It has been only one month living in West Virginia and I can’t believe how much wildlife I have encountered. While working in the Monongahela National Forest, one thing that I have enjoyed the most has been the amount of diversity I have seen in the mammals, birds, amphibians, insects, and fungi. Growing up I have always been interested in all different types of wildlife, but being in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, the diversity is really different than in the Mon Forest. While being here, I have been very excited to “geek out” about all the wildlife that I have never seen before.

To start, some of the larger wildlife I have seen are bears and grouse. While helping with a highway trash pick-up day, Katie and I saw two black bears cross the road. Unfortunately, it was so fast that I was not able to take a picture of them, but it was still exciting to see my first wild bear. It is also cool to have seen the black bear in West Virginia because it is the West Virginia state animal. Another interesting animal I saw was a Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa umbellus. The grouse is interesting because it is in the same family as the chicken and even looks kind of like a small chicken at first glance.

The amphibians that have caught my attention are the salamanders and newts. I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to help with salamander surveys. This has allowed me to see a handful of different species that range in size and color. Some species include the Northern Dusky, Desmognathus fuscus; the Northern Slimy Salamander, Plethodon glutinosus; and the Northern Red Salamander, Pseudotriton ruber. I have seen the Eastern Newt, Notophthalmus viridescens, a couple of times. These little guys are cool because they spend the first three years of their lives as the red eft stage (pictured below) roaming around on land and then the rest of their lives in water for their adult stage with a completely different coloration of a green dorsal and yellow stomach. They are also the only species of newt that we have in the Monongahela!

Some more wildlife that is hard to miss are the bugs. While being in the field there have been many bugs that I have encountered. I have also helped an AmeriCorps member on one of her projects by doing a “bug blitz.” For the “bug blitz,” we spent a couple hours searching a plot of the forest and tried to catch as many bugs as we could find to later ID them. After doing this multiple times, we can gauge the different bug populations in parts of the forest. This was a lot of fun, and I was able to see so many different spiders, leafhoppers, beetles, and flies that I didn’t realize were so interesting till I was able to get a closer look.

To save the best for last, the group that has caught my attention the most has been the fungi! I always thought fungi were cool, but after coming to the Mon Forrest, the diversity of fungi has blown my mind. I have never seen so many different shapes, sizes, and colors of fungi before. Thanks to the help of an identification app called Seek, I have been able to learn many different names of the common fungi I encounter while out in the field. Some of the common ones I have found and been able to ID are pictured below. However, I am still learning and there are still so many more that have caught my attention, but I have not been able to identify yet, including the last picture of the bright red-orange mushroom.

Overall, I have had an incredibly fun time seeing so much wildlife. Every day I work in the field I am excited to find more new species to add to my running list of things I have never seen before. I am extremely thankful to be working in the Monongahela National Forest, and I can’t wait to see what other wildlife I will see in the upcoming months.

June has quickly passed and now it’s July in Boise! Last month consisted of lots of crispy flowers due to the heat wave. It seems that with average temperatures higher than last year, we were a little too late to collect seeds from the plants at lower elevation. Temperatures reached 106 in the middle of the day! Thankfully one week, we were sent out to the Lost River where it felt like we stepped back a few weeks in time due to the higher elevation and lower temperatures. The flowers at these sites were almost ready for collection! We got to camp in some cooler weather by a stream and even got to experience some rain, which is rare for us in Boise! After work shenanigans included jumping in the stream, bird watching, and telling our fortunes. 

Some people have a lot of questions about camping and what it’s like to eat out in the field on a weekly basis. For the most part you can keep your diet the same as at home. With a good camp stove and pan you can make just about anything! I’ve previously made salmon burgers, pad thai, and falafel among other meals. This month I’ve been counting macronutrients and getting culinarily creative. My favorite macro friendly meal is “jogurt”- jello pudding packets mixed with nonfat greek yogurt! It has 19 grams of protein, 5 grams of carbs, and 0 grams of fat! Dinner is usually a can of sustainably caught (pole and line) tuna mixed with either hummus or nonfat refried beans, microgreens and other vegetables on a tortilla or bread. This works out to about 40 grams of protein, 60 carbs, and 7 grams of fat.  It’s still possible to eat well without a full kitchen and limited refrigeration in the front country!

