It’s been a while since my last post, but there has been no shortage of exciting work out in northwestern California. Instead of try to cover everything I’ll focus on a recent adventure of note. Last week I hiked the Lost Coast Trail with the fisheries biologist, his primary focus installing annual temperature gauges in creeks running down from their headwaters in the coastal King Range to the Pacific, and my task, map and treat invasive weed infestations. Mostly this resulted in as much manual removal of iceplant, foxglove, and a few others from the steep sandy cliffs along the coast. It was an amazing opportunity to monitor an area otherwise inaccessible except by foot. Though only a 24 mile hike split into four days, we were lugging heavy loads and hiking mostly on soft sand while dealing with impassable segments during high tides, and coping with the frustration of not being able to reach some of the crafty invasives thriving on inaccessible sandstone faces.

It was nice to have an opportunity to get to know a section of BLM land that few members of the office regularly monitor, and my hiking partner and I enjoyed the relaxed nature of spending long days in the field without the pressure to drive back to the office a few hours away each evening. The scenery was unmatched with steep mountains rising directly from the ocean to upwards of 4000 feet in less than three miles. This was a trip I will not soon forget, with memorable sunsets and plenty of valuable exploration. The only proper way to conduct landscape management is not see the ecology firsthand.

Fleener Creek running into the Pacific

April 17, 2012

Since my first post in March I have been continuing with my surveying of dune vegetation on the established transects. Much of this work has been done on BLM land that is nearby. I have quickly found that moving only a few miles closer to the coast can yield drastically different rainfall and wind patterns, regardless of what the radar indicates. Weather aside, I have completed 12 of 13 dune transects with the hope to finish my last one this week. I am definitely much more confident in my identification skills of the local dune vegetation schemes. I find that the more time one spends hunched over a sandy dune mat scouring for smaller and rare flora, counting rosettes of beach Layia (Layia carnosa), and observing the floral phenological changes, the more appreciation I gain for the complexity of this habitat. The intense climatic and geologic pressures on these species is quite evident after spending even just one day on the dunes. They are unquestionably better adapted for survival in such an environment than any field worker.

In addition to my concentration on dune vegetation, I have had a chance to travel to several of the other disjunct parcels of land under the jurisdiction of the BLM Arcata field office. Our office hosted a group of high school students who helped restore trails and remove invasive Monterey pines, coyote brush, and french broom from a former US Naval base at the Lost Coast Headlands. The invasive woody vegetation has been encroaching on the threatened coastal prairies over the last 10 years since the removal of the naval base. A substantial stand of Monterey pine– which, to clarify, are native to the central coast of California, but artificially cultivated and invasive in the north coast– have grown in excess of 25 feet in just a decade. Fortunately these pines focus all their resources into growing fast, not strong, and thus have very soft wood and a large tap root. Many of the trees (up to 6 feet tall) were easily pulled by hand and trees up to 5 inches dbh were felled with a small hand saw. This was an important opportunity to share the importance of our conservation work with a younger generation of local students. We made sure to stress that coastal prairies are equally native to the north coast as forested hillsides, though most of these prairies have disappeared in the last century with a focus on timber growth and restricted grazing and fire regimes. My supervisor has been educating me on the conservation of these prairies and of the often scrutinized methods for actively managing the land to ensure their survival. All in all, coastal prairies are pretty cool.

Next week I will be traveling to a BLM Seed Collection training conference in Las Vegas. I am looking forward to learning more about seed conservation work and preparing for the late-season efforts to collect seeds in the Arcata district. Because the conference is in the middle of the week I will have a chance to drive through much of California and am planning to take both the coastal route and eastern-Sierra route along the journey there and back. I look forward to sharing my experiences from the trip in May.

-Andy, BLM Arcata, CA

In my first three weeks of interning here in Arcata, CA I have had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of the particular vegetation communities throughout this very unique region of the country. This is my second internship through CLM and it is entirely different from my last. I have spent at least 75% of my time in the field. My mentor, Jennifer, showed me through the procedures for two separate vegetation surveys which she does annually, but I was quickly set loose to complete the work solo. I’m grateful that she has such confidence in my ability to learn on the fly to take charge of data collection essentially immediately.

The first project upon which we are focusing is monitoring the life history characteristics of noted specimens of Beach layia (Layia carnosa), a small fleshy plant growing on the naturally disturbed areas of the dunes surrounding Humboldt Bay. While the species is currently listed as endangered, my mentor along with several of her colleagues believe that the species is thriving well enough to merit down-listing by the USFWS. Our data from this season is critical to accomplishing those agenda.

