Hello everyone!!! Welcome!! We are going on a special adventure today! We have a change of plans, so we will not have any sagebrush journeys along the Columbia River. Recently, we are in a red flag warning and there are around thirty active fires in our area!! Do you see all the smoke filling into Wenatchee, Washington? That is from the Wolverine and Reach Fires.

Smoke near Wenatchee, WA!! This is what I picture Venus’ atmosphere looking like.

The Columbia River Tour has been cancelled today due to smokey conditions…

So, we are traveling along the Cascade Range and visiting most of the volcanic legacies the great state of Washington has to offer instead! We are on a budget, so we are mainly visiting Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Baker! Each one of those mountains are volcanoes, so we will see an amazing assortment of geology, biology, and meteorology!! Remember to bring your coat and rain jacket! Unlike the intense 100°F +, dry weather of Central Washington, we will be encountering a lot of precipitation and lower temperatures. Let’s go!!!!!!

Mt. Adams

O_O As we approach Mt.St. Helens, you may have noticed another snow covered peak nearby. This large mountain is Mt. Adams!! The second largest mountain in the lower forty eight states. On our trips down to southern Washington during work, we always see this mountain looming over the surrounding landscape. Don’t be fooled! This is not Mt. Hood! That volcano is located further south. You may see this mountain clearly when looking from the top of Mt St Helens and Mt. Rainier! The glaciers and its distinct shape attract a large amount of recreationalists! There are plenty of opportunities to go hiking, fishing, and go camping around there. We will have to say good bye to this stratovolcano and move west to Mt. St. Helens!

Mt Adams from a distance.

Mt St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens….one of the most active volcanoes in the Cascade Range. On May 18^th, 1980, there was a violent eruption. Instead of bursting straight into the air like other volcanoes, the explosion left the side of the volcano. The lahars and pyroclastic flow caused a massive amount of damage, which carved out the landscape. You can still see evidence of the violent eruption in the surrounding area. Now foresters are replanting trees and nature is slowly coming back. Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) and various grasses are taking advantage over the open space and are now growing throughout the area! Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius), which is considered an introduced and invasive plant, can be seen in the valley below where the elk herds roam.

Mt. St. Helens!!!

Scotch Broom and other plants within one of the valleys near Mt. St. Helens. The scotch broom is the yellow flowered plant!!

They have seismographs all around Mt. St. Helens. If the volcano were to show signs of erupting, many scientists would know based on the data collected by these instruments.

The most recent eruption, I heard, was in 2008. Some people were very worried that Mt. St. Helens would erupt again, because the new lava dome started to grow larger….Sorry to worry you! Let us talk about something else!!

The precipitation from the west side of the Cascades envelopes the volcano leaving a nice amount of snow, which usually disappears by the Summer time. When you take a hike around the base of the volcano, you may find ash and pumice from the eruption. Some people use the ash to make green colored glass. People sell it as Helenite. Don’t be fooled! If the seller calls it beryl or topaz, they are totes wrong! D:

People love to grow rhododendron around the Mt. St. Helens area.

There are many opportunities to go bird watching around in the area! Woodpeckers, western tanagers (Piranga ludoviciana), and American dippers (Cinclus mexicanus) make their home in the forested and river regions. Another fun activity you can do is rock hounding. The rivers that flow from the volcano, such as the Salmon River, contain carnelian agate and other interesting agates. You may have to walk up the creek to the rock bars, but it is worth the experience. Do you see that large mountain to the northeast?? That is Mt. Rainier. We will be traveling there next!

Carnelian agate!!

Mt. Rainier

One of the most famous volcanoes in Washington state is Mt. Rainier. This very picturesque mountain could be seen from Seattle! There are plenty of glaciers that cover the volcano, which gives it a very distinct look. There are plenty of trails, wildflowers, and lakes that you could easily spend a week here exploring! Another interesting fact is that this place is a National Park!!! Make sure to bring your National Park stamp book!!

Mt Rainier!!!

In the southeast corner of the park is a place called the Trail of the Patriarchs! This area is a primary forest! Many large trees could be viewed along the trail. It might remind you of a smaller version of the Redwood Forest!

Mid-story canopy of the forest!

A massive tree that fell over!!

During the months of June to July, you can see a huge variety of wildflowers. With the wet meadows present from the snow melt, this area contains a massive amount of flora diversity. On Snow Trail, you could see Bear grass (Xerophyllum tenax), false hellebore (Veratrum viride), and various gentians (Gentianaceae) growing along the streams. The talus slopes on this trail still retain the snow from the winter time. The lake found at the end of the trail is very cold, but it is a good fishing spot for trout. You may even see various grouse species along the way!! Before we move to the northern side of the mountain, you may want to take a stop at Reflection Lake! This lake provides stunning views of the mountain. The reflection of Mt. Rainier from the lake creates great pictures!!

Reflection Lake and Mt. Rainier!

Indian paintbrush (Castilleja) are also a wildflower that grows abundantly by Mt. Rainier!

Sunrise is an area located to the northeast section of the National Park. There are many trails located around here that will bring you right up to the mountain! Mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) could be seen foraging along the talus slopes on the local vegetation. Pumice and other volcanic rocks could be found along these trails. They are considered leaverites, which means you have to leave them right where you found them :p There are many dwarf versions of the wildflowers and trees surrounding the sub alpine tundra. When you approach the end of the Burroughs next to Mt. Rainier, you would get fantastic views of the mountains. There are plenty of flies and insects flying around, which makes this a great place to go bird watching. Birds love slow, flying insects!! There is a lot of rock stacking in certain areas, but it is frowned down upon by certain conservationists.

Mountain goats relaxing in the open meadow!

There is a lot more to explore in this region, but we have to move onto our next destination, Mt. Baker!

Glacier Peak
We are off to Mt. Baker!! I am very exciting to go to this large mountain and……oh? What are you looking at? Right on! That is Glacier Peak!! I heard from some of my friends that this is one of the most active volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Within the last million years, this mountain produced many violent eruptions when the continental glacier receded from this area. You can look at the topography of the landscape and see evidence of lahars and pyroclastic flows. The geologic topography such as the lava domes and cinder cones really add character to this mountain. I heard the hot springs were active in the region and there are some pretty cool hikes and bird watching opportunities. Let us move on!!

Glacier Peak from a distance!!

Mt. Baker

To the east of Bellingham and near the Canada border, I present to you Mt. Baker….hmmm… It is extraordinarily misty right now. Usually this type weather is very common in this area. They would get misty rains and fog rolling in most of the time. We would see Mt. Baker, but the clouds are covering the volcano up. There is still plenty of things to see though! Let us hike around until the fog lifts…

Hopefully, the sun will come out soon!!! This area has phenomenal hiking and ski trails. There are plenty of rare flora here as well!!

One of the notable trails for views is Table Mountain. From what I have heard, this rock structure formed when lava was being expelled and settled in between two glaciers. When the glaciers receded, there was this butte with very steep sides left behind. There is plenty of flora and fauna that could be seen. Pikas (Ochotona spp.), marmots (Marmota spp.), and American Pipits (Anthus rubescens) can be seen in this area. The large mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), silver fir (Abies amabilis) and different kind of Ericaceae plants provide food and shelter for many animals. This place usually has fantastic views of Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan, but with this fog, we get to see cool, shrouded landscapes.

Wow!! Look at this cool geologic feature!!

It’s a steep, slippery hike up Table Mountain!!

Hey!!! The sun is coming out!! There is Mt. Shuksan!! Now that the clouds have parted, we get to see a better view of the area! There are plenty of alpine meadows that various butterfly and honeybee pollinators use. This region also has a variety of different birds you can see such as western tanager, evening grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus), white tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura), various crossbills species (Loxia), gray capped rosy finch (Leucosticte tephrocotis), and gray jays (Perisoreus canadensis) to name a few. Many lichen, mosses, ferns and bryophytes have been found and studied for a variety of purposes. This “Island in the Sky” is home to a huge diversity of plants and animals and everyone who is interested in botany or wildlife biology should take a visit to this region and explore it.

A gray jay planning hijinx, shenanigans, and tomfoolery.

Mt Shuksan decided to show itself!!!

Mt. Baker!! Where are you? D: Stop hiding behind that cloud!

I hope everyone enjoyed the Volcanic Legacy Tour!!! Next time, we will be heading back to Wenatchee, Washington for more adventures! Have a great day!!

And now…..Your Moment of Zen….

Wow!!! Hello everyone! The last month had been crazy with all sorts of activities that kept the CLM interns in Wenatchee, Washington busy! Fire season started out with a bang in the beginning of July. After the Wenatchee fires, fires were developing all over the state! The very warm weather, the high winds, and the low humidity created the perfect red flag conditions. Fortunately for the other interns and myself, we were able to proceed with our jobs and continue working out in the field. Our main goal for Jenny and I for this month was to do NISIMS. We would travel to areas that were impacted with fires in the past and record data points and polygons of various invasive plant populations that were present. This information would be used in ESR reports to help with future restoration efforts in terms of treatments and bio-control.

Wenatchee BLM Legends discussing fire severity and intensity in the area.

Most of the areas we have monitored or spent our time looking for golden eagles in the past have burned. For those who read my previous blogs, you may know Douglas Creek and Sulfur Canyon. These areas had wildfires recently. Thankfully, it occurred during the time when the juvenile golden eagles fledged their nests. The helicopters and smoke would not be good for young eaglets. O:

BLM Legend, Erik Ellis, investigating a section of the Douglas Creek Fire.

Smoke from various fires have filled the valleys during the month. The Wolverine Fire up near Chelan had been a real pain to deal with. The smoke from the fire had steadily moved throughout Wenatchee, Brewster, and Entiat area. We would have to wear a mouth guard to help us do our jobs! Despite all the smoke, Jenny and I have been to different post fire sites such as R-Road, Foster Creek, Burbank Creek, Mills Canyon, Sulfur Canyon, the Wenatchee Complex Fire, and the Carlton Complex Fire. Each of these areas have been fascinating and native plants have been making a comeback…somewhat…^_^;; There were some weeds that were taking the opportunity to settle in the exposed landscapes such as various bromes (Bromus), Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica), common mullein (Verbascum thapsus), and various tumble weeds such as tall tumble mustard (Sisymbrium altissimum) and Russian thistle (Salsola kali/tragus). Walking amongst the burned areas have been very interesting to see, even with some invasive plants!

Wolverine Fire and smoke.

We went to a recent fire area in the Douglas Creek area. (No worries, Krissa and Rebecca! There were no active fires in the region and we were with trained professionals from the BLM to look at burn severity and intensity.) Some areas were charred black with areas of white-gray spots where the shrubs used to be! The valleys and the steep, wooded terrain developed really severe fire conditions. The basin wild rye (Leymus cinereus) looked like they were recovering!! Some areas that we have visited had pink and red fire retardant all over the landscape!! It felt like we were on Mars, it was so red!! The BLM along with other Government agencies in the central Washington area have been dealing with severe fires lately and they have developed plans to help with the restoration of the landscape. Determining on the severity and intensity of the burn, the landscape could become fully functional again within 5-10 years with treatments and seeding based on various federal agency reports!!