These last few weeks since my last blog post have been jam-packed with projects and rewardingly hard work. Megan and I managed to pass our exams and successfully become certified herbicide applicators! We have spent enough time pulling Garlic Mustard that I see it every time I close my eyes. Now anytime Megan and I go hiking, I constantly get distracted and stop to yank up the sporadic garlic mustard patches we come across.

Outside of our adventures with invasive species, we have also had the opportunity to assist Ruben Sabella, a master’s student from West Virginia University, with his research on the Running Buffalo Clover’s habitat and population ecology. Running Buffalo Clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) was thought to be extinct until 1983 when it was found by Rodney Bartgis in West Virginia’s Nature Conservancy. Through the work of many researchers and conservationists, it is now common enough that the Fish and Wildlife Service is considering removing it from the list of endangered species. Ruben’s research will hopefully add to the evidence needed to cross this milestone.

The main threat to Running Buffalo Clover (RBC) because of its specific habitat needs. RBC needs periodic disturbance in order to thrive – hence its name which refers both to the stolons or “runners” of RBC and the fact that it grew predominantly in buffalo grazing grounds. Using this knowledge, the Forest Service initiated a contract with timber companies to harvest specific sites, giving RBC the disturbance that it needs. Our job was to visit all of the harvested sites in search of RBC populations. We started with 100 flags to mark each population, expecting not to need nearly that many and ultimately running out before we had completed our surveys. It was a pleasant surprise.

RBC looks very similar to common white clover, with only a few distinguishing traits. The main identifying trait is the stolons that connect the individual plants of the colonies, but the easiest way to distinguish them is by looking at their base. RBC’s base fans out with little leaflets while all other clovers have thin and wiry bases.

Now that we have located all of the RBC populations, we will go back and count the individual plants of each colony. Then Ruben can begin analyzing the growth patterns and habitat preferences for his thesis. I have really enjoyed being a part of this project and am looking forward to seeing the results of the research!

For starters, I cannot believe that it is almost July! This past month or so in Oregon has been full of beautiful sights and many learning experiences and I am in disbelief in how fast it’s going by! That being said, I appreciate this opportunity to look back on those moments and share them, allowing them to settle in my memory and grow in value. It’s worth mentioning that a good reason why this past month flew by is mostly due to the fact that Justus and I have been very busy. Today, being an “office” day, allows me the time to reflect and realize how much I’ve already grasped and seen in this time.

To pick up where I left off, the following weeks were mostly consisting of electrofishing for trout species in Long Creek. My previous mentor, Justus and I traveled the hour and a half ride to the field site for several days together until we were confident enough to take on the task alone and alongside some of The Nature Conservancy employees. All of whom were very kind, knowledgeable and a joy to have during the days that were snowy and cold. Now, it has been just Justus and I traveling everyday to the site, and the weather has taken quite the turn. While we started in the snow, we ended in the heat. With that came mosquitos and leaky, smelly waders. Nonetheless, I gained a lot of electrofishing experience, knowledge about fish behavior, honed in on my fish ID skills, learned how to PIT tag, and grew my relationship with my co-intern. Currently, we are in a heat wave experiencing near 100 degree weather. Thankfully, our time at Long Creek came to an end just before it hit. But, we are on to more field work this week working with Modoc Suckers conducting habitat monitoring. I’m excited to learn more and have experience with a new species.

In the days that we weren’t at Long Creek, we were at the FWS hatchery, Gone Fishin’. I’d like to just share that I love that name for a hatchery. At this well-named hatchery, I got to assist in a variety of tasks alongside staff. A FWS staff member (Josh) offered to show us around the property where we were first introduced to staff, the goals of the hatchery, the Lost River and Shortnose sucker species, and some of essential tasks needing to be done. One of which we participated in that same day, was counting larvae that were collected that morning. In each cooler there were thousands of larvae that needed to be accurately counted in each tank. It was straining to the eyes, but very cool to help the first step in their goal to conserve these species. Now, having been to the hatchery a number of times, Justus and I have counted thousands more larvae, helped clean tanks, count mortalities, maintain the grounds, feed both larva and juvenile fish, and the most exciting one- help milk and fertilize eggs. We were lucky to have been there the day that they decided to collect sperm and eggs from male and female suckers to gather fertility data. There was unfortunately only one female with eggs, but they used that opportunity to fertilize, incubate, and hope for development. I really enjoyed watching and helping with these tasks. That same day was when the federal government announced their new regulations on masks- fully vaccinated people didn’t have to wear one. We all simultaneously took our masks off and saw each other’s faces for the first time. It was a bizarre but positive moment.