The second project, which has consumed most of my time thus far, is surveying the vegetation along several established transects on the dunes that my mentor and previous interns have been surveying since 1999. This project has forced me to learn 30-40 species of dune dwelling plants, from native and rare to invasive. I have picked up several of the species rapidly, but others take time. Nonetheless my confidence in identification and efficient surveying along the transect has improved in these first couple weeks.

I am very much enjoying my time in northern California. Coming from the east coast, this climate is very similar to what I would be seeing in New England this time of year, but it is also my favorite type of weather. There is ample rain and humidity–without the stifling heat– which is a welcome change from my first internship on the front range in Colorado. I’m looking forward to finishing up the dune work this spring and moving on to other projects that Jennifer has waiting in other areas of BLM land later on in the summer. I expect to have more to write about regarding exploring the thick coast redwood and douglas fir forests in my next entry.

Andy, BLM Arcata

It’s been a while since I last wrote, so there is a fair amount of catch up to do. Going back to early November, I had a chance to travel to Tallahassee, FL to take part in the Natural Areas Association annual meeting. This was my first professional conference and it fit very well with my project. I heard many lectures on policies protecting natural areas (ranging from domestic parks, wildlife refuges, to the amazon), LOTS of information on invasive species, and several talks of other interests to me. Along with these lectures, I created a poster to display during the week regarding my project on Great Lakes invasive species. There were plenty of folks to talk with on the myriad issues that inevitably evolve as do the lists of invasives. One of the days we left the conference area and went to St. Mark’s wildlife refuge south of Tallahassee. This was unquestionably my favorite experience of the week. This refuge is extensive, covering habitats supporting red cockaded woodpeckers and gopher tortoises, long leaf pines, and shorebird (and alligator!) communities. The amount of new habitat I had a chance to explore in only a few hours was truly awesome. The biologists who manage the refuge provided a lot of insight into another realm of land management, foreign to me from my desk job with the NPS. This week was a great chance to get out and remember the wonderful diversity of positions available for me to pursue down the road.

After getting back to Fort Collins, it was back to work on the final bits of my project. I finished the design of the website housing the database, edited the species lists one more time, and began working on my webinar presentation for December. Work went well on this, and after a few more weeks, I presented the webinar. I will be spending my last week and a half cleaning up errors corresponding with comments we receive(d) on the database, writing an article for InsideNPS, and reporting on this project for my division’s annual report.

Another great travel experience I recently had was over Thanksgiving weekend when I traveled to visit my roommates family on the western slope of Colorado. The drive through the Rockies was as spectacular as I could have hoped, and seeing the San Juan Mountains on the other side of the state was a treat. While both the Front Range and western slope are significantly drier than I am used to in New England, it was great to see some trees on the drive over the mountain passes along with the pinyon-juniper “forests” of western Colorado. These trees were short and the ground was dry, lacking much of an understory other than sage brush; I suppose it’s like that from west of the Rockies to the Sierras, though. It certainly had its own beauty, though with open viewscapes and the jagged mountains surrounding the otherwise farmland. Upon returning to the Front Range, I stopped in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP for a bit. It was extremely impressive, and all the more enjoyable because there were no other visitors in sight. I’ll mark down Sundays in winter as the prime time for visiting parks as they should be seen– in solitude.

Only another week left, this has been a very rewarding and fast way to spend my first six months post graduation.

Since my last entry I have been working steadily on the website design process for the Great Lakes Invasives project. Much of it is now put together, though there is a constant stream of updates as I submit it to various higher-ups and associates in the office. I am creating both an internal site for Intra-NPS use (staff members at parks and resource offices) as well as a public internet site. The two versions are similar though offer somewhat different information. Concise writing is critical on both pages so I am honing my skills at getting meaning out of every word while avoiding being verbose and overly scientific.

I’m still adjusting to the Colorado weather. The front range is starting to cool off, though it is a gradual process and we have had more than a few setbacks to mid-summer weather. I’m all ready for Autumn, so I survive these relapses by looking to the mountains as they endure minor snow dustings.

The leaves are changing as well, but the difference in flora around these parts is more obvious than ever (coming from a lifelong resident of New England).

I still have plenty of time to get things accomplished with my invasives project and I’m running ahead of schedule. In a couple weeks I will be attending a Natural Areas annual meeting in Tallahassee, FL and presenting a poster for my project on Great Lakes National Parks. One of the major themes at the conference is mitigating invasives in natural areas, so I’m looking forward to learning about this for various ecosystems. It should also be a great opportunity to meet other individuals working in conservation and ecology disciplines to learn a bit about possible career paths.

I’m looking ahead to enjoying the last couple months here. Four months in and I have certainly learned a lot about the behind the scenes work for natural resource offices. It is nice to see much of my work that started out so broad over the summer be funneled into a final, visual end with definite value to the five parks involved.

