Working in the Fall

Autumn arrives quickly in the Rockies. By the time the first leaves started changing in my hometown, the aspens had already put on their grand finally of yellow and orange and red, in the once green mountains.

As the plants shifted in their phenology, we faced special challenges identifying them. Many of the forbs and grasses we surveyed had ready gone to seed and were ready for winter.

A transect running through a Gable Oak (Quercus gambelii) site.

With little characteristics left to aid in identification, we had to rely on our past experiences to compile our species list. The ray flowers on many of the asters were either dried up or missing completely, which made getting an ID a bit more difficult.

A crispy Dieteria canescens, being identified.

We do our best to ID plants in the field but occasionally we press specimen to give them a closer look. A few plants here and there have amassed into an entire box over the busy field season. Needless to say we have our work cut out for us as we prepare our data for submission in November.

During our last week in the field a cold front rolled through northwest Colorado. On our last night we were hit by cold rain, which froze and turned my rain fly into an ice sheet. I was thankful that night for my down sleeping bag, and warm clothes. Despite the acclimate weather, we managed to get out and finish our final plot.

A time for celebration

To celebrate a finished field season I took a trip down to Rifle, CO for the holiday weekend to do some rock climbing with friends. Our first stop was Rifle Arch, which features some easier climbs on relatively soft sandstone. The Arch was beautiful and the weather was great for climbing.

 The next day I ran into some climbers I met on the front range in Rifle Mountain Park. This area is known for its challenging routes up sharp and unforgiving rock. I was more interested in just scouting the site out, because I knew many of the routes were a bit above my skill level. However I couldn’t resist giving it a try after watching a few friends climb. Here is a shot of the meat wall, as they call it.

The area also features some spectacular plants and wildlife and it was a great place to spend the day and enjoy the outdoors, I made some new friends (a fox) and learned a lot from some really stellar climbers.

I am onto the last month of my internship and the reality is setting in that it will soon come to an end. I am looking forward to reuniting with my friends and family back home during the holidays but I have defiantly gained a whole new appreciation for the West and I am already looking for my next opportunity to come back out here. I am grateful for this tremendous opportunity to do field work in some of the most beautiful parts of the country. Thanks CLM !

Eli Lowry

BLM, Kremmling CO

Well, six months goes by pretty quickly. I am now down to just two days. We finished up the sucker rearing project in Upper Klamath Lake last week, and have deconstructed the net pens and docks as of 2 days ago. There was not a very good survival rate of the suckers, being that we only had in the end 21 suckers out of the 1,000-1,500 larvae that were introduced to the net pens. This ended up being the exact same amount as was able to be recovered last year. The project is not likely to be continued in the same manner in the future, as it has not had very high success rates over the last three years.

I have gained many skills in the field of fisheries over this past six month period. I now know how to use five different types of nets including seine nets, fyke nets, drift nets, trammel nets, and Wisconsin style tow nets, to catch both adult fish and larvae, and their food resources. We have gotten experience in both assisting in the process of PIT tagging, taking length measurements and inspecting for parasites and other abnormalities, and have had the opportunities to tag the fish ourselves. Also gaining more experience in electro-shocking to catch fish and sample for fish presence. Learning to manage data sondes for water quality measurements has also been very interesting and is much more efficient than the hand methods that I learned in college.

Although I was never able to get my Motorboat Operator Certification because I was not notified the most recent time they were back in Klamath Falls, I was still able to gain much more experience than I had previously had in boat operation. At the end of this season I feel much more comfortable driving boats than in the beginning of the season, which will be useful in the future, as most of the animal species I want to work with the most live in, or near, aquatic habitats.

