I have been in Safford, AZ with the Bureau of Land Management since May. The past 5 months have been challenging, thought provoking, and educational. Being in the southwest has opened my eyes to a whole new world. This ecosystem is fragile and needs extreme care to remain functioning. Grazing has had an enormous impact on the ecosystem and I feel people need to work on how to manage this more efficiently. Being here has made me question the ways things have been done in the past and what can be done to try and heal the landscape and stop degrading more land. I have realized the importance of water and have never been so grateful for a thunderstorm in my life!

I have grown professionally and learned a great deal about working with the federal government. Working with people that may not have the same views or habits can make for a very challenging work environment. I have learned how to work with these people and how to make suggestions without getting into an argument. I would not suggest living and working with the same person if it can be avoided.

I have gained a lot of skills in plant identification and knowledge on things to make days in the field a little easier. Staying organized and taking good field notes is extremely important! I have sharpened my grass identification skills and have really started to enjoy grasses. They are so unique and interesting! I suggest everyone take a closer look at grasses (under and microscope) I wasn’t a big fan of using a microscope until I started this internship. To be honest I kind of avoided them like the plague if at all possible. I was so amazed when I really started looking at flowering grasses under a dissecting scope! I will be getting one of my own sometime in the near future.

Despite the lack of rain and the very hot climate I have seen some gorgeous scenery and some very cool plants! I suggest that everyone participating in this internship spend some time on the weekends exploring! I did a lot of roadside botany and birding on the weekends! This really helped me learn my flora and fauna!

After a really hot and dry last 2 months we are finally starting to see some seeds!! The desert is a magnificent and delicate place! In just a few weeks it can go from dry barren ground to a green meadow full of wildflowers, perennial, and annual grasses! Our primary focus for collecting has revolved around the family Poaceae.

I once thought that I didn’t like grasses….. that was until I really started trying to identify them. I’ve re-learned my grass anatomy and have become really fond of looking under a microscope to see just what exactly is going on! Grass florets can be simply amazing and absolutely gorgeous! I’m sooooo glad this internship has forced me to learn more about grasses because I’ve simply fallen in love!

look at those stamens!

However my new love of grasses has also been a little frustrating. The grasses in the desert tend not to follow the rules very well nor do they go out of there way to make seed collecting easy. We have found that a grass may be seeding on the top and still flowering lower down the culm. Therefore, we have had to start visiting sites more frequently and taking pictures to see how long it takes from flower to mature seed. Hopefully we will be able to get a few more good collections in before our time is up!

We had the first rains of the “monsoon season” last week! I haven’t seen rain in two months so it was a very pleasant sight! The rain has brought an abundance of reptiles. Hopefully I will get to see a Gila Monster before the summer is over!

My knowledge of Arizona plants is expanding! I recognize several more plants than I did a month ago and I’m even starting to remember their Latin names! The past few weeks we have been scouting for Sporobolus airoides, Sporobolus wrightii, Muhlenbergia porteri, Bouteloua eriopoda, and Bouteloua gracilis. Hopefully with more rain things will start greening up and we will have an awesome collecting season.

We have also been working in the herbarium at the BLM office. The plants specimens are gorgeous! I’m still trying to figure out how to press a cactus without getting a million spines in my fingers! I guess it just takes practice!

I have been in Safford, AZ for almost a month! I am originally from Ohio and was dreading coming to this dry hot climate. Now that I am here I absolutely love this place! I once thought that the desert was barren and dead. When I got out here and started exploring I found that I was completely wrong! There is a ton of life and there is always something new in bloom. Almost everyday I am told of a new place to go exploring where I find new plants!

Currently there are not a lot of plants on our collection list that are flowering. Arizona had poor winter rains and is experiencing large wildfires. This has made things a bit challenging. However, I have still learned a lot in the short month I have been here. Working with the Bureau of Land Management I have been exposed to public land and current management practices. We have seen the negative effects that grazing has on the environment. During field days we have learned about erosion pedestals, increasing plants due to degraded landscapes, and how people view the desert ecosystem. Through conservation efforts of many agencies the public is starting to become aware of the value the desert has to offer but there is still a lot of work to be done. I am amazed at the species diversity in the southeast corner of Arizona and will work hard to try and protect this beautiful ecosystem during my internship.

Pray for good summer rains so we can have an awesome collecting season! 🙂

Argemone pleiacantha