Fire retardant on the landscape.

Some of the days have been over 100°F with little shade. I would put on the proper sun block and wardrobe to help prevent sun burn.

Chasing the Whirling Dervishes

Some of the coolest things I have seen on this internship were the massive dust devils that twirled around the landscape between Waterville and Sulfur Canyon. (I jokingly call them whirling dervishes because they whirl very fast and there would be many of them in the landscape.) The dust devils were massive and were way bigger than the smallest of tornadoes I have seen on my travels. Some of these dust devils could be seen from miles away, reaching half way to the cloud layer above!

A dust devil moving across the landscape; picking up top soil.

These dust devils were normally brown, but if they were shaded by clouds, they could look like a fire. O_o Normally, dust devils would spin for about 15-20 minutes. Their peak activity was around 3:00 to 4:00pm. Jenny and I would drive through some very large dust devils. They may look massive and very threatening, but they were lightweights. They would only shake our truck before moving onto the next barren field. Most of the farmers were worried about their crops burning from the fires, so they harvested most of the crops leaving behind barren soil fields. The dust devils would then pick up the top soil and carry it elsewhere. Some of the dust devils traveled at speeds over 70 mph. Few of the large ones had multiple vortices!!

A few times out in the field we have encountered smaller dust devils. They loved to go after our hats or throw tall tumble mustards at us. We just braced ourselves and continued monitoring. (On a side note, never chase one, they are too fast if you are chasing them on foot.)

(Here is a video of one of the larger dust devils I saw near Bridgeport, Washington.)

The Journey Through Ancient Lakes

One day I went with Reed to an area called Ancient Lakes located near Quincy, Washington. This place was very interesting! They had a lot of unusual plants growing in the sagebrush steppe! We saw a variety of Asters, Astragalus, and blazing star (Mentzelia laevicaulis??). When we got to the basaltic outcrops, we saw a very nice view of the Columbia River!! Near the cliffs, we saw a lot of hedgehog cactus (Pediocactus nigrispinus). These cacti were amazing to look at!! They were bunched up and held very colorful needles. I took many pictures of these species of cacti… ^_^;;;

Hedgehog cactus (Pediocactus nigrispinus)

Hedgehog cactus

There was a carved out cave formation that Reed and I checked out for a bit before moving on to seed collection.

One of our main goals for seed collection was to collect from the blazing star. These plants were found in rocky areas like quarries or on the edge of lithosols. They were easy to gather seed from, but you had to watch out. Their foliage is extraordinarily sticky and some of the seeds were infested with larvae. You had to be careful when selecting the seed from each plant.

Blazing star (Mentzelia) . Beware of it’s sticky stems, leaves, and flowers!!

On our way back to the car, we saw a few buffalo/ American bison (Bison bison) in the field next to us. One was on a hill of apples. It was like the bison was on top of its treasure and no one was able to approach it. It was funny to observe. There was even a mischievous coyote trying to take a few apples for herself from the treasure hill. Overall, the day was successful and we were able to collect a decent amount of blazing star seed for the next S.O.S. collection.

“No one touches my treasure of delicious apples!”

NISIMS in the Mist

Recently, Jenny and I visited the Carlton Complex Fire area. This was the area where one of the largest recent fires in Washington history occurred. NISIMS was a priority in this area. When we were in Brewster and Pateros, the Wolverine Fire was very active!! The smoke was so thick, it created a dense fog in the Columbia River Basin. Jenny and I used masks to help us deal with the smoke. The masks were not really effective, but they did help negate some of the smoke from entering our lungs. Most of the area looked like southeast China and had an eerie vibe to it. When we were doing NISIMS, we recorded all of the brome, tumbleweed, and Dalmatian toadflax populations. Along by Brewster, there was a large amount of Dalmatian toadflax. This might be a good area for future bio-control introductions. (They would release a weevil insect that would eat and reduce the toadflax population significantly.) When moving between sites, the day looked overcast with the smoke and some clouds. It permanently looked like it was 6:00pm the whole day!! Jenny and I recorded various populations and headed back to the Wenatchee BLM.

Jenny and I had to put on face masks to help prevent the inhalation of smoke from the Wolverine Fire. They did not really work, but they were better than nothing.

The Columbia River Basin was filled with smoke. It looked like it was 6:00pm all day!

I have no clue what is going on with this common mullein……

Here is a random, but cool, picture of a Jerusalem cricket.

Moment of Zen

Sneak Peak for the next blog post 😉 Volcanic Legacy!!!!!

Wenatchee on Fire!? The Great Escape!

I was driving back to town on a Sunday afternoon. The temperature was over 100 °F and there was a constant, dry wind that was blowing across town. I noticed that there was a small fire that broke out northwest of town. It looked pretty small, so I did not take any interest in it. After relaxing and sleeping in the afternoon, I noticed that the sky looked darker than it should, but I assumed it was just clouds moving through the area. Around dusk, I heard a massive helicopter fly over the apartments I was staying in. I looked out from the balcony and noticed it was one of those water helicopters they used to put out the fires. I rushed to the other side of the apartment complex and noticed the massive black cloud moving over Wenatchee. The fire in the last few hours became massive and it was heading directly towards Wenatchee!!! D:

A water helicopter flying through the air as ash is falling from the sky.

The air was very smoky and it was raining down ash and debris from the hillside that was on fire. I decided to drive down the highway to get a better vantage point, while maintaining my distance…safety first!!! There was a pull off by the bridge and you could see the hill side burning!!! It reminded me of lava traveling slowly along the landscape. The Sleepy Hollow housing development nearby was starting to catch on fire as well! Some houses were burning and you could see police officers frantically closing off roads and ordering evacuations. When I looked back to Wenatchee, I noticed another orange glow…near the apartments I was living. I quickly got into my car drove back to my apartment.

Hillside fire slowly creeping along.

On my way, another massive fire broke out in the industrial district of Wenatchee! The fire was big and was spreading easily to the surrounding buildings due to the high winds. The fire was very intense as I drove past it. I decided to pack up all of my things in my apartment in case things got bad. The wind was blowing and the apartments were downwind from the fire. Smoke was everywhere and the skies were orange from the lights and fire. Tree borer beetles were now raining down with the ash. I made sure to pack everything useful to me. The industrial fire was eight blocks away and I could see all the firefighters and police officers down the street. The police were making their way towards the apartments. They were beginning evacuations.

Industrial fire spreading to other buildings.

I waited outside the apartments with my neighbors and their families watching the orange glow grow from the industrial fire. We were told to wait, because the roads in the area were crazy and the authorities did not want more chaos of people evacuating all at the same time near the fire. The hillside to the west of us was on fire and it was steadily moving in a southwest direction. We were hearing explosions from the propane tanks in the industrial area as the fire was claiming different buildings. They closed off the street right next to our apartments and I could see the police going into the parking lots to see if anyone was in any of the buildings. The BLM was located right next door and it was closed off. Only the BLM fire crew could be seen leaving and entering the building. A Bluebird company truck came by us and told some people that the ammonia tanks might catch on fire and that people should be prepared to evacuate. Instead of waiting around, I left for the Red Cross shelter in East Wenatchee, which was across the river. On my way, I parked by a Hobby Lobby that overlooked Wentachee Valley and saw three fires that were going on. The hillside fire was advancing southwards. I could see the firetrucks and crew members late at night trying to segregate and put out the line fire. The hillside fire looked like it was a fire snake slowly moving across the landscape. The Sleepy Hollow housing development was still on fire and the industrial fire was still blazing. I watched this until 2:00am before I went to the shelter.

Hillside fire growing towards the edge of Wenatchee.

I stayed at the shelter for a bit, but I could not sleep. In the early morning, I made sure to contact Krissa and Rebecca to tell them of the unfolding situation. The night before my bosses texted me and made sure that I was safe by providing useful phone numbers, evacuation routes, and areas to stay over the night. I also made sure to tell my family and friends that I was safe. Krissa and Rebecca did an amazing job and always kept in touch to see if all the interns were safe. Jenny and Reed lived further away from Wenatchee, so the fires were not that much of a threat to them.

Industrial fire that was down the street from my apartment.

I found out that five minutes after I left the apartments at night, they did an evacuation of our area. In the morning, they sent emails saying that it was safe to come back to the apartments. The hillside and Sleepy Hollow fires looked contained, but the industrial fire was still smoking. After I unpacked a lot of my things in the apartment, I took a shower and tried to sleep. Other people were returning to the apartments doing the same thing. The streets by the BLM were still closed and I assumed that there was no work today. After thirty minutes passed by, I heard a loud knock on the door and a woman on the other side was yelling about doing another evacuation. I answered the door to see a police officer and a woman telling me of an ammonia leak heading our way. I smelled the scent of chemicals in the air. I rushed and grabbed the main essentials and immediately left in my car. I found out a couple minutes later that the people who were left had to stay in their apartments, because the ammonia was so dense. They had to barricade themselves into the homes and block any openings. I went to the Red Cross for a bit before I headed over to Jenny’s place to collect my thoughts.

Still hazy! It rained for a few minutes and the roads became very dirty with ash.

By the late afternoon, the ammonia left and it was safe to return to the apartments again. I updated Krissa, Rebecca, my bosses, and family about the entire situation and how it improved. It was quite a day and it was very exhausting! Haha!! The industrial fire burned another two days before it was finally contained. We returned to work the next day and helped the Great Basin Institute crew with plant monitoring. After the week was over, I went to the west portion of Washington where it was cooler and had a lot of green vegetation. I visited family and went rock hounding for the Fourth of July break!! By the way, no one in Wenatchee wanted to buy fireworks after the fires. Those T.N.T. tents probably did not make a profit due to the firework ban.

The Industrial fire was still active a few days after the original fire.

Watermelon Hill, Here We Come!

After the blazing fires and some time to rest for the 4^th of July, Jenny and I were given a special mission. We had two objectives on our plate. Our first objective was to help with rare plant monitoring of Spalding’s catchfly (Silene spaldingii). The second and most important objective was to record all of the invasive plant populations throughout Watermelon Hill. The NISIMS work here would be very difficult. The area near Fishtrap Lake underwent a severe fire the previous year. Many ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) were burnt to the ground leaving holes throughout the landscape. Invasive plants moved in with such vigor, that the landscape was dominated with the most common and frightening weeds of the West. The Watermelon Hill Fire created a Lost World and Jenny and I did not know what to expect. This was part of NISIMS and ESR work that was brought to us by BLM Legend Erik Ellis. I looked over the area and the number of transects we had to do. Jenny and I had to cover a lot of land within a three day period of time. With the temperatures being in the triple digits with an unknown assortment of weed populations, I classed this a Class 4.5 CLM Mission. It was going to be a long week…

Reed, Jenny, and I had to drive from Wenatchee, WA out to the Border Field Office district to Watermelon Hill, which was located near Spokane, WA. The first day we were split up into groups to do some rare plant monitoring of the Silene species and to get a better grasp of the land. Jenny and I went with BLM Legend Kim Frymire into Watermelon Hill. Walking along the roadsides to our Silene destinations I saw many grasshoppers, some vigorous native grasses, and a massive amount of invasive plants in the burned areas. The native plants did not recover much and the weeds took hold. Tumble mustard (Sisymbrium altissimum), cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus), and North Africa grass (Ventenata dubia) dominated the biscuit hills in the area. Thistles (Cirsium spp.), rush skeleteonweed (Chondrilla juncea), St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum), and Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica) were scattered in the understories of the scarred ponderosa pine. Houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale), orchard grass (Dactylis  glomerata), and quackgrass (Elymus repens) filled into the ephemeral stream areas. The landscape looked foreign compared to what I have seen in all of my previous internships. This was a landscape that was already taken over. It was Jenny and I’s job to record the  invasive plant populations as best as we could and report our findings and GPS points to the proper authorities. We did find some Silene populations and learned how to monitor them, which was an interesting process that I will go into detail in the next section.