This season was also filled with many other types of experiences, in a large part conducting plant surveys. I can say that while I do love plants, I do not think I would like to continue in a direction where I would be conducting plant surveys in the majority of my job. This may be because for the most part when conducing our surveys the weather was very warm and the species which were being studied all occur in habitat with no cover. These species included Applegate’s Milk Vetch, found to be slightly less endangered than previously thought, and Slender Orcut, an endangered grass which was not found in the target study areas. However, even though it was most likely just the weather which caused this feeling, I think that I have a passion for working with animal species. I was involved in more water fowl work, including the collection and banding of Canada geese and duck species in general. This was so different from the other bird banding and collection that I have done, which only included smaller passerine species during mating season. It was really interesting learning to sex the species from their cloaca, instead of brood patch development and size, or the lack there of.

This job has left me in quite a conundrum as I do not know exactly what I would like to go into. I have gained more experience in fisheries work from this summer that I feel like I would have a better chance of obtaining a fisheries job in the future. However, I don’t know if I want to stay in fisheries work, or try and gain more of the experiences I have been trying to obtain, including telemetry and radio tagging for working with birds or small mammals. I am not going to get into carnivore work because I have found that it is just too competitive.

Overall, this has been a great season. The people who I worked with are all so wonderful, and have really been so helpful these past months. Many of them them have also expressed how important it is to go to grad school, which I was not really considering, and I will be taking my GREs this winter. I will continue to reflect on the experiences I have had and will make a decision on which species I will be going to school to study further. May it be fish, or birds? I don’t know but will figure it out.

I think the other most positive part of this internship was the location. I have been so many beautiful places this summer. Being in south central Oregon has been a great opportunity to visit other areas haha. The redwoods are only 3 hours away, I had never seen them and it was a magical trip, I fell in love with those giant trees. The Oregon coast is also amazing! My favorite spots were Cape Perpetua with the temperate rainforest, Diamond Peak Wilderness, and of course the area surrounding Crater Lake. Best wildflowers I found were on Mount Ashland 🙂

Damnation Creek trail- Del Norte Redwood State park. So pretty

Me and the Boy scout Tree- Jedadiah Smith Redwoods State Park

Trail near home, view of Upper Klamath Lake

Oregon Coast at Cape Perpetua, didn’t see any whales

Shilah Allen

USFWS Klamath Falls, OR

It’s almost that time where the seasonal positions end and winter begins.  This summer has been an absolute blast and I wish it didn’t have to end.  The people I have had the opportunity to work with, the sights I have been able to see, and the skills I have learned have all left a huge impact on my life.  Luckily, I get to stay in Lander because my husband has year round employment here.  I don’t ever want to leave this place.  Getting to know the field office was awesome.  There are so many hidden beautiful places.  It’s a secret gem that I wish more people knew about, but also want to stay hidden.

I don’t really know what to say right now.  It’s always sad when the season comes to an end.  I’ve been through it so many times now you would think that it might get easier.  Unfortunately it doesn’t, at least not for me.  Wyoming in general is an incredible place.  If you’ve never been here, come take a look.  You won’t regret it.

I’ve still got about a month left at work here.  There’s going to be some seeding on a burn area, letting down a fence in an antelope migration path, and lots of office work.  It’s all hard to say goodbye to.  The picture below is of hoarfrost from a couple mornings ago.  We went out early to clip small plots on some riparian areas and the whole field office seemed to be frozen in time.  The sun came out, burned off the fog, and make the frost sparkle.  It was beautiful.  I’ll never forget moments like that.  I hope you all have memories from this season that will stay with you forever.  This is all worth it.

As the seed-collecting season winds down, the SOS team of Rawlins is once again on the hunt for treasure. As it turns out, Penstemon haydenii was only the beginning.

Colorado Butterfly Plant, one of the most exquisite blooms I’ve seen all summer!

In mid-August, I accompanied a team to the Laramie area to find Ute’s ladies-tresses, a threatened orchid with very particular tastes in habitat. This little monocot prefers the sunny peripheries of gravel bars in shallow streams (sans riparian shrubs), an environment that is extremely few and far between in southern Wyoming. Unsurprisingly, we did not find the orchid. However, we did stumble upon something just as exciting: a new population of Colorado butterfly plant. There are only a few populations of this species left in the Rockies, and our discovery was the westernmost yet. It was terribly exciting to be a part of a groundbreaking discovery such as this!

