The season is beginning to come to a close. Looking around the different field sites and local parks, I noticed that the aspen leaves are beginning to desiccate and produce the most brilliant, golden yellow and amazingly, beautiful orange hues.  Even though the season is almost over, we are still very busy with collecting seeds, such as Chrysothamnus sp. populations, Mentzelia nuda (bractless blazingstar), and many other plant species that we have been scouting and monitoring all season long.

This has been an absolutely amazing opportunity. There are some very beautiful things happening in Colorado this time of year, and I am very excited and looking forward to experiencing winter sports and fall festival events in downtown Denver. Here are a few  photos to show some of the events that have happened thus far.

One of our collections for the S.O.S. Program

During one of my favorite collections, Humulus lupulus. While out in the field collecting, we saw a garter snake  (quite harmless).

Can you find the snake hidden in the grass?

Last week Sama (another CLM intern at the BLM Colorado State Office) finished her CLM internship. It was very sad to see her leave and its very different to see people move on to their new adventures. Truly, I think that I have made some great friendships through the CLM program and I know that I will stay in contact and remain friends with them even after the CLM Internship Program.

At Pine Valley Ranch Open Space Park, Sama and I together on her last day of the CLM internship.

I was able to spend time with other interns from different field offices in Colorado. At Anvil Points, we monitored the Penstemon debilis rare plant population, which lives in areas high in shale deposits on about a 5 degree slope that suddenly drops down into a valley. Its great being able to see Alison Gabrenya (Ali) again, we met at the CLM Workshop in Chicago and we have been great friends ever since then. For the day, I was able to show her exactly what we do at the Colorado State Office to study, monitor, and assess rare plant populations. 

Spending the day with Ali Gabrenya and Christine Chung on a rare plant monitoring trip for Penstemon debilis at Anvil Points.

I’m looking forward to staying until the very end of this seed collection season and continuing to increase our numbers of plant species for the S.O.S. Program. I have learned so much from this wonderful opportunity and gained a large amount of confidence in identifying Colorado native plant species. Being a girl from Georgia, the flora and even fauna are vastly different in the south in comparison to the west. I’m excited to see what the month of November holds and the spectacular events happening throughout this beautiful state. I have fallen in love with Colorado and all of the friendly people here!

Happy Seed Collecting (because there are still thousands of seeds to continue to collect before the season is officially over).

Darnisha Coverson

BLM Colorado State Office

On February 1st, I began my journey as a CLM botany intern. I was all alone in a city I knew nothing about, surrounded by an ecosystem much different than my experiences in two biodiversity hotspots including the tropical, diverse ecosystems of Hawaii and the remarkable landscape of California. I landed in Carson City, Nevada and was surrounded by what seemed like nothing but sagebrush and rabbitbush. Despite my initial shock at the landscape around me, I grew to love the wide open spaces and expanses of mountains in Nevada, I found interesting plants that fascinated me and broadened my abilities as a cryptobotanist, and developed many skills in field biology.

My internship is just about the end, and I am moving onto my next opportunity. I landed a position with an environmental consulting firm in California and I am excited about the opportunities it will bring. This internship and the opportunities it gave me really helped to line me up for the career I’ve been dreaming about for years. Once you have the skills, it is just networking and persistence that gets you there. My experiences with this internship have taught me that if you make the best of your experiences, instead of focusing on the negative, and really put the effort out there to take advantage of every opportunity, you will find the career you want. Talk to everyone you can in the offices you work in. They have the job that you want or they may have held it before, and they will know the exact steps you need to take to get it. My experiences with this internship were definitely different than I expected, but despite some momentary frustrations, these experiences have given me the opportunities I need to start a career.

I’m excited to move back to California, but I will definitely miss the landscape of Nevada, the snow on the mountains, and the random oases of aspen groves and canyon creeks in the high desert. This internship has led me to a greater appreciation of the value of public land.

November has come, and it is time to end my internship here at the Alturas BLM Field Office. With an extension, I worked here as a botany intern for a total of seven months. The first snow has fallen, the trees are losing their leaves, and the landscape looks similar to when I first arrived in early April.

Arrival in Modoc County was nothing short of a shock for me. I am from the opposite end of California, the benign coastal town of Santa Barbara. Although located in the same state, Santa Barbara is extremely different from Alturas, in almost every sense. As I made my motorized transect across the state last April, I knew I was in for an interesting summer. Once I passed over the Sierras, I came upon the high desert scenery of Northeastern California, namely sagebrush, junipers, and volcanic rocks. I made it to the town of Likely, population 200, and waited across from the old fashioned general store and saloon for my mentor to show me to the BLM fire station where I would be staying. We drove past pastures and cows, up into the junipers, to the fire station. I was soon by myself. I felt like Edward Abbey in Desert Solitaire, the lone steward of thousands of acres of desert. I found out that Modoc County’s motto of “Where the West still lives” could not be more accurate. I learned that the local Verizon wireless retailer also sells guns and ammo. Conversations in the office seemed to primarily be about hunting, and a local pastime is shooting squirrels. I was amazed by some of the towns in the area, for example Ravendale (population 26). I realized that Modoc County has a population of less than 10,000 and many of the towns are remnants of the homesteading era that have undoubtedly changed, but changed much less than anywhere I have ever seen. During my first week of work it was snowing and raining, and I spent some long days in the office going through the herbarium, and, to be completely honest, questioning what on Earth I was doing out here. But then my coworker Jaycee arrived, as well as other seasonals, and field season began.

