Perhaps this last month of my internship has been the most productive yet least eventful- a good thing I guess! Due to the heavy monsoon rains we got this summer in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California, our field season was slightly extended. So, I have been continuing traipsing around the forest mapping rare and endangered plant species populations even though everything around me is telling me it is fall. The most exciting thing that happened recently is that my field attire changed! Bow-hunting season started a little bit ago so now I wear a snazzy, orange, mesh vest with pockets over my already flattering Forest Service uniform and try my best not to look like a deer.  

There really is not that much to report other than I feel proud of what I have accomplished in the last couple of months. My main job has been cleaning up our geodatabase with field checks of different plant populations. The valley where I have been doing most of my work is literally coated in endangered, threatened, and rare plants.  I feel very lucky to have become so familiar with these little guys that not many people get to see let alone even know exist.  A few things I have learned recently are that rare plants don’t always grow in convenient places, I am in love with an endangered buckwheat, and a forest is a delightful office 🙂.  I can’t imagine an office job after this dream job!

In addition to my field mapping, I have continued work on my wildflower book of the San Bernardino Mountains. I am a little over half way done so I will have to really kick it into gear to finish by the end of October (the end of my internship). But luckily, the plants and the weather are getting crispy and it’s almost time to come indoors to do some office work.

One last thing I’ve been up to is occasionally working and volunteering with the restoration crew on the Forest. Last Saturday was National Public Lands Day and we had over one hundred volunteers show up to an Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) staging area in the transition zone above the Mojave. We planted various natives propagated in our greenhouse here at the station and restored an area that was becoming subject to severe erosion due to unauthorized vehicle use. The transplants we put out usually have about an 80% success rate.  What I thought most remarkable about the day was the tremendous turnout from all walks of life. We had four year olds, eighty year olds, OHV jeep dudes, my mom, college kids, boy scouts, and our regular adult and children volunteers all working together to rehabilitate the landscape. It was a great example of how government agencies and the public actually CAN work together in a productive manner!

Me and my mom planting some Artemisia tridentata at the National Public Lands Day restoration event!

Until next time,

Lizzy Eichorn, San Bernardino National Forest

It is just now October, and already there is snow in the forecast. I am glad the BLM gives us rugged vehicles with 4 wheel drive to get around in, so that field work will still be possible in almost all but the most inclement weather. Within reason, of course. Vehicle reports were due today, and I took good ole “Silvy” the Silverado to get her tires aired up before more field work begins this week. I have spent quite a bit of time in the office lately, filling out seed collection data forms, organizing photos, downloading GPS data, and packing up herbarium vouchers, tying up any loose ends I can find. Soon I will get back to surveys, surveys, surveys. Next week a Montana Conservation Corps crew will be here to help us collect sagebrush seed and remove netwire for the sake of the pronghorn. It’s nice to have some extra hands around to make work like fencing and collecting seeds the size of grains of sand more efficient. On Friday I was removing barbed wire over a half mile stretch of fence by myself, and it ended up taking me the whole day just to detach the bottom strand from the fence and rip it out of all the sagebrush growing into the fence! It was a bear of a project, one I had not counted on being so difficult, but I feel better for having finally made progress. Still, the more sets of hands around to help, the merrier.

I am not sure yet how long I will stay. Part of me wants to get a permanent job closer to home and start working towards grad school, and the other part of me just wants to stay here in Cody and extend the internship again. If anyone were to ask me what kind of work I like to do, it would be this. When I think of all the things I like about this job, I wonder who in their right mind would give it up for anything else! I can’t do it forever, I suppose. But… is it time to move on? The job market isn’t offering a lot right now anyway, would I just be settling if I left? The opportunity cost is high in my mind, and I am not even close to reaching a decision about the whole thing. However, for the moment there is still time to ponder… I hope, anyway.

Into the great wide open
Under them skies of blue
Out in the great wide open
A rebel without a clue

I’m beginning a new chapter in my life, and Tom Petty keeps floating through my head. The future really does feel wide open. After 16 months working with Carol Dawson and Peter Gordon at the BLM Colorado State Office in Denver, I’m selling my furniture and preparing to pack up my little RAV4 and move across the country. It’s similar to what I did a year and a bit ago, but more terrifying because I don’t have a job lined up for when I arrive.

I’m incredibly excited and ready for a change, but will also be very sad to leave Denver. The people I have met here and the experiences I have had have been wonderful. This internship has allowed me to learn so much about what the BLM does and how they do it, and as a result I have gained a lot of respect for the difficult decisions the Bureau makes. I have met passionate people who truly care about what they are doing, and have been able to participate in a variety of interesting projects. Whether I end up in federal service is still very much up in the air, but I have certainly gained a greater understanding of what such a career could entail.

Beyond the many things I learned about the botany of Colorado and how to effectively monitor a plant population, I also learned a great deal about myself during this internship. Initially, I learned that I could move to a new city and make a life for myself, in the process making wonderful friends and exploring a really fun and beautiful place. That first summer, to my surprise, I ended up living by myself. While terrifying at first, I rose to the occasion and ended up really enjoying the freedom that gave me. I learned about working an 8-4:30 job, waking up at the same time and getting myself to the same office every day. This became increasingly difficult during the winter when we didn’t have fieldwork to distract ourselves with, but I still managed, and I think I’m better for the experience. Finally, I learned about the transition to adulthood. While I still feel like a “freshman in real life,” it’s not so strange to me that I didn’t go back to school this fall.

