tortoises have delivered. I’ve seen big adults, an adorable baby, and I even had to rescue a tortoise that was trying to cross a highway. It has been great.

“Hmm, if I walk really fast, could I make it to the other side?”

The Desert Tortoise is one of the most unique desert critters that I’ve seen in my time out here. Their appearance is probably familiar to you: a long neck with a beaked head on the end, thick scaly legs, and a hard, high-domed shell. The torts here in the Mojave can grow up to about 15 pounds and 15-inches long. I have heard stories about the impressive ages that tortoises can reach, perhaps even surpassing a century. 100 seems to be out of reach for the Desert Tortoises here, but they can get very old, living for more than 50 years in the wild, and perhaps approaching 80 in captivity. That may still be long enough to outlive me.

A baby tort. So cute.

Tortoises have earned a fabled reputation as patient and deliberate creatures. That characterization is certainly appropriate. The tortoises I’ve seen have been content to take their time slowly ambling along the desert floor, unhurriedly taking in the shrubs and rocks that surround them. I think it is delightful to watch an animal moving at such a unique pace. I should mention, however, that they can turn the speed up a little bit. We have three tortoises that are kept at our field office, and when you have food the torts often will push the gas pedal all the way down and “run” to you. It is quite the sight.

Until next time,

-Steve

Needles Field Office, BLM

Well, I’m wrapping things up here in Dillon, Montana and heading off to who knows where.  I have a couple job leads but nothing for certain yet.  Crossing my fingers about landing a term position job with the Fish and Wildlife in Texas. The work itself would be really cool, collecting native seeds and growing them out in a refugia, then using those seedlings to restore a river with several exotic and invasive species.  I love seed collecting and have been doing it now for three field seasons. But it would be nice to watch the seeds grow, and then plant them– the whole full circle thing.  Also, it’s a GS 5-7-9 term position, which means it’s not seasonal work and after a year as a GS-5 you can get moved to a GS-7 and so on.

And I must say, it would be comforting to settle into a little adobe for a while.  In the last year I moved from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Duluth, Minnesota to Las Vegas, Nevada and finally to Dillon, Montana–all in the name of field work.  I can’t even begin to process all I have learned, and with a gypsy-type spirit I love hopping around the country. That said, I am so ready to get a cat, a garden plot, and just maybe an actual bed.

Anyway, last night there was a hard frost here!  Winter is definitely approaching.  I am working a lot with the range staff to implement new studies in areas where cattle did a number on the streams.  The range staff will continue to monitor these areas, looking at the trends in these areas in hope for improvement.  Elk and Moose also can potentially rip up the stream banks and chew the willows down as well but (moo) cows come in vast numbers and can hugely impact a stream bank in a matter of days. That’s why sometimes we just build a big fence around the stream (riparian area) to let it heal for a while.  The water is the most valuable resource out west, and unlike where I’m from (the Great Lakes), there isn’t too much of it.

Here are some photos from studies we implemented in areas that are quite obviously hurting.  We always put the pictures in the most beat-up areas, since they have potential to show the most improvement. The exposed soil you see is not ideal because the stream needs plants to hold up the stream bank, and prevent sand and silt from entering the stream.

I feel fortunate to have worked with and met all the nice folk here in Montana.  The range staff shared a wealth of knowledge with me about cattle, range-land health, hunting, horses, rodeos, Montana Flora, the list goes on.  Although culturally we come from very different places and backgrounds, I think we developed a respect and understanding of each other and that maybe they, likewise, learned a lot from me.

I will miss Montana dearly if I end up landing a job in a far off land like Texas.  I will certainly be back though, to the land where truly ‘the dear and the antelope roam’.

