As most of you reading this will agree, the Chicago workshop was a blast and an excellent learning experience. It was revitalizing to be around other young people and the weather was a nice break from the desert heat. In the short amount of time I made a lot of friends and learned a great deal from the workshops which I am now applying in the field. I felt the Chicago experience really enforced a sense of pride in the collective efforts of all us interns and our commitment to being good stewards of the environment, especially to the plants.

The first day back to the Mohave we met up with some wildlife biologists doing bat research on the lower Colorado River with the Bureau of Reclamation. The location was a small re-forested cottonwood and mesquite forest on Native-American reservation land. This patch of forest was put in place in an attempt to imitate what the floodplain ecosystem may have looked like before damming up the Colorado and altering the periodic flooding which maintained these types of habitats. We set up a series of mist nets along corridors between the trees and spent the next 4 hours or so going from net to net, retrieving the captured bats out of the nets and recording the species, size, and sexual maturation. It was an extremely successful night with 44 bats being captured.

Pallid bat – They eat scorpions

Over the weekend one of the ladies from our office took Steve and I out fishing on Lake Havasu, and although we only caught one fish the whole morning, we got to cruise through the cliffs of the Topock Gorge which was absolutely gorgeous (pun intended). In the Mohave language the word Havasu means blue water and it sure was.

Topock Gorge and the blue waters of Havasu

One day we got sent out to monitor a spring where there was an infestation of a non-native tamarisk down a steep-walled canyon. Along the upper portions of the flat rock there were numerous petroglyphs drawn onto the weathered stone. The enigmatic images were all different shapes but I noticed a recurring image of what looked like an incomplete figure 8, and an even-sided cross. One small drawing even resembled a dinosaur

Petroglyphs

As the mercury continues to rise each day, seed collecting becomes more and more difficult. The other day it reached 113 degrees farenheit during the day and only dropped down to 102 at night. It’s unreal how much water we drink each day. We have been seeing many wild burros and have even caught a few fleeting glimpses of desert mule deer. I can’t even fathom how those animals survive in that heat every day. Until the next hotter week.

Cheers,

~Dean

Whats the vine covering the Palo Verde (Parkinsonia floridum ssp. floridum)?

Its a milkweed! Funastrum cynanchoides

Another month of the CLM internship flies by, maybe even faster than the first. Just as the lull of a steady routine started to take its hold on me; I went to Chicago for a week. It was reinvigorating to be surrounded by so many inspired land stewards, but most of you know that, you were there; you got to feel it too.
For one reason, or many, a reoccurring theme for me over the last couple weeks has been; sometimes you need to leave to realize what you came for. This has been true for situations as simple as pulling out of the parking lot and immediately remembering that the plant press is still sitting next to the desk. Or it can be as broad as leaving the Eastern Sierra for ten days, only to appreciate it that much more upon return. Since this theme entered my mind it has been apparently applicable to many day to day scenarios, but what really spurred it on is this internship. I am still learning from the conference, merely by being presented with circumstances that spark my memory of one of the many things I learned each day. On this idea, I think back to previous jobs and how I’ve progressed, how skills that seemed so simple and routine then, can be so helpful to know now. I recognize this could be interpreted as an over analysis of short term memory, or something of the like, and maybe it is, but to me it’s a reminder that you get more out of every experience than is initially grasped. Never let yourself be bored or take an event for granted.  If it’s not great in the moment, there will be something memorable and useful about it in the future. I’d like to think this is not an attempt to rectify something more optimistic out of spending two full days last week down on my knees pulling Russian thistle, but rather more of an effort to reverse the theme and appreciate what I am doing, beyond the surface, while I’m doing it. Already the CLM Internship Program is moving me forward, but to think of the benefits I will realize in the future is astounding.

Ironically I am submitting this three days late,

Tyler
BLM – Bishop, CA

Hi all –

I believe this is my last required post to the CLM blog before my internship ends. It is refreshing to browse the blog and see so many interns starting out there positions with the various Federal agencies CLM partners with. This internship has been a great experience, getting to know a new part of the country, as well as making connections with scientists leading their field.

