This was my first week on the job, and I already got to catch an endangered species, the Fender’s Blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioidies fender). This little blue butterfly is endemic to the Willamette Valley of western Oregon along with its host species, Kincaid’s Lupine (Lupinus oreganus), which is also endangered. If you travel along the highways that plow through the Willamette valley, you can see why these two species are not doing so well. The valley is saturated with monocultures, mostly sod and grapeseed farms, and the rivers lined by levies, channelizing flows and preventing natural flooding (same old story).
Interestingly, the site where I am working is within close proximity to the city of Eugene, OR and actually abuts the industrial area. But this is where the tiny little parcels of prairie exist that supports some of the few thriving Fender’s populations. Usually, we associate such special places and sensitive species with wilderness, forest land, or other more remote landscapes. It would be easy to overlook the value of these prairies, some of them hiding behind paper mills and factories, and focus on some of the more prevalent issues such as old growth and spotted-owls. And that is why my location is so unique. Every little site that I survey plays a very important role, each one being occupied by rare or endangered species, each one being protected from the encroachment of the city, each one reconnecting fragmented patches, and each one being managed to restore the ecosystem that once existed here.

I am excited to see how the BLM and its partners, who I am working with, cooperate on the restoration of the west Eugene wetlands. I am also excited to see what surprises lay ahead, especially after finding Fender’s Blue Butterflies at a site where they have never been recorded!

Hello, readers! As this is my first blog post, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Dani and I am an intern at the BLM in Vernal, Utah. I’m originally from Minnesota, but I moved here from La Crosse, Wisconsin where I graduated with a B.S. in Biology in May 2013. I first learned of this program through my botany professor at UW-L and I was beyond excited to be offered my current position!

Today marks the end of my first month here in Vernal and it has definitely been a whirlwind. I’ve spent the past weeks assisting other branches in the office with their vegetation work. I’ve hunted for our endemic (and threatened) cacti, Sclerocactus wetlandicus and Sclerocactus brevispinus, in the Pariette Wetlands; I performed line point intercepts for the first time among Artemisia tridentata var. vaseyana and Claytonia lanceolata on top of Blue Mountain; and I’ve hiked up Coyote Gulch for a glimpse of Frasera ackermanae, another endemic and sensitive plant of the Uinta Basin.

Frasera ackermanae, a BLM sensitive and a Uinta Basin endemic.

As you might’ve guessed, our threatened and endangered (T&E) species are a main component of our botanical work. Within the past couple years, Vernal has experienced another boom in the oil and gas industry and in ensuring that our T&E species are not adversely affected by the industry is a top priority.

On the contrary, we’re also responsible for managing our invasive species as well. I’ve had the opportunity to accompany Jim, our main weed man, out to the field twice now to spray for Russian knapweed (Centaurea repens) and whitetop (Cardaria draba). Spraying weeds is actually kind of fun! We have a UTV with two long hoses on the back and it’s strangely satisfying to hunt down and spray the invasives – especially because the blue dye we use makes it easy to see what’s been sprayed.

On the way to spray weeds – did I mention that it snowed in the mountains?

The best part so far, though, has been rafting on the White River. My boss, my fellow intern, myself, and two guys from Wildlife spent three days and two nights rafting the river, inspecting the banks for Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) and tamarix (Tamarix ramosissima) and brainstorming a monitoring plan. This summer, young folks through the Utah Conservation Corps will be cutting down the Russian olive and we want to document the ecological effects, if any, the removal will have. We’ll be going out on the river again next week to implement our monitoring plan.

Our view from McCoy Flats as we scouted for plant populations.

In case you were wondering, the reason for the title of this post is two-fold: not only did I definitely get wet (and muddy) feet during our trip down the river, but the past weeks have been a crash course in flora of the Uinta Basin. I love learning new plants and I’m excited that every day I’m able to identify more and more species. It’s a good thing, too, since my fellow intern and I spent this week scouting for Seeds of Success populations. We even took a couple vouchers! To my fellow interns, happy (seed) hunting!

Streptanthella longistrosis, one of our first voucher specimens. (Look at all those seeds!)

A patch of Eriogonum inflatum from which we also collected vouchers!

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”
II John Muir II

BLM Vernal Field Office

The sun has shone brightly for many a day here now, but it seems now in mid-May many of the creatures and plants are awakening under its spell. Everywhere you look the Balsalmroots (Balsamorhiza sagittata; Balsamorhiza hookeri) brighten a hillside, or the close inspection of a sagebrush shrub yields the dark purple bloom of a Rockress (Boechera sparsiflora). Beauty is revealing itself all around us and all we need to do is look for it and we will surely find it.

