Dear Snow,

We all miss you in the Intermountain West. Although winter weather remains a distant memory here in Carson City, my duties have shifted more to management.

Our district began work on a new Resource Management Plan to guide our direction over the next 15-20 years. The challenge is really to create a plan flexible enough to promote project-level implementation and strong enough to defend these practices in court. It is exciting to see all eager to contribute to the success of the RMP.

However, this also exposes the reality of the management side of conservation. We have meetings, about meetings, about meetings. In other news, I am applying for field crews next season.

-Justin

Its been quite a month but alas no snow yet. However due to the lack of snow its been easier to go out into the field, and tackle some projects. Two of the projects are areas that have been overgrazed, and are in need of restoration. So we scuffed the ground, mindful that it was partially frozen, and spread seeds of native plants in hopes they’d grow. There hasn’t been much research into restoration, so we are using what knowledge of the area we have in hopes it works. Its difficult to wrap my mind around the fact that the seeds I planted, due to biotic and abiotic factors (out of my control- like most of nature) might not germinate  for years or ever.

The third site was a neglected wild onion habitat, an endangered plant endemic to Boise. It needs removal of cheatgrass and sage brush and basically the whole top layer of organic matter. The plant grows in very coarse large grain sand, with little/no clay and little/none organic matter. Its one of the few plants that can grow in this constantly shifting substrate. This is one of the best sites in the state for this species, yet its less than the size of a football field.

In the past month, I’ve mostly been databasing, working through the Florida collection of lichens. The office was quiet, and I was able to accomplish about half of the project. There’s a lot of data to manage, but I’m breaking it into many smaller projects, and moving forward. It seems like more little projects related to managing a database are showing up, but I think of it as good practice for when I start my own herbarium.

Boise is a very friendly city, and I am enjoying meeting new people. This past holiday season was the first one that I spent away from my family (it didn’t make sense to fly home after only 3 weeks of starting my job). But I was invited to multiple holiday celebrations, and experienced how friendly the people in Boise are. Coming from Miami, the pace of life is much slower and friendlier- people are more willing to help you (ie a short ride to the bus stop, with work problems). I am grateful for this friendlier attitude towards people.

One of the projects I get to work on involves germination studies. Germination can be defined differently in an experiment. Some scientists define it as the emergence of the radical (the first root), but for the seed bank here at the safari park it is defined as the emergence of the radical and the emergence of at least one cotyledon (first leaf). This is because some seeds may have enough energy to produce the tip of a root but then lack the ability to develop further.

When seeds are placed into a long term cold storage facility they can remain viable for decades, but when they go dormant for that length of time it can be a very difficult to get them to “wake up” again. In nature seed germination is triggered by a variety of factors; fire, water, and temperature changes are some of the main contributors to germination. To test the germination ability of seeds that have been placed into storage we have to try different triggers on them. In order to determine which triggers are effective, scientists look at a things like the natural habitat of the species and what triggers have worked on closely related species. Coming up with the correct combinations can be a time consuming, yet fascinating puzzle. The process is further complicated by the fact that species require different combinations depending on how long they have been in storage. For example, a trigger that works for seeds that have been stored for ten years may not work for seeds that have been stored for fifty years. Another complicating variable is that even within the same species different populations may be reproductively isolated enough that their seeds have different requirements, and just to add insult to injury, the same population of individuals may differ slightly year to year due to environmental conditions. Despite all these frustrating details that have to be taken into account, germination testing is an extremely important area of study, because whats the point of seed banks if we are unable to use the seeds?

At the Safari Park, seeds that are to be tested are chosen based on the length of time the have been in cold storage. Twenty or so seed lots that have been placed into storage around the same time period are removed and soaked in water over night before different triggers are tested on them. For some seed lots this initial soaking is the only stimulus they need. Some of the other tests we perform include:

Smoke Water:
In nature, one environmental condition that triggers germination is fire. Either heat, the chemicals released by burned plant matter, or a combination of the two causes seeds to come out of dormancy. To mimic the chemicals released by burned plants we collect samples of different chaparral species and turn them into charcoal, which is then mixed in water to give us “smoke water”. In some cases, when this water is absorbed through the seed coat it triggers the seed to grow.