I’m happy with the diversity of the projects us interns have been able to work on. This job has built on my past experiences working on large-scale vegetation restoration projects. For me it’s the best way to understand the workings of a landscape, and finding the best ways to bring back native plants to degraded areas is a cause I truly believe in. I’ve been lucky enough to see these landscape-scale restoration projects in action from the tropics to the desert and I can still say there’s always much more to learn.

In this internship I have helped out on several different restoration and ecological monitoring projects. We’ve surveyed and monitored plots seeded with native species in efforts to restore severely burned areas in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument; installed moisture sensor probes to study water use by two endemic dune species–as well as taking growth and reproductive effort measurements–in Death Valley Natl Park; outplanted almost 2,000 native seedlings across the Mojave desert in common garden experiments, an effort to delineate zones within which seeds can be safely transferred for restoration projects; done nighttime mammal surveys to estimate Golden Eagle prey densities; and finally I helped inventory and measure perennial forage species for the threatened desert tortoise. It’s nice that each one of these projects grabs my interest, but most importantly they helped me develop skills useful in a variety of science jobs–whether it’s in the field, in the lab, or as an educator. It’s a shame the internship only lasts 5 months, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Sam Somerville

USGS Las Vegas Field Station

Henderson, NV

It’s funny how when I got here (Rawlins, WY) all I could see was the vast amount of natural gas wells surrounding many of the places we work in. When I see gas wells I think of global warming, groundwater contamination and possible H2S poisoning. So, I think, “Ugh, this is horrible, let’s get out of here.” But we just kept on going back and the wells just start to blend in after a while. You just get used to them, and rather quickly I might add. So while things are starting to dry up in carbon county somewhere along the way I’ve started to appreciate the high desert: the colorful rock formations, the prairie dogs and other varmints and the roaming ungulates. It’s kind of perdy out here.

June was a busy, busy month which started with a nice break from the gas fields to do our training in Chicago. It was a lovely week of rehydration and greenness and I returned with greater understanding and a renewed sense of purpose for the work we are doing out here. The Garden was beautiful and there were no gas wells to be seen. But then I think, who among us doesn’t use natural gas? We need to demand alternative energy! The pursuit of better and more efficient means of powering our homes, cars and industry has been stagnated by the multi-billion dollar oil and gas industry. Politicians and the legislature have left it up to us to find other, less destructive means of getting power. So I say, let’s get creative people… and listen to Gandhi. “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”

So, I’ve decided to use my blog to try to affect social change but I guess I’ll tell you a little about my work as well. We saw not one but two federally endangered species this month! Upon returning from Chicago we got the chance to work with some folks from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doing surveys on the Wyoming Toad (Bufo baxteri). These little guys are distinguished from other toads primarily by the fusion of the cranial crests. The decline of this species began in the mid-70’s and has been linked to insecticide use, agricultural practices and climate change among other things. Our survey was looking at not only the presence of the species but also the presence of the amphibian chytrid fungus as a possible reason for lack of recruitment. The other species we saw was Blowout Penstemon (Penstemon haydenii). It took us about a 3 hour drive on rough roads and a bit of hiking around the sand dunes of the southeastern Ferris mountains, but we saw this little light purple beauty in full bloom hanging on to the dunes. Its’ scent is reminiscent of vanilla. Other than that we’ve just been mastering the slow walk and scan while counting the number of plants collected. The wind and the sun get to be quite beastly out there but I just pretend I’m a native woman collecting seeds for the community gardens, for the survival of my people.
Thank you for reading 🙂

The beautiful flowers of Yucca schidigera.

