William Blake wrote,  “To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.”  I think seeds are infinity in the palm of our hands. This poem glorifies my seed collecting endeavors of the summer! And now the days are getting colder and a little darker here in the far North, and snow has begun to dust the tops of the peaks, known locally to botanists as Termination Dust. Uh oh for summer and seeds!

First snow on the Talkeetna Range

Though my time with the Chicago Botanic Garden is winding down, I will be staying here and continue to work for the BLM office and University of Alaska Anchorage’s Natural Heritage Program through November! I’m happy to have the opportunity to continue being part of this project, to see the seed season and all data through. What a grand experience!

This has been one of the fullest summers I’ve ever had. The diversity of my experience has been incredible, far exceeding any expectations I had of my internship. I’ve flown over the stunning Brooks Range of Alaska, stood at the feet of glaciers, watched grizzlies grazing on meadow sedges and grasses, and recently collected seeds for the future environmental restoration of the largest working Platinum placer mine in North America. That was quite a seed rescue mission!

Our work team and a mining dredge from the '30s

Seeds in a Lupinus nootkatensis pod

Grazing female Grizzly! mmmmm

Collecting Lupine pods near the Canada/Alaska border

And I’ve met people working on an incredible variety of projects in offices/field stations all over the state; I am continuously inspired by the work BLM and other agencies are doing up here.  Due to its immensity and landscape diversity, Alaska is an incredible place to monitor, conserve, study, and manage. I am euphorically, gloriously lucky to be here working!

Additionally, I’ve learned a language this summer, with beautiful words like Chamerion angustifolium, Leymus mollis, Androsace septentrionalis, Gentianella propinqua, Artemisia dranunculus, Calamagrostis purpurascens, Potentilla bimundorum, and Angelica lucida. And then there are names like Cnidium cnidifolim var. cnidifolium!

Parnassia palustris

Picking Dogwood berries... some how white berries aren't appetizing

Seed pod of Fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium

All I can say now, at the end of my CLM internship, is THANK YOU for such a spectacular experience.

—-Emily Capelin,  budding botanist

I still am in awe of where I am, and how my summer has come to be with my internship. I find myself in vast meadows of lupine, and then crouching beside a chocolate lily, or climbing rocky mountainsides in search of Crepis elegans (elegant hawksbeard–gotta love the name), wading on edges of alpine lakes identifying Carex species, and then identifying the entire plant community of a black spruce forest.

And most recently I found myself out in the far reaches of Alaska’s North Slope! I had the incredible opportunity of being a research assistant for two weeks on a project in the BLM’s National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) monitoring the effects of oil exploration on the tundra. Such a beautiful and strange world up there! The Coastal Plain (aka North Slope) consists of hundreds of lakes and intricately meandering streams across a completely flat landscape, about 1/3 water from melting permafrost and 2/3 land.

Coastal Plain, land of lakes

On the North Slope, I lived in the remote BLM field camp of Inigok, 30 miles south of the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. The camp was accessible by air only and lay 100s of miles from any other major “civilization.” Our camp consisted of canvas cook tent, pantry tent, and a “lounge” with wireless. My camp-mates were a crew of 12 or so biologists and other researchers from all over the country doing projects on fish, botany, caribou, and climate change in the arctic.

BLM field camp Inigok, North Slope

For our research, we flew around in a helicopter collecting a variety of data from 88 sites across the tundra. The project was in its 13th year monitoring the effects of seismic exploration for oil and ice roads on tundra flora. We looked at impact to tussocks (Eriophorum vaginatum), riparian areas, and other tundra communities. We visually noted rate of plant recovery from ground and air, trying to see how long recovery is for flora after being driven over in multiple ton vehicles in the winter. Depending on what substrate or ecosystem was effected, full plant recovery has been anywhere from 2 years to still not recovered today. Such a beautiful, fragile ecosystem up there, I feel lucky to have participated in the quest for understanding Arctic ecosystems!

My work team: our helicopter pilot on the left, then botanist/wildlife biologist Dave, and me on the right

Polygonum bistorta

Pyrola

Tussock cottongrass--Eriophorum vaginatum

Alaska state flower, the forget-me-not

Such an adventure! I’ve learned so much up here. I can name all the tundra plants by common name and Latin. I ate a puff ball mushroom fresh off the tundra, saw a few grizzly bears running from our helicopter and saw a rare herd of musk ox. I got to see a herd of five thousand caribou swimming across a lake, and touched the permafrost–the hard and frozen ice under all this land. And I learned to play cribbage!

The journey begins. I, Emily Capelin, am finishing my third week in Anchorage, Alaska working with the BLM as well as the Alaska Natural Heritage Center through the University of Alaska Anchorage. Our mission is collecting seeds for restoration of lands damaged by fire, mines, and oil and gas pipeline construction. These past three weeks have been spent in preparation for the grand adventures to come. We’ve been in the office applying for collection permits and calling other regional BLM offices about using their research facilities. We’re planning trips all over the state for seed collection. And, best of all, we’ve been traipsing through the wilds of Alaska scouting around in plant communities, looking at progress of seeds and locations of certain plant species whose seeds we want to collect later.

My mentor Mike Duffy, on the left, and botanists from the Plant Materials Center in Alaska. We're on top of The Butte in the Matanuska River Valley, looking for a rare Pasqueflower.

Mike Duffy and a botanist friend looking for plants in the Matanuska Valley. Pioneer Peak looms in the background. We found lots of Chamerion angustifolium, Cerastium, Artemisia frigida, and Oxytropis.

We have made our first seed collection this week, gathering some 9 thousand seeds of Viola adunca, a beautiful deep purple violet. Exciting to have and hold something solid! I’ve been lucky, to spend the long days of the Alaskan summer (right now, we have about 19 hours of daylight!) amongst flowers and vast landscapes. My famed Botanist mentor Mike Duffy and I have been hiking along a glacial river bar looking for a rare species of native Clematis. We’ve walked through immense fields of Lupinus nootkatensis (Nootka Lupine) beneath the high peaks of the Chugach Mountains, and climbed a small mountain in search of Artemisia frigida and an elusive Pasqueflower. And I’ve seen Brown Bears and a river otter! All for the mighty purpose of establishing seed banks that provide anyone with the means of revegatating damaged lands with native seeds. A worthy goal. I am honored and elated to be a part of the project.

Alaska's Wild Rose species, Rosa nutkana