Another day, we got to go out with FWS staff Michelle, to collect larvae ourselves. That involved boating on the Williamson River, sifting the shorelines with our dip nets until all of our coolers were full. I was grateful to participate in this step to see a larger view of the process of conserving these species.

Apart from my internship experiences, I have had the privilege to spend my weekends seeing the beauty of Oregon. Besides the fact that this internship offers me a very valuable education that will set me up for my future, along with connections, unforgettable experiences, etc., I really was drawn to the location, as well. Oregon has a new place in my heart. I feel like it always had one, but now I have the memories here. I owe that to the crystal clear rivers in the mountains, the mountains themselves, the cloudy coast with their enormous slugs (Banana slugs are my favorite), rocky yet lush landscape, the strong coastal winds, the birds, the lack of humidity, and the river rocks.

This experience so far has shown me my abilities and the reality that there are so many places to see, people to meet, and new things to learn. I want the days to go by slower so I can soak in everything and see and learn as much as I can while I’m here. Please enjoy the images! I can’t wait to share what the next month will bring.

Hi y’all, my name is Katherine and I am one of the two CLM interns based in Boise, ID. For the next four months, I’ll be working with my mentor Jessica Irwin, my teammate Liza Chang, and a wonderful crew of scientists at the Rocky Mountain Research Station to continue monitoring common garden sites and collecting native plant seed throughout the Intermountain West.

It’s hard to believe a month has already gone by since arriving in Boise. Before a few weeks ago, I had only ever passed through Idaho on my way to the West Coast. Having limited experience with xeric ecosystems, I hardly knew what to expect. So far, the answer seems to be “anything!” — at least, weather-wise. The first week brought rain and even snow on some nearby peaks, followed by a super sunny week in the 90s, and then back to rain again. I’m lucky to say our work has been similarly variable.

We began our season at the common garden sites in Richfield, ID; Orchard, ID; and Orovada, NV. Working with the USFS crew, we collected phenology data on three forb species installed at each site. Because the sites are typically in pretty remote places, we get to camp at the garden and hang out with the crew. So far, we’ve consumed innumerable PB&Js, startled a few snakes, and collected hundreds of teeny tiny leaves. Each week brings new flowers, weeds, and seed “poofs” along with new adventures after work.

For example, on a recent vegetation survey in the Santa Rosa Range we traveled far up a road into the Red Hills, winding through cow pastures and along steep cliffs to a peaceful grove of cottonwoods and mining debris. Though the plants in the area weren’t quite grown enough to collect herbarium specimens, we made the most of the evening by hiking up to the top of the ridgeline. There, we not only found a cactus that had not yet been documented in the area, but were also treated to the most beautiful views of vast, empty valleys. I’m looking forward to more of each in equal measure – new plants, off road adventures, and expansive nothingness.

“Try chewing on a twig,” suggested my mentor, Ian. He held a branch low for me. At first, it tasted like nothing, but as I broke through the smooth bark, a distinct minty flavor emerged. He explained to me that the tree was a yellow birch. Recognised by its unique peeling bark and serrated leaves, yellow birch branches bear a strong wintergreen flavor. 

It was my first week interning at Ottawa National Forest. Two weeks after graduating from college, I had found my way to the small town of Ironwood, Michigan. The iron in Ironwood is gone now; the last mines closed decades ago, but there is no shortage of wood here. The town sits on the western edge of the forest, a million acres of aspen, pine, oak, maple, ash, tamarack, willow, cherry, birch, and more. 

In the time I’ve been here, I’ve just begun to learn the local plants. Interrupted ferns have sporangia in the middle of their fronds. Sweetgrass with warm tan spikelets dots roadsides, and lily pads shaped like pies with a slice cut out float on calm ponds. While I’m here, I want to try and learn as many plants as I can. The forest is vast and changing. I want to know it all. 

