The Changing of the Seasons

The seasons were teetering back and forth between Summer and Winter here in Buffalo, Wyoming. Since we were closer to the mountains we got an unusual fluctuation of temperatures. We had two snow falls already with a couple of Summers thrown into the mix. I think the trees were pretty confused so they were slowly losing their leaves while keeping a couple of branches of leaves for insurance purposes.

The seasonal weather forecast for this week in Buffalo, WY.

The Office Frontier

I am very busy in the office doing all kinds of data entry and organization! I am finally finished with DIMA data entry! WAHOO!!! \(O_O\) That took a couple of weeks to do. The other DIMA entry that Sara did would have been error checked by Jill and I. After completing the error checks, I worked on the comprehensive reports for the S&G sites as well as our allotment sites Sara and I monitored this year. The comprehensive report showed the percentages of soil surface, different types of litter, and plant composition. I had to work with Access and Excel for great lengths of time. If the office had some kind of badge system that the Boy Scouts have, I would have definitely got the Microsoft Excel Badge. These reports would be printed out and included with the allotment folders.

My next step was to create a large amount of allotment folders. I followed the BLM format and added my own twist with each of the allotment folders. I included two different scaled maps, a directional photosheet of the site, the comprehensive report, and all of our notes and recordings from the field. I love using my GIS skills and making the maps look like a work of art while maintaining all of the needed information to help guide future monitoring staff to the transect area. One of the days I had to use the crazy label maker…we did not leave on good terms, but the job was completed! (The label maker had a huge ego and required the finest of yellow labels.) I am almost done with all of the allotment folders and my office looks like a filing system met a tornado. I call my cubicle the organized chaos filing system prep room. ^_^;;

Other interesting jobs our bosses had us do were car checks/ maintenance and do recycling trips! Jill and I would go to different trucks and check for supplies, fluid levels, anything that needed to be fixed, and tire pressure. We would fill out a report and organize receipts to be submitted to one of the offices. Usually everyone would do this, but it is hunting season and many people were away. It was a great experience and I was able to use my car maintenance skills. Heather and I did the recycling runs and took two trips to deliver all of the recycled paper, cans, and cardboard. Now our office was squeaky clean!!

Bird Monitoring

One of the wildlife biologists, the BLM Legend Don, asked if I was interested in helping him out with a bird survey since I knew a lot about birds and could identify them by their calls. I was beyond excited and started nodding saying, “Yes. O_O” before he finished asking me. He invited all of the other interns and wildlife biologists to Welch Recreation Area! I brought two binoculars and my National Geographic Bird Guide for North America. We stopped every five hundred feet along the river trail for five minutes and recorded all the birds we saw or heard within the general area. We saw American Robin, Spotted Sandpiper, Black Billed Magpie, Canada Goose, House Wren, Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Mallard, Orange Crowned Warbler, Black Capped Chickadee, American Crow, Spotted Towhee, and Red Tailed Hawk. We were sort of disappointed, because we expected to see a lot more species. We did have a great experience and we walked through some cool sections of the Welch Recreation Area. One section had the Coal Creek Fire. This was a fire that kept on burning for a couple of years without being extinguished. You might be wondering, “Justin, How is this possible?” Well, there was a fire that sprawled across the prairie and came across some underground coal beds. The coal caught on fire and has been smoking for a couple of years now. I thought that was fascinating and a little horrible at the same time.

Seriously, when we were monitoring, Black Billed Magpies were everywhere!

On a side note, I have been bird watching all the time in the Buffalo/ Sheridan/ Bighorns/ Gillette region for the Summer. I expected to see a lot more species of birds, unfortunately I did not see a lot.  I saw 131 species, which was a pretty nice number. My favorite birds to watch were the Lazuli Bunting, Yellow Headed Blackbird, Mountain Bluebird, Red Crossbill, American Redstart, Lewis Woodpecker and the Burrowing Owl. I did not see a Mountain Plover, but they were definitely living in the area southeast of town according to many biologists and bird watchers. I did not care for the Eurasian Collared Dove, they always coo’ed at 4:00am in the morning and liked to relieve themselves on my car. :/ Overall, the bird watching experience in Buffalo, Wyoming has been tough, but rewarding. \(^_^)/