Although it is my first blog entry, I have been working at the Burns, OR BLM for over a month now. In this time I’ve gotten to see some country. The first week of work, I drove the county border with my fellow intern to get a sense of the area the BLM manages. The Burns office manages millions of acres. They manage land for multiple uses: this includes maintaining habitat for the sage grouse (a special status species), keeping the land healthy for cattle grazing, monitoring special status plant species, and rehabilitation after wildfire, among many other responsibilities. As a botany intern, I work on plant species monitoring in areas that have previously been burned. I also survey areas where there are populations of special status plants.

This past week we spent two nights down at the Hilton. Myself, the other intern, and the seasonal we work with stayed in the eight bedroom lodging in southern Harney County while surveying some burn areas. The weeds crew also stayed there, so I got to meet some of my fellow Burns District BLM employees. They spend six months spraying weeds like Russian thistle from ATVs in all weather and conditions. If it’s a weed, they spray it and don’t care much for the feelings of the plants. Monday and Tuesday of this week were extremely windy and cold. We did burn monitoring and I was glad we were not working up as high as the weeds crew, though the wind still cut through my four layers.

Wednesday we went even farther south to look for a special status plant. Sitting high up in our big truck, I gazed out the windows. The sky is really wide open here, not like where I’m from, where the sky is a thin passageway between trees that caress the sides of the highway. We zipped through Nevada, where the speed limit goes up fifteen miles to a cool 70mph. This was my first time in Nevada, and it doesn’t look much different from Oregon.

After a maze of rough riding on dirt roads, we pulled over. I’ve quite come to enjoy doing special status plant surveying. I get to scuttle about the landscape identifying whatever intriguing plants I come across. This site was dry, dry, dry. The branches of every plant were brittle. The sagebrush, usually light green in color, was tinged with yellow. We did not see a single forb. The area was fairly uniform and after an initial stream of identifications, we didn’t find much that was new. Still we gave it a good, thorough look. I climbed to the top of a hill, ranging out a ways, to see what I could find. As I walked, I kept my eyes on the ground, watching for rattlers. I have not seen a rattle snake yet, but those who know have told us to watch out for them and we’re supposed to kick the bushes before we reach down into them to identify. At the top of the hill the land spread out, rolling and cresting like waves. I took a few minutes to soak it in, then put my eyes back to the ground, and forged onward.

Onward to more surveying. Onward to more plants of special concern. Onward to new adventures.

Hi all! It’s been about a month now since I’ve arrived in Boise, and I have to say, when I first moved here I was very excited to experience the only Western state I haven’t been to! (Other than Alaska) So far, there have been no disappointments. Boise is actually quite the happening city, and it’s been really fun living in such an outdoorsy, active community. Coming from a bike-friendly city, I did not expect Boise to be as cycle-friendly as it is–everyone rides everywhere and is always mountain biking! Also, there is a river that runs through the entire city so I spent some time last weekend kayaking through town! I’m definitely considering investing in getting my own while I’m here . . .

Anyway, on a work related note, it’s been amazing getting to be out in the field nearly every day. I think about how during this time of year many people get “spring/summer fever” and stare out of their office windows yearning to be outside. I feel very lucky we all have the chance to spend our time working in the great outdoors, and it definitely makes working in 98 degree heat worth it. So far we have mostly spent this month doing Habitat Assessments for sage-grouse and SOS collections. I am amazed with some of these species we are collecting–particularly grasses–with the very small timeframe we have to get the seeds when they are ready for dispersal but not too late when they are all gone! I think Elymus elymoides is going to be a tricky one, especially because there is such variation in maturation within each individual within the population.

Coming from a mixed background of both wildlife and botany, I have been chosen by a mentor with a similar background and is a wildlife biologist for the Four Rivers Field Office. Although he is young in comparison to most mentors, I am so impressed with the knowledge he has of plant diversity and the interaction between the habitat and the animals utilizing it. I’ve really learned the importance of having knowledge about the system as a whole–geology, plants, wildlife, weather patterns, etc. Too often I think people find their niches and become enveloped with solely that aspect, and I’ve been shown with a more multi-faceted approach to one’s job title, more work and more progress can be accomplished. (Shout out to Joe!) I have definitely been inspired by the ambitious nature of my mentor and am able to see and experience the translation of data collection to analysis and output, which often is a process most seasonals do not take part in.