Andy Maguire
NPS, Fort Collins, CO

After savoring my last couple field days in Rocky Mountain NP, it has been back to the office to continue work on the Great Lakes Invasives project. I am now essentially complete with all the data input, which has thus far taken me through just over half of my internship. While much of this has been tedious, it is certainly nice to look through all the spreadsheets, species profiles, and data interfaces and confidently explain the system and how it will work to my supervisors. I can certainly appreciate the importance of this work for the future management of the parks and it has allowed me to consider natural resource and ecological management far more in depth than I have previously. I can also tell you that I will miss my days trotting through the beauty of the Rockies and calling it “work”. One day…

So I am now to continue the presentation side of my project through website design and publicizing. I’ve attach some of my favorite pictures from my time in Rocky.

While the majority of my work days in my internship with the NPS-Fort Collins entails computer research, I have had the great opportunity to link up with the Rocky Mountain Network. This branch functions as a research-based division that monitors three parks in Montana and three in Colorado. I have spent five days in the field thus far, and each has lent me a new experience. The first four of these were spent monitoring pika along the slopes of Rocky Mountain NP. Essentially I spent the day tracking down predetermined locations with a gps unit and examining the habitat to decide whether it was suitable for the highly monitored pika. An additional associated project was to search for prime samples of pika scat for a conservation genetics project. Much of this terrain was very steep a high forecast for rock slides. The sites were spread to various reaches of the park and allowed me to drive and hike through some incredible territory in the northern Colorado Rockies. Along with a handful of pika sightings I had my first encounters with marmots, elk, and innumerable alpine wildflowers.

This past week I had a chance to freshen up on aquatic sampling techniques. I accompanied several crew members from the RMN to the headwaters of the mighty Colorado River, not but a mere stream where we were sampling. We spent a long day on the west side of the park sampling everything from bank dimensions, vegetative composition, macroinvertebrates, in stream minerals, and chemical properties of the lotic habitat. This was probably my best day in the field yet. I’m looking forward to doing alpine wetland sampling next week with the last of my field days.

My Great Lakes invasives project is coming along faster than expected. I’ve established much of my database and am now most of the way through profiling all the established species. From here I’ll move on to designing the website, creating a webinar, and enhancing the database in any way possible. Still four months to go for me here, so there remains ample time to explore the Rockies and hopefully more of the surrounding west.

After a very short stint at the NPS office in Fort Collins, three days to be exact, I headed out to Chicago for the intern training week. This was a good opportunity to see what else other interns are working on, where they’re located and the diversity of backgrounds we have. It was a great chance to talk with similar minded folks and see where they’re thoughts lie on the internship as well as where they’ve been and where they’re headed.

I returned to Colorado to start digging into my project full-time. I am putting together a database on invasive species for the both Park-personnel and ultimately public access. The odd part is that the parks I am researching are on the Great Lakes. I work under the Ocean and Coastal Resources Branch in the Fort Collins NPS Natural Resources office, so while it’s out of place for lake research, my supervising team fits the task. I had a chance to get a brief look at Lake Michigan while at the CBG conference, but that will be my only contact with the locale of my work.

The goal of the project is straightforward: gather information to form a database on invasives in order to raise the level of awareness of invasives in the National Parks. This will hopefully elevate the status of concern and action for the parks workers. I have been collecting data from multiple sources, including National Parks species surveys, USGS data (in GIS and spreadsheet form) and various articles. We are restricting the list to only aquatic and wetland species (with a couple exceptions), so there is extensive filtering of the data to be done. I am mostly through the initial list of established invaders of the Parks proper, and am expanding to potential invaders from within the lakes system.

Outside of work,  my placement in northern Colorado has been a blessing. While my field work is restricted to a few days of pika monitoring in Rocky Mtn. National Park next month, I have ample time to explore the wilderness outside of office time. My house is 5 miles from the base of the front range, I’m an hour from Rocky Mtn. NP, and the town itself is great.

While most of my fellow interns are spread to remote locations throughout the west, I’m in the minority of living in a decent sized city. Though not urban by any stretch, there are plenty of people here and downtown offers lots of entertainment. Mostly I’ve filled my time with running, hiking, biking around town, and driving through the mountain roads to the west. My supervisor is encouraging me to check out some of the National parks south and west of here, so I’ll certainly be doing that some weekends.

I’m off backpacking tomorrow to seek out the remaining snow capped peaks in the Indian Peaks Wilderness area, west of Boulder. Colorado has a lot to offer and I’m hoping to expand my range and scope out some new spots now that I’m settled in the west.