Top Five Invasive Plants in our Area

Every morning before work and during lunch time, I took time to read the updated CLM blogs. Yes, you all have a fan!! Even though I really do not comment, I find all of your blogs very VERY useful in identifying invasive and native species. I find it interesting how in different parts of the West, interns see different non-native or invasive plants. For example, some BLM offices in the West used Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) with their seed mixes to help establish soil after intense fires. Some BLM offices swear by this plant calling this non-native a very good soil stabilizer and a good plant to help other native plants establish themselves. When I worked for Burns, Oregon last year for my internship, this grass was very useful and did not seem invasive at all. When I got to Buffalo, Wyoming, this grass was everywhere. Many mining and cattle ranching conglomerate companies used this grass and in some areas it looked like it is the only grass within a three miles radius with the exception of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus). I heard some people say that it was an invasive grass and that it was taking over, even though I thought this grass did not behave like that.

Anyways, I was thinking if people who have read this section in my blog, if they could comment what invasive plants were trouble for them in their office, I think that would be great and give people an interesting perspective of what invasive plants were in each field office district. Here was my list of the top five troublesome invasive for the Buffalo BLM Office.

5.)Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis)

4.)Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium)

3.) Russian Thistle (Kali/Salsola tragus)

2.) Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia esula)

1.) Cheatgrass and other Unwanted Brome (Bromus spp.)

0.) Special Honor goes to our invasive, yet native cactus species: the plains prickly pear (Opuntia polyacantha).

1.) Yellow Sweet Clover   2.) Scotch Thistle   3.) Prickly Russian Thistle                           Alright…I really did not have a good picture of a Scotch thistle…so I inserted the selfie I took with one. /)_-) Yes… I do take selfies with plants, especially orchids.

Misadventures: North by Northwest!

Yay!!! Time for a comp time vacation! I really needed to use my comp time…it was over 100 hours. <_< I decided to go with my parents up to Glacier National Park and to Alberta, Canada. I have been to Glacier National Park and it was beautiful, but I have never been to Alberta, Canada! Glacier National Park was closing down in a week and we decided to visit the park. We saw brilliant fall color, awesome geological formations, and a grizzly bear! We moved up into Canada afterwards. We went to the towns of Calgary and Edmonton. Both were thriving and growing cities of Canada. Within the last year, 40% of all growth in Canada was in Edmonton!  My parents and I visited the badlands of Drumheller, which reminded me a lot of the landscape east of Rapid City, SD and west of Tensleep, WY. One of my favorite parts of the trip was traveling to the Rockies west of Edmonton to Jasper National Park. There were blue alpine glaciers all over the place!!! The landscape, geology, the clay blue rivers, the animals, yellow aspen, the flora, the eroded canyons and clouds were…incredible. O_O…….O_O I think my mouth was open most of the time, because I was in awe of everything. The ice fields in the south entrance of the park had the most glaciers and I was able to walk up to one!! This trip was amazing and I had a lot of fun!…Now back to work!! 😉

A sample of what I saw in Canada. \(^_^)/

Season Finale!

What!? Already???? Man, this internship flew right by. My next blog entry will be the Season Finale! I will talk about what I have learned, seen, and did on my Buffalo, Wyoming internship. Lost stories, comics, gifs, and other tidbits will be included.

And Now….Your Moment of Zen…

Very Zen…much beauty…such fall color…wow!

Sorry everyone! I am a week late! o_O I have been very busy with all sorts of projects and adventures! No worries, this blog entry is going to be shorter than my other entries… I think ^_^;;

Wildlife Society: Wyoming Chapter Annual Conference

For a couple of days, all of the interns had the opportunity to go to the Wildlife Society’s Wyoming Chapter Annual Conference! This conference was located in Sheridan, Wyoming, which was a thirty minute drive away! We went to many lectures that involved the study of ungulates, diseases, rodents, birds, lizards, and bat surveying. Most of the lectures involved sage grouse, mule deer, and moose. We learned a lot about the inner workings of what the wildlife biologists and policy makers in Wyoming and other Central Plain states do for a living. This was a great place to make connections, network, and learn about new research opportunities. We even met two other CLM interns, Lila and David, from Cheyenne, Wyoming! Since I did not go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens this year, it was nice to see other interns and hear about what they do for their job. Overall, the conference was very educational and I learned a great deal about GIS, wildlife biology, and the importance of restoration/ mitigation studies.