Our crew is pretty tight-knit and in the field we have come up with some pretty interesting ways to remember plant codes and make HAF transects pretty fun. For example usually when Tragopogon dubius is spotted, one of us will break out into TRDU for what?! We even came up with a music video for it while driving back that involved cows, multicolored lights, and TRDU seeds dispersing in the wind . . . It’s probably the sun making us a bit loopy, but I do have to say it’s nice being surrounded by fellow science nerds who understand how exciting it is to find a particular plant or animal.

We are leaving for Mid-vale tomorrow to do some camping and more HAFs before everything completely dries up. Hopefully, we’ll see more wildlife (We saw a bear, coyote pups, and a blue grouse last time)–supposedly we’ll be by an area with sage-grouse so I’m hoping we get to see one! In the meantime to satisfy my wildlife nerd-outs, I’ve become pretty obsessed with all the insect life that thrives out here in the sagebrush desert. It’s amazing the diversity that is out there! And turns out all those holes in the ground aren’t snake holes, most of them belong to insects!

Found this terrifying black widow while collecting Poa secunda

This tiger beetle was trying to fight my camera just feet from the black widow den

At one of the Pony fire sites, these colorful long-horned beetles were on nearly every Sego Lily. Yay pollination!

A Mormon cricket spotted at a recent burn site.

I arrived in Cedar City two weeks ago, excited to explore a new place and get away from the buzz of LA.  The scenery around here is quite beautiful.  I’ve gone to check out Zion National Park, which has spectacular views and tons to do.

Besides the training during the first few days, my fellow intern and I have been working with the Range people doing transects at Spring Mountain and Fiddlers Canyon.  Although the days can be long and hot sometimes, they are filled with lots of learning and good experiences. Working with Range has been very helpful in getting familiar with the vegetation around here.  I have also gotten a chance to learn from the fuels people about their fire management, its successes, and its challenges.  Next week, prairie dog training begins!  I am looking forward to working on a prairie dog translocation project from a golf course to the great outdoors.

Bellow is a picture taken as I drive up Indian Peak on a tour around the field sites.

I feel very fortunate to be exposed to so many great people.  Everyone I’ve worked with at BLM has been very nice and has helped to create a welcoming atmosphere. I am excited for all the experiences and learning opportunities to come.

I can hardly believe that July is nearly here, although the weather assures me it is. My time in Surprise Valley is going so fast, most of which has been spent scouting and collecting for Seeds of Success. Due to the drought, flowering periods have been off track which has made it challenging to get the timing right for collecting.

Other projects I’ve worked on include vegetation inventory and data collection on juniper reduction project sites and rare species inventory. We have not found any rare species on the project’s sites thus far.

The highlight of the month for me was getting to do field work with two NRCS soil scientists. I have been interested in learning more about soils so I was thrilled to have this opportunity. I learned how to texture and color soil, and determine the correct ecological site description based on the soil composition.

Although work has been plentiful I have also had time for fun. Last weekend I hiked in the Warner Mountains on a ridgeline trail called Pepperdine which ended at Patterson lake. Swimming at Lillie lake has been relaxing and has made the heat more manageable. Tonight I look forward to going to the Modoc Super Bull rodeo! Afterwards there will be a traditional barn dance. Yeehaw!

So far CLM has been full of learning opportunities. I did not anticipate the variety of skills I have picked up so far and l look forward to what is next.

My apologizes for the lack of visuals. I will make sure to include a few photos next month!

Bureau of Land Management                                                                                      Surprise Valley Field Office                                                                                     Cedarville, CA

While in college, my professors encouraged me to pursue a career in academia.  I felt heavily swayed by this encouragement, despite the fact that it never felt like a good fit.  After college and freshly direction-less, I was determined to use this period of career exploration to work for a menagerie of organizations: non-profit, academic, business, and, finally, government.  It’s about the journey  . . .  right?