Some of the change happens naturally —  a stand of aspen dies back and hardwood trees grow in succession — and some of the change is brought about by people — a stand of aspen is cut, so new aspen can grow in its place. Much of the change currently happening in the forest is driven by a warming climate. Ian told me that the elk and caribou that used to roam here have almost entirely been replaced by deer from the south. The deer eat young hemlock trees in the winter, making them rare in the forest. This summer, I will be focusing on a different source of change, invasive species. 

Brought in from far away by boats, birds, firewood, and a thousand other sources, many invasive species throw local ecosystems out of balance. Without natural checks on growth carefully forged by thousands of years of evolution, these species can start to take over and greatly reduce ecosystem diversity. As CLM interns assigned to the invasive plant team at the forest, fellow intern Tessa and I — lovingly termed the “Weed Crew” — are tasked with heading out to sites in the forest with known infestations of “Ottawa’s most wanted,” the invasive plants with the most potential to harm the forest’s ecosystems if left unchecked. Armed with hand saws, trashbags, gloves, and hardhats we venture into the depths of the forest looking for Japanese barberry, invasive honeysuckle, garlic mustard, and others.

Though some invasive species have native lookalikes, each is distinctive in its own way. With glossy leaves and delicate thorns that will splinter into unarmored hands, the yellow stumps of Japanese barberry look like specks of gold against the dull forest floor. Invasive honeysuckle can look similar to native honeysuckle species on first inspection, but if you snap a twig, the dark bullseye inside lets you know you’ve found your mark. Garlic mustard can be identified visually — small white flowers with four petals crown erect stems — but true to its name the smell of the plant gives garlic mustard away. It has an odor that would make any vampire turn and run. 

Spending long days in the forest, Tessa and I travel from site to site. Sometimes, despite the best efforts of past invasive plant crews, infestations have gotten worse. This week, I went to a trail entirely lined with dense clumps of garlic mustard. Sometimes, though, we will go to a past site and walk it diligently, concluding, after thorough inspection, that the invasive species has not grown back. 

After cutting down a dense clump of invasive bushes, the forest can look barren, littered with rocks and stumps. In these moments, I remind myself that by removing the invasive species, we are creating the opportunity for new plants to grow. These past few weeks, we scattered many native seeds — primrose, sweetgrass, St. John’s wort, white asters, and black-eyed Susans. We also planted hundreds of native trees, making sure the little seedlings’ roots were straight and pressing the dirt family around them as if tucking them into bed. 

On Wednesday this week, Ian and I traveled deep into a wetland, my black rubber boots getting stuck in the mud, until, straining with all of my weight, I pulled them free. Tall moss and orange mushrooms grew over decaying logs, and light filtered in through the leaves of black ash trees. An invasive bright green beetle called emerald ash borer has just reached the edge of the Ottawa, so in a few decades all of the ash trees in the wetland will be gone. That’s why we were there. Carrying hundreds of silver maple fruits, we walked in a wide circle watching them twirl like helicopter blades into the mud. We are hopeful that as the ash trees die, the silver maples will grow in their stead. 

Over the next few months, I’m looking forward to learning more about the forest, meeting new people, and continuing to explore the diverse ecosystems here. Thinking far into the future, though, the thing that excites me most about our work this season is the chance to come back to the Ottawa in twenty years. I will walk the places that are by then familiar to see all the ways the forest has changed, how it has stayed the same, and if the trees we planted have grown. 

Hi! I’m Emma Greenlee, and I’m a CLM intern based out of Winnemucca, Nevada this year. I moved out here a few weeks ago as I was finishing my last finals period at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Now that I’m settled in and have been at work for a few weeks, I’m here to report what I’ve done and learned so far!

I’m working for the Forest Service on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, which is the lower 48’s largest national forest, spanning Nevada and some of California. I’m stationed at the Santa Rosa Ranger District in Winnemucca, and am working primarily with Sierra Sampson, the zone botanist for the northeast part of the forest. So far I have liked the Forest Service vibe (maps on all the walls, animal skulls and other natural specimens everywhere, and kind people who know and care about the area) a lot, while also seeing the challenges of working in an understaffed and underfunded office with more land to manage than time and resources to accomplish everything. Sierra is awesome and I’m excited to work with her and hopefully other people around the district and forest.