Heather, Myself, Jill, BLM Legend Don, and Sara at the Wildlife Society Conference! \(^_^)/

PRBR: Powder River Basin Restoration Program

Heather had the fantastic opportunity to work on the PRBR program. This study helped with the restoration and enhancement of sage grouse habitat. She would take us to different sites to do an assortment of ground truthing projects. Heather wanted to make sure that the ground truthing/ ocular estimates were similar to the supervised classifications developed from the ArcGIS program. This would help with an accurate assessment later in the planning stages. We mapped different juniper stands, looked for prairie dog towns, and estimated cheatgrass cover density. The results would help with future restoration projects involving the spraying of cheatgrass and the planting of sagebrush and other native plants in the area to promote ideal sage grouse roosting conditions. (Heather could give you a more detailed explanation of the project… I am just giving the cliff notes. <_<;;)

Determining cheatgrass densities using the ocular estimate method.

When we would go out to some of the sites, we would draw the landscape on a paper map with colored pencils showing where there were cheatgrass patches, sagebrush, warm season grasses, and bare ground areas. Heather would then use a detailed scale form to assess the landscape. All of the sites we visited had fire history, so we were looking within the fire perimeter for disturbed areas and cheatgrass densities.

When doing PRBR assessments, we would go by prairie dog villages and see burrowing owls. They were pretty hard to find. If you look carefully, you can find one in this picture! ^_^;;

Office Work! Into the BLM Catacombs!

Did you know that the Buffalo BLM has their own hallway-road system within their office? They labeled each hallway with a specific name and there were maps of the office layout in different cubicles in case you were lost. Especially in the beginning of my internship, you could easily get lost within the building when trying to find the filing system. That was just a fun fact! ^_^;

An over exaggerated representation (brought to you by my imagination) of what I thought the BLM office looked like when I first arrived for my internship.

Anyways, Sara and I were very busy with all kinds of office work relating to our 2014 field season.  Our main job would be to work with DIMA (Database for Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment) and make maps with the ArcGIS. DIMA required a large amount of data entry involving habitat quality, species list, detailed notes, sagebrush densities, topography, slope, fire history, grazing history, invasive plants, water sources, climate, transect data, and soil profiles to name a few. We also had to develop detailed maps of our study area to help with future monitoring efforts. My goal would be to make the most detailed and accurate maps ever. After DIMA and the maps, photograph files of the transects for each site would have to be developed. In the end, we would have to enter the catacombs of the filing system room and create folders for each of the allotments we monitored. All of our data entry would be printed out and put into a folder within the filing system.

The Return of Russian Thistle

Watch out! Russian thistle is ready to take over! Luckily the Buffalo CLM Interns are ready to weed!

We had to return to Welch Ranch Recreation Area to continue with weeding. Most of the field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) had been pulled, except for a few sneaky plants growing under the plastic tarps within the green needlegrass (Nassella viridula) section. With the absence of field bindweed, Russian thistle (Salsola tragus) wanted to take control and dominate over the southern section of the BLM Field of Dreams. Most of the Russian thistle was difficult to remove, because they had matured and developed a series of tiny spines. Each plant was the size of a softball with some growing to the size of a soccer ball. They love disturbed sites and each plant contained around 250,000 seeds! Fortunately for us, they were very easy to pull out of the ground. All of the interns used thick leather or rubber gloves and pulled a large amount of the Russian thistle. Now the bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) and green needlegrass were at peace thanks to the weeding efforts of the Buffalo, CLM interns. Looks like the Russian thistle would not make another appearance until next season.

CLM Interns weeding the Russian thistle. ^_^

To Newcastle, Wyoming! Where are you, Paper Birch!?

