Hello everyone,

A lot has happened since I’ve last written to you. From my perspective, the past few months have mostly been an ongoing cycle of making seed collections, trying to determine what kind of seed I just collected, entering data, and packing seeds into bags and boxes. So seeds are kind of my life I guess. I feel like people who read this blog are mostly botany-enthusiasts and plant-lovers, so hopefully this is a safe place to say things like “seeds are my life” and not face judgment. Because when I say that to my friends in real life they definitely look at me kind of weird.

In my expert opinion, the best thing about seed collections is that they take place in fascinating and unique locations. I’m a big fan of traveling. Our most recent seed collecting trip took me to a really remote part of Nevada. Well really, all of Nevada is pretty remote. But we went to the Desatoya Mountains, which are *really* remote.

We made thirteen different collections over the course of this trip, which is pretty average for us, I guess. We also found (and collected, sort of) an abandoned dog, which would be more dogs than we typically collect on average. I think every seed collection team should have a dog that they travel around with. It would be a great morale-booster. The SOS program would probably see record increases in the amount of seed collected, I bet. It’s probably at least worth a try. For those wondering, we took a detour from our trip to bring the dog to a shelter, which Annika later drove back to and adopted him from. He’s living with us for the week, and he really enjoys having his ears scritched.

Annika + dog

One thing I’ve observed while traveling throughout the Sierra Nevada/Basin and Range, is that the cooler plants always are found at higher elevations. So I was pretty glad to arrive in the mountains and start scouting for seeds. Two of the collections we made were roses and stinging nettle, which are both pretty painful and awful to collect. But we also got to collect oceanspray, which I would have to say is probably one of the best-smelling plants I’ve gotten to collect this season. Like, if I were to make a definitive ranking of the best seeds to collect, based on smell, this one would at least be in my top three, I think. We also got to collect alumroot, which smells pretty normal, but I enjoy it because it grows mostly on vertical cliff faces.

Another cool non-plant, non-dog discovery we made during this trip was a towering waterfall that was tucked back within the canyons of the Desatoya Mountains. The Great Basin isn’t exactly known for waterfalls, so it was great to find this hidden gem.

After camping near the waterfall, we made a few more collections and then headed back to Carson City on the next day. The season is winding down, so this seed-collecting excursion is likely to be my last. It’s been a treasure to explore our country’s natural areas, and to collect seeds that will be used to grow and sustain those areas. I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading about my adventures as much as I’ve enjoyed having them!

Until next time,

Sam S.

It has been very busy! Rare plant surveys in the Ojito wilderness study area, AIM training in Albuquerque, visits to the Las Cruces District Office and the Jornada researchers and of course lots of data analysis! The New Mexico State Office has been very welcoming and I have enjoyed meeting the plethora of managers, scientists and interns. Now I just need a few plants for my cube…

We pulled out of the parking lot at dawn after one of the first nights of frost, raw chicken drumsticks and a can of synthetic stink bouncing around in a cooler in the bed of the truck. From town we drove west into the hills between Upper Klamath Lake and the Rogue Valley to check our first trap.

The BLM was in the midst of a fisher study, and I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to tag along with one of the lead biologists for a day. Fisher are small carnivorous mammals in the weasel family and the marten genus. They are primarily solitary animals, with the females occupying relatively large home ranges and the males moving between female ranges to mate. (Fun fact about fisher reproduction, while fisher mate in the early spring, they have delayed implantation so gestation doesn’t begin until the following fall!) While fisher were once relatively common in the western United States, heavy trapping for their pelts led to their extirpation in a large part of their historic range.  A population remained in south western Oregon and another population was established through reintroduction west of Crater Lake, Oregon. It is believed that these two populations may have merged to create the population that now occupies the area west of Upper Klamath Lake. The BLM is currently conducting a multi-year study to learn more about this population of fisher.

On the morning I checked traps with the BLM biologist, approximately 20 traps had been set and 5 separate groups were out checking traps. The traps consist of a have-a-heart trap connected to a wooden box. Traps are set against logs that are generally located on ridges or in narrow swaths of forest between open areas. To avoid predation, fisher prefer to travel in higher areas with adequate cover. Traps are camouflaged with bark, monitored with a motion sensor camera strapped to a nearby tree. A very strongly scented lure that smells like sweet skunk is spread around the area to attract animals, and a piece of raw chicken is hung inside the trap. Once an animal enters the trap to grab the chicken, the door springs shut behind it. When fisher find themselves trapped, they generally take the chicken, go hide in the wooden box behind the trap, and enjoy their meal. Traps are checked each morning to see whether a fisher (or other critter) has been caught and to refresh the lure and chicken if needed.