SOS is a large part of our duties here so when we are in the field for drought monitoring, rare plant surveying or other duties we keep an eye out for populations of plants large enough to collect seed from in the future. As I was doing an evening hike near to my house I noticed several plants that could be collected for seed on my journey. One of the species is a particularly interesting plant with the name of Chia. The Latin name is Salvia columbariae and the inflorescence is shaped in a ball form with what look to be spikes sticking out. However, I believe these are actually the bracts. In the mint family, it has a very beautiful purplish white zygomorphic flower. I found it growing on steep N-facing slopes with very rocky soils. Funny enough I actually found this flower because I fell while walking across the slope and low and behold this beauty was in front of me! Another very nice species of flowering shrub was Mirabilis bigelovii, or Wishbone Bush. What an incredible site to see when the sun is setting and you are beholding a small shrub with showy white flowers dancing in a soft breeze! This is a species I hope to see more of in the future.

Finally some of our lizard friends have started to become more active over the last few weeks and they can be quite interesting to look at and observe. The most common ones I have seen recently are the Long-nosed Leopard Lizard (Gambelia wislizenii) and the Great Basin Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores). They are really interesting animals and I hope all of us are able to behold creatures unique to the areas we are working in!

The odd, yet wonderfully spectacular Snow Plant.

The very showy Wishbone bush.

How wonderful to think of the first time Meriwether Lewis saw this plant!

The Great Basin Collared Lizard!

Contorted Limber Pines (Pinus flexilis) at 9000′ on a very exposed ridge. Right in front was a alpine garden! Belding’s Ground Squirrels were prevalent here as well.

“Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.” – John Muir

Carson City District BLM

Ethan

The moment I saw the big wooden sign for the Lakeview BLM district I cheered for joy. I am just nine days into my Seeds of Success position here in south central Oregon but every one of them has proven educational, rewarding and FUN! Last week I began the challenging task of learning the flora in this gorgeous sea of sagebrush. Most of the plants here are new to me but I’ve come across some favorites like phlox and collinsia while assisting in botany clearances for new fences, road bulldozing and pond digging. The weather has been surprisingly cold with many nights last week around freezing, accompanied by snow, sleet, and grapple (a new phenomenon for me). Now things are warming up to near 90°F and the threat of fire is increasing. The desert is indeed an extreme ecosystem. 

I just returned from Boise, ID where I was invited to attend the SOS protocol training. Some of the most valuable information shared was the result of many long hours of work with very disappointing ends, such as the seeds that molded or were grazed just before collecting. We learned that mapping collection sites and making the data available are crucial to ensuring a diverse native seed collection in the future. My mentor Ian and I now have a great knowledge of the program and can begin planning our seed collecting efforts. The highlights include a private tour of the Boise Botanical Garden and visiting the Malheur Experiment Station in Ontario, OR where they grow out native seed under varying conditions of irrigation and weed treatments.  Seeing the production side of native seed motivates me to make great collections so more seed is available for grow out studies like these. The science learned can then increase the success of actual reseeding.

We have found populations of Lupinus polyphyllus and Phlox diffusa that look healthy now, but nothing is certain until the seed is in your hands.

Horned toad

Lupinus polyphyllus

Coleman Lake

BLM Lakeview, OR

Wow, the past few weeks have been busy for me. My days have been filled with habitat assessment framework for sage grouse, finding morels while monitoring rare plants, and finding populations that are suitable to collect seeds in.

The habitat assessment framework, or HAF, has been a learning curve for the whole crew. We are learning how to fill out the full HAF forms as well as the modified versions. Trying to train the eye for ocular estimates proved to be tougher than originally thought. Up to this point a majority of the sites we have visited are in terrible condition for sage grouse. The main reason for this is the encroaching Junipers, lack of sagebrush, and lack of grass and forbs.

Treasure Mountain

While monitoring for many different species we have come across many fun and exciting things. There was one particular place that I nicknamed Treasure Mountain. At the beginning of our hike we came across some morels. I, not being a mushroom fan, did not know what this odd thing was. As soon as I pointed it out to my crew they were really excited to have found morels! As we hiked further up the mountain I found an old rusty horse shoe. Horse shoes are nothing to write home about but I thought it was an exciting find. When at the top of this mountain one of the crew members found a nice shed from a mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). To top this trip to Treasure Mountain, we found many healthy specimens of the Astragalus diaphanus var. diurnus. 

Morel (Morchella)

The Prineville district is a large district. Driving all across the country side looking for suitable collection sites is a real expedition. We have done a lot of searching this way, but we have also had to do some research using our resources.  We compiled a list of people, range cons, botanists, hydrologists, and others within our office to talk to. Some took us out on “field trips,” others drew on maps, and others we are waiting to hear and learn from. It was a great experience talking to people with different professions and to see how each can help us in very different ways.

The time is flying by with not a minute of work time to spare. It keeps the internship interesting, full of adventures, and provides a huge learning curve. It also allows us to meet different people with different backgrounds that have all been brought together to accomplish important tasks together.

Well, it’s been another great few weeks of my internship, here in Wenatchee WA. Since my last blog, I’ve explored another beautiful part of the state. My field partner and I spent this last week out in Juniper Dunes Wilderness. We set out to monitor the State Sensitive Cryptantha leucophea and expected to find at least a few populations that have been declining over the last few years. To our surprise, were only able to find two plants – we speculate that the population in this region has dropped off almost completely.