Jill was given the task by one of the Buffalo BLM fire planner staff members to go out into the field and collect seed from paper birch (Betula papyrifera) in the Black Hills region in the Newcastle District. The goal was to collect seed to help with future post fire restoration efforts. Jill, Heather, and I drove to the Newcastle BLM to pick up Caroline, who was another CLM intern who knew a lot about the Newcastle District. She helped us navigate in the back logging roads to the areas where there were paper birch! Caroline was talking about the forestry practices and helped us identify all kinds of trees. We went to two sites to look for paper birch. The first site was not very productive and we did not find a lot of birch trees.  We looked in different areas near ravines or valleys, but there were hardly any birch. We followed the map to the second site. When we arrived at our next destination, we found a huge population of paper birch!! They all had seed, but the majority of the crop was not ready to be harvested yet, so Jill would have to come back in a couple of weeks to collect some of the birch seeds.

On an adventure to find the elusive paper birch trees. We eventually found a huge patch!

Misadventures

Grand Tetons

On Labor Day weekend, all of the interns and one of the seasonal employees decided to visit Grand Tetons National Park! This area was my favorite place to visit! I must have been to this region at least twenty times in my life. Even though the weather was rainy and a little cloudy, we managed to do a couple of hikes, look at different visitor centers, visit Jackson Hole, watch all of the sunsets, take many pictures, and try to find as many bird species as possible. This place was so beautiful even with all of the rain clouds!

Some pictures of the Grand Tetons and their biological wonders!

Would You Like to Go Rock Hounding?

Wyoming offers an abundance of wildlife, trails, mountains, and festivals, unfortunately they do not have many areas to go rock hounding. Areas like Oregon, Montana, New Mexico, or California have a plethora of rocks, minerals, and fossils. The state of Wyoming does have plenty of fossils, but they do not have a lot of interesting rocks or minerals. One of the most bountiful objects that could be found almost everywhere in the Buffalo Field Office District was degraded petrified wood. Some areas have orange calcite and interesting gypsum crystals. Areas around by Worland do have agates, jasper, star impact calcite, but they were hard to find. I do have a nice collection of rocks including a small meteorite that I found in the field! I am still on the search for rare rocks and minerals. Hopefully, I would hit the jackpot soon! ^_^

Here is an example of the rocks, minerals, and fossils I found in the field!

Thank you everyone for reading!! Have an awesome day! \(^_^\)

Justin Chappelle
CLM Intern
Buffalo, Wyoming

And now…I will leave you with a picture of a bemused cow in mid-chew.

Bemused cow.

(“The Buffalo, Wyoming CLM Interns! Determined to monitor and collect seeds!” ^_^)      (Artwork by Jo Smith)

Monitoring and Seed Collecting in the Wild West

We were getting to the end of the line in terms of field monitoring! The grasses were drying out and the majority of the forbs would be dispersing their seed. Sara and I have been concentrating our monitoring efforts in two places. The Bighorn Mountains and the Cabin Canyon area near Gillette, Wyoming. There were many sites to monitor around Cabin Canyon, so we would be leaving early in the morning and camping over night to try to monitor all of the sites. Cabin Canyon was difficult to travel through. Due to the heavy rains we had recently, many of the roads and small bridges have been wiped out! Sometimes it would take us three times longer to get to a site, because the road had been washed away.  Some of the road locations that were digitally inputted into the GIS program in the past were really cow trails! We would be driving down a two track road only to find out that it was really a cow trail. Hahaha!! Despite all of our challenges we were encountering, we had a great time identifying forbs and grasses. Thanks to the rain, the plants held on a little longer, so we could properly identify most of the plants.

The bridge is out! O_O
A common sight to see around canyon sites after a rainstorm.

We have been seeing many cool birds out in the field. We would typically see all kinds of sparrows, kingbirds, grouse, and lark buntings. One of my favorites birds would be the sage grouse. They were not the smartest bird alive, but they were very interesting to watch in the field. They would typically stare at us while walking slowly in front of our truck. We were always cautious around them and made a note of where we saw them.

A sage grouse decided to stop in front of our truck and stare at us for a brief period of time.