Burnt forest of Ponderosa pine!

What is left of a burnt tree. The roots did not make it. :O

After a nice rest in Spokane, Jenny and I prepared for the upcoming day. We carried a huge amount of water, put on the best sunblock, had our lunches and snacks, and had a fully charged GPS with updated maps of the Watermelon Hill area we were in! The day was long and hard. We had to walk across miles of burnt forests and hilly mustard prairies. The burnt forests had some recovering ponderosa pine that were able to tolerate the fire, but some pines and aspens (Populus tremuloides) were burnt to the ground. Even the root systems did not make it!! We had to watch our step in the ashy forested areas, so we didn’t stink into a burnt out root tunnel. Rush skeletonweed and the Dalmatian toadflax were the most common invasive plants we encountered. There would be huge patches along basaltic hillsides and in the understories of trees. The St. Johnswort always made an expected appearance. It was interesting to see the nature of each of the invasive plants. They each had their own personality. The skeleteonweed was very nervous and anti-social. The toadflax was extraordinarily social and plentiful in unexpected areas. The St. Johnswort was like a very friendly person that overstayed their welcome.

The bees did like the thistles!

One of the scarier sites to see were the tumbling mustard prairies. These landscapes had hills and were actually layered like a cake!! The ground around the biscuit hills were comprised of North Africa grass. The next layer up the hill were the brome species such as cheatgrass and Japanese brome. The candles on the cake were the tumbling mustards that were so dense you could not walk through them easily. One of my biggest fears was the North Africa grass. In my previous internships, they considered this grass worse than cheatgrass once it was established. I consider it the Deinonychus of the invasive plants!! Cheatgrass would probably be the Compsognathus of introduced grasses. One of the most frightening invasive grasses I did see was the medusahead grass (Taeniatherum caput-medusae)….D: This grass was like the Giganotosaurus of every invasive grass. Very mean, extraordinarily aggressive and took over everything and anything. Fortunately for Jenny and I, the medusahead remained in isolated populations.

North Africa grass, brome, and tumble mustard prairie >_>

Close up of one of the biscuits. So many annual plants!! D:

Conversation with Medusahead after spending eight hours in the field under the intense sun in high temperatures.

(Walks up to medusahead grass with GPS)
Justin: Sir, do you know why I stopped over here to talk to you?
Medusahead: (Rustles slightly in the wind)
Justin: Well, I heard complaints in the area from other native plants and even invasive plants that you were trying to aggressively take over the area and making the area more prone to fires.
Medusahead: (Stands perfectly still)
Justin: I could see that you have spread into one of the biscuits and not even cheatgrass wants to grow near you.
Medusahead: (Stands perfectly still)
Justin: Hmm….that was not really nice of you to displace your neighbors… (sigh) I guess I have to write you up…
Medusahead: (Shakes aggressively in the wind)
Justin: Let me see…your population is over 0.1-0.5 acres in length… you are scattered throughout the landscape… I estimate that there are over six medusahead grasses in a square meter….using ocular estimate of course…
Medusahead: (Shakes aggressively in the wind and some seeds cling onto my shoe)
Justin: Sir….SIR! Excuse me. There is no need for that. I am also writing you up for seed setting. (Pulls out a single medusahead plant) Let that be a lesson to all of you. No more trying to pretend like you are Squirrel tail grass, I know what you are…
Medusahead: (Shivers in the wind)
Justin: Hey. Not my problem, I am only doing my job. If you need clarification, speak to one of the Range Cons or weed people, I am sure they will tend to you. Have a nice day.

Squirreltail (Elymus elymoides) on the left and medusahead on the right.

Where art thou, Silene spaldingii!?

After a few days of recording invasive plants for NISIMS, Jenny and I finally completed transects for Watermelon Hill. Our next mission was to find Reed and Lorna and help them monitor Silene spaldingii!! This catchfly could be found on north aspects of a hill within or near various sagebrush. They were considered a threatened plant species and evaluation of their populations were needed at the time. Jenny and I did a lot of driving and hiking to the north of Ritzville. After forty-five minutes we met up with Reed and Lorna!! They set up a specific perimeter around the catchfly population and put orange flags next to each plant. We measured size, phenology, damage, and how many stems were on each plant. Site pictures were taken and notes were being written down. After a few sites, we were done!! After an exhausting week, we were finally done with NISIMS. Helping the S.O.S. botany CLM interns at the end of our work week was the icing on the cake!!

Silene spaldingii \(O_O\)

And now….

Your Moment of Zen…

Carnelian agate!!

Alternative Training: Boot Camp for Grasses!

Since I have already attended the CBG training two years ago, I was fortunate enough to go on an alternative training opportunity in the city of Seattle. The opportunity involved an intense three day course on grass identification. We were given a plethora of grasses to observe and identify throughout the three day period. The first day involved a few lectures on grass identification and the importance of grasses. We were given over fifty samples of grasses to look at. Glumes, awns, ligules, paleas, anthers, culms, and every part relating to grasses was observed! By the end of the day, I was exhausted due to the shear amount of key features per grass I identified. This session really helped me out! In the past, all my botany classes concentrated on forb, shrub, and tree identification and always skipped over grasses.

Grass identification is serious business!…Also, when identifying grasses, sun block is essential.

Everyone’s favorite brome, cheatgrass!!! Kidding! 😉

The second day brought us out in the field to Discovery Park! We identified all the invasive and native grasses in the area. There were many interesting grasses that even grew in Illinois (where I am from) that grew in the fields here! Some of the grasses that stood out were ripgut (Bromus diandrus), quackgrass (Elytrigia repens)…..the genus has changed considerably, and American dune grass (Leymus mollis). Ripgut was a brome species and basically looks like a cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) on steroids. Thank goodness I don’t see this in the field at work! Quackgrass was a particularly nasty invasive I have always encountered. If you grab the tip of the grass and pull the culm in the opposite direction, you could make all the seed heads move in a quacking fashion like a duck! ^_^ American dune grass was a massive grass found along the shorelines of the Sound and was planted to control the erosion of beaches. Overall, the day required a lot of walking and identification, but I loved it!!

The groundskeeper was curious on why so many people were on their knees picking grass…

The third day began with lectures and a chance to look at the herbarium they had at Washington State University. I had the privilege to look at many herbarium grasses that were collected along the Northwest corridor. Some of the collections were over 100 years old!! We met an artist that was working on the new taxonomic key for the Hitchcock guide book. There were other people that were working on the herbarium website. I use the Hitchcock guide book and the website all the time for plant identification and now I got to meet the people who actually worked on it all! I was so happy!! At the end of the class, I learned over 80 genera of grasses. The huge amount of species I have learned would help me in the future when I begin plant monitoring soon. Hopefully, I will see more grasses beyond the Stipa, Elymus, Leymus, Bromus, and Festuca species.

Looking at some herbarium specimens.

Eaglet Names!!

The eaglets have hatched and were very active in their nests recently. Some have started to explore the perimeters of their nest and beyond! O_O Recently, Jenny and I have been doing revisits and have observed many of the eaglets in action. I gave them names that suited them. I am sure you recognize Boo from my previous blog! Most of the active nests were up north towards the Canadian border. The central and southern nests did have some success as well!! Here are the names for the eaglets.

Site Name                       Eaglet

Bridgeport Bar East:        Bosmin

Douglas Creek:               Roseluck

Enloe Dam:                    Wyatt

Francis Canyon:             Eclipse

Grimes Lake:                 Boo

Hull Mt:                         Moonshine

Ice Caves:                     Dipper

Palisades North:            Lily

Pomona:                      Goldie

Saddle Mts:                 Star Buck

Sheep Creek:               Mable

Sinlahekin Loomis:       Fig Newton

Siwash Creek:             Truffle Shuffle

This is Truffle Shuffle doing his thing. It is really hard to take pictures of the eaglets. Haha!

Rock and Mineral Adventures

I have been busy on the rock hounding front around Wentachee, Washington. From petrified wood to opal to geode nodules, Washington state has it all! My favorite rock hounding spots were the Saddle Mountains, Douglas Creek, Red Top Mountain, and Crystal Mountain!

The Saddle Mountains were known for their petrified wood. Limbcasts and large logs of petrified wood were littering the ground on top of the mountains. This area had so much petrified wood, it was incredible. There were calcite and silica deposits as well near the petrified wood, so you could collect neat specimens!

Petrified wood and limb casts from the Saddle Mountains!! \(O_O\)

Douglas Creek has a lot of silica/ opal deposits at the top of the hills. The colors of the rocks vary from red, orange, pink, green, and white. The opal rocks look constantly wet and with cleaning they turned out to be top quality stones!

(/O_O)/ Douglas Creek silica rock and opal!

Red Top Mountain has Ellensburg Blue Agate. Those rocks could be easily dug up from the ground from the breccia deposits. The nodules and agates have a vivid blue color that could be used for jewelry. I went after a thunderstorm in search of the nodules. People left piles of dirt next to the holes and left everything. When I came after the storm, the nodules were exposed and washed by the rain. I could easily find the nodules in the piles. I spent a few hours early in the morning collecting samples.

Ellensburg Blue Agate and Nodules.

Crystal Mountain was an amazing place to search for blue nodules, agates, and other various large crystals. I hiked in and slid down the talus slopes to the geode piles. The talus slopes I was sliding on had many agates and blue striped nodules, so I quickly grabbed as much as possible while sliding down. At the bottom of the talus slopes, you could find huge geodes and nodules weighing 10 to 15 pounds! Geodes literally covered the ground in a few areas. Thanks to a fire in the previous year and the sheep eating grass in the area, everything was exposed! I hiked out of the area with 40 pounds of rocks! ^_^; The hardest part was carrying everything up the talus slopes. Haha!!

Blue nodule!!

The Bounty of Crystal Mountain!!!

The Great Transition: NISIMS

We were finishing up in Sulfur Canyon on NISIMS reports. Jenny and I have been going into the depths of Sulfur Canyon and recording wildlife observations, anthills, various bird species, and invasive plants. Cheatgrass, tall tumble mustard (Sisymbrium altissimum), Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica), whitetop (Lepidium draba), Russian knapweed (Acroptilon repens), diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa), and common woolly mullein (Verbascum thapsus) were the most prevalent weeds that were growing in the area. We hiked up various hillsides and narrow ravines to get to some of the most isolated sections of the allotment. By the end of each day, my shoes and pants would be covered with needle and thread (Hesperostipa comata) and cheat grass seeds. The area in my  shoes and pants that were exposed were pierced by seed, which was pretty painful, but I survived. <_<

Doing NISIMS data collection!!