After doing some more background reading, I’ve personified this plant as a free spirit, transient- like. Coming and going, quite literally with the wind that shapes the sand dunes. It has adapted to establishing itself on freshly altered sandy slopes, although to the increasing stabilization of sand dunes through the state, it seems likely that this species will continue to plummet.

Apart from a few dismal thoughts about the fate of this species, I truly enjoyed being out in this piece of wilderness.  I was lulled to sleep at night by howling coyotes, and awakened by mormon crickets. Although these crickets are a pest and create a large conservation concern for the BLM, their rambunctious movement over the land created a cacophony of sounds that resembled a babbling brook – very comforting after days of wandering around the scorching dunes!

Here’s some shots of our monitoring sites:

Okay, okay … enough shots of me. Yay – our two plants (Cryptantha leucophea)! (Sorry about the low quality)

It’s great to be able to take time every few weeks to reflect on my experiences so far. Sending good thoughts out to all fellow interns!

Over the last month a lot of my energy has been focused on studying two animal species found in the Panoche Hills Recreation Area: kangaroo rats and the federally listed blunt nosed leopard lizard. We have been conducting kangaroo rat granivory trials to examine how kangaroo rats interact with the shrub Ephedra californica and understory annual species which are mainly invasive grasses. We also have been using animal activity cameras with night vision to monitor their activity under shrubs and in open areas. Very recently we have also begun an exciting collaboration with working dogs to survey lizard scat under E. californica shrubs and in open areas. This technique for surveying animals has proven to be very useful and is able to quickly and accurately survey animal populations in an area and is a very exciting collaborative project.

Over the next month we will be finishing up our leopard lizard survey and I will begin the preparation for manipulative experiments with E. california to further test the interactions of the shrub with animals and annual vegetation. This will also have important restoration and conservation implications for both species, especially with future predicted climate change.

Here are some pictures of me and another researcher (Alex) with a leopard lizard!

As I reflect on the last 6 months, I recognize the many ways that I have grown professionally. In dealing with a variety of seed vendors and other BLM employees, I have been able to sharpen my professional workplace skills, as well as my customer service skills. Personally, I have been able to get a better understanding of what it looks like to commit yourself full time to BLM projects that aren’t completed in just a few short days, or even weeks. It has been made clear that many projects take many months and years of hard work and commitment before being completed, and that doesn’t include the preparatory time before getting started. It takes a lot of passion and hard work to turn visions into reality. That’s something I will remember for years to come.

This internship has also taught me that hard work pays off. There were a variety of projects that I was assigned, some harder than others. A number of those projects took many weeks to complete. Regardless of how much time it took though, every day of hard work applied to that project was a day well spent and brought me one day closer to completion. It was unfortunate how quickly time passed when working hard. I wish I still had some more time to enjoy this experience.

Another factor that really made me enjoy this experience was the ability to sharpen my computer skills. I spent quite a bit of time on the computer and was able to learn many new things on Excel and Word. Having the capability to get better at utilizing those skills and learning new ones was a really good thing for me.

I am grateful for this experience and will always appreciate my mentor and the things that he taught me. I am also appreciative of the other individuals that I was able to work with and get to know. They were valuable in assisting me when I had questions and providing insight when things were clear as mud. This was a great experience and a great networking tool. I am confident that the addition to my resume will be a benefit in more than one way when applying for jobs in the future. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors. Work hard, have fun, and enjoy your summer.

Boise Regional Seed Warehouse

Bureau of Land Management

Boise, Idaho

Erythranthe carsonensis

It’s been an eventful month for the team and I here in Carson City, NV.  We began the month by traveling to Boise, ID for pesticide certification. It was basically like taking a super condensed college course, then having several finals at the end of the week. It was a challenge, but the whole team passed the general pesticide exam, as well as all of the category exams. We are straight up pesticide certified, so don’t mess with us!  We also did a couple of outreach events. We helped organize the Truckee River Environmental Education event on Earth Day. We took the kids on a botany safari and organized a game that taught the kids about noxious weeds. We also had a BLM booth at Earth Day in Reno, which a lot of families enjoyed.  Our booth had free posters, tattoos, homemade plant pressed book marks, as well as a couple games which included ecosystem jenga (super fun!) and the trash game, where the players had to guess how long it took certain everyday trash items to degrade.  Reno Earth Day was pretty neat, I got a chance to walk around a little bit and check out the vendors, food, and live music.

My favorite project we have been working on this month is rare plant monitoring.  We have been surveying for both Ivesia webberi and Erythranthe carsonesis.  We have successfully mapped several polygons of the Ivesei, and have been attempting to survey elsewhere for the plant. It’s been kind of a treasure hunt! We only spent a day surveying for the Erythranthe carsonesis, but it is a very unique looking plant, characterized by a yellow flower with a tiny red dot. We did find a few very small populations, a couple of them only have two or three individuals. Many plants are in bloom right now, so I expect lots of seed collecting on the horizon…