A set trap, waiting for a fisher to wander by.

Arriving at our first spot, we hopped out of the truck, grabbed our supplies, and followed the candy stripe flagging tape and increasingly strong smell of what the biologist I was with affectionately referred to as ‘pepe’ to the trap. While we did find a trap with the door closed, it was clear this was not the doing of a hungry fisher, but rather a curious bear. We set the trap back in place, covered it with bark, and propped the door open. I tried to hide my disappointment when three traps later all we had found were open doors or bear tossed traps. Just as I was resigning myself to a fisher-free day, we received a text from another biologist who had caught what she believed to be a juvenile female fisher in a nearby trap.

After all traps had been checked, we convened at the location with the fisher to process the animal. It took about 10 minutes to coax the fisher out of the wooden box, through a canvas tube that resembled a very large frosting bag, and into a fisher-sized wire cage. My job was to wait until the fisher scurried out and found itself stuck face first in the wire cage and then jam wooden dowels in behind it to ensure it didn’t retreat into the bag. Once in place, one of the biologist gave the fisher a general anesthetic.

The trap attached to a canvas tube and metal cage.

Various measurements and samples were taken including weight, length, girth, hair samples, blood samples, fir samples, tick samples, a tissue sample, ocular, nasal, and rectal swabs, and a tooth. The animal was monitored throughout the process to ensure an appropriate body temperature was maintained. While the BLM often puts radio collars on fisher to track their movement, this fisher did not receive a collar because it was likely not fully grown and a collar could lead to problems if the animal continued growing. A passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag was injected so the individual could be identified if recaptured. Poking and prodding complete, the fisher was returned to the wooden box to recover for a few hours before being released in the same area where it was captured. After two unsuccessful attempts to climb a nearby tree, which involved the fisher losing grip, flying through the air, and miraculously landing on all fours, the fisher finally wobbled its way up the trunk and clung to a branch, watching us until we drove away.

BLM biologists weigh the fisher. This was either a large juvenile female or a small adult female.

Taking samples from the fisher.

Although the day probably left the fisher feeling a little sore and woozy, the capture allowed the BLM to add to its data set and knowledge about fisher in the area, and gave me the incredible opportunity to be involved in capturing, processing, and releasing an animal that few people are lucky enough to ever see.

I got to hold the fisher as it began to wake up and return it to the trap for recovery.

Everyone from this summer before entering Gypsum cave.

Things are coming to an end. The leaves are falling off of the trees. The plants are curling in on themselves. The sun is drifting farther and farther away. And my internship is passing along the last of its knowledge as I wrap up in Shoshone and prepare for my departure. It is a time for reflection.

My resume has grown exponentially as I’ve added experience in various vegetative protocols, Seeds of Success activities, and a multitude of side projects allowing me to dabble in new experiences. Most recently, my fellow interns, fuels crews, and I collected 235 lbs. of sagebrush seeds! We delivered them to Lucky Peak Nursery in Boise for cleaning. The seeds will be planted and grown into seedlings for future restoration projects!

All 235 lbs. of sagebrush seeds we collected!

The future is hopeful, yet slightly grim right now. I was unable to lock on a job so I will be heading back to Kansas for the winter. I will find some work in my college town and I’m going to look around for some volunteer opportunities in wildlife to gain more experience. I am going to buckle down and study hard for the GRE and take the test this winter. I would love to get a Master’s program in bat conservation (thank you to this internship for introducing me a little bit to bats)! I would love an opportunity to do this internship program again next summer, so there is that to look forward to, too!

I will miss the West in the mean time and hope to return as soon as I can! Living life in my 5th-wheel trailer makes picking up and moving easy.

I am so thankful for this internship and all of the experiences I’ve been fortunate enough to have. I will never forget the people I’ve met at my field office nor the beautiful lands of Idaho. I have been so inspired by this state that I hope to live here one day in the future. Idaho is a best kept secret. Thank you to the staff, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and my fellow interns for making this such an incredible experience!

Everyone from this summer before entering Gypsum cave.