Whelp, field season is about over. Officially experienced the first frost and christened my fire place. Most activity has been drawn indoors, focusing on NEPA projects and sample design for SOS. I’m not sure how fruitful (no pun intended) my Seeds design will be. The idea is to use presence-absence data to prioritize collection areas. Once those have been designated, monitoring data from Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) will be used to determine overall cover/density of target species. Seems good in theory, we’ll see if helps any, or if drive by botany is more effective. But what is critical to remember, is the relationship between soil and plant communities, hence in SOS, why we take into account the representative soil when making collections. Since SOS is new to the Taos FO, next summer will be a learning experience and to see if all this GIS work will actually yield something. In the interim, I leave you all with a recent article on the relationship between soil and plant diversity. Something to mull on until next month.
More plants. More dirt.
-jd
http://phys.org/news/2014-09-unravels-links-soils-biodiversity.html#nRlv
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6204/1602.full

Hello everyone,

Beautiful rural Vermont-foliar peak overlooking miscellaneous lake

Just visited Vermont last weekend for a wedding during its foliar peak.  I had left in May for my CLM internship after living there for 9 years! Beautiful colors, well-used hiking trails, and familiarity are all reasons I love Vermont. Comparatively, Vermont never offered me the wildness that Wyoming does! Even after hiking a section of the Long Trail (VT) for 10 days in October of last year, never once did I come across moose, deer, black bear, or other ungulates (only startled 2 grouse). What a disapointment!  Now, being in Wyoming, I can’t take a jog without coming across pronghorn, mule or white-tailed deer. Lovely bird songs seem to constantly be in choir when I’m outdoors. A hike in the Cloud Peak wilderness and I’m bound to run into more wildlife. I very much enjoy this part of the country.

Overlook at Grouse Mountain-3.5 miles up and what a lovely view, got to see it all over again on the way back down! (Buffalo, Wyoming)

Originally, I moved to Wyoming for the seasonal work that the CLM internship offered, but now I realize it’s more than that. It’s not better than the northeast, as I had to explain to friends and family, it’s just different. I can’t emphasize that enough.

Jumping back into working for the BLM, after taking a extended break (10 days) from it, and the office is barren. Most people are out in the wilderness…hunting. The season just opened this past weekend. Mud cakes the Squeaky Kleen car wash from all the vehicles coming in after hunting. I know this specifically because I was there washing a vehicle today and the owner was complaining to me mid-wash. I assured him that the field vehicle was not a contributor.

Back in the office, I am catching up on emails and communicating with co-workers on projects for the coming weeks.  Currently working on a habitat restoration project for the Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocerus urophasianus) by conducting field work.  The field work includes; mapping Big Wyoming Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), cheat grass (Bromus tectorum), Japanese Brome (Bromus japonicus) and Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) within historic wildfire perimeters.  The historic wildfires are found on GIS through an exisiting (out dated) layer.  Ground truthing is the focus right now, until end of October. Out in the field, mapping vegetation within the fire perimeters will be used to establish a vegetation layer in GIS.  A layer that will be available to the Buffalo Field office (BFO) and any other agency that may be interested.  The funding for this work came from the Powder River Basin Restoration initiative through the BLM, and pays for my internship with CBG.

The project began when my mentor, a former rangeland specialist, took on a new position at the BFO to restore the Powder River Basin.  After spit balling ideas with like professionals she crafted the project you read above.  With the help of the vegetation layer, which will cover BLM, state and private lands (within the BFO), we will be able to spray for annuals (targeting invasive) possibly 10+ years down the road.  The hope is that post spray the encroaching Bromus spp. will die off, which will give way to accessible bareground for native bunchgrasses to grow and out compete invasives. With native bunchgrasses back this provides desirable land for sage grouse habitat. Another implementation plan is to raise Big Wyoming Sage Brush and manually plant them in these historic wildfires to bring back habitat (post spray).  This has been very rewarding work, I am still in the preliminary stages. Please let me know if you have experience with this and what that experience was like in the comments section (thank you).

Originally, I thought there wouldn’t be work at BLM BFO this winter, but I was wrong. There is plenty of field work and plenty of office work too! I look forward to a Wyoming winter because it’s different from my native northeast and New England home base, and there is work to be done!