Running Water:
For some species, especially those that live in very dry areas like the desert, being triggered by only water can be a bad thing. For example, if rain fell for too short of a time period and triggered the germination and growth of a species, that species would not have enough resources to reach maturity. One way that seeds measure the amount of rainfall is by the amount of small abrasions they receive. When there is enough water to tumble them over rocks and sand (which cuts up their seed coats and causes small abrasions), seeds “know” that there is enough of the resource to sustain them through their life cycle so that they can reproduce. The small abrasions allow the water to penetrate the seed coat. To replicate this process we run water over seeds and gravel so that they rub together in a similar way.

Cold Stratification:
One of the other tests we do is expose the seeds to different temperatures. Seeds “know” when it is time to grow by measuring the changes in the seasons. The passage of time is determined by the changes in temperature. Winter exposes the seeds to a long cold period and plants will germinate in expectation of the Spring that is to follow. The length and degree of the gold snap varies buy the theory behind it remains the same.
The whole process of germination testing is really interesting and really annoying, but I’m glad I got to learn about it in my internship.

What is it that makes our lands valuable and worth managing and protecting? There are many reasons to list, but this week I want to focus on Paleontological resources.

I used to think the drive to visit my sister in Southern California was quite boring.  I didn’t think there was much to look at in terms of scenery and Interstate 5 isn’t very curvy.  Curves are fun, right?  I did what most people do to prepare for a long boring drive: make a mix-tape/playlist of  driving music, borrow some books on tape from the library (I say “books on tape” and “mix-tape” even though we all know I’m talking about CDs because “books on CD” and “mix-CD’s” just doesn’t have the same ring to it), charge your phone so you can call a friend on the way, and of course stock up on snacks.  I will go a long way to distract myself from the monotony of a long haul.

My time spent out in the field has certainly changed my view of the stretch of land between the Bay-Area and Southern California.  Now when I look out the window I’ll have something else on the brain.  To see part of the reason why, let’s take a look back in time.  65 million years ago California’s coastline looked quite different than it does today.  I like Richard P. Hilton’s description in Dinosaurs and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California: “By the Late Cretaceous, the western edge of the Sierra Nevada had been eroded back and the sea was flooding into the areas of what are now the low Sierran foothills… Numerous fossils were deposited offshore from the ancestral Sierra Nevada in a marine environment between 80 and 65 million years ago”.

Parts of the lands I’ve been helping to manage happen to be in the Moreno formation of the Panoche Hills (west side of the San Joaquin Valley). The formation contains the highest diversity of organisms from the late Cretaceous period in the western United States.  During the course of my internship I had the opportunity to explore the Moreno shale formation and discover some of the fossilized treasures it yields.  Among other things, these fossils provide us with a wealth of information to better understand evolution and the make-up of past ecosystems.

Click on the pictures below to learn more.

I’ll still do all those things previously mentioned to prepare for the drive, but now I feel I have a deeper appreciation for the land around me.  Now I can share what I have learned about California Paleontology with my passengers whilst annoying them with my taste in music. So next time you’re passing through you should stop by and take advantage of your public lands or at least think about it.

-Aaron Thom (Hollister BLM Office)

If you would like to learn more about BLM paleo-resources check out the following link: http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/hollister/paleo.html.

Crawling like a baby on sticks, through sticks, and with sticks in my hair.  Branches grab my shoelaces and refuse to let go, trapping me in a maze of manzanita, chamise, and coyote brush so thick it’s difficult to see my friend just six feet away.  But today we’re on a mission, and even the new rips in my pants can’t stop me.  Finally, the extreme bushwhacking pays off, and I find my prize: a small patch of Layne’s butterweed (Packera layneae), a small and unassuming Federally threatened plant found predominantly in western El Dorado County.