In the future, we will be transitioning to many sites that had a fire within the last three to five years. These ESR sites would have basic transects that would help identify the plant population and the amount of invasive plants in that allotment. We will be traveling all over the state, including the other resource area to monitor the sites. In Burns, OR or Buffalo, WY, some of the sites would be two to three hours away. In Washington, some of the sites would be a lot further, because the Spokane District of BLM is basically the entire state. After the July 4^th weekend, we will be starting with Watermelon Hills to do NISIMS and to monitor a rare SIlene species!!

Moment of Zen

A “bumbled” bee collecting pollen.

Bonus Sheep Herd:

Sheep herd relaxing.

Welcome to Sulfur Canyon! An area carved out by time and grazed by cattle in various areas… So majestic!!! ^_^

Welcome to Central Washington! A land carved out by the mighty Missoula floods 13,000-15,000 years ago. The landscape of sagebrush and basalt may look a little hostile, but with a closer look you can see this area is rich in life and diversity! Our journey takes us to an area called Sulfur Canyon. This land was named after some of the hot springs located in the region. Small ravines are found all over the landscape. These areas provide shelter and ideal growing conditions for a variety of small trees, shrubs, and many forbs. Some of the sagebrush found in the ravine have access to deep soils. This allows the sagebrush to reach heights of over six feet tall! Many deer, small mammals, birds, and rattlesnakes love to live in these small linear oases. Just be careful where you step, there is always something that might surprise you in this area…

Point and case. When you are traveling through the talus slopes or rocky areas along the streams, you may see a lot of rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis). I will name this one Big Hungry Joe.

Let us move to the top of the Sulfur Canyon area. You probably expected a vast canyon with shear drop offs, fortunately for us we only have small ravines to cross. No large canyon to pass through this time! Most of the land that covers Sulfur Canyon is called Biscuit and Swale grassland steppe. Ha, I saw that look you gave me. Yes, biscuit and swale grassland steppe. This is an unusual type of habitat. Notice how there are islands of sagebrush surrounded by lithosol soils? The “vegetative islands” contain deeper soils that allow forbs, grasses, and shrubs to easily grow in. The surrounding lithosols have very shallow, rocky soil. These areas make suitable habitat for the Washington Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus washingtoni…Genus recently changed to Urocitellus) and Pygmy Rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis). These creatures can easily make homes in the deeper soils and form colonies that are protected by the brush vegetation above!

Some biscuit and swale range in this area. You can’t really see it, but there are lithosols and isolated pockets of tall sagebrush.

Lithosol soil with a variety of forbs and grasses! A biscuit can be seen 75 feet away.

We have been getting a large amount of rain lately, so the forbs are absolutely thriving! Let us look closely at the forbs growing in the lithosols. These types of soils are very hostile for many types of large plants to grow in, but many other plants adapted to dry, hot, rocky soils can thrive for a few weeks. As you can see, the common plants that are flowering now are Eriogonum thymoides, Lomatium macropcarpum, Lewisia rediviva, and Talinum spinescens.

Lewisia rediviva: Bitterroot!

This is amazing!!! I never seen that much bitterroot in my life! You are very lucky to see all of these plants blooming. This would make a fantastic SOS collection when they go to seed!! Extra bonus, you get to see a biscuit mound in the background!

Let us head northwards to the Grimes and Jameson Lake area. The sagebrush steppe in this area appears to be very healthy. There are some thick patches of Bromus tectorum, but overall this area contains good sage grouse territ….. (rattling intensifies)

WATCH OUT!!!! Wow! That was a close one! Another rattlesnake. O_O We will just watch our step as we make our way to the lakes…We should also call this rattlesnake, Jörmungandr.

Hey! We are next to a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) nest!! Let’s check it out! Recently, there has been a lot of golden eagle activity in the area. Both of the adult golden eagles are soaring around the area looking for food. The little white fuzzball you see is named Boo. This eaglet is about four to five weeks old and loves to walk around the nest like Godzilla. In the afternoon, one of the parents come by and shelters Boo from the harsh sun. Hopefully, this little one would grow into an adult and become successful at life.

The little fuzzball in the middle, Boo, is exploring the vast world of its nest.

By Grimes and Jameson Lake, you can see a variety of wetland wildlife. Mainly, waterfowl and yellow headed black birds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) are the most common birds to see. You may hear a Sora (Porzana carolina) or a Snipe (Gallinago delicata) if you are lucky!! One problem this wetland is facing is the amount of weeds that are found in the area. Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica), knapweed (Centaurea spp.), and various bromes are the pesky ones to control. This is a very beautiful area to look for forbs and to go fishing, but you might want to check your shoes for Bromus seeds. They love to travel! >_>;;

Yellow Headed Blackbirds found near a rural farm in the area.

Dalmatian toadflax all over the freakin’ place!! D:

One moment! Let me get the JUNO GPS system out. One of my jobs is to record locations of weeds throughout the Wenatchee Resource Area. This data collection is for the NISIMS (National Invasive Species Information Management System) project and will help with future restoration efforts. Dalmatian toadflax is not a really good plant to have around in abundance…..(rattling intensifies)

Another close call! That rattlesnake did not want us approaching its home! O_O…okay seriously let us head away from the talus slopes…

Sulfur Canyon and the surrounding region has many diverse plants and animals as you could see. The BLM in Wenatchee are making efforts to promote sage grouse restoration  and to reduce long term grazing. The area that we are in is going through a few range land health evaluations to help with the assessment of the overall area. In the future, we are hoping that rare animals like the pygmy rabbit, greater sage grouse and the Washington ground squirrel will thrive here and spread to parallel allotments to increase their populations.

BLM Legends reviewing range land health guidelines in order to help write various future reports.

I hope you enjoyed this short tour of Sulfur Canyon! See you next time!

And now….. Your Moment of Zen….

How People View BLM Land In Washington

Wenatchee SOS!!!

Recently, I had the fantastic opportunity to help Reed with SOS collections! I got to collect various plant seed from species that were on a special list. There were four species of plant seed that we were after. Hooker’s Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza hookeri), bigseed biscuitroot (Lomatium macrocarpum), nine leaf lomatium (Lomatium triternatum), and a lupine species! One of the main areas to collect seed was the Badger Mountain/ Duffy Creek Region! For many hours, we would scan the lithosols for ideal seed collection locations. The balsamroot was easy to collect from, but you had to be careful not to launch the seed when picking the seed head. The lomatiums were pretty tricky and would scatter everywhere when you try to grab them! That was why you gently grab the lomatium umbels and tap the seed into the collection bags. We had a full collection of Hooker’s balsamroot today!! We collected a good sample of the rest of the SOS plants in the area as well. Reed would return and finish the collecting after the CLM training. Hopefully, I will have more chances to help Reed out in the future!

A bag full of dried Hooker’s balsamroot flower heads. About 30-45 seeds per head.

Hey!! There are some seeds in this one! ^_^

I made a new friend when seed collecting! It did not want to leave my warm hand. Its name was Ms.Nibblesworth.

NISIMS: Attack on Invasives!

NISIMS is an acronym for National Invasive Species Information Management System. One of our jobs we had this summer was to go to many BLM sites and record weed dispersion. Some areas that were near wetlands, overgrazed fields, burned areas, or roadsides were prone to having a variety of weeds such as Brome (Bromus) grasses, thistle (Cirsium), knapweed (Centaurea), and Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica). We would record each weed patch location on a GPS and take detailed notes about each site. For example, “The Sulfur Canyon drainage area in the southeastern quadrant has BRTE, SIAL2, and CIAR4. Dense colonies were dispersed along riparian corridors. Most of the soil was compacted due to cows. Etc.etc…” The data would be transferred to a State database within our resource area. This would help in the future when range land monitors evaluate the land and assign various control methods for the weeds.  This has always been a dream of mine in an internship to work with weeds and ArcGIS. Now I have the opportunity to see how NISIMS is used!

How I feel when working with NISIMS and finding a large population of a specific noxious weed. Time to record all the points and polygons!!! \(>o<)/

The Wenachee BLM does a really good job with weed treatment. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) was present in many allotments, but there was no significant presence of other weeds taking over acres of land. Most of the weed populations were in dense, isolated colonies that could be easily treated. There was a field of Dalmatian toadflax that paralleled BLM land. Hopefully, this area would be treated in the future to prevent the spread of this colorful yet noxious weed. Woolly mullein (Verbascum thapsus) was a plant that loved to grow along roadsides. Whenever we encountered it on BLM land, we would take note of it through NISIMS. Thistles were another common weed found on disturbed areas near water. Right now, many of the thistle species were in their rosette form, so it was hard to tell some species apart. When they flower, I could easily identify the species and record them in the NISIMS database.

Golden Eagle Eaglets: Ready For Action!

Recently, many of the golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) had become very active in their territory. The eaglets were hatching and they were very hungry. Most of the eaglets look like a very fluffy bird-poodle! They love to explore the nest and walk like Godzilla from one side to the other. A favorite activity of the eaglets was to take afternoon rests in the shelter of their Mom or Dad’s feathers. This sheltering helps the eaglets stay cool from the intense afternoon sun. As they get older, the parents leave the nest for longer periods of time. Our BLM district has young eaglets ranging from two to six weeks old. Some of them would not make the journey due to predation from owls or they might accidentally fall out of the nest. The parents usually guard their nest and always keep a keen eye for any potential threats. They love to stare at us or bighorn sheep for a short period of time. One of the historical golden eagle nest sites we found was occupied by an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) couple!! The juvenile osprey was so giddy about its surroundings, it was hilarious. The juvenile osprey’s favorite thing to do was to sit on the side of the nest and watch the violet green swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) fly by. Since the swallows fly fast, the juvenile osprey was turning its head very fast, trying to view each small bird.

In a couple of weeks, the eaglets would mature and grow stronger feathers. They would start to look like adults. They begin practicing their flapping and calls to their parents. Hopefully, we get to see them do it in the future when we revisit the nesting sites. Most of the bald eagles in the area were preparing their chicks for the outside world. Eventually, many of the golden eagles will be doing the same thing.

You should never do an eagle survey like this when the adult golden eagles are around. It is safer to view them from a distance with a viewing scope.

This is a lot safer way to view golden eagles. Some sites it is really hard to view the nest because of the sun angle and heat. I had to improvise my posture in order to see a cliff nest. Do this for three to four hours a day and you will become a legend for being patient….man do I look awkward. Haha!

GeoBOB…Frustrations and Celebrations Unite!

Another GPS program we were working on beyond NISIMS was the dreadful GeoBOB. (One person in the crowd boos) Now, now, this program had brought a lot of frustration, but it was usually followed by celebration. There would always be some glitch or kink in the system, which complicated different checkouts and check ins of field collected data. When we actually got the program to function properly, we were rewarded with accurate GPS data that was recorded out in the field. The data would be processed and turned to Spokane for further data entry. A few months ago, we had training in Vale, Oregon on GeoBOB. All of the BLM Legends and CLM interns had to figure out how to work with this complex program. Two days of training allowed us to understand how to work with this software. Eventually with practice, this GPS software program helped us many times when recording golden eagle activity. In the future, we plan on using GeoBOB to record Washington Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus washingtoni) activity.

