Wind Farms along the PCT Trail

Having spent a full year working for the Seeds of Success (SOS) program in southern California, there are so many things I could write about in my final blog posting. However, I feel that the following four paragraphs, and their four corresponding points, are what I most want to pass on to successive CLM interns, along with best wishes for their internships and the future.

This internship year has been one of personal growth and many new experiences. Moving to California (from Connecticut) for a new job was a big step for me. The first few months were rough. Beyond my personal adjustments, I was part of the first SOS team to be stationed at RSABG (Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden) and we were learning the ropes as we worked. It was stressful but, with practice and creativity, we created a smooth

Preparing for a Field Stop

seed-collecting process and, looking back on how we adapted and grew as a team, I feel proud of our work and what we were able to accomplish. With the arrival of a new set of SOS interns, I believe that the groundwork we established will promote a more coherent field season including more area covered and a greater number of species collected. Plus, our strengthened connection to the RSABG and its ever helpful and knowledgeable staff will continue to be a greatly appreciated and utilized tool for future improvement.

At a personal level, RSABG facilities and staff helped me gain valuable seed processing and herbarium skills to accompany what I was learning through SOS. Using seed material, I cleaned and prepped seed for storage and learned about some of the basics of germination trials. Using voucher material, I learned to create labels, mount and then file plant vouchers within our herbarium system. Experiencing what happens to plant material after it is brought in from the field created a positive feedback loop between my field work and my office work. What I did and learned in one area would impact and improve what I did in the other, allowing me to make better decisions in both areas and produce higher quality work.

However, the fact that I gained these skills and more informed viewpoint was serendipitous. In southern California, fieldwork begins in late March/ early April and can continue until early January. With a full, field-focused work schedule, I didn’t begin to

Barrel Cactus

look for other skill-acquisition opportunities until January. That was when I really gained a grasp on herbarium and seed storage work and it was at a point when my internship should have already been over for some months. Thinking back on this, I sincerely recommend that each CLM intern spend some time at the start of their internship really thinking about they want to gain out of their five months and then see how their unique job situation can support these goals. The flexibility of this internship is a perfect opportunity to expand your knowledge and skill set but you have to seek out the opportunities and make the time to take advantage of them.

Finally, as a parting note, I really want to thank Krissa Skogen and Marian Hofherr for all their hard work. They were a continuous source of help and support. Try to get to know them if you can; they are really wonderful women.

Working in the Mojave Desert has been an eye-opener. When I was much younger, my family took a road trip in the southwest and I remember how amazingly huge the horizon was but how empty the desert seemed. Based on old western movies, I was convinced that nothing grew in the sandy soil except for tumble weeds, cacti, and those scraggly, branchy shrubs that seemed to be the only landscaping attempt in those hardened western towns. I have since learned that those scraggly, branchy bushes are Larrea tridentata and they are, though dominant, but one of many, many species of plants that do quite well in the dry, sandy soils of the Mojave Desert.

The start of my SOS internship at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in California was more of an indoor experience than my current, typical workweek. I learned how to database herbarium specimens using File Maker Pro 9 and refreshed my knowledge of mounting a specimen for herbarium cataloguing. As one of the first SOS teams to get started, Mary Byrne came in to give us our training and our target plant collection list though we are still, hopefully, going to go to the Grand Canyon for training as well. As the summer has progressed, our SOS team has been spending our workweeks completely in the field, identifying seed collection sites and even doing some seed collecting from some early ripening populations.

With the actual collecting part of my job, there has been a sharp learning curve. Temperature and weather play a huge role in seed dispersal and so there is a constant balancing act of getting to the seeds before they are gone but not so early that they aren’t ripe and won’t be viable to store. We are fortunate that the Garden where we are based does seed storage of its own and Michael Wall, who is the seed program manager, has taken time to talk with us. He has provided us with information about which plants can be collected a little early and which plants will hold on to their seeds, allowing us to make more productive site revisits.

Participating in this internship has been a great opportunity to expand my knowledge and meet intelligent and interesting people who do work in the fields of botany, entomology, and ornithology (to name a few). It has been an exciting two months so far and I believe it will just continue to get better!