As summer unfolded, I began to realize that despite the isolation and different culture here, I was in for a truly great experience. The uniqueness of working in this area was not lost on me. I would do things like startle coyotes, pronghorn antelope, and wild horses at a watering hole down the road from an old Basque sheepherder’s bunkhouse. Or drive for two hours down gravel and dirt roads to a dried up reservoir where a man driving an ATV and wearing a cowboy hat, boots with spurs, and an old fashioned six shooter holstered to his hip greeted us. I was also getting paid to do what I absolutely love. It was easy to forget that I was “working” when I was driving and hiking around all day collecting bouquets of wildflowers and scheming to collect their seeds. I don’t think I have ever been so excited during a job. I was rarely bored as the tasks were so varied, including rare plant surveys, seed collecting, transects, creating maps with ArcMAP, pressing and mounting herbarium specimens, and more. The locations were varied as well, and after driving down countless 4-wheel drive roads and looking at maps, I have come to know the land that this office manages far better than the natural areas surrounding my hometown.

Working for the BLM has given me valuable insight into what working for a multi-use government land management agency is like. I have learned about myriad facets of natural resource management such as rare plant clearances, juniper encroachment, wildfires, endangered species, rangeland management, etc. I have learned over and over that no issue is black and white. As my mentor put it, sciences like rangeland management are applied ecology, and every case is different, based on a multitude of factors. This dynamism is what makes these fields so interesting to me. I have also realized that being an intern is different than being an actual BLM employee. Although it concerns me that the ecosystemic processes that I find so fascinating are often bogged down in paperwork, I also know that this is how things are done in the world of land management in this day and age. Agencies like the BLM have incredible pressure from environmentalists, ranchers, politicians, and everyone in between. The BLM straddles a line between these groups, a line that I don’t always agree with, but also one that I have gained a lot more respect for. Perhaps most important of all I have seen is that there is a place in agencies like the BLM for those concerned with conservation, and that this seems to be a growing trend.

Well, I guess it’s time for the next adventure. In just over a month I will be traveling to New Zealand to work on farms, hike, and learn a completely new flora. After that, I imagine I will continue working for a land management agency and in the next few years I want to go to grad school, and this internship will be instrumental for these plans. I’ll miss the wide unobstructed views, the unpeopled landscapes, the stunning clouds, the smell of freshly crushed sagebrush, and never needing to worry about finding a parking place. Some pictures:

The Warner mountains after the first fall snow.

A finished herbarium specimen, one of several we were able to add to the office herbarium.

 11/1/12Joe Broberg Alturas BLM Field Office 

My last day of work in Lakeview, Oregon has arrived, or rather snuck up on me. Between work and exploring the area on the weekends with fellow interns, this field season has flown by!

I was fortunate to have been able to participate in a diverse array of assignments. Through my time spent surveying for federally listed species and seed collecting, I have learned much about local plants and their communities. I assisted with post-fire monitoring and learned how different treatments work or fail depending on the situation. I was also able to help with rangeland monitoring plots. And even though I loved my time spent in the field, one of the most important skills that I honed this season was in the office: GIS data management. The various projects that I worked on have helped me to recognize what I want to do in the long term, both educationally and in my career, which I find to be just as valuable as the field-related skills that I have acquired or improved upon this season.

Of all the different aspects of this internship, I will miss the land and the people the most. This area is gorgeous, and I got to explore so many hidden spots that I would probably never have gone to otherwise. I was also lucky to have ended up where seven other interns were also posted. This meant that a diverse group of awesome, smart women (yes, all women) from around the country were here to go camping, hiking, to music festivals, and have barbeques with. Not only were they fun to hang out with, but also to work with. Fieldwork often requires people to work closely for long hours at a time, in the middle of nowhere. It felt like our crews worked well together and made the assignments more of an adventure than a task.

While I am excited to move on to future plans, I feel some sadness for moving on from this endeavor. I hope to visit this area again in the future and to keep in touch with the many people I have gotten to know in the past six months. The CLM internship has been a rewarding experience that I would recommend to anyone considering a career in environmental sciences or natural resource management.