Time for Some CLM Q&A!!!!!

Lori from Island Lake, IL asked: What is your favorite bird that you have seen in the field?

Hey Lori!! ^_^ My favorite bird to view in the field is the California Quail (Callipepla californica)! They are extraordinarily cute in the way they move and their voices are pretty cool. I like how they travel in big groups along the side of the road or near our work in Wenatchee. When the quail chicks hatch they look like brown fuzzballs with legs. They are very funny to watch on a windy day.

This is a male California Quail relaxing on a post.

Emily from Stevens Point, WI asked, “What was the most fun thing you did on your internship so far?”

One of my favorite activities was to help out with the pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) surveys. I learned a lot about these rabbits and the ecosystem they live in. They were very docile and liked to stare at us as we walked through their walled-in village. I also loved to survey golden eagle nests. Viewing the adults feed, build a nest, or soar around their territory was always considered a treat! Oh, I also love taking pictures of wildlife and forbs.

Largehead Clover (Trifolium macrocephalum) was one of my favorite flowers to take pictures of!

Wow!! The month of May was very busy and on top of that I had a broken computer. Now everything is back on track and I am ready. There will be a large eastern migration soon of CLM interns going to the CLM training in Chicago, IL! I hope everyone has a great time learning, making new friends, developing new connections and having awesome lunches.  Have fun!! ^_^

Moment of Zen….

Under the Celestial Skies! The Farrago of Sage Grouse and Static Noise!

A large group of biologists were to meet outside of Mansfield, Washington to take part in a special event on a Thursday night. The Department of Fish and Wildlife, with the BLM, were on a mission to capture, tag, and install a small monitor on many sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in the area. The goal was to work the entire evening and capture sage grouse from three different leks sites that were detected via aerial images. Capturing males in these leks sites and attaching these monitor backpacks would help give insight into their migration patterns within the area and provide intelligence on their activities.

Our boss asked Jenny and I if we were interested in helping out with this sage grouse project. We definitely said yes!!! Thursday night, we met with some wildlife biologists from the DFW and drove north to an area that was known for lek sites! We gathered by a solitary building in the middle of nowhere and were given the rundown of how we would accomplish the mission for tonight. We were separated into two groups and were given bags, boxes, nets, lights, and kitty litter. Our group was assigned to go to the Duffy Creek/ Badger Mountain area to look for male sage grouse.

We are getting ready to look for sage grouse!!

This was the best night to do this!! There was no wind, the temperature was perfect, and there were no clouds. The best part was the light show to the North. There were Aurora borealis (northern lights) to the magnetic north!! They formed in a green hue that eventually led to the development of green spikes shooting up through the atmosphere! There were many shooting stars that were streaking by, you could easily have made hundreds of wishes. The Milky Way Galaxy was so bright, it was hard to see the constellations due to the overabundance of stars in the area!! Pretty ideal conditions to look for the Greater Sage Grouse!

As we made our way out into the field, one of the wildlife biologist turned on a static white sound device. It made a couple booming laser sounds and continued with pure static noise to mask our steps. We moved in a group of five people. The spotter was the only person with the light that looked for the sage grouse. There were two netters on either side, who followed closely.  We (CLM interns) were the flank of the group that held the bags that carried the sage grouse once caught. We followed the aerial GPS imagery to the lek sites. When the wildlife biologist found a few sage grouse, she would strobe the light making the sage grouse confused. With the loud static noise with the flashing lights, the sage grouse would have no clue what would be going on, so they would just stand there. The netters and the spotter would get within ten feet of the sage grouse and try to capture it before it flies away.

The sage grouse have two kinds of poop. The black liquidy poop is called the cecal cast, which was formed through an extra digestive process to intake more nutrients. The white poop is called the roost scat, which usually formed in areas of roosting.

There were many failed attempts at capturing the sage grouse this evening. They were pretty spooked and probably had a clue of what was going on. I mean, if I was a sage grouse and a saw a massive flashing light from the sky and I heard a large “KKKAAAAAAAAAA” sound, I would fly immediately away from the UFO. I would not want to be abducted! We did catch a few sage grouse! We had to release one, because it did not reach expectations compared to other males the biologists wanted. (I named this sage grouse Snicker Jim.) One time the static sound turned off right when the biologists were about to capture a few. The hypnotic trance was broken and the sage grouse flew everywhere in a great panic. They flew right to the other side of the fence on private property.

Snicker Jim in all of his glory.

We took the sage grouse known as Ralph the Sage Grouse (Jenny named this one) to a meeting point with the other biologist for processing. Ralph was measured thoroughly and he got his own solar powered monitoring backpack to wear! Ralph was a little freaked out, but it looked like he was fine after a while. He did do some wheezing and puffing out of the chest. We released Ralph later to join his bird brethren at the lek site. This evening was truly amazing and it would be an experience I would never forget. Especially with all of the northern lights, meteorites, and sage grouse!!…..oh? You must be wondering why we brought kitty litter along with us? To transport the sage grouse, we would put them in a special box. They would relieve themselves a lot during the transportation process, so we would put kitty litter at the bottom of the box to negate the poop factor. 😉

Ralph being surveyed. No worries, he is actually starting to fall asleep.

The solar power monitoring backpack. The data from this device is sent to a satellite. The information is then sent to computers which create daily GIS points that could be seen on ArcMap and other GIS software programs.

Go Get the Buns!

After all the excitement with the sage grouse, we were given another opportunity to work with a rare animal species. Jenny and I were supposed to help the Department of Fish and Wildlife with Pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis) collections! These were one of the rare animals on the BLM’s list to monitor, so we decided to help the DFW to become more familiar with this species of mammal! These rabbits were extraordinarily cute! They were very small and could fit in the palms of your hands. They really do not bite and they have no visible tail unlike their rabbit relatives. They could be found in sagebrush areas that have undulating topography. They like to nest under various sagebrush within small hills. These creatures were endangered and many of the local scientists were developing breeding programs to boost the population.

Baby pygmy rabbit relaxing under a sagebrush.

When we got to the area, we saw a massive ten acre enclosure surrounded by high fencing. It reminded me of Jurassic Park a little, but instead of dinosaurs, there were little rabbits hopping everywhere. There were many small hills in the area with food, water, rabbit hotels, and artificial tubing that served as a home. High population density areas were covered with black netting to prevent anything from the sky to enter. Next to the enclosure was the rabbit breeding area, where they would introduce younger rabbits to go breed. We were supposed to catch baby pygmy rabbits and collect DNA samples from them.

Ideal pygmy rabbit burrow!

We had three different ways of capturing these little bunnies. One way was to check the black tubes laying on the ground for possible residents. If there was one or two rabbits in the tubing, we would empty the tube into a pillow bag for DNA sample processing. The second way was to take a pillow case and put it on one end of an artificial home tube and put a tennis ball with a plumber wire in the other end. The ball/ wire would seem like a weasel to the rabbits, so they would run out of the hole into the pillow case. (This part really scared me, because you did not know when they would come, plus you would find snakes sometimes.) In order to do this, we would have to crawl underneath the black lattice netting to these homes. We would be crawling on ant hills, rabbit poop, sagebrush, and more rabbit poop to get to their artificial homes. The third technique was to set out traps for them by their holes. All of the above techniques worked!

Method 1: The Black Tube

Method 2: The Pillow Case and Tennis Ball Surprise

Method 3: Cage and Burlap!

(Note: The bunnies were not hurt during the trapping process. They were actually calm and sometimes were eating sagebrush when we found them.)

We had to process all of the rabbits we caught. You had to hold them a special way while they were sexed, weighed, and cleaned with flea medicine. The scientists also collected a small tissue sample from the ear. We caught baby rabbits along with adults. They were separated into different bins that would be marked for release or breeding. Some of the adults we caught would be introduced near the enclosure in the wild. We would take a mating pair of rabbits per person and go to different locations in the wild where there were artificial homes prepared for them. We would release them with some food and head back to the truck at the end of the day! This experience was amazing and hopefully there would be many opportunities to help out in the future!!!

Jenny and myself holding pygmy rabbits before the data collection stage.

Where Are You, Golden Eagle??

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) monitoring had been going smoothly even though we were monitoring during an inactive nesting period of the eagle’s life cycle. (This is when the eagles would not move much, making them hard to see.) We have encountered many nest sites and some of them had actual eagle pairs!! Golden Eagles have a territory of two miles around the nest site, so we would go to a historic site and look for nests along the cliff sides. If we do not find the nests within ten minutes we would scan other areas within the habitat for potential nesting sites. We would wait about an hour at each site before we moved on. Some nest sites have two adults and other sites would have an adult and sub-adult. If there was a sub adult with a breeding adult, that means conditions were dire and one of the previous mates died, so the adult had to take in a younger, inexperienced adult as a mate.

Golden eagle preparing a nest.

Most of these nests sites were found on granitic hills, basaltic coulees, and areas with very steep topography. We would look at the benches and tiers within the rock structures for nests. Some of these nests were just about impossible to find until you see a golden eagle flying to it. Their nests varied from massive cups the size of a person to a few sticks placed on the cliff side. When looking at a site with historical nests, we would find more than two nests lying around in the area. Sometimes the eagles make multiple nests before choosing one to settle in. In the Yakima Canyon, we would find many nests in this one location named Pomona. This area had ideal nesting locations with many chukar (Alectoris chukar), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), and rock doves (Columba livia) nearby. The Douglas Creek site had a very long history of breeding eagle pairs, and you could find many old and new nests on the cliffs. One of the nesting sites that surprised us was Bridgeport. We found the nest right away, but we did not find any eagles. There was a huge nest with two smaller nests. Due to the lighting, we could not get a good view, but we assumed the eagle could be in the large nest. When we came back to the site, we found a golden eagle, but she was sitting in one of the smaller nests that we just passed by, because we assumed they would be in larger nests. (That was a learning experience after that incident.) We will continue doing golden eagle surveys into May. Now, we will be heading north to Oroville to look for golden eagles near the Canada border! I am pretty excited about that!

Nesting pair in the Yakima Canyon cliff side.

Find the Golden Eagle Nest!!!

Three nests can be found in this picture!

Some nests are hard to find in basaltic canyons. There is one in this picture.

Have a great day, everyone!!!! Keep up the good work and adventures!

Justin Chappelle
Wenatchee, WA BLM

And Now… Your Moment of Zen

Hello! I am your guide, Justin Chappelle! I am a CLM intern with the Wenatchee Field Office in Washington. Today, we are going on a rugged journey through the western portion of the Saddle Mountains in search of rare plants, cool animals, and interesting rock formations!!