For the past 5 months I’ve been lucky enough to intern with the Pine Hill Preserve (PHP). Eight rare and endangered chaparral plants–including five which are Federally listed!!–rely on the unique mildly acidic red soils created by the underlying gabbro rock.  In the face of encroaching suburban sprawl, PHP is a refuge, protecting these special chaparral plants and the unique soil formation on which they rely. 

An urban girl by birth and forest lover by experience, I’ll admit to being disappointed on my first visit to PHP.  When they said “shrubland” I’d pictured the open sagebrush of central Idaho and was completely unprepared for the dense 7 ft. tall stand before me. It was over 105°F, and the plants were anything but friendly. I spent the first afternoon wishing myself away.

Quickly, however, PHP won me over.  The chaparral doesn’t have jaw-dropping mountain vistas or the grand splendor of coastal redwoods, but it does offer a quiet, more dignified beauty to those willing to look beyond it’s rough and often spiney exterior.  Hidden among shopping centers and private homes lies a biological wonderland.  Over 740 distinct plant species grow here–that’s 10% of California’s total native plant biodiversity in a tiny fraction of the state! Visiting PHP may include a leisurely hike along the interpretative trail, attending a naturalist-led bird & botany tour, or simply enjoying a moment alone along the S. Fork American River.

Although an ecological hotspot and a recreational area regularly utilized by mountain bikers and birders alike, development threatens El Dorado County’s chaparral.  Private homes encompass PHP lands, limiting the BLM’s fuels management options, and neighboring unprotected natural areas are being bulldozed at an alarming rate.  While PHP rare plants may thrive on nearby undeveloped privately-owned parcels, without protection like that afforded through purchases with LWCF funds their days may be numbered.  Entire species may suffer if more land isn’t protected.  For a species like Pine Hill Flannelbush (Fremontodendron californicum ssp. decumbens) with only ~100 plants worldwide, losing even a handful of individuals to private development may dramatically reduce the entire species’ genetic diversity with detrimental effects.

Growing up in urban Ohio, nature was the occasional trip to the “wilds” of a regional forest for fishing or hiking. Although my definition has since expanded to include the mountains of Denali and redwood forests, nothing can compete with the chaparral’s hidden gems. Despite PHP’s navigation challenges and my co-worker’s bold statement, I proudly admit that I LOVE the chaparral, most days anyway.

Over and out. Sophia Weinmann

CLM Intern: El Dorado Hills, CA

It’s been a long year this past year, but in a good way. I’ve had a lot of time for learning, working, improving, and growing up, and I’m extremely pleased to be able to look back on the past 365 days with satisfaction.

It’s hard to say what precisely has been going on since my last blog. Having just returned from a Christmas vacation at home, the previous weeks seem to have slipped from my memory. Next week I look forward to some archaeological survey work in the Little Mountain area of the Bighorns. It seems strange to me that we would be able to do this in the middle of January, when theoretically the mountains should be covered with snow, but it’s been so warm lately that perhaps as much of the snow has melted up there as it has here in the Basin. Nice though the weather has been, it is still a depressing reminder of climate change, and I worry about the effects, both here and at home. Every place seems to be having a very weird winter this year. What’s one little intern to do? It seems this is a prime opportunity to re-educate myself on conservation practices to reduce my impact on the environment. What could be more fitting for the end of the first chapter of my Conservation and Land Management internship?

Less than a month left. I expected to be doing constant office work at this point, but the weather has remained nice! A very dry autumn. There was even a wildfire in Carson last week. So instead of being shackled to our computers, the three of us have actually been able to get out in the field a fair amount. We’ve surveyed for rare plants, assessed burns, characterized uncommonly huge and dense populations of Eriogonum elatum, and made some late December seed collections.

We’ll be going to the CNPS 2012 annual conference in San Diego next week, and then it will be a lot of getting ready to pass off the reins to the next interns.

