Hello from Phoenix Arizona!  The last month has involved a fair amount of riparian habitat and wildlife monitoring, including Multiple Indicator Monitoring and Yellow-Billed Cuckoo Surveys.  Even with the temperature reaching 119 degrees at times, I am still so grateful for constant sunshine after living in the East for a number of years.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I leave you with a few 🙂

Smiles,

Emily M.

Wildlife Biological Technician for BLM Phoenix

The little white dot in the picture is our Jeep 🙂

I love the Saguaro in the foreground and the winding mountain trail in the background

Complete with waders, boots, backpack, and MIMs frame

Posing under an enormous Sycamore while conducting wet-dry mapping along an Agua Fria River tributary

Going into my second month, I could not be more amped for the work that lies ahead. We have increased our total collections for 2013 from 21 to 33; including Wyethia angustifolia, Campanula scouleri, and Helenium bigelovii. We have really begun to hone in on serpentine endemic and semi-endemic species with some success. We have identified the Darlingtonia californica, and are awaiting the seed to ripen for collection. We have also positively identified the Calochortus howellii, and are in the process to determine if a collection can be made. Dealing with the challenges of working in the field has been eye opening to say the least. It’s become a rare circumstance when I do not return from the field with some sort of bite, scrape, bruise, or an insect hitchhiker. We have been experiencing somewhat of a “heat-wave” across the west coast, and it has been difficult keeping H2O supplies up but we have been making small adjustments; such as trying to get earlier starts when the day is cooler, and it has made a significant difference. 

As I look to the weeks ahead, I can’t help but feel a sense of pride for the contributions the Medford, OR district will make to the program for the 2013 season. Master collections totaling 33, and a potential collections list we are keeping close watch on at 60+ and counting makes you feel good about all the hard work you put into the job. I truly hope everyone I was able to meet, and those I did not, are enjoying the summer as much as I am. Jonathan out.

I am stationed in Richfield Utah, a small town of 7,000 (quite large by Utah standards) and I am so grateful  to have been placed here. I had previously never been to Utah and knew little to nothing about the people or the environment here. I have received nothing but kindness from local Utahns, and through my work with Dustin, have discovered that Utah has so much more to offer than just arid desert. We often spend the day winding around switchbacks and putting our jeep through it’s courses scaling mountains in search of the desired plant populations. An hour’s traveling time is sufficient to see multiple markedly different ecosystems that result from changes in altitude and precipitation zone. One second we’ll be checking out prickly pear and claret cup cacti mixed in with the sagebrush, the next we’ll see thick pinyon pine and juniper communities, and those will give way to vast stands of quaking aspen, and more often than not, the mountain peaks are covered in grassland communities spotted with diverse, colorful, and robust forbs. We’ve even seen many mountain lakes that Dustin assures us are full of world class brook trout, “brookies” as he calls them. I had absolutely no idea how much diversity Utah had to offer. I keep a field journal with me every day and write down notes about each new plant species or variety that we encounter. I’m now half way through my 4th week of work and already have detailed notes on 153 plants. Dustin says that by the end of my internship in November I should be familiar with 400-500 Utah species. Every day is different here in Richfield. I have already learned a great deal and accomplished so much in such a short time, I can only hope we continue to be successful with our explorations and collections.

The last three weeks here in southwest Utah, my fellow CLM intern and I have been busy doing sage grouse habitat assessments. We have bounced around BLM land, set up basic transects and evaluated specific areas to determine what areas in our field office might be good habitat for the elusive sage grouse. Despite covering a lot of acreage, I have yet to see a sage grouse. In a region full of sagebrush and known breeding grounds – known as leks – I hoped to catch a glimpse of one of these uncommon birds.

The greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a large bird, weighing up to seven pounds and reaching 30 inches long. They have a gray-brown speckled body and a black belly patch, which helps distinguish them from other grouse species that can be found in sagebrush. The most common images of sage grouse are the puffed up males, displaying yellow air sacks in their white breasts during breeding displays in the spring.

A male sage grouse in full mating display. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/birds/sagegrouse/

Sage grouse are, as the name suggests, are sagebrush obligates. In the winter, sagebrush is all this grouse eats. It offers important cover from the snow and cold. In warmer months, the grouse nibbles on insects, forbs, and sagebrush. The protein-rich bugs, seeds and herbaceous plants found among healthy sagebrush habitat are critical to juvenile grouse.

The reason why I haven’t spotted a sage grouse yet is because these birds’ numbers are down considerably due to habitat loss and fragmentation. In the areas we have surveyed, the sagebrush habitat is split up by roads, fences, and towns. The bird is a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, a move that would prevent activities such as cattle grazing or energy exploration in areas where the grouse occurs. Boosting sage grouse numbers and protecting its habitat would prevent conflict among stakeholders who still wish to utilize the land, plus it would result in healthier rangelands. Other organisms that depend on sagebrush ecosystems, like mule deer, pygmy rabbits, pronghorn, and sage sparrows would benefit from the protection of sage grouse.