After a week of training on noxious weeds, UTV operation, herbicide application, and common invasive species identification, Sierra and I drove to the Bull Run Mountains, a range north of Elko, NV near the Idaho border on the Mountain City Ranger District, to meet two botanists from the University of Nevada-Reno (Jerry Tiehm and Jan Nachlinger). Jerry and Jan are prolific botanists who have been collecting specimens for UNR and other institutions’ herbariums for decades together and it was very cool to get an introduction to subalpine and northern Nevada flora from them. I have a very long ways to go but I was able to commit at least some species to memory and start to recognize others and think about how the plant communities in this area are organized. We camped with those guys for several days and then went our separate ways to spend one last night camping in the Ruby Mountains east of Elko. The Rubies were a stunning mountain range that I was surprised wasn’t a national park! (And that’s how everybody knew I wasn’t from here…) Sierra and I saw a few marmots and a last awesome sunset of the trip and I jumped in the stream running through Lamoille Canyon. I can’t remember how cold Lake Superior is anymore but this felt like it came close!

Throughout the trip I saw Sierra take the time to build positive relationships whether it was with seasoned botanists, campground hosts, or members of the public. Although I’d thought about the role of land stewards like the FS in interacting with diverse stakeholders, I hadn’t thought about how this might play out in small, everyday interactions like Sierra demonstrated, so this was a small but important part of the trip that I will keep thinking about along with all the new species of Eriogonum (wild buckwheat) I learned. I also have a soft spot for geology and I’m dying to get my hands on a copy of Roadside Geology of Nevada after all the amazing rock features of northern NV I saw this week.

Until next time!

Emma

USFS-Santa Rosa Ranger District, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest

I pulled into Alamogordo, NM, my Honda Fit stuffed with everything I had to my name (which admittedly, is not a lot), ten days unshowered and racing to my second-dose vaccine appointment. I had been driving since 4am, just coming off an extended road trip routing that included the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Escalante, Joshua Tree, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and down Highway 1 on California’s coast (my first time seeing the Pacific!). I’d just finished a 6-month term in Americorps’ ACE program based in Flagstaff, AZ, and took advantage of the time in between my end date in AZ and starting here in the Lincoln National Forest to do some solo-travel and live the #van (Fit) life. After 6 months of hard manual labor consisting mainly of trail construction, much of it backcountry, I was excited to get back into the world of botany, data analysis, and actual beds!

Coming from rural north-central Indiana, a flat hunk of land consisting mainly of corn and soybean fields, the West has been an entirely different planet full of jaw-dropping vistas and crazy conservation corps misadventures. This is my first time in New Mexico, and I’m excited to see what new experiences the Chihuahuan desert has in store.

 Here in Lincoln NF, my co-intern Natasha and I are going to assist a small part of the ongoing South Sacramento Restoration Project by conducting rare plant surveys that will contribute to the project’s database of federally listed endangered and threatened plant species, as well as regionally sensitive species that exist in the forest- this data collection will also help with building a dataset for a habitat sustainability model that is being developed for the Lincoln NF. Although we’re in the Chihauhaun desert, much of the Lincoln NF consists of sky islands, isolated areas that are ecologically radically different from the surrounding desert, often found in mountain ranges such as the Sacramentos. This leads to an extremely biodiverse region, with high species richness and many endemic species. 

While waiting for our rare species’ to flower so we can accurately identify them, we’ve had several different learning opportunities working with different Forest Service employees- we’ve been helping the natural resources crew here build one-rock dams to control soil erosion in riparian areas, as well as learned about local wildlife through some birding with a local expert. We’ve also been collecting plants to practice keying them out and refamiliarizing ourselves with botanical terms and plant families, and have been practicing driving out to sites and using our GPS units to track and find points. My favorite find so far has been Viola canadensis, which is not one of our rare species, but a familiar sight to me after having done research on prairie violets during my Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) internship at the Chicago Botanic Garden itself. I was excited to see Viola again for the first time in the West! 

Working with Aurora, the forest’s botanist, as well as the other Forest Service seasonal techs has been great and I’m already learning a great amount from them! The flowering season here is almost upon us, so we’ll soon start our rare species’ data collections. I can’t wait to update everyone on how they go!