Welcome! I am glad you could make it on this awesome tour! We will start with the dune community of the Saddle Mountains. The western portion of the mountains along the Columbia River is known for its windy conditions. A lot of the eroded sediment from various scabland features in the valley collect in this region. The sediment is blown here and deposited along the talus slopes!! Some of these dune features host an assortment of rare plants and animals. Many scientists travel to the Saddle Mountains to study and monitor the various plants and animals of this region. Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) nests are commonly monitored, various bioblitzs are performed to develop species lists, and lichens are studied to help understand the surrounding ecosystems in this region. Hopefully, we will get to see some interesting flora and fauna!! Oh…. I forgot to mention, we might encounter a few ATV people! So be on the lookout and wear bright colors!

The sand here is very soft and weathered! Due to the amount of traveling each of the sediment particles undergo, they form into a smaller, spherical shape. Many wind patterns and tracks could be found within the sandy, open areas.

As we travel up the dunes, we tend to see many native plants starting to colonize the dunes. Plants in the Polygonaceae family (Knotweed Family) could be found along the ephemeral stream areas. Other plants in the Polemoniaceae (Phlox Family), Asteraceae (Composite Family), Hydrophyallceae (Waterleaf Family), Brassicaceae (Mustard Family), and Rosaceae (Rose Family) family could be found along the talus slopes next to the dunes.

Rumex crispus and Phlox speciosa

((Wow!!! Good eye! I forgot to mention that there are many interesting and rare Lomatium species that could be found in the area. Many plants in the Apiaceae Family could be found growing in mid spring! This is Lomatium columbianum, also known as Columbia Desert Parsley. They grow in the Northern section of the mountains, this is a new sighting for this area!! Cool!! Let us take a GPS point and write some notes down before we move on.))

During the afternoon, the dunes warm up and we get to see a lot of unusual wildlife. Insects in the Scarabaeidae family and various lizards bask in the sun. The insects love the flowering plants around here. Lupinus, Delphinium, Erysimum, Astragalus, Crepis, and Phlox species, along with Purshia tridentata (bitterbrush), seem to be a favorite for many beetle species right now!

Wow!! This is amazing! I have no clue what this insect is, but it likes to roll like a ball  down the dunes. Probably it does this to escape predators.

This beetle is found all over the bitterbrush! Looks like a hairy Japanese beetle! Unfortunately, I am not an entomologist, but I think this is a hairy flower beetle of some kind.

As we move through the transition zone between the dunes and talus, we get to see a variety of bird species! It is common to see Rock wrens (Salpinctes obsoletus) and Canyon Wrens (Catherpes mexicanus) in this area. Golden Eagles love to make nests on the steep cliffs, above the talus slopes, along the Columbia River. They prefer an open area where they can easily access the nest. Right now, the Golden Eagles are preparing their nests. If a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) or Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) flies into the area, the Golden Eagles would actually attack those birds. Golden Eagles usually do not like to share their territory or possible nesting sites with other birds of prey. Even a red tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is looked down upon by the eagles. The American Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) use this time to pester the eagles, because that is one of their favorite past times.

Different species of birds love to build nests in these basaltic outcrops!

Oh?? Oh hey! Good eye! You have found  White Throated Swifts (Aeronautes saxatalis)! These birds migrate over long distances and love to build nests in basalt cliffs. There are many nests that could be seen in the holes of the basalt. They are very vocal and don’t mind building nests near large birds of prey or Rock doves (Columba livia)…but they do dislike Merlin (Falco columbarius), which is a common bird of prey that loves to go after the swift species!

As we climb up the side of the mountain, we get to see more beautiful flowers, grasses and different sagebrush and rabbitbrush species. These plants are growing on old talus slopes! Many wildflowers are growing right now thanks to the warm temperatures and rain we had recently in the area.

On the top of the mountains, we could see much of the Columbia River, some newly planted orchards, and power lines that were built by the power company!

Part of the Columbia River Basin.

VVVVVVVVVVAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM
Yay!!! This is a cool opportunity!! The U.S. Airforce uses these mountains and coulees for their training. They like to fly around and adapt to different wind patterns. Almost every other day, we would see them training out in the surrounding area. I don’t know how the wildlife responds to these jets, but they still build their nests here…alright hopefully the jets leave soon. I don’t want to get tinnitus. >_>

The top of the Saddle Mountains were carved by the massive Missoula floods that occurred in the area ~13,000-15,000 years ago. If you are lucky, you could find petrified wood from ginkgo trees deposited here! Various silica rock made from diatoms a long time ago could be found commonly between basaltic deposits.

Silica deposits that contain silica minerals and petrified wood!

There are various trails on the tops of these mountains for rock hounders and people who ride ATVs in the area. Despite the road traffic, the flowers are thriving! There are so many phlox and balsamroot (Balsamorhiza species), you could actually smell them!!

ATV trails weaving up the side of the mountain.

I want to thank you again for your participation in the Saddle Mountains Tours. I hope you learned a little about the area. See you on our next travel adventure!

Justin Chappelle

And now….Your Moment of Zen

A cool looking Diptera on a Balsamorhiza sagittata.

Welcome to the City of Apples

Hello everyone!! This is Justin Chappelle reporting from BLM Wenatchee Field Office in Washington State! This is my third internship with the CLM and I am very excited to have this great opportunity!

Wenatchee, Washington is considered the Apple Capital of the World. Everywhere you look, you see apple trees or something apple related. The hillsides for miles have orchards of cherry, pear, apricot, and of course apple trees. Apple advertising is everywhere! They even have an Applebees!  We are in pre-spring and everything is ready to bloom! The magnolias, fruit trees, and forsythia are already blooming, and farmers are beginning to spray the orchards with various sprays to make the fruit last longer, grow bigger, and have the flowers bloom for the pollination process. ^_^;

There are a huge amount of fruit tree cultivars that could be found in the Wenatchee Valley!

My previous internships were in Burns, Oregon and Buffalo, Wyoming. Both of these small towns were peaceful and had a population around 4-5,000. Wenatchee thinks of itself as a small town as well, but there are 40,000 people living in the area! They had the World’s shortest parade route for St. Patrick’s Day. Essentially, the parade was a block long and they did the parade twice to extend the duration. Wenatchee is a new adventure and I am very excited about working for the BLM in this town!

The Essentials

Every internship begins with the essentials in order to work for the Government. We had to be certified, watch all of the safety videos, and take all of the computer exams! This process went pretty smooth and we were certified for everything within a few days! I did have a problem with the FISAA+ exam. Every time I completed the exam, the computer would not print out my certification. I had to take the exam over three more times until I was able to get my certification. By that time, I also found out that the computer was sending the print work to another section of the BLM office, so now I am 4 times FISSA+ certified! No worries about computer safety tactics and malware, I am a pro at all of the computer documentation!

There were a variety of meetings that we had last week regarding weekly updates, visiting bosses, a potluck, and EEO. Everyone here was super friendly and welcoming! Jenny (The other intern) and I were thrown into the thick of everything and learned a great deal about politics, policy work, and all of the jobs each employee at this BLM had. Despite a smaller sized staff, each of the employees were doing all sorts of jobs and tasks! For Jenny and I, we found out that we would be doing a lot for our field season, which was exciting to hear!!! (I am a little nervous, but in a good way! ^_^;;)

This is a horned lizard we found!!

Enter Into The Palisades

We had our first field day last Tuesday! The field biologist (Erik) and the botanist (Molly) took us to the Palisades, which was an area located to the East of Wentachee. This place had amazing topography, which was carved out by prehistoric floods. Recently, there was a fire that occurred in this area the previous year. We were checking on the seeding efforts that were going on. There was a tractor pulling three seeding devices. These devices made indents into the ground and planted the seeds at the same time. This process looked amazing! The actual process did not till up a lot of soil, but just enough to plant the seeds. The machines even ran over a glass bottle and it was not broken!

The till and seeding process

The fire was not very intense, and a majority of plants were recovering nicely. Molly, our botanist, was showing us all of the plants in our area. Normally in March, the other field offices had a different calendar for Spring time and many flowers would start to bloom at the end of April. In Washington, there were many flower species that were blooming. Lomatium, Dodecatheon, and Rancuclaceae flowers were everywhere! I was impressed about the diversity at this time of year. I even saw a sagebrush species I have never seen before, the stiff sagebrush (Artemisia rigida). Jenny and I found a horned lizard that was crawling on the ground and we took pictures with it. Haha!! The Palisades were an interesting place to visit and we were probably going to come back to this area for ESR activities later in the season.

Ranunculus glaberrimus!!!

The Rundown

Our bosses, J.A. and Erik, were extraordinarily helpful for our first week of the internship. They made sure we were set up and kept us busy for the first week. We recently had a meeting with both of them about the activities Jenny and myself would be doing this field season. They gave us a lot of tasks, which sound fantastic!! Our top priority goal was to perform Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) surveys throughout the massive Washington District. We would travel to the southern border by Oregon to the Canadian border for different nest locations. We would make note if the eagle nests were occupied, if there were chicks present, and if the nest was being used through the whole nesting season. We were to make note of any other bird of prey nest that would be located on the BLM lands of Washington. We were also tasked with doing sage grouse, Washington ground squirrel, and pygmy rabbit surveys. We would be doing various field methods and make elaborate notes on what we would see. These tasks would require a lot of use of GPS systems and the various GIS programs. Combining my skills of GIS with my love for nature, makes this a dream job for me! I am very excited to be doing these tasks for the first section of my internship.

The rest of the tasks would be performing habitat assessments, working with the Great Basin Institute, GPS fence lines, do watershed assessments, make allotment visits, GIS geodatabase organization, and develop ESR reports. Another main focus would be to do sage grouse surveys. Different vegetation surveys would be completed during the Summer time. As you can see, we have been given many huge tasks to undertake! We will do the best we can for this internship, and learn a lot of techniques that will help us in our future careers!!

A local marmot sends her regards.

Can You Find the Golden Eagle Nest?

This is what we first see when we come to a site…Can you find the eagle nest???

Congrats!!! You found an active Golden Eagle Nest!

On the Search for the Golden Eagle!

Our second week of our internship was to go to various golden eagle nests close to the city of Wenatchee. Some of the eagle nests were built next to each other and had a history of occupation. The first site we went to was the Three Devils. We definitely found one nest, but the other one could not be seen. There was whitewash (bird poop), but we saw no evidence of any golden eagle using this site anymore. We went down to the Douglas Creek site, which had five nesting areas along this butte structure. This area was very slippery from the rain, so we could not drive up the narrow road. We eventually hiked up to the area and scouted to see if we could find any nests. Haha, the eagle nests were very hard to find and we found out that the battery life on our GPS was very short. We headed back to the office and planned for the next day!

Three Devils Nesting Site. The little white splotch towards the top of the rock structure was the whitewash.

The slippery mountain roads we had to deal with on our first day.

The next day provided better results. We went to two sites north of town known as the Wenatchee Game Office nests. At first we drove along the cliffs, but there was nowhere to pull off to search for golden eagles. We eventually went across the Columbia River and visited many fruit stand parking lots that had a view of the cliffs. Again, finding each of the nests proved to be difficult. Our last observation point was in a taxidermy shop’s parking lot. We did see a golden eagle pass through the area and there was a red tailed hawk that thought of itself as an eagle. We could definitely tell the difference. 😉  We did find out later that most of the nests were abandoned the previous years due to the hot summers. Maybe they would return in the future to this area.