In addition to the valuable career experience gained through the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Conservation and Land Management (CLM) Internship program, there are plenty of good times to be had as a CLM intern! One of the greatest perks of a career in conservation and land management is having an office in the great outdoors. Not only is this work environment essentially void of stress, it often contributes to relieving any stress that one may have. And how can one end a day’s work in the field without some sense of awe and inspiration garnered from natural aesthetics? From the grand landscapes to the minute details of creation, there is much beauty for the eye to behold.

PHOTOGRAPHY. Not only is photography beneficial for qualitative monitoring (photo points), there are countless landscapes, habitats, and wildlife (animal and plant) subjects to photograph when working in the field. Sometimes the photos we take are used to produce education and outreach materials. All my other blog posts (as well as the blog posts of other CLM interns) show a plethora of photos that attest to this. As someone who enjoys photography as a hobby, some days I have to practice restraint!

A volunteer assisting with photo point monitoring of the response of vegetation after fuels treatment

FLOWERING PLANTS. Intriguing. Stunning. Charming. Lovely. Sometimes the best response to nature’s beauty is a silent pause of deep awe and genuine appreciation.

White fairy-lantern (Calochortus albus)

Creeping sage (Salvia sonomensis)…pleasant scents add to the pleasure of field work

Shooting stars (Dodecatheon sp.)

Purple lupines and yellow asters in the spring

Yellow star tulip (Calochortus monophyllus)

Blue flax (Linum lewisii)

Common soaproot (Chlorogalum pomeridianum)

Indian paintbrush (Castilleja sp.)

Penstemon (Penstemon sp.)

Monkeyflower (Mimulus sp.)

Western blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)

Elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata)

Harvest brodiaea (Brodiaea elegans)

Sierra fawn lily (Erythronium multiscapideum) dancing in a meadow under the sun

LANDSCAPES & HABITATS. Grandeur. Breath-taking. Magnificent. The big picture. Sometimes nature is appreciated more from a distant standpoint than amidst it.

Morning-glory Hill in the Pine Hill Preserve

View of Folsom Lake from atop Morning-glory Hill in the Pine Hill Preserve

View of snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains from the top of Morning-glory Hill in the Pine Hill Preserve

View of snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains from atop Pine Hill in the Pine Hill Preserve

Fog in the foothills, view from Pine Hill looking toward the Sierra Nevada Mountains

The Red Hills (left foreground) and storm clouds building over the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Stream flowing in spring through the Red Hills ACEC (Area of Critical Environmental Concern)

South Fork American River along the Dave Moore Nature Area

South Fork American River running through the Pine Hill Preserve; gray oaks & chaparral shrubs cover the canyon slopes

Golden grasslands and rust-colored chaparral covering the foothill slopes (try to ignore the yellow star thistle in the foreground)

Golden foothills: lovely from a distance but terribly disconcerting to see the nonnative annuals when walking through them

Spring colors of the chaparral in Pine Hill Preserve

Well, like so many other interns, my time as a CLM intern is about to come to a close. Including today, I only have 4 more days of work.  It seems like I just moved to Miles City, MT, and now I have to worry about getting everything back into my car to move away. These last five months have been filled with so many great adventures. I was able to see some great country here in eastern Montana, although it often involved a lot of driving. I loved having the freedom to look at the map of the eastern Montana district, pick a piece of BLM land that I hadn’t been to yet, and just go explore it. A few of our collection sites were found because we were able to just go explore somewhere new.

Because of this internship, I was able to learn a whole new set of plants that I had never really encountered before. Although having to learn all of these new plants was daunting at the beginning, I love the feeling of just being able to look around and know what plants are around me. This internship has also given me a sense of independence/responsibility. With all the internships I have done before, the day began with a group meeting where the supervisor would tell me/us what we were supposed to get done that day. With this CLM internship, I and my fellow intern had a lot more freedom to decide what we wanted to do. We knew what needed to get done and by when, but the day to day decisions were up to us. It was really nice to be able to make those calls for ourselves.

I had a great time here in Miles City, and part of me is really sad that I have to go. However, the other part of me is really excited to see what life has in store for me next.

Kimberly Stocks

Miles City, Montana

Each day is getting increasingly colder in Richfield, Utah.  The major seed left for collecting is sagebrush. While packaging the seed today, I surprised myself in being able to differentiate subspecies solely by seeing the seed.  As my internship is wrapping up, I stay grounded by reflecting on all that I have learned.

I have learned an incredible amount on Utah geology, the different colors/ textures signifying different time periods and events. Collecting seed has significantly polished my skills in plant identification. I have learned a fortune about BLM’s mission of multiuse and managing rangeland inhabited by threatened and endangered species. I was able to be a part of a long-term monitoring study with endangered Sclerocactus wrightiae, the experience is invaluable.  And I have learned that chili cook-offs are taken very seriously here! My adventures and experiences with the CLM internship have shown me a lot and for that I am grateful! I’m looking forward to my next adventure in conservation!