Hours of searching are finally rewarded!

Besides these precious stones of the south-central Wyoming plant kingdom, I got to work with two “BLM sensitive” species. Penstemon gibbensii, Gibbon’s penstemon, is greener and less showy than its dune-dwelling congener, and prefers soils with a bit more stability. A long, tiring day of trekking 100-foot clay dunes was rewarded with a lot of new experience with line transects, but only two flowering individuals. 

Intrepid biologists in search of P. gibbensii.

The alkai Chain Lakes of southern Wyoming, A. diversifolius‘ preferred habitat.

Astragalus diversifolius, a milkvetch with an unusual growth form and a penchant for alkali lakes, was another that was difficult to find. I suspect that many of these “sensitive” species are ones that are poor competitors and are highly picky about their habitat. Unfortunately for them, this combination is not a recipe for biological success.

The crown jewel of my Wyoming T/E monitoring was not a plant at all, but the famous Wyoming toad, Bufo baxteri – the most endangered amphibian in America. Like many aquatic species around the world, Wyoming toads are suffering from Chytrid fungus. Keratinized amphibians, like toads, are particularly susceptible to fungal infection, and the limited range of this species doesn’t help its chances of survival. Reintroduction efforts are underway, and annual surveys are crucial to determining the success of this program.

A juvenile specimen of B. baxteri.

Bufo baxteri’s preferred haunt.

For two weeks, we patrolled the shores of lakes that lay in the the shadow of the picturesque Snowy Range. I came to appreciate a valuable skill of wildlife work: the ability to spot tiny creatures in thick vegetation. My eyes, being trained to spot cues of color and shape rather than movement, had a hard time distinguishing thumbnail-sized toads from grasshoppers, voles, and spiders. Every accurate ID felt like a victory. For all the toads we caught, we would take their measurements and note the colored pit-tags on the bottoms of their legs. The larger toads would be examined for signs of Bd, swabbed with cotton, and photographed. My favorites were the adult males, who chirp and vibrate when threatened. Amphibians are amazingly endearing when they’re quivering in one’s hand like a joke buzzer.

As many of my fellow interns can tell you, the sagebrush steppe of the intermountain west can easily feel barren. Lion-colored hills and austere rock outcrops rise from the sage like islands. Trees are rarer still, only to be found in the faraway mountains and remote waterways. Blooms are bright but brief, shriveling into brown husks in the unrelenting dryness. But, as Tolkien wrote, “all that is gold does not glitter”. Though the days of gold-panning have gone, there is still treasure to be found among the ridges and buttes, if one comes at the right time, and knows where to look.  

When I took on this internship, I knew that I would branch out into non-SOS duties during the course of my internship: wildlife monitoring, organizing the herbarium, etc. I didn’t, however, anticipate that I would be treasure-hunting. While it’s true that gold fever once struck these hills (along with coal, uranium, oil, and natural gas fever) what little precious metal here was picked away be prospectors long ago. Nevertheless, I’ve found that Wyoming still has many unique treasures hidden within its landscape.

The first precious gem we set out to find was a periwinkle-coloured penstemon, hiding up amongst the dunes of the Ferris Mountains. Penstemon haydenii, the Blowout penstemon, was re-discovered by my mentor in these dunes twenty years prior. This species only occurs in two places on Earth; here in southern Wyoming, and in the Sandhills of north-central Nebraska.

Penstemon haydenii in flower.

Dune ecosystems remind me of the limestone glades of my native Tennessee; they are confounding, entrancing patches of desert tucked into the prairie. Standing at the crest of a long line of majestic dunes, I no longer felt like I was in southern Wyoming, but in the Sahara or the Kalahari.

One of the many dunes flanking the Ferris Mountains of southern Wyoming.