Our next stop was in Rock Island. The small town to the south had a huge dam and many steep cliffs. We tried to get a good vantage point, but the nest was hard to see. We did see a golden eagle fly near the nesting area, so we promised ourselves that we would come back after we talk with the electric company, so we could have access to see the potential eagle nest. The last nesting site we visited was the Douglas Creek area. When we exited the car, a sub adult and an adult Golden Eagle glided closely overhead!! We were very excited!!! We looked to see where they were going, but they flew away. We scanned the cliffs for possible nesting sites, but we did not see any activity for hours. During this time we saw two Northern Harriers doing a courtship display….well the male was doing the courtship and the female was just flying around looking uninterested. We also saw American Kestrels, Red Tailed hawks, and Prairie Falcons in the area. Canyon Wrens, Western Meadowlarks, Mountain Bluebirds, Brewer’s Sparrows, and White Throated Swifts were flying all over the place, singing. European Starling and American Robins were also noted. After an hour of scanning the cliffs for eagles and potential nesting sites, we saw a Golden Eagle soaring near the nesting site!!! O_O Yay!!!!! It flew right over the area where the nests were supposed to be, but then a murder of American Crows flew at the Golden Eagle and were pestering it! D: Come on, American Crows!!!! Stop bothering the eagle. We want to see where it lands!!! The eagle flew away into the distance and out of site. :/ When we did our office day research session, we found out that there were many active nests in Douglas Creek last year, so we will try this site again to see if we could find those Golden Eagles.

Douglas Creek Nesting Site Area

The next day we were venturing up North near the town of Chelan! Our first site was called Chelan Concrete. They said it was occupied twenty years ago, but the nest was destroyed recently. We could not find a nest here, but we did watch a golden eagle male fly along the cliffs for a good hour. It landed a few times to preen and look for chukars. We made many notes about this site and a possible nesting area nearby. We made our way to the Ice Caves afterwards! This site was on a huge granitic structure located north of the Chelan Airport. After searching the cliffs for thirty minutes, we saw a male Golden Eagle fly around. Then we actually found a nest!! We watched the male swoop by the nest and we saw a female rise and communicate from the nesting site!!!!!!!! We were both ecstatic that we actually found an active nesting site with a Golden Eagle couple!!! \(OoO)/We watched the site for almost two hours. After taking many notes, we moved onto the next nesting site by the Chelan Airport. The documents said this nest was abandoned in 1981. After a lot of searching, we concluded that the nest was destroyed and was within the territory of the eagle couple by the Ice Caves, so no eagle would like to nest there now. The final project for the day was to do a small ES&R monitoring project on our way back home. The burned site recovered nicely from the low intensity fire. Overall, this day was fantastic!!!

The Ice Caves Site with an active eagle nest…somewhere on the mountain.

I was reading many of the blogs recently and it sounds like everyone is having a great time with their internship!!! I hope all is well on your end!

Justin Chappelle: Wenatchee BLM
3/28/3015

And now….Your Moment of Spring Zen

Narcissus/ Daffodils!!

Wow! Five months of adventure in the high plains, badlands, and mountains of Wyoming! My second internship with the CLM program was an amazing experience!  I had a variety of opportunities to practice my plant and animal identification skills, expose myself to new ecosystems and plant communities, understand local politics involving wildlife and oil projects, participate in community education events, and gain a sense of what I want to do with my life. This experience aided in developing a plethora of skill sets, which would help me with my future job(s)! This would be my last blog entry involving stories, gifs, experiences, and even an interview! Brace yourselves! \(OoO)/

I am going to include “Your Moment of Zen” right now. So grab a cup of tea or root beer and select your play list. This post is going to be long. \(^_^\);;

Botany Treasures of the Landscape

There were a variety of plants that we saw when we were monitoring around Gillette, Wyoming and the Bighorns. We saw seven tree species, nineteen shrub species, fifty-six grass and sedge species, and one hundred and sixty-six forb species!! I expected a lot less diversity in our area, but the high plains desert always surprised me! Of course some of the Astragalus and Aster species were tricky to identify, but the majority of the plants we did encounter were easy to identify. There were a few plants I really did like. The Asclepias species such as green comet milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora) and showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) were my all-time favorites. They always had unusual and rare insects crawling all over the leaves. I love the flowers for these plants and they always cheered me up under the blazing afternoon sun. Another unusual forb was the ground plum milkvetch (Astragalus crassicarpus). Their fruit was cool to find in the prairie landscape! The books say they were edible and good in meals, but they tasted horrible. Side note: The plant may induce vertigo in some people. I was fine though.

One of my favorite grasses was the littleseed ricegrass (Piptatheropsis micrantha). This grass was very hard to find and was usually found in forested canyons in Campbell County. I love the seeds and the grass shape. The best part was popping the grass seeds, so they would spring out into the field and reseed. Two of my favorite shrubs were winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata) and silver sagebrush (Artemisia cana)! In my last internship, silver sagebrush was rare to come across and we usually saw them in wet playas or shallow basins that were inundated with water for a small period of time in the spring. In Buffalo, Wyoming, they were ALL OVER!!! O_O At first I was so excited and pointed the shrub out all the time.  Eventually I stopped doing that because they were present in almost all of our sites. The limber pine (Pinus flexilis) was my favorite tree species that I encountered on the high slopes of the Bighorns. They were listed as a threatened species in Wyoming, due to the white pine blister rust. In many parts of the West, they were pretty common. They were even considered an ornamental pine tree back in Chicago, IL! I love their bending branches, shape, and pine cones. They were slowly recovering from the rust and efforts from our BLM and other agencies in terms of seed collection and propagation would hopefully make this tree common in the higher elevations of the Bighorns.

From left to right: Comet Green Milkweed, Ground Plum Milkvetch, and Limber Pine.

In the Valley of Junipers and Pine (Mid October)

Recently, we have been helping the Montana Conservation Corp (MCC) with cutting down juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa). The reason we were cutting down some of these trees was to create ideal habitat for the greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). The bird species preferred 10-15% sagebrush cover on an almost flat landscape in our area. The sage grouse do not like anything that vertically grows such as juniper trees. They also do not prefer power lines. Predators like hawks could perch on the tree/power lines and hunt sage grouse with ease. We went into the landscape around the Thunder Basin/ Burnt Hollow area and used loppers and sulkies to cut down many juniper that were growing all over the landscape. The MCC used chainsaws and other tools to cut down some of the junipers over twelve feet high. I did this for a few days with my fellow interns and seasonals and I was able to use my trimming arboriculture skills, but instead of making the junipers pretty, I just cut them down.

This is a gif showing the ideal and not ideal habitats for the greater sage grouse.

Against All Odds! On the Road to Fortin Draw! (Early July)

One of the hardest places Sara and I had to monitor was Fortin Draw. This was an isolated piece of land located parallel to a major highway and rail road system. We got permission from the landowners and drove north of Gillette to a small road leading up to the allotment. The road looked like it was washed out, full of cow tracks, and had the consistency of clay. When walking by yourself on the road, you could easily trip or fall! The truck had an easier time on this road. ^_^ We did come across many boulders that I had to move out of the way, so Sara could drive with the truck further down the road. The road was so narrow, that we could not turn around. After about an hour of slowly driving down this secondary road, we came to our site. We parked along a hill that overlooked the train tracks and the highway nearby. Sara and I went to the site and performed our monitoring duties.

These were some pictures of Fortin Draw. We had to go under a fence to get to our site. Later on we found out there was a gate opening on the other side of the hill.

When we came back, we noticed another road that ran closer to the train tracks that we wanted to take, because it looked smoother and not as bumpy. As we drove, we got stuck twice! We had to dig ourselves out and have the truck in four wheel drive to get around some of the iffy sections. One part of the road was covered with yellow sweet clover, and I went ahead to see if it was safe for the truck to move forward. Much of the dirt and gravel was loose towards the end, but I directed Sara away from the trouble spots. One time the ground underneath one of the front tires started to give making the truck lean downhill. I asked Sara to quickly back up the truck and hug the left section of the road. We finally made it out of Fortin Draw alive and our truck (which was called “Big Mama”) survived with hardly a scratch. Our hearts were beating a mile a minute and we decided to head back early and organize our data and call other land owners.

Interview with Krissa!

I received an email from Krissa regarding the final blog post! There were specific questions she asked me regarding the internship. Let us begin!!

1.)    How you’ve grown personally and professionally

I have grown personally, professionally, and physically from this internship! I have grown in confidence and strength in monitoring in the back country areas of Wyoming. Personally, all of the challenges I have encountered made me a better and stronger person overall. Patience and the ability to remain calm in dire conditions really helped Sara and myself figure out many different puzzles. The rangeland monitoring portion of our internship was mentally challenging in a good way and having a positive mentality in the field goes a long way.

Professionally, I have vastly grown in plant identification skills. There were many plants we had to identify, and the use of various textbooks and literature helped myself apply my college education to real world scenarios. This internship helped me grow in understanding the importance of public relations and being able to talk with land owners. I did have some interesting times with some land owners, but all of the experiences I learned really helped me in the long run. Being a people person was very important and being able to talk with people about a variety of subjects helped me grow. Working with advisors and co-workers on different projects really helped me grow professionally in the BLM. My mentor gave me many opportunities to interact and speak with everyone in the resources department. Overall, this internship helped me become very professional and it challenged me to look at myself. The experiences I gathered from this internship would definitely help me in my future career.

I am prepared for any future endeavor!

Oh!! You were probably wondering how I grew physically from this internship. I took Pilates at the local YMCA and I was able to have a better posture. I actually grew an inch! Haha!! ^_^;;;;

2.)    New skills you’ve gained

There were many new skills that I have gathered and learned from this internship! With all of the rangeland health and S&G monitoring, I have learned five new wildlife and flora survey methods that would help in future sage grouse and rangeland health assessments.  I learned many new grasses and forbs, which really helped with my plant identification skills. I used the taxonomy key and identification books a lot, which greatly assisted me with grass identification. Some plants were tricky like the Astragalus, Solidago, and Penstemon species, but we were able to identify them with the help of experienced rangeland health specialists. This internship provided me with knowledge on computer software and remote sensing analysis. I was able to learn about all sorts of data entry and was able to display collected data in many different forms for reports and maps. I have had defensive driving courses in the past, but this internship really tested my driving skills to the max! I was able to navigate through tough terrain and the streets of Gillette, Wyoming with ease. 😉

3.)    Learning experiences that stand out to you

I had plenty of learning experiences during my internship with the Buffalo Field Office.  I had a huge amount of experience with file organization and data entry. It was super important to be as organized as possible when working in the Government. I had plenty of off road driving experience in the back country around Gillette. Some sites had steep terrain and secondary roads leading up to the transect. Sara and I used all of our defensive driving training and luckily survived everything nature threw at us. We did get stuck a couple of times, but we managed to escape the clutches of wet clay soils. Monitoring in windy conditions was VERY challenging. At least six days had windy/stormy conditions that made our measuring tape fly all over the place! /)_- We had be creative like MacGyver.  We used paperclips, rubber bands, and a series of rocks to keep papers and measuring tapes from flying off. With a field season underneath our belt, I could assure anyone that we were experts at monitoring during windy conditions…hopefully my future job will not require me to monitor during a hurricane. >_>;; My final learning experience  that really stood out to me was to deal with pesky grass seeds such as needle and thread (Hesperostipa comata) and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum).  Cheatgrass was a huge pain to deal with in the field. Some sites had so much cheatgrass, that it would fill your shoes and ruin your socks. I could imagine myself walking through a cheatgrass field and all of the seeding cheatgrass would say, “Take my babies!” This would result in hundreds of grass seeds stuck in my socks. Haha!! Needle and thread seeds were not as crazy as cheatgrass seeds, but they did hurt when they hit you. I learned to always carry a tweezers or pliers with you when dealing with grass species out in the field.