Moving the sage grouse to the Endangered Species Act is a controversial subject. The BLM oversees acres that are for multiple uses; monitoring different species, grazing, recreation, and energy production. Finding a balance between these different land uses and protecting the sage grouse is a challenge, and is bound to spark debate.

As a wildlife intern, I feel strongly about conservation measures. However it is important to remember all the stakeholders involved in this conversation. I do hope that one day while my partner and I are taking inventory of the grasses at a transect we’ll spot one of these elusive birds. Sage grouse are an important part of the American west, and hopefully will be here for many more generations.

I’ve just wrapped up my sixth week as a CLM intern with the BLM Field Office in Rawlins, Wyoming. For the last few weeks the focus has been on seeds: scouting for, checking up on, collecting, cleaning up, and shipping. My fellow intern Avery and I have made eight collections so far and have found another eight immature populations we’re keeping our eyes on. Many of our target species are long gone already, having finished their fruiting cycles and wilted away in the especially dry season. We started late in this regard, but luckily our goal of 20-30 collections still seems highly attainable. Sagebrush may very well save the day.

Collected seeds of Crepis modocensis

I seem to be learning the flora pretty well here and have been taken by nerdy surprise over and over at some of the new-to-me genera we’ve run into. I’ve sort of become the plant and paperwork half of the job so am still eager to get some more GPS experience under my belt. There’s still a lot of time left for that, so it’ll work out.

Avery and I work long days and are rewarded with long weekends. I’ve been trying to keep things interesting by attempting to be creative with sparkly stuff at the barracks and going on mini road trips to see the sites. I’ve spent some time adventuring here in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and this weekend I’m headed to Idaho to see a familiar face and hopefully devour some straight up scrumptious food.

Got a little irresponsible with my Cressida wagon… but found a great spot

My favorite things about the area are the bunnies who live in and eat my yard, the huge detailed and fluffy clouds, and the warmth. Especially the bunnies though. A couple of weeks ago I saw a huge white-tailed jackrabbit (totally a ninja bunny) and some desert horned lizards. I see more wildlife here than I have in any other place. It’s really neat.

This week we did a little work with a Mycological-Inventory Technician named Cat who has been roaming different ecoregions in the area for two summers collecting fungi and (gasp!) lichens data. (I happen to be a bit of a lichen fanatic, so it was a blast to spend time on our hands and knees hunting for them.) Apparently little is known about where fungi and lichenized fungi occur here, so her grant-sponsored work is pretty exciting and admirable.

Crustose lichen love

Our internship future remains dedicated to SOS, though we’ve been asked if we’d like to do some work with bats and reclamation-based monitoring. Our mentor and a few other BLM employees are intent on giving us experience in as many areas as they have to offer, so hopefully we’ll get many glimpses of all sorts of what goes on with the BLM.

Six weeks down, sixteen to go!

Going from one of the muggier parts of the country to one of the driest has been one of the more dramatic transitions that I’ve experienced since starting my internship here at the Bishop BLM—not that I’ve had much time to process it. It’s hard to believe that I’ve already been here for three weeks…or is it hard to believe that it’s only been three weeks? Coming in at the height of field season has made for a hectic—and exciting—first month on the job, and I’ve been having a blast.

As someone who has spent most of her life within ten hours of the East Coast, shrub diversity was never something I paid much attention to (not with so many interesting trees overshadowing their diminutive counterparts). Here in the scrublands, however, shrubs rule supreme, and I have spent a lot of time these past few weeks learning to distinguish between bitterbrush and sagebrush, wax currants (Ribes cereum) and desert gooseberry (Ribes velutinum), horsebrushes and rabbitbrushes (not to mention rabbitbrushes and rabbitbrushes). Especially interesting is spiny hopsage (Grayia spinosa), a medium-sized shrub that is found throughout Eastern California. The showiest parts of the plant are not its flowers, but rather the seed-bearing bracts—small, colorful structures that look like a cross between a petal and a leaf. In the spring, the bracts are bright pink; as they dry, they turn yellow and crispy. And as the first plant that I collected seeds from for SOS, hopsage is definitely one of my favorite plants to run across in the field.