As the days now get longer (happy!), the temperature only gets colder (sad). But the work at the Lakeview BLM is still fulfilling and wonderful, For the next month and a half I will be working on mapping datasets from the ongoing invasive species management, and organizing the information for all of the Special Status Species (plants). I also decided to go to the Society for Range Management annual meeting in Spokane, WA which is pretty exciting. Even though it’s a hike to get up there, I’m really looking forward to learning in more detail about the research going on in the Great Basin and beyond in the field. I never knew that I could love living and working in the desert as much as I do (which is a lot!) and I’m excited to hopefully be working in this area in the future.

A highlight from the last week of fieldwork: For most of the field season, my internship partner and I were like a curse to everyone we worked with who told us they normally see wildlife every time they go out in the field. We rarely saw any. Maybe it’s that wildlife tend to stay away when they see crazy New Yorkers happy and awestruck at every single thing (AKA ..me), but it was strange. SO, on the very last day of fieldwork for 2011, a huge herd of Bighorn Sheep crossed the road right in front of me, but instead of climbing up the hill, they just hung out right next to my truck for the next 20 minutes. The animals finally decided they liked me.

Bighorns on Abert Rim

I cannot believe how fast time is going! As the New Year approaches I have been reflecting on the past year and how much has changed since then. A year ago I was living in Ohio and working at a Metropolitan park as an operations worker, I never thought that I would be living in Montana working as a CLM intern for the BLM. My experience so far has been wonderful, I couldn’t ask for a better place to be work and live.  This is my last month of my internship at the Missoula Field Office, I cannot believe I have been here for almost eight months. This last month has gone by especially fast with all the holidays. I still managed to accomplish quite a bit during that time. I have been taking online GIS training and managed to make a few maps with the help of my mentor John. I had the opportunity to do a winter bird survey with the Wildlife Biologist and my mentor,which was great especially to spend a day in the field. Other than that I am still working on setting up the herbarium and inventory list of all the specimens that we have. I am also finishing up data entry for all the habitat typing that we did over the summer and some range improvement data entry. It’s nice to have a variety of projects that I can work on and help out where I am needed. I hope I get to learn and experience as much as I can in the next month I am just grateful that I have more time here. Who knows where I will be a year from now, I am excited to see what will unfold in the next year. I just want to have fun doing it!

As my internship comes to an end, I am compelled to recognize those that ultimately made it possible for me to collect native plant seed for the last six months : pollinators. Some are opportunistically promiscuous while others are extremely specialized in the plants they pollinate. Through natural selection, plants evolve morphological traits that attract the most efficient pollinators. Similarly, pollinators may evolve morphological traits that allow them to harvest floral resources more efficiently from their favored plants. This relationship is referred to as coevolution.
My internship has exposed me to interesting examples of these relationships. Hesperoyucca whipplei is pollinated exclusively by the yucca moth, Tegeticula maculata, in San Diego county. In addition to pollinating this plant, the female moths deposit eggs into the ovaries of the female yucca flowers. The larvae then feed on the developing seeds and hatch to start the cycle over again. Since only a fraction of the total seeds are consumed, this is a self-perpetuating system. These two species are completely dependent on each other for survival and propagation.
Another interesting tale of pollination in San Diego county is that of Mimulus aurantiacus. This species has yellow phenotype predominant inland and a red one predominant towards the coast. The yellow one is pollinated by hawkmoths while the red one is pollinated by hummingbirds. This shows how different phenoytpes of a single species might have been selected for in areas dominated by different viable pollinators. Interestingly, as these two pollinators broaden their geographic range, so do their respective favorite Mimulus phenotypes.
The preceding was another biological lesson I was fortunate enough to encounter on this internship. While I didn’t actually get to see Mimulus getting pollinated, I got to see some yucca moth larvae emerging from yucca seed. Don’t worry, most of the seed was still viable for shipping. I want to take this opportunity to also thank all the humans that made this awesome internship possible. I had a great time. Now it’s time for me to head back to the redwoods.
-Miguel K.