Penstemon haydenii thrives at the edges of blowouts, great sand bowls that are carved out by the wind, creating the classic “dune” shape. Researchers at Wyoming Natural Diversity Database and University of Wyoming believe that P. haydenii is highly disturbance-dependent. The active dunes of the Ferris Mountains maintain the sparsely vegetated “blowouts” this species calls home. The constant shifting of the sand reduces competition, leaving a sparse community of specialized survivors: Redfieldia flexuosa, Psoralidium lanceolatum, Rumex venosus, and Penstemon haydenii. Through a unique combination of geology, climate, and physical forces, a one-of-a-kind assemblage of desert plants has come together.

Typical habitat of P. haydenii.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Nebraska Sandhills. Management practices dating back to the Great Depression have put P. haydenii populations at a disadvantage. After the Dust Bowl, the Sandhills, along with every other plot of land in the Midwest, were planted out to anchor loose soil. This frenzy for erosion control is understandable, but it wasn’t always appropriate. The dunes were, effectively, put to sleep. As they lay dormant, more competitive species colonized the ecosystem, crowding out P. haydenii and other specialists. Despite the efforts of a local reintroduction program, populations are dwindling.

My mentor, who re-discovered the Wyoming populations of P. haydenii, inspecting a specimen.

Led by Bonnie Heidel of the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, our team trekked the dunes in search of data for the biennial P. haydenii survey. Vegetative plants are difficult to spot, particularly in patches of R. flexuosa, the blowout grass. Identification hinges on careful attunement to the the plant’s blue-green foliage and slender leaves. Every sighting was sounded with whoops of excitement, particularly when the individual was flowering. But the best was yet to come.

It is quite rare to find P. haydenii seedlings, partly due to their small size (imagine spotting a green toothpick in the sand) and partly due to high predation of seeds. But, as luck would have it, on my first day of monitoring, we ran across a bona-fide nursery! A spray of tiny seedlings tumbled down the bowl, coming to a halt along another ridge of sand. We speculate that the cache of some luckless rodent was uncovered by the wind, giving the seeds another chance at germination. Seeing this trail of young plants gave us hope that this species, whose rarity alone has left it on the brink, will have enough resilience to handle any new factors our changing world throws at it.

Hope for the future!

The boreal forest, or taiga, is found in the northern reaches around the globe. This constitutes one of the largest forests, making it a crucial part of conversations around climate change, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, water quality, and human needs. The trees and other organisms are especially adapted to the cold, dry conditions and as a result are often stunted. In Alaska, conifers, primarily black spruce and white spruce, dominate accompanied by deciduous trees including birch, aspen, and cottonwood. The mid and understory layers contain a multitude of trees, shrubs, forbs, graminoids, and moss/lichen blankets.

Monica Kopp (CLM), Samantha Snodgrass (CLM), Tim Skiba (BLM Forester), and I got to experience the boreal magic firsthand. We ventured up to Eagle, located in Interior Alaska, just before the winter snows block the passes. Eagle may be tiny, but also boasts a greater percentage of museum per square foot than just about anywhere within historic Fort Egbert. The town is also rimmed with soft mountains and bordered by the mighty Yukon River. Our main focus was to conduct a forest inventory using the national Forest Vegetation Inventory System (FORVIS) protocol. There are a number of parameters collected relating to the general characteristics, forest type, vegetation cover, and tree measurements. We determined what trees to measure by using a 10-factor prism. Each tree that met the size requirements was identified then measured for diameter at breast height, height, crown to height ratio, and age using an inclement borer to collect a core sample. Forest inventories such as these are important for informing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) management in their decision making processes. A definite highlight was having the opportunity to talk with the upper grades at the local Eagle School. The students there were studying forest succession and especially enjoyed getting outside to meet and measure trees. Their looks of delight of seeing the cores come out said it all- pretty cool to age a tree.

Happy trails, Kim Hack

A calm Yukon River.

Monica Kopp expertly cores a tree.

Samantha Snodgrass measures the forest fuel load.

A mossy understory of a boreal forest.

A black spruce, Picea mariana, cone.

Tim Skiba, BLM Forestry, using an inclinometer to calculate a tree’s height.