A close up of needle and thread grass. Yikes!!! Those pointy ends could easily pierce my socks!! D:

4.)    Rewarding experiences/memories

There were many rewarding experiences I had during my internship duration at the Buffalo Field Office. Almost everyday working for the BLM was a rewarding experience. I learned something new each day that would either broaden my knowledge or resume in some way. One of my main moments that I was so proud of was when I completed all of the allotment folders. The process took 4.5 months of data collection and entry, making maps, photography, comprehensive report writing, and organization. After all of the hard work and a big pile of allotment folders, I could say that I accomplished the massive project within my internship time at the Buffalo, Wyoming BLM.

Yay!! I completed all of the allotment folders. The process took 4.5 months!

One day, Sara and I were out in the field and found a baby elk tangled up in a barbed wire fence. We helped free the poor creature and managed to save it. We were so proud of ourselves for that accomplishment that we were able to help a living creature in the wild.

A favorite memory of mine was when I went with University of Wyoming: Laramie Natural Diversity Database Research Division to the Fortification Creek WSA to monitor bird species and other fauna. We were out there for a week and I learned an incredible amount about the flora and fauna of northeastern Wyoming. I helped capture insects, search for reptiles and amphibians, watch biologists mist net for bats, and hiked miles on end to locate various bird species. Hiking amongst the badlands and juniper forests was an awesome experience that I would never forget.

The University of Wyoming: Laramie Natural Diversity Database Research Division Group and myself!!

Towards the beginning of my internship, our mentor took us along to a public outreach event where we were with elementary school kids. Our goal was to teach them the differences between different flora. What is a tree? Is this a grass? Can you find a shrub? It was a scavenger hunt for plants that all the kids enjoyed. Allison, Dusty, Charlotte, Jill, and I had a fun time teaching all of the children. Some of the children were so excited about plants that they took many grass samples back to the classroom.

One of my favorite memories happened before my internship! My roommate, Sean wanted to take me out to a lek site to watch sharp tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus). We found two lek sites in the morning and many grouse. The males were strutting their stuff, while the females were just walking around socializing. We saw a truck approach us and a cowboy asked us if we were there for the branding. One thing led to another and we were involved with the local Sheridan cattle branding. We were busy for a couple of hours. They roped the calves and we had to lay them on the ground to be vaccinated, branded, and sometimes castrated. The overall experience was awesome! Later on, I heard that experience of Sean and I helping local ranchers with a branding helped increase public relations with the BLM. ^_^

Some calves that were ready for action!

5.)    Expectations that were or were not met

This internship went above and beyond my expectations. I learned more GIS skills that I could definitely use for my future job. Working with different tools and remote sensing applications in ArcMap really helped me grasp what the Government needed and used in terms of mapping projects. Many of the data entry projects helped me understand and elaborate more on my knowledge of computer software. I learned about efficient ways to work with Excel and transfer excel files between various programs. Microsoft Access was tricky, but was very beneficial for comprehensive report writing.

Learning about different survey methods and plant identification was a great experience. Many of the rangeland health specialists gave Sara and I many different sites to survey. We went on mountains, badlands, creeks, draws, buttes, forests, playas, salt flats, and wetlands to monitor all kinds of plants. Some of the locations were near mining facilities and oil platforms, which provided us with plenty of experience with talking with land owners.

Cabin Canyon (East). One of my favorite sites to monitor.

The Buffalo Field Office provided me with a diverse and rich amount of experience that I would definitely use in my future line of work. Unfortunately, I did not have time to work on environmental policy documents before I left. I did receive insight on NEPA documents and other gas/oil documentation. Hopefully, in the future I would learn more about these documents.

Buzzworms (Early August)

I was talking with some of the uranium miners that worked south of Buffalo and Gillette. They were rough people that went through a lot for their work. One of the subjects they talked about were buzzworms. I was perplexed! O_o??? I have never heard of a buzzworm before. What is this buzzworm? I talked with one of the rookie people that were new to the job and he explained to me that a buzzworm was actually a rattlesnake! I froze for a good ten seconds…trying to connect the dots. Then I laughed! Buzzworm was the funniest name I have ever heard for a rattlesnake. For most of the time in the field, I warned the other interns of possible buzzworms in the grass. They would look at me with a confused look and then realize I was talking about rattlesnakes. We all had a good laugh over that word. Fortunately, I never encountered a buzzworm during the Buffalo internship unlike last year in Burns, Oregon where I saw many. The word ”buzzworm” would always stay with me.

This “buzzworm” is not amused. (Actually it was Mr. Rattles Version 2.0 from the last internship.)

Interns, Assemble!!!

I had the great fortune to work with three awesome interns, Heather, Sara, and Jill. They were hard workers and accomplished every task that came their way. No matter what the weather or condition they were always up for a challenge!

Heather’s main job was to help out with the Powder River Basin Restoration Program. She also came out with Sara and I to help monitor different sites in the Bighorns and the badlands region of Campbell County. She even assisted Jill with SOS seed collection! She worked with a lot of managers and created different documents to help with the future monitoring efforts of the PRBR program. She worked with all kinds of GIS and software programs. She also developed a lot of connections with land owners and people within the office. She was a professional! She was a quick thinker and was always concerned for people’s well-being. She worked on a variety of projects that dealt with cheatgrass detection and sage grouse monitoring. Heather was always there for you and cared for everyone. She was calm and collected through a majority of our trip, except when a dog tried to herd her truck. Haha!

Heather and I ready for another adventure.

Sara was the other rangeland monitor. We would travel all across Sheridan, Campbell, and Johnson County to monitor the allotments we were assigned. We went through thick and thin to monitor different sites in the rain, intense sun, and wind storms. She was extremely dependable and very hard working. We hiked through the mountains or into the Badlands to get to a transect. She was well versed at back country driving. Sara went to the limit and surpassed it! She was very helpful in data entry and always lend a helping hand to Heather or Jill. Another job she excelled at was public relations. Many land owners really liked her! She had the charisma that made many people smile in person and probably over the phone.

Sara was ready to identify all the plants! \(O_O\)

Jill was our SOS intern for our office. She collected around eighteen seed collections, but I think she was going to do more Fall collecting. (She could’ve done more, but she only had funding to do eighteen collections…) Jill did accompany the rangeland and the PRBR groups for many data collecting escapades. She was very good at photography and tended to be the S&G photographer for the group. She always had a nice sense of humor and an interesting taste in music. Most of her seed collection occurred during the hot Summer months under the intense sun. Collecting all kinds of forb and grass seeds was her specialty. She was always in high spirits when performing her job. Her plant presses were a work of art.

Jill and I picking seeds for SOS.

I just want to thank all three of the interns for being who they were. It was a sincere pleasure working with all three of them! \(^_^)/

I Want to Give Thanks To These Wonderful People

(Small extended applause could be heard in the background for the duration of this section.)

I want to thank all of the BLM Legends who helped me with the internship and provided support and guidance. I want to thank my mentors and rangeland specialists, Charlotte, Dusty and Kay. They were very helpful and incredibly awesome at their job. They provided the right amount of guidance to help the interns out. They helped anyway they could and provided us with all kinds of opportunities. All of the rangeland specialist were great and would be missed! I want to thank Chris and Don for all of the wildlife biology jobs involving bird monitoring and habitat assessments. I could tell they loved their jobs and had an affinity for nature. I want to thank my head bosses Chris and Bill! They really helped me get settled and figure out some of the technical parts of my job. I always enjoyed talking with Bill about birds or receiving a good morning hello from Chris! (I also appreciated the Chris messages when I came back from work. Heather enjoyed them to a lesser extent.)  >;)

I want to also thank Diane who helped provide input on various GIS questions. I want to thank Michelle for helping Sara and I help hunt down land owner phone numbers. I also want to thank her for providing us with unlimited M&Ms. I want to thank all of the BLM/ NRCS specialists, Jen, Allison, Janelle, Arnie, Keith, Scott, Maverick Dan, and Nayeli for all the knowledge they imparted on all of the interns. I want to thank Connie for all the cool rocks and nice rock hounding stories! Last but not least, I want to thank Sean “The Sean” Casler for sharing room and board at the apartments. Thanks for all the stories and adventures! The cattle branding was one of the most unique experiences I’ve had! You may be wondering why he was called Sean “The Sean”, well…why not? 😉

BLM Legends and Interns working in the field!!

I want to thank Krissa and Rebecca at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Thank you so much for this opportunity!!! I have learned and experienced all of what I wanted to get out of an internship. Thank you so much, Krissa, for all of your hard work and for providing me with an awesome internship! I also want to thank Rebecca for helping me with every question I had. Thanks for providing assistance and guidance on different problems throughout the internship! (I do apologize for turning in few of the time sheets late. … ^_^;;;;) Again thank you. You’re all the best in the biz! \(^_^\)

Finally, I want to thank my family members and friends who always called and encouraged me on my internship. The home packages were awesome! I want to thank my parents who were always there for me and supported me every step of the internship! Thanks for the small Canada vacation and the pictures of your adventures. Thank you to my sisters and brother in laws for the packages and phone calls! They were really appreciated. I want to thank my friend, Jo Smith, who provided artwork for one of my previous blogs. You are very talented and the best in the biz! Thanks to all of my friends for all the chats, texts, and private messages. They mean a lot to me!

Oh!!!!! I forgot to mention! If you read this far, congratulations. You won a gold star!! I want to thank any interns or other people who have read my blog! You were all the best!! ^_^

Gold Star for my fellow blog readers.

Riding off into the Sunset

Here is a gif from Indiana Jones. Just picture all four CLM Interns from Buffalo, Wyoming riding off into the sunset.

All the interns riding into the sunset…but three of the interns have to return on Monday to continue their internship.

…….OH NO!!!!!!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Oh crumbs… this was the second time this happened to me. I forgot to post about important A-ha! Moments in my blog for an entire season…Let me see…. My 2014 Field Season A-ha moment: The woolly bear caterpillar becomes the Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharctia isabella)! Many people think that these caterpillars could predict weather based on the size of the brown band. This was actually considered folklore and there was no scientific evidence to link weather and the woolly bears according to the Farmer’s Almanac website. Another fun fact: They like to gather in cracks of buildings during the winter to keep warm. :3

Woolly Bear and its adult form the Isabella Tiger Moth. Picture came from: https://animalgals.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/woolly-bear-caterpillar/