Marissa Jager – Shoshone Field Office – Idaho

Since my last post I have been working on wrapping up the capstone project of my summer. Over the past couple months I have been working on the prepping for large scale Wyoming Big Sagebrush Seed collection. It started with over 14 hours of GIS work to isolate potential sites for seed collection. I spent the months of September and October field checking the sites and monitoring the phenology of the sagebrush. Then, finally, when November rolled around it was time for collection. With the help of the two other interns and the Fuels crew we collected a grand total of 235 pounds of raw sagebrush seed! It was amazing to see the project from start to finish, and it was a great end to my Seeds of Success work.

Wyoming Big Sagebrush seed

Marissa and I getting ready to drive 235 lbs of sagebrush seed to the forest service nursery.

We also had the chance to help with some plantings along the Little Wood River. First, we worked with Blaine County’s 7th and 8th graders to plant willow cuttings along the river for a National Public Lands Day project. It was great to see how excited the students got about getting outside and planting. We then came back a couple weeks later with the Fuels crews in our district and planted river birch in the same area.

The planting crew for the willow planting at the Little Wood River. (Photo by Marissa Jager)

The National Public Lands Day t-shirts at the willow planting site. (Photo by Marissa Jager)

At the end of October we decided to do a Halloween themed final exploration into the White Cloud Mountains. We did a 6 mile hike to Boulder City, a ghost town. At one point Boulder city was a bustling mining town with several cabins, a saloon, several mines, and several mills. We weren’t totally prepared for the fact that there was knee deep snow at the old mine town, but it added to adventure. We rounded out our Halloween theme by hiking last mile on the way back in the dark. And we finished with a nice dinner in Ketchum to celebrate all the adventures we had this summer.

Marissa and Nicki hiking the last half a mile towards Boulder City

Boulder City, Idaho

I’m having a hard time digesting the fact that 6 months have passed since I first arrived in south-central Idaho. It has been a whirlwind half a year during which I have moved twice, lived with 8 different people, visited more than 6 national parks, and had the chance to explore and work with some amazing people. This internship has been a great opportunity to get my feet under me after graduating, and has helped me figure out what I need to do next. I will be making the trek back to Virginia at the end of this week, and will be putting in my applications for a couple M.S. programs. At the moment it looks like my next step will be to start a thesis in late spring, early summer. All of the skills I have gained and the projects I have worked on this summer are what made it possible for me to gain the attention of potential advisers. If I had to do it over again, I would in a heartbeat.

My parting advice to any future interns is to get out and explore the area you are in while you can because time will go by a lot faster then you think. If you are collecting seeds find a good podcast or two. Not only does it make the time pass quicker, but you’ll also find that it makes you more productive. Don’t be scared to take on a project that seems like it’s beyond your skill, you’ll be surprised at what you are really capable off.

And if you are lucky enough to end up in Shoshone, Idaho then you are lucky enough.

• Abby Goszka, Shoshone Field Office, BLM

It’s the last week of my nine-month internship here in Wenatchee, WA, and things seem to have come full circle. The foothills are snowcapped again, reminding me of the way they looked in March when I first arrived in this valley. After a final flurry of fall fieldwork including a riparian restoration project, seed collection, and AIM monitoring of ESR seeding treatments, I’m back in the office full-time, struggling to make it through days that would have flown by if spent out in the field. I’m already brushing up on my early spring wildflowers, hoping to get a head-start before CLM internship 2.0 begins!

One of the beaver exclosures built as part of a riparian restoration project

I knew I wanted to be a CLM intern since I first discovered the program in 2014. I was a senior in college, and my conservation biology advisor sent me an email with a link to the web page. I remember the way I lit up while reading about the various responsibilities interns might have…I wondered if it were really possible that I could actually be PAID to do those things that sounded more like fun than work! The whole thing just seemed too good to be true. Though I didn’t get an internship in 2015, I tried again, ended up here, and discovered that it’s even better than I’d imagined. The incredible, fascinating flora of this region reignited my passion for botany–when the foothills were in their full spring bloom, I felt like a kid in a candy shop every time I was out in the field.

Bitterroot–still my favorite Washington plant!

That’s not to say the whole field season was fun and games, though. I pushed myself to new limits during this internship, and discovered a physical and mental toughness I didn’t know I had. Hiking over the steep terrain of this region whipped me into the best shape of my life, I experienced fieldwork in hundred degree heat, and I made it to the top of countless hills that at the time I was sure would kill me. I spent days at a time camping at remote field sites, with neither showers nor reliable cell service. I’m glad things weren’t always easy, because these challenges have made me a stronger person and a more valuable field worker.