The town of Eagle, AK.

Winter is coming with snow dustings on the hill tops and ice underfoot.

After six months working with USFWS in Klamath Falls, OR largely focused on captive rearing programs for endangered sucker as well as some brief forays into work with spotted frogs, bald eagles, apple-gate’s milkvetch, vernal pool plants, monarch butterflies, and Canadian geese, I have transitioned into three months entirely focused on bull trout. Bull trout were once relatively common in the Klamath Basin, however in the late 1900s and early 2000s were extirpated from much of their historical range. In 1998 bull trout were listed as threatened under the endangered species act as a result of the species’ declining numbers.

Bull trout have been significantly impacted by habitat loss and the presence of non-native brook trout. Because bull trout require very cold and clean water, road building, logging, and agriculture have impacted Bull trout habitat. Brook trout compete with bull trout for resources and also interbreed with bull trout, resulting in sterile hybrids. While bull trout are still present in a few streams in the basin, bull trout reintroduction is being considered for a variety of historical habitats in the Klamath Basin.

A variety of other bull trout reintroductions have been completed (both successfully and unsuccessfully), so my role in this effort is to help write a review of past bull trout reintroductions so we can learn from these past projects. One of the most notable bull trout reintroduction projects has taken place recently on the Clackamas River in Northwestern Oregon. A short video (below) gives a brief overview of the project and its outcomes. The video does a great job of sharing the amazing work being done on the Clackamas through really impressive film making.

A video about the successful reintroduction of bull trout to the Clackamas River in Northwestern Oregon. Worth a watch just for the incredible underwater filming!

August was an exciting time for the SOS program in Alaska. We spent two weeks collecting seed from the Steese highway and the Dalton highway. The Steese sits in the White Mountains north east of Fairbanks. The Dalton starts north of Fairbanks and traverses the Yukon River, the Brooks Range and the Arctic Circle. We made 70 collections in total. Each collection represents a single population of a species. Stringent criteria ensure our collections obtain a representative sample of a robust population without harming its reproductive potential. Because of these criteria, only common, workhorse species are collected– not endangered, threatened or rare species.

This is the final result of cleaning seed. The clean seed will be counted and then kept in plastic crates in cool, dark storage until it’s time to sell or use it.

Some of the coolest species we collected were: Triglochin palustre, a graminoid that looks and feels like barbed wire, Hedysarum alpinum, a forb whose seeds make the best money bag sound when shaken, and Beckmannia syzigachne, which seems to explode off the stem when touched. With a couple of prolific species, for example Calamagrostis canadensis or Chamerion angustifolium, we used pillowcases rather than cotton bags to hold our collection. At the end of our trip, we delivered our seed bounty to the Plant Materials Center in Palmer, Alaska.

Here a grass is being processed through a brush machine. This is the resulting mixture of seed and dust that comes out of the bottom of the machine.

Before our seed can be stored or used, it first must be cleaned. That means that the seed is stripped of any sheathes, chaff, stems, leaves or other litter. While it will take several months to clean it all, Kim and I were able to work at the PMC for a week to see how it’s done. Seed cleaning has two parts. First the seed needs to be dislodged from the larger pieces of plant material. Second, the materials need to be separated so that all the viable seed is in one neat pile and the rest is in another.

There are multiple methods for each part and the handling differs for each species. One that we used frequently for more fragile seeds was manual stripping and sorting. With this method, I would shake the seed from the stems and then shake them through a sieve and pan. This works well when the seeds need to be treated gently and for small amounts of seed. However, this method is time intensive and requires extended physical labor.

This is the brush machine that we used to clean seed. This is mainly used for tougher seed that can handle the stiff bristles on the interior brush.

The other method that we used frequently involved the use of brush and air machines. The brush machine is exactly what it sounds like. The main body is a metal cylinder case that houses a spinning paddle of brushes. These brushes fit snuggly against a metal mesh cage that prevents the stems from going through the bottom slot—where the seed goes—and instead pushes the stems through an opening at the other end. An air machine can separate the smaller pieces, mostly seed and broken up dust. This machine brings the mixture into a wind tube. The user controls the air speed so that the dust is blown to the top and collected at the upper end while the heavier, full seed drops to the bottom collection cup.