Overall this has truly been a great experience for me, and I’m very grateful to have been given the opportunity. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to work with (thanks Carol, Peter, and Darnisha!). And so, as I say goodbye to Colorado, to my friends, and to my coworkers – remember, I will miss you!

Sama Winder
BLM CO State Office

The BLM in Cedar City Utah has given me many opportunities to learn about the diversity of work that is available. Recently I was able to attend Biomass Days in Beaver Utah. This event was gave me a chance to see firsthand the tools and equipment that is being used to combat Pinion/Juniper encroachment. There were also many speakers that discussed the exciting prospects of Bio-Char a product that is made from burning P/J without oxygen. This new product is very promising! There are multiple uses for it Bio-Char, it can be added to mulch and fertilizers as well as being compressed into pellets to be sold as charcoal. Some of the equipment that was demonstrated was the Bull hog, wood chipper, wood chip sorter, and bagging machine. I am also still monitoring the sage grouse in the area using radio telemetry, which I am becoming an expert at.

Wood chip sorter

I had an argument with a coworker this past week. The issue was not really anything of great importance, but a result of the fatigue and irritability that can result from field work. This event lead me to examine some specific considerations surrounding my current and future employment as a field biologist. Field work has a certain set of demands infrequently experienced in other work environments. One obvious, yet significant, aspect of field work is the outdoor environment. Local climate and inclement weather can cause general physical discomfort. Physical discomfort often leads to a negative emotional response. I have learned that my patience and composure are tried by the relentless heat I’ve experienced this summer. I have learned to be aware of shifts in my temperament caused by the heat. I know that I cannot prevent the physical discomfort, therefore the only thing under my control is my emotional response to it.

A second aspect of field work is working closely with the same person/group of people daily. Under these circumstances individuals rapidly get to know each other. We learn to get along almost out of necessity, in order to get the work done, but also to make the experience pleasant for everyone. I think that confrontation will inevitable arise during this process. Individuals of a team must voice their concerns or feelings to make others aware of them if they have been offended or are feeling uncomfortable. The key in this situation is to speak up early, thus to prevent the build up of resentment or grudges. I’m glad this internship has provided me with the opportunity to grow in personal and emotional wisdom as well as botanical and scientific knowledge. Thanks CLM!

Site for milkweed seed collection

Here in Carson City we’ve been staying very busy this field season. We’ve been doing a wide variety of projects, but most recently we’ve been doing many seed collections. We were scouting and collecting on the east side of the Pine Nut Mountains last week, and camping there at night! Our group successfully made about 20 collections, including Woods’ rose, fourwing saltbush, milkweed, and scabland penstemon. It was a great and productive trip. I really enjoy the field work we do because we get to go to  so many remote places that we wouldn’t otherwise see!

The summer has flown by, and it is fall here in Lakeview. Already three of my fellow interns have moved on, and the botany crew is finishing up our field season.  Most recently we have been working on surveys for special status species, including Eriogonum prociduum (Prostrate Buckwheat), Ivesia rhypara var. shellyi (Shelly’s Mousetail), and Carex diandra (Lesser Panicled Sedge) in some beautiful and unusual areas.  We have also collected seed for the Seeds of Success program, from Cercocarpus ledifolius (Mountain Mahogany), Castilleja linariifolia (Wyoming Indian Paintbrush), and Heliotropium curassavicum (Salt Heliotrope), among others.  One highlight of the last couple months was the opportunity to visit the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory, an amazing and interesting trip organized by Tommy Esson. It was fascinating to see the sleuthing behind animal forensics and talk to the scientists who track down criminals in the illegal animal trade. We have also had great adventures on the weekends, including a trip to the Steens Mountains, Lava Caves, and a big trip to Crater Lake, where interns from Lakeview, Klamath, Alturas, Cedarville, and Coos Bay all had a chance to meet up. It has been a great summer and I am reluctant to leave!

Ivesia rhypara var. shellyi

Castilleja linariifolia

Heliotropium curassavicum

Surveying for Special Status Species near some petroglyphs

Interns at the Steens

 

 

Over the past month here in Missoula, MT, we have been busy implementing new wildlife and forestry monitoring before the season comes to a close. We have been helping with a Snowshoe Hare project conducting habitat monitoring on stands with the ultimate goal being: to determine how long after thinning projects it takes for hares to re-enter and use the area. The monitoring consists of horizontal cover data, canopy cover data, habitat typing, shrubs and seedlings found in the plot, pellet counts (my favorite) and habitat typing the area.  Looking for the little m&m sized pellets is like a scavernger hunt!

The forestry monitoring project we have been working on is a new project so it has been a difficult process to determine our exact protocols and plot locations. However, it has been a great opportunity to be on the planning side of a monitoring project to see how protocols are determined. The picture below is a group of us at our first site, trying to finalize the protocols. The goal of the project is to monitor the response of understory vegetation to different thinning treatments (clear cuts, single tree selections and salvage) over a long term timeline. We are establishing plot locations and collecting baseline pre-treatment data. The data we are collecting is horizontal cover, canopy cover, vegetation height, fuels data (Brown’s survey method) and understory plant diversity and composition (with a Daubenmire transect).

Besides the monitoring projects above, I have been busy helping monitor a riparian site using Multiple Indicator Monitoring, collecting seeds of Black Hawthorne (Crataegus douglasii), Snowbrush (Cenothus velutinus) and Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), preparring herbarium samples and surveying for more sensitive plants. The photo below is of Pyrola picta, White-veined Wintergreen, a sensitive plant that is found in moist and dry forests. Unfortunately, this year most of the plants we have found did not flower, perhaps due to the lack of snowmelt. Thanks for reading!