The month of September has been filled with various goings and stayings. I continued going out in the field for the first three weeks of the month. When the massive Buzzard Complex Fire was put out, which roared through Eastern Oregon burning around 400,000 acres, I began traveling all over Harney County to take initial monitoring photos and notes at trend sites. Many of these plots are way out in the boonies and required several hours of travel over rough roads to get to. It has been interesting to see the variation in the intensity of the burns at different plots. Some plots were scourged bare, the black stumps of sage and rabbitbrush thrusting despondently from the soil, a few brown bottoms of burned perennial grasses here and there, but no green showing. Other plots had burned much more lightly and patchily, showing unburned clumps of vegetation and grass with seed heads intact. In many plots a little green had returned, only weeks after the fire. Rabbitbrush seemed particularly good at regenerating, and there was green at the base of the scorched bushes. The non-native perennial grass, crested wheatgrass, was also regenerating in many plots.

Burned plot within the Buzzard Complex Fire. This one has almost no vegetation left.

Something green is coming back!

Surveying the burn.

I also got to attend a tour of the Buzzard Complex Fire. This tour was to give members of other organizations a chance to see the scope of the fire. The hope was that seeing the fire and hearing members of the BLM and researchers from the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center speak would help them understand why particular rehabilitation efforts are important and gain their support. Mainly, they explained why it is important to use non-native species (mostly crested wheatgrass, perhaps forage kochia) for rehabilitation. Crested wheatgrass has shown a much higher rate of successful growth with aerial seeding than natives. The BLM staff emphasized that they are not against using natives, and if they were effective they also would prefer to use natives, but that since natives are not effective, it is important to get something that will seed successfully on the ground in order to prevent annual grasses from coming in and soil erosion. Having annual grasses come in and soil erosion creates another sluice of problems. There was a lot of discussion back and forth between the scientists, the BLM managers, and the guests, which was very interesting to listen in to. I think most of the guests were on board with the need to use non-native plants to rehab. Some of them seemed to be putting on battle faces to go back to their organizations and convince those dead set against using non-natives for rehabilitation.

Touring. You can see the burned hillsides in the background.

Dust cloud in the Buzzard Complex Fire. This is how erosion happens. Get some rehab in there!

As part of the tour, the researchers from the Agricultural Research Center showed us one of their research plots. Consisting of five subplots, the research is focused on understanding what treatment and vegetation is most effective for post-fire rehab. There was a control plot (no herbicide, no seed mix), a plot that was only sprayed with herbicide, a native only seed mix (herbicide, then seed application), a native/non-native, 50/50 ratio seed mix (mostly crested wheatgrass; herbicide, then seed application), and a seed mix with a higher ratio to non-native to native seed (herbicide, then seed application). There was a drastic difference in how the vegetation in each plot did after the fire swept through, and you could really see that the seed mix with the higher ratio of non-native bunchgrass seed had both more vegetation per square meter than the other plots, as well as having had greater fire resistance.

You can see the herbicide only plot in the forefront; without seeding the undesirable Russian thistle filled the open space. Behind that is the native/non-native seed mix with 50/50 ratio.

Besides all of the above, I have spent a significant amount of time staying in the office to complete paperwork. Along with getting all of our collected data organized, I have been helping the Rangeland Management Specialists enter data and organize it in file folders. Some of the data is from last year, so I am glad to help them catch up on it all. Everyone has a lot on their plates now, what with all the paperwork needed to secure funds to rehab this year’s burns. Settled at the computer in my little cubicle, I often hear bodiless voices drifting, expounding about the recent difficulties in getting the paperwork done. Clearly, there is a lot to be done and a lot of subtleties and complexities to contend with. It is not always easy working within such a large organization as the BLM. I have been amazed, however, by the integrity with which the members of this office approach their jobs. Despite setbacks and bureaucracy they really want to move forward and make progress by doing what is best for the land even if it is not the easiest to accomplish.

Getting work done in the cube. Even indoors, plants abound.

I am looking forward to the last month of my internship! I have absolutely no idea what I will be doing next week. 😉