We used both methods and depending on the seeds, we sometimes mixed the methods together. It was wonderful to learn how to use the machines as well as look at the seeds up close under the microscope. Many thanks to the seed guru, Lubo Mahlev, who guided our time at the PMC lab as well as Jen- a previous CLM intern-, Rob, Kyle, and Todd.

Hey guys!

September was awesome. We can definitely feel the fall breeze in the air already, especially up north! We started with a four-day trip to Eastern Neck NWR, Blackwater NWR, Chincoteague NWR, and Brownsville Preserve within Virginia and Maryland. My favorite part of this trip was collecting Tripsacum dactyloides. Don’t ask why. I can’t explain it myself. Maybe it’s just the fact that the seeds could be used to make maracas? Anyway, this trip was absolutely filled with mosquitos. No matter how much bug repellant was used, no matter how many layers we worn, they were vicious and unforgiving. But we persevered! The worst place was Chincoteague NWR on the Delmarva Peninsula. We made four collections there of Borrichia frutescens, Fimbristylis castanea, Typha angustifolia, and Cyperus odoratus.

Beautiful sunset at Eastern Neck NWR.

Tripsacum dactyloides. Such a beautiful, fun grass!

Salicornia depressa turning a wonderful shade of red at Chincoteague NWR.

Wild horses at Chincoteague NWR!

Our next trip was a short 2 day trip to Merchant’s Millpond, First Landing State Park, False Cape State Park, and North Landing River Preserve. Merchant’s Millpond was a bust – BUT – it’s a bald-cypress swamp, so that’s a given that it is absolutely gorgeous. We went looking for Lindera benzoin, and while there was a big enough population of it, there were no fruits. Luckily, we were with a really great ranger who was helping us around and even helped us look through the forest! What a guy. First Landing helped us make up for the lack of collections at Merchants. We collected Uniola paniculata, Panicum amarum, and Fimbristylis castanea.

Callicarpa americana at Merchant’s Millpond.

Monotropa uniflora at Merchant’s Millpond. My second siting ever 🙂

I have to say, I was so jealous going to False Cape. We collected more Uniola paniculata there, but the maritime forest makes me so happy. There were camping spots and a trail that leads out to the dunes that were filled with seaoats just flowing in the wind. And sorry, but my romantic side came out when I saw this adorable couple – with the whole beach to themselves – sitting out on the beach together, drawing the ocean. WHAT. Drawing the ocean. Adorable. I would recommend anyone to go to this place – you cannot drive in, however. Which kind of gives the place more charm 🙂

Dunes and Uniola paniculata at False Cape State Park.

The last trip we went on was the first week of October and was just Sammy and myself. We headed to Gunpowder Falls SP, Rocks SP, Elk Neck SP, Tuckahoe SP, Blackwater NWR, Chincoteague NWR, and Brownsville. When I think of this trip, I think of Jamaican food (the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had in my life, yes, from a Jamaican restaurant), snakes, apples, and rushed collections! It was a super productive and fun week for Sammy and I. We made 14 collections, which is more than I’ve ever made in a trip – even when we had the whole group together! We found a wonderful population of Ilex verticillata at Gunpowder Falls State Park – Hammerman Beach. We got bummed when we were first there because we were surrounded by seas of phragmites, but we coincidentally found something awesome (and I’m not talking about the mammalian skulls – yeah)! Our next stop, Rocks State Park, is SO PRETTY. I mean, we went there for a population of Leersia that was already done seeding, but hey, that’s okay! Because Elk Neck provided us LOTS of collections! And snakes! I loved collecting Parthenocissus quinquefolia. Pretty berries 🙂 We were also able to collect Schizachyrium scoparium, Tridens flavus, Pycnanthemum tenuifolium, and Panicum anceps. Next was Tuckahoe SP, which is always fun because KAYAKING – we collected Rosa palustris there. We were able to make a collection of Spartina patens at Blackwater NWR, which was great! And to end the trip, we made some cyperus collections at Chincoteague, along with Fuirena pumila, Tridens flavus, Schizachyrium scoparium, and Cenchrus tribuloides! Sammy and I were kind of afraid of cenchrus (for obvious – pointy – reasons), but the collection went really smoothly! If you remember to bring some gloves with you, it’s actually easy-breezy! We will have to collect more seeing that they are single seeded, and we still had one other stop before home. We ended up not getting done that day until 8:30, but I can’t say I was at all disappointed with my week!!