Something I did not expect, but am grateful for, is the amount of experience with GIS this internship has given me. In general, I find technology pretty daunting, and will always opt to go outside rather than do computer work if given the choice. But seeing all the ways my coworkers at the BLM used ArcMap, and using it myself as an integral part of my tasks, made me realize what a valuable tool it is for land management.

My position here in the 2017 field season will be the same as my current position–I’ll be focusing on post-wildfire emergency stabilization and rehabilitation, which means that once again I’ll be hiking through recently burned BLM parcels, sending up puffs of ash with every step and likely mapping lots of weeds. But with the relatively light wildfire year we had here in Washington, it looks like we won’t be quite as swamped with ESR, and will likely be spending more time doing things like wildlife surveys. With any luck, I’ll be posting pictures of sage grouse on here a few months from now!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee, WA Field Office

In the spring of 2015, I graduated from CSU San Bernardino with a degree in biology. A few years prior to that, I had only a budding interest in ecology and evolution, along with a desire to conserve species and their habitat. I did not have a solid idea of what I would do with my degree, if anything, and when questioned I often joked (kind of) that I would be a janitor that talked a lot about biology, as was already the case. Lacking an end goal or specific area of interest, I took a wide variety of courses, a broad look at biological processes ranging from the ecosystem level down to the molecular. For the most part courses occurred inside lecture halls and labs. I most enjoyed those few exceptions in ecology and botany in which we left the classroom for fieldwork. That is why I became an intern at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden after graduating, and why I then sought a CLM Internship. Through the course of the CLM Internship I have learned far more of the flora of California than I previously knew. I have learned more about the chaparral ecosystem; the plant and animal species, fire ecology and associated management challenges. I have learned more about edaphic influences on vegetation composition, and I would love to visit and work in more examples of this beyond the gabbro soil of Pine Hill Preserve. Through this experience I see how much more there is to learn and have deepened my interest to do so. I have acquired new interests. I worked with another intern, who has been documenting pollinators of plant species around Pine Hill Preserve, and his interest in pollinators has rubbed off onto me. I also assisted with bird surveys and California red-legged frog habitat construction and monitoring. I hope to continue to gain experience with wildlife and plants in one place, understanding an ecosystem more completely. My interest in biology really started with wonder and curiosity about ecology and how species have evolved with one another, and now I really hope to someday apply an understanding of ecology to conservation and land management. I am now back at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, because it’s a great place, working in the nursery, seed bank, and on the Angeles National Forest for a restoration project. The planting is a restoration project, but also an attempt to address questions about methods which affect the cost and maybe success of projects, comparing results of weed treatments with and without subsequent native planting, along with planting success with different size/age plants. I would gladly go back to the BLM Mother Lode Field Office in the future, because it is also a great place. Thank you to all the staff at the BLM that welcomed me there, and especially my mentor, Graciela, and fellow interns for working with me.

Right now there are 1000 goats on Fort Ord. BLM brings them in order to reduce fuel loads for potential fires, as well as to cut back on coyote brush that encroaches on coastal grasslands. They are hilarious animals – they climb on top of each other trying to get to higher branches, flutter their mouths as they reach for food, and complain at you with a chorus of goat meeeeehhh‘s if you call out to them. Being in the midst of 1,000 of them is awesome.

making eye contact

Last week I helped out Ranger Tammy with a few of her puppet shows that she gives at local elementary schools. This particular puppet show was to teach the students about fire ecology. It was a bit of a flashback being inside an elementary school classroom/gym again. I realized that I haven’t been since I was in 5th grade, and it brought back some old memories.

Ranger Tammy in her element

Every Wednesday we have students from the local Community Day School come volunteer at Fort Ord. The community day school is a school for students who have been expelled from other schools or who have problems with truancy or behavior – a lot of them have a ton of energy and have never been out in a wild place like Fort Ord before. One day we were pulling up non native mustard when we found a baby gopher snake and an ornate orb-weaver spider.

Baby gopher snake

Orb-weaver

At one of our trailheads we had an eagle scout project plant a bunch of native plants a few months ago. I’ve been weeding and maintaining those landscaped areas, and one day while weeding I came across an arboreal salamander.

Arboreal salamander

Sean Pagnon, BLM Fort Ord National Monument, CA

Normally this is supposed to be the slow time of year for the “ologists” at the BLM Mother  Lode Field Office but this year things have been quite busy. Earlier in the year I helped collect a ton of specimens from some insect traps that we put have been putting out to study the pollinators of our area. Now comes the terribly fun part of washing them with shampoo and then drying them off with a hair dryer (not lying), but it isn’t bad when you have some good tunes. Luckily the barn I am working in has surround sound! Then we will be pinning them and getting them ready to identify using UC Davis’ reference collection.

