How strange (and wonderful!) it is after almost 8 months of muted earth tones to see a little color on the sagebrush steppe. For the past week or so I have been mapping out populations of key sagegrouse forbs for seed collections later this season, and today was a particularly heartwarming experience. Bunchgrasses and sagebrush have been greening up for the past month or so, but I almost forgot how many beautiful flowers can fit in between them, and how much that burst of color in the springtime can brighten a week.

The low sage (Artemisia arbuscula) site I visited earlier today was a jackpot, with almost 10 key sagegrouse forb species (important food source forbs for sagegrouse and sagegrouse chicks during the spring), almost all of them beginning to bloom.

Two more interns will be starting here in Lakeview within the next couple weeks, and it’s perfect timing. The flowers will become more and more prevalent (especially if we get any more much-needed precip), and hopefully their seed set will be just as productive. I’m looking forward to spending the first colorful months of the botany field season with two more plant ecology enthusiasts!

From high desert paradise,

Lisa at the Lakeview, OR BLM

Here in the Lakeview District BLM in eastern Oregon the growing season is slowly, hesitantly starting. Late spring freezes (and snowstorms!) are common here so the plants usually wait until late May or June to really go all out. So far our few forays into the field have been focused on wildfire rehabilitation areas where we’ve found some optimistic bunchgrass regrowth along with low frequencies of annual invasive grasses (woohoo!), helping me brush up with my vegetative grass ID skills. Winter bunchgrasses ID is like a fun but frustrating puzzle when all you have as references are roots, teeny tiny leaves, and no flowering parts to be seen, but I love it.

I have also been working a lot with the BLM’s GeoBOB ArcGIS-based database system, entering data and helping on collaborative Sensitive Species proposals and plans with other Resource Areas and some of the adjacent National Forests. I am really enjoying getting to know some of the inner workings of the federal system, and understanding all of the work and collaboration it takes in order to acquire funding for special and important projects.

I’m looking forward to the start of the field season in full force, with scheduled projects including Sage Grouse habitat assessments, wildfire rehabilitation monitoring, Sage Grouse-specific seed collection, sensitive species surveys, rangelands health monitoring, and others.

From high desert paradise,

Lisa

Bunchgrass regrowth and seeded species at a 2011 wildfire site just south of major lava flow formations