The most challenging shrub identification task we have to tackle on a regular basis is teasing apart the different sagebrushes. Distinguishing between low sagebrush (Artemisia arbuscula) and smaller big sagebrush individuals (Artemisia tridentata) can be tricky, but it gets especially complicated when you try to separate out the three subspecies of big sagebrush: big basin sagebrush, Wyoming big sagebrush, and mountain big sagebrush. And did I mention that they hybridize? But it turns out that these distinctions matter, and not just to someone interested in taxonomy. These subspecies are chemically distinct, and it makes a difference to the nesting sage grouse that use these shrubs as both shelter for their nests and a critical food source during nesting season. This is one of the coolest parts of my job—getting to work on a variety of projects, most of which depend on each other in some way and really get at the interactions between animal species of interest and the plant communities that they depend on.

Until next time!

It’s hard to believe 5 months have already passed by.  If you had asked me one year ago where I would be now, I probably would not have said somewhere skirting the Sierra Nevada, with Lake Tahoe for a weekend playground. 

Working for the BLM has been a lesson in patience, planning and back-up planning.  Having been here for several months, I feel like I am finally getting my feet under me.  I don’t think I have ever appreciated the value of over preparation, until this position.  The mantra: plan on plans changing.  A trip to the field means plan for anything: GPS units failing, radios dying, people getting lost, extreme heat followed by extreme cold, or you may get reassigned to a new project entirely.  This type of uncertainty requires flexibility.  Being flexible means being versatile and with the vast amounts of land our district office oversees being able to change plans quickly means accomplishing more.  For instance, several weeks ago we drove to an HAF, sage grouse habitat site that was roughly 3 hours away.  After arriving at the site and spending a few hours looking for the pre-established transect plot we had found nothing.  At that point the day could have felt like a failure. Luckily we were aware of a rare plant population in the area that required a distribution survey.  Our team was able to quickly transition from one task to another without wasting our trip to such a remote site.  This situation also underscores the value of being familiar with the land uses and interests of the office you work in.  Often times the surveys we conduct apply to multiple disciplines in our office and knowing this allows you to plan well for appropriate data collection and management.

My work out here in Alaska has been unforgettable to say the least! I just returned from a week long pack rafting trip on Tebay Lakes. The 3 lakes are only accessible by floatplane, which we got to fly in on…we were surveying the lake for an aquatic invasive Elodea canadensis (Canadian Waterweed). It is suspected that this weed is transported by float planes, and we were surveying this particular lake because it gets a lot of float plane traffic from Cordova (a place where there is known infestations of Elodea in its lakes). The first documented encounter with this invasive aquatic plant took place in 2010 in Fairbanks and this is the first aquatic freshwater invasive plant species that has been confirmed in Alaska. Here is a section of an article I helped to write that was published in the local newspaper:

” As with most invasive plant species, Elodea was brought over for decoration. Its bright green leaves, hearty stem, and long roots make it an attractive specimen for aquariums. U.S. Forest Service ecologist, Trish Wurtz said, “It’s almost guaranteed,” that someone dumped it into the Chena slough from an aquarium sometime in the past 10 years. Wurtz observed, “A bunch of red clay balls” (commonly found in aquaria) in the silt underneath a bridge in the slough.

Elodea reproduces asexually from plant parts. In the fall, leafy stalks detach from a parent plant, float away, root, and start new plants. The smallest fragment of Elodea can survive the frozen waters of Alaskan winters, wait patiently until it thaws, and float downstream until it finds a suitable place for it to grow.  Elodea prefers slow moving water with thick sediment. Once it has settled into a spot, Elodea grows rapidly where it accumulates into a tangled mass.

What does this mean for Alaskans? Like many invasive species, Elodea knows no boundaries. Once established in an area, it can quickly take over. Elodea can easily cling to rudders and floats, as well as boat propellers, only to be deposited at the next water body. Elodea can reduce water flow and water quality, out-compete native aquatic plants, lower property values, make waters unusable for recreation and degrade fish spawning habitats. On a grander scale, Elodea can make a huge impact on two large Alaskan industries: sport fishing and commercial salmon harvesting.  According to estimates by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Elodea could make a dent of $350,000 loss per year for both these industries combined.”

After surveying the lakes, we found no Elodea but took samples of a few aquatic plants to get identified.  Alaska has really proven itself to be a rugged place, as I got to experience bush-whacking up creeks, cooking fresh trout over the fire and camping all along the way, bringing only what I needed and could fit in my two dry bags that were strapped onto my pack raft… Incredible experience…annnnd THIS is my job!

Until next time,

Morgan, Exotic Plant Management Team, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Monitoring on the Trout Creek Mountains
The Trout Creek Mountains are located in the southeastern section of the Burns BLM District. This area was well known for its plant diversity, beautiful landscape, and large populations of sage grouse. Last year, there was a massive fire known as the Holloway Fire. This fire burnt an enormous amount of land. Some of the areas within the Trout Creek Mountains recovered, but many areas needed to be drill seeded to help the land get re-established with native plants. This would hopefully prevent future cheat grass (Bromus tectorum) establishment.