The goal of this internship, for me, is to help me decide if I want to work for the federal government. Once I arrived at the BLM office, I scratched this goal in the front of my notebook and began asking my co-workers and supervisors about their careers.  Naturally, my co-workers both enthused and complained about their jobs, but I was careful to be more objective this time and not be persuaded heavily either way.   I wanted to gain a complete picture of what it would be like to be a federal employee before making a decision.

Ocean Day was the event that confirmed that a position in the federal government is a career I want to pursue.  For this event, the BLM partnered with Friends of the Dunes, neighboring schools, the CCC, and many, many volunteers to bring 700 children to the South Spit to pull invasive beach grass.  I enjoyed the role that we, the BLM, played in the event: logistics and oversight.

In the end, I want to be a public servant.  I want to help people do what they need and want to do, as long as it does not harm the environment or others, ideally.  Sure, the government isn’t perfect.  There are still instances of corruption, power struggles, exploitation, and extreme bureaucracy heaviness. However, the government is here to protect and bring people together, and that is the government I have found in my office.

This period of confusion has been fun, but exhausting and insecure.   After drifting for two years, I wasn’t sure that I would ever find something I wanted to work towards.  Simply, I am relieved that I have found a direction. Sure, it’s about the journey, not the destination. But it’s awfully nice to have a destination to journey to.

Ocean Day

Stephanie Wilson

Arcata BLM Field Office

Arcata, CA

Four months ago I don’t even think I was aware that the Klamath Mountains existed. While the Arcata BLM field office only dips a toe into the Klamaths, I am using this blog entry to elucidate why they have been a fascination for me during my time in Northwest California. The cause for my enchantment can be summarized by one word: diversity! A popular example of the Klamaths’ biodiversity is their enriched conifer stands, where an unusual number of conifer species grow in close proximity. Specifically, the “Miracle Mile” contains 18 species within one square mile.

Occupying less than 10,000 square miles in Northwest California and Southwest Oregon, the Klamaths’ geologic diversity is what enables the rich biodiversity. The road to the Klamaths’ current manifestation began 500 million years ago, with continental fragments and volcanic island arcs in the ocean that eventually were pushed onto land, fused with other rock types, metamorphosed, and overlaid with various sediments. All of these events gave birth to their own unique rock type. And after all of that tectonic jostling, the Klamaths wound up at the crossroads between the Coast Ranges, Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, and CA’s Central Valley. Species of all 5 bioregions can be found in the Klamaths, in addition to endemics that grow nowhere else.

Due to the heterogeneity of soil and climate microsites that the mountains provide in countless combinations, the region has been able to hold on to species that have long since been extinguished from nearby mountain ranges. A striking example of this is Darlingtonia californica, a carnivorous pitcher plant growing on serpentine soils whose closest relative is found in coastal bogs of North Carolina. And the Klamaths hold the world’s last populations (growing healthily) of Brewer’s Spruce. The Klamaths have the southernmost populations of conifers common in Alaska, and the northernmost populations of conifers growing in Mexico. Conifers grow next to each other that associate nowhere else. Because of this, species are hybridizing into new variations. And populations of certain species behave differently than anywhere on Earth, often because they grow on different soils.

I was lucky enough to hike to the Miracle Mile with Michael Kauffman, the author of Conifer Country (www.conifercountry.com), the book that introduced me to much of this information. Before the hike I could barely tell the difference between pines, spruces, and firs. How naïve I was! On the hike I learned to identify sugar, ponderosa, Jeffrey, western white, lodgepole, whitebark, and foxtail pine; white, Shasta, Douglas, and subalpine fir; Brewer and Engelmann spruce; mountain hemlock; Pacific yew; incence-cedar; and common juniper. What I imagined would be subtle differences often turned out to be glaring individual expressions. But there were still plenty of cryptic hybrids and mischievous misbehavers to confuse our group of professional and amateur botanists. Watching the birth of new species is an exciting thing!