Besides the fact that I live at  the base of the Wind River Mountains, am two hours from the Tetons, three hours from Yellowstone, and have had more wildlife encounters than all my years of living combined, Why would anyone want to work/live in Wyoming?

Black bear encounter in the Tetons

When I first told my friends back home (Richmond, VA) that I was moving to Wyoming for an internship many asked “Why Wyoming?!” They had the idea that there is nothing out here and that no one lives here.  That is one way to look at it.  Yes, the state is at least twice the size of VA and has about the same population as the county I am from. And yes, the land scape is so vast and open that it does seem like you are the only living thing at that moment; but think about it, how beautiful is that?! To stand on top of a butte with a 360 degree view of open, uninhabited land is an experience that allows you to see/hear the gods.

Searching for white bark pine in Whiskey Mountain wilderness area

To balance my direction, the summers here are cruel. It was a long, hot, dry, and SMOKEY field season. Once June hit, I did not have a clear view of the mountains until September because of the wildfires that were in and surrounding the Lander field office. This was an experience in itself. I got to see first hand how our country responds to massive forest fires that are potentially detrimental to local towns. The fire crew seemed to triple throughout the summer as there was plenty of work to be done.

Now the air is clear, the mountains are snow capped once again, and the town is preparing for winter. It is beautiful. I am sad to leave this amazing and sometimes magical place. I cannot imagine how it will feel to be in overcrowded civilization once again. However, I will be bringing this new experience and attitude with me.

Physaria saximontana, one of the sensitive species of Wyoming and my favorite plant from this summer.

The land of this state shapes the people. They respect it and what it provides (wildlife, recreation, solitude). What one person may consider respecting the land, to another may seem dis- respecting, but if I am ever in a conversation with either, they will only talk with the utmost admiration for the mountains, plains, and canyons of Wyoming. As Nate said in his final blog, the people here are as tough as the land. It takes an extra layer of skin to live here and I have become stronger because of it.

Now this does not go without saying that it is not perfect out here. The country here offers many resources such as cattle grazing, oil drilling, natural gas, uranium mines, and excellent hunting. With these high commodity resources, there must be land management. This is the job of the Bureau of Land Management. How it all gets managed is not easy or pleasing to all parties. However, it must be done because without the management of the land, it will be abused. I had my opinions of the BLM before starting my internship here at the Lander field office, and now I have an understanding. The BLM has a huge responsibility to protect the public land’s critical habitat, archeology sites, etc., while still allowing the public to use  it and private companies to draw natural resources from it. Our country draws its energy from these lands! I can not emphasize anymore the importance of and the responsibility on the BLM. It has been really cool working here during this election year. Oil and gas are a big topic of debate and I have gotten to experience first hand how the business and politics work. No further comment.

To wrap things up, this summer has been incredible. Along with all of the learning experiences and fun adventures, it has been hard work as well. Rose and I have busted out more than 45 seed collections in spite of a very dry year. We also made an herbarium cabinet for the office, filled with over 200 specimens including all of the special status species except one. We are going to present it to the office, local botanists, and others in similar fields of work as there are no herbariums in Lander. We have also compiled and organized all of our data collected over the summer into maps on ArcMap 10.0 and in documents on the server for the office’s use and for future interns. WOOF, I’m tired.

Finished herbarium specimen

So in closing, if you are still reading, this summer has been a great success!  Thank you CLM and Lander BLM for the opportunity. I am off to my next adventure of pushing my way into a graduate program. I know I will be back here to visit, to be engulfed by the dramatic landscapes of Wyoming, and visit friends made over the summer. PEACE.

I’m out,

Rebecca Stern

Hello! I cannot believe I have already finished 5 months in Lakeview. Luckily, I will have a two week extension starting next week. I decided to take a bit of a break for a backpacking trip in Yosemite. I had a great time (minus the snow and rain). Not much to report on the job front here, although I will be sad to finally move on. You will be hearing from me soon with my final blog about my experience. Talk to you then!

It’s not easy to sum up the past 5 months here at the BLM office in Missoula, MT. I have had a wonderful experience learning all about vegetative, wildlife and stream monitoring, bird identification, rangeland health, special status plants, seed collection, forestry, GIS and so much more. But what has truly made my experience here so wonderful is the people I have had the pleasure and honor to work with. My mentor and my two field partners,  John H., Lea and John F. have made my experience here unforgettable. They have all taught me so much and we have had so much fun this season.  This experience would not have been the same without them. But alas, it had to end sometime, as the snow has been slowly pushing us out of the field and into the office. So on to the next adventure!

View while collecting Sage Brush seeds on the last field day of the year 🙁

First snow!