Fall is in the air at Rocks State Park in northern Maryland!

Rocks State Park, MD.

Sometimes you drive 6 hours to get to a population that is already done seeding, like this Leersia, and that’s OK!!

Rock State Park was too pretty 🙂

A kayak filled with spiders… probably my worst nightmare.

This turtle was watching me paddle by at Tuckahoe State Park.

Some spiranthes Sammy and I saw at Chincoteague NWR!

Trip planning with the group. The usual faces of my team, haha. Minus Sammy!

Phytolacca americana seeds that I cleaned – they are just as cool as the berries/plants themselves!

 

My fourth month here in Casper, WY has been very active, and much less routine than the previous months.  I have had the opportunity to engage with many different land management professionals here at the field office, including the rangeland health specialists and hydrologists.  This has resulted in a number of new training and learning opportunities.

On the wildlife side, I recently took part in an ongoing project to install and maintain artificial bat habitat boxes in natural areas around Casper.  The project aims to encourage the establishment of bat populations to help manage insect levels.  I went out and checked every installed bat box around Casper to check for bats and perform any necessary maintenance.   Unfortunately, in the five boxes that I checked, I did not see any evidence of bats inhabiting the box.  There were quite a few wasp nests however, which was an absolute joy to clean out.  Hopefully they see more bat activity in the future.

Observing the bat boxes was helpful in understanding the installation of wildlife projects, which is particularly useful knowledge for the implementation of my wood duck box project.  This past month I surveyed multiple natural areas here in Natrona county and examined published literature on wood duck nesting habitats to determine the best locations to install two wood duck nesting boxes.  I finally settled on two different areas; one where I will mount the box on a metal pole and one where I will mount the box on a tree.  The pole mount is significant because any area where I propose ground disturbance (i.e. installation of the pole) requires a cultural and wildlife clearance.  Wildlife is a nonissue, since this is a wildlife project, but for the cultural clearance I brought one of the field office archaeologists out to the proposed site to ensure that there were no cultural or historic artifacts or sites present at that location.  Once I had successfully cleared both sites for box installation I began to write the categorical exclusion (CX) document to begin the project.  This document is named for a project that is small enough or has a minimal environmental impact so as to not require a full National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessment.  I completed writing the background and proposed action sections and am waiting on clearance from resource management to implement the project.

I have also begun constructing a report on all of the cheatgrass monitoring that I have performed this year, as well as the vegetation monitoring from previous years.  The idea is that it will be a living document, chronicling the treatment and monitoring efforts occurring in each grazing allotment.  I plan on breaking down each section by grazing allotment and providing a map showing the allotment and all past/proposed treatments, summarizing the history of cheatgrass monitoring action on that allotment, and making a recommendation for future conservation management based on the vegetation monitoring data.  It is quite an undertaking, but could be very useful for the field office once completed.

Outside of these projects I have had a variety of interesting interdisciplinary experiences.  I helped a rangeland health specialist fix a fence and survey an area for a contractor, I helped the hydrologist process soil samples and inspect water wells, and I helped the forester map an area for contract preparation, among other things.  Additionally, I have been trained in operating ATVs, UTVs, skid steers, forklifts, and tractors.  Overall, it has been a very busy month with a lot of diverse experiences, and I look forward to finishing out my internship strong this month!