One of our side missions was to help Jill and Heather with seed collections for S.O.S. A large amount of seed collections had been completed so far! Sara and I would take a break on some of our work days to help with Jill’s S.O.S. seed collection. We have been collecting seed from needle and thread (Hesperostipa comata), bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), Hood’s phlox (Phlox hoodii), and Indian rice grass (Oryzopsis hymenoides/ Achnatherum hymenoides) to name a few. Some of the seeds were difficult to collect from, but we eventually made the goal that Jill set up. The S.O.S. collections were successful! Jill still has a couple of plant species she needs to collect from, so she might need our help in the future.

Time to collect needle and thread seeds!!…After we were done picking these seeds, we would find a large amount of them sticking to our socks and shoes. <_<

The Shadows that Roam

Sara and I would usually leave to monitor different sites around 4:00am. We could take advantage of the cooler temperatures and complete our projects before the intense afternoon sun would be overhead. Recently, we have been monitoring up in the Bighorn Mountains. The huge forests of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), limber pine (Pinus flexilis), and quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) could hide a lot of animals and make the trip difficult if we were to hike over a mile through forested, uneven rocky terrain to a site. We would always monitor during daylight, but we would leave early so we could start monitoring immediately when the sun rises.

Everything was very quiet in the morning and we could begin to see signs of dawn approaching. We headed down the main county road known as Hazelton Road. We had to drive slowly due to the roaming shadows. You might be wondering, “What is a roaming shadow?” A roaming shadow was basically a very large animal walking through the darkness. All you could make out was a large shadow. With the intense full moon we have had lately, we would see a lot of shadows on the trip up the mountains. Sometimes you could tell what the creature would be and other times the large creature would appear briefly in your line of sight before heading into the dense forests on either side of the road and you would be asking yourself, “What was that!?” The truck does a good job at illuminating the area in front of us. We mostly see glowing eyes or fast moving shadows. When dawn approaches we could see what the shadows really are. Most of the time these shadows would be large mule deer, cows, elk, and even moose!  We would slow down and watch the elk herds cross in front of us or see a lonely moose forage for grasses. Before dawn, these shadows with glowing eyes look pretty intimidating, but when dawn comes, these shadowy creatures become majestic, furry animals.

Roaming shadows looking at our vehicle.

As the sun rises, most of the deer, elk, and moose disappear. The lamb herds usually become active and we get to see fluffy Great Pyrenees guarding the sheep herds. Marmots would run across the road or sit on a rock, chirping at every passing truck. During the day time, the Bighorn Mountains would look totally different compared with the early morning. Monitoring in the mountains was awesome, especially when traveling in the early morning when we get to see the roaming shadows!

Great pyrenees resting near a herd of sheep. IT’S SO FLUFFY! \(O_O\)

CLM Interns vs. Convolvulus arvensis: Field Bindweed All Out Attacks

A month ago, the BLM office had a field day where we would all go out to Welch Ranch Recreation Area and plant native seeds for future harvesting. We planted mostly green needlegrass (Nassella viridula) and bluebunch wheatgrass. One of our bosses wanted Jill, Heather, and I to go out to the site and do a routine maintenance check. We were told to check the water levels and weed all of the field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and Russian thistle (Kali tragus/ Salsola kali?). When we got to the site, we were shocked!! There were weeds growing all over the place! One particular nasty weed was the field bindweed. The weed thought it was kudzu (Pueraria lobata)! D: Field bindweed was growing in the beds, strangling some of the native grasses. The weed was also growing along the beds creating dense mats of foliage covering the ground. Jill, Heather, and I began our attack.

Field bindweed growing around green needlegrass.

The field bindweed was difficult to clear and took a lot of effort to remove without hurting the native grasses. I never seen field bindweed be this destructive. I usually saw it growing at the side of the road in a small patch. The field bindweed here tried to take over the north half of the field! After many hours in the intense sun, we cleared most of the field bindweed and created piles at the end of the rows. The Russian thistle to the south was our next destination. Luckily, the Russian thistle was still soft and not prickly when we removed it. Towards the end of the day, we cleaned up the field and were proud of our hard work. The field bindweed would probably return, but at least we cleared a lot of the bigger plants that were choking out the native grasses.

Weeding for field bindweed.