Other than this, I took a chainsaw workshop a couple of weeks ago and finally got to put it to use today in the field. Looks simple, but when your thinking about the fact that the saw could cut you like butter, it is a bit more interesting. Also today we used one of the normal field saws, which is like twice as big as the almost kid sized saw that we learned on. Boy was my arm tired.

We also have been working to keep a neighbor of our rare plant preserve from riding through on his motorcycle, as this disturbs the habitat and has potential to spread weeds. Since I used to use trail cameras a bit to track wildlife, I decided to put out a camera and see if I could catch the motorcyclers on camera but like 99% of the animals I tried to pick up on camera, the motorcyclers too were very blurry.

Happy Holidays y’all,

-Landon from the BLM Mother Lode Field Office in El Dorado Hills, CA

A while back, our team here at the North Carolina Botanical Garden agreed to help our friends at the Greenbelt Native Plant Center with a collection they were making at Ted Harvey Wildlife Area just outside of Dover, DE. We were in touch with Barbara and Gio, and they described in brief what kind of help they were looking for. We were to meet them at Ted Harvey on a Tuesday afternoon, work through to the evening, and continue the following day until we could help no longer. We planned our trip that week around helping with their collection, making a few stops along the way, and on our way back at the end of the week.

Courtesy of Google Maps – our trip to Ted Harvey Wildlife Area, had we not stopped at a few sites along the way. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t fly to our collection sites…

On our way to Delaware, we had to first stop at a spot in Maryland we knew to have a large population of Bidens aristosa (Bearded Beggarticks). One of our closest collection sites, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge – a mere 4 hours from home base – requested a lot of seed from B. aristosa, and boy are they gonna get a lot! Once we finished that, we spent the night in MD and headed toward DE the following morning.

Bidens aristosa seeds… maybe one five hundred thousandth of what we collected

Our hotel room filled with drying Bidens aristosa

We knew we were to collect Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass), but we had no idea how much. We arrived that afternoon to see jumbo trash bags behind Barbara’s car absolutely jam-packed with Spartina inflorescences. We met up with the two of them, whom we hadn’t seen since training in June, and began our short hike to the collection area. Never have I seen so much S. alterniflora in one place, nor have I seen such tall plants either! They were easily 7-8 feet tall in some spots. The plants were on steroids. The tallest I’d seen up until then had been at most 5 feet tall. To add, the S. alterniflora we encounter at our own collection sites tends to have a whopping 2-3 seeds per spike, but these had in excess of 50 seeds per spike upon first inspection!

Spartina alterniflora inflorescences – you can see how plump each floret is!

By the time we finished collecting that first day, I was convinced we had leaps and bounds more than we needed. Our bags were full of thousands upon thousands of spikes. But the following day when we met up with Barabara and Gio’s mentor Clara, she explained that the project for which they were collecting wanted to direct sow the seed in an area covering 1500-2000 acres! Not only that, but since they were seeding FROM AN AIRPLANE, they require massive quantities of seed. Somewhere in the area of 10-30 pounds of collected material per acre. You do the math. That’s a gargantuan collection that needs to be made!

Each of us filled around two of these on our first afternoon!

Anyway, we spent that second day split between Bombay Hook NWR and Prime Hook NWR, collecting both from boat and by foot. Clara and I were at Prime Hook on foot, and I took the opportunity to ask what her thoughts were on the stark difference in culm height between the shorter plants I was used to, and the tall ones I was noticing in DE. We both agreed we needed to educate ourselves better on the subject. I did some research into the height differences and found that a number of scientists refer to the two as short and tall forms of S. alterniflora. The two forms seem to be distinct on a hereditary level, but I have not read any studies which have proven that claim.

I do not envy the NY crew. As exciting as it is to have such a large project requesting so much seed, its a large order to fill! I hope they appreciated our help!

On our way back to the garden at the end of our trip, we stopped in at a brand new Maryland state park, so new in fact, that it won’t be open until March of 2017. It’s called Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park. I can’t wait for it to open so I can finally see first hand what it was like for Harriet Tubman and the many families and friends she saved to travel via the Underground Railroad.

And here’s a picture of some interesting looking Spartina patens from Ted Harvey:

Spartina patens flattened and discolored

Till next time.

Jake Dakar

SOS East – North Carolina Botanical Garden