Our job was to monitor a large amount of plots located everywhere on the Trout Creek Mountains. Our priority was to monitor the treated sites that have been drilled seeded. Most of the Trout Creek Mountains had a large amount of rain and the higher elevations could easily have over 20 species of plant in a monitoring site. Unfortunately, the lower elevations that were drilled seeded had trouble getting established due to the rough climate. I was amazed about the color of this region. You could literally see the colors of the rainbow when looking at all the species of forbs in the landscape.

White: Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and Prickly Sandwort (Arenaria aculeata)
Pink: Oregon Checker Mallow (Sidalcea oregana)
Red and Orange: Wyoming Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja linariifolia)

Yellow: Western Groundsel (Senecio integerrimus), Modoc Hawksbeard (Crepis modocensis), and Desert Yellow Daisy (Erigeron linearis)
Green: Green Gentian (Frasera speciosa)  ((My favorite ^_^))
Blue: Tall Meadow Larkspur (Delphinium burkei)
Indigo: Rocky Mountain Iris (Iris missouriensis)
Violet: Tailcup Lupine and Silvery Lupine (Lupinus caudatus/ Lupinus argenteus )

A field of Lupine with waddling Sage Grouse!

Despite the beauty of the landscape around us, we had to brace ourselves for the elements. Temperatures could get over 90-100 degrees easily, the horseflies were out in full swarm, and the topography was very steep. When I had to ride the four wheeler/ rhino around, we would be on a 45 degree angle on a cliff to get to our next destination. Also, you have to bring plenty of water and protection. We had bandannas to protect us from the dust that got in our eyes and mouth during the drive. If we did not have eye protection, we would have blood shot eyes due to the dry/dusty conditions. Beyond the elements, this has been an amazing opportunity! We got to see new plants, meet new people, and learn different techniques!

In the midst of the rough conditions, we got to stay at a government place known as the Hilton. This place is like a giant trailer that could sleep fifteen people. They have a coral in the back ,with mules and a nice bit of property with porphyritic rock volcanic rock indicating the violent geologic past this area had.

Sage Grouse All Over the Place
One of the creatures that blew us out of the water were the Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus)! We never seen them before now. In some of the areas, within the Trout Creek Mountains, there was a population of thirty or more. Every day, we would see these birds flying or waddling to their heart’s content. One morning I was driving to our next destination and thirty sage grouse flew into the air! I have never seen so many before!! One time, I saw many of them waddling along the roadside amongst the lupine and I took a lot of good pictures. They reminded me of quails with their waddling and ninja like hiding skills. Sage Grouse do remind me of the Chestnut Bellied Sandgrouse (Pterocles exustus) from Hawaii that were introduced, but the Sage Grouse were larger. One could easily find them amongst mature stands of Mountain Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. vaseyana).  We were fortunate to see these birds, unfortunately they are not common in the rest of our area.

Misadventures

Female Clones?
One day after work we were visited by two girls who were working for the natural resources division at the Oregon State University. They had a similar job to us, but they had to catalog all of the plants in the area, so they could map them later on. The funny part was that they were like our clones…but they were female! Same personality same hair color, and similar heights. We compared notes and talked about the different plants we had seen on the Trout Creek Mountains.

Scouting
One of my side jobs for monitoring was to scout out a location. Some sites were hidden or did not have road access to them. Sometimes I would walk over a mile and up a butte to find a plot. This was great exercise! Some plots I scouted out were gone or ceased to exist. The directions or the photos for some of the sites did not help us at all. One of the “photographs” was a drawn picture of the ground…which did not help out at all. A tip I learned was to look under the cow pies for the plot markers. Some scouting locations were surrounded by barb wire fencing, which I would limbo under. Haha! All in a day’s work! 😉

Horned Lizards
The Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma douglassi or Phrynosoma platyrhinos ) were one of my favorite animals of the Trout Creek Mountains! They were camouflaged and could flatten their body to avoid predators. I would catch them and they would just sit on my arm, while I went to monitor the next plot. They did not bite and were very fascinating to look at. They would give you a face that would either display “Hehehe… I am going to get you” or a “I am a rock and am non-existent.” When they flatten their body they would have saw like scales along their sides, which made them look like a horned Frisbee that could do some serious damage.

Horned Lizards!!

This was our first week monitoring at the Trout Creek Mountains. Next week will be just as exciting containing brilliantly colored forbs, ninja-like sage grouse, and beautiful topography! I can’t wait until then! ^_^

Have a great day!

Justin Chappelle
Burns/ Hines BLM Intern
Geographer, Bird watcher and Botanist

Fun Fact:  Having a milkshake after a hard day of work would help you become 20% cooler in ten seconds flat….just saying…