Misadventures

Sturgis Rally

On one of the weekends the Buffalo CLM interns traveled to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. There were a huge amount of motorcycles around and everyone was very active in the town. Mostly we took pictures, went shopping, visited different exhibits and went to different motorcycle rally attractions. There were so many interesting people that had some of the coolest motorcycles! We had a fun and exhausting day!!

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally!

When we were heading back to Wyoming, we encountered a thunderstorm! At the state border we got out of our vehicle to take pictures of the Wyoming State sign and the double rainbow that was behind us!

Wyoming Border!!

 And Now….. Your Moment of Zen….

OH WOW! O_O A double rainbow!! So intense.

We are in the BLM Monitoring Business and Business is a Boomin’!

Monitoring has been in full swing the last couple of weeks. We have been working long hours, doing three to four plots a day. Towards the beginning of monitoring, we would leave the office at 7:00am, but with the hot temperatures of the day and the huge amount of hiking we had to do to get to some of the plots, we decided to leave for work at 4:00am. You must be thinking, “Justin!? Why would you wake up that early to monitor?” There were benefits for monitoring that early. 😉  The temperature was fantastic and you did not feel tired or hot. When we got to our first site at 5:30am, the light from the sunrise was perfect for identifying many types of plants. Another reason for waking up at 4:00am was to come back to the office early after monitoring to communicate with our bosses and to pay bills.

Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva)

Some of the terrain was very difficult to navigate. Many roads that were on the maps or GPS were really nonexistent. Most of them were actually cow trails! If the site was not representative of the surrounding overall habitat, we would move the transects to a more appropriate location nearby. If the land had very steep badland terrain with many drainages, we would not monitor that place. The area would be too difficult to navigate, there would be hardly any vegetation to monitor, and rattlesnakes may be present. Sometimes we would camp out overnight, so we would have more time in the field. We could get up to six to eight plots a day if we were camping! O_O One night while camping, Sara and I saw a meteorite crash in the field across from us. The space rock split apart before it hit the ground. That was incredible!

Narrow Leaved Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia).

We have been crossing off each of the allotment sites we had to monitor, and we could see the end approaching rapidly! Since many of the grasses and forbs were dying, it is a race against time to monitor everything, and fortunately we would achieve our goal in time! Our next move would be to input datum, organize photographs, update files, make maps, and help the SOS Buffalo team with collecting seeds for their SOS projects.

Rescue Rangers!

Sara and I were in one of the most isolated sections of BLM in the back country of Gillette, Wyoming. (We were on the border with the Newcastle District!!) The huge allotment known as Lawver was made up of badlands and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. We heard there were many large elk (Cervus canadensis) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) present within the area. We were following two track roads through ponderosa pine until I heard a loud sharp gasp from Sara! I immediately stopped the truck to see what she was looking at!! There was a baby elk trapped in a barbed wire fence! Sara rushed out to investigate the baby. The little one was trying to go through a broken section of the barbed wire fence and got stuck. Its hoof was surrounded by barbed wire and raw down to the bone. The back legs were a bloody as well, but not as bad as the front hoof. The elk looked like it was there for a day or two struggling. When we approached the elk calf, it tried to struggle and just gave up. Sara was trying to untangle the wires and I could not pull the wires apart because they were barbed and very tight around the leg. Sara was trying to comfort the little elk while I was looking for tools in the back of the truck. I found some wire cutters and gave them to Sara. They were small cutters, but Sara cut through the fencing around the baby elk leg and freed it!!!!! It ran away into the forest. Sara and I were super happy that we were able to help out. Hopefully, that elk will be okay. We did report the broken fence to our boss, but we had to wait for another one of our bosses to make a report.

Baby Elk Rescue!

Moo Cows, Don’t Bother Me! D:

One of our monitoring sites was located in the Rochelle Hills allotment located near Rt. 51. This allotment was extremely difficult to get to, because it was completely surrounded by barbed wire fencing. We originally wanted to drive through the State land to have an easy route to get to Rochelle Hills. We were searching for an entrance, but we did not find one! What we did find was a herd of cattle. They were red and white cattle that showed higher intelligence than the normal red or black angus cow. The herd was pretty big and we had to drive past them to get to an area that looked like it had a gate. We stopped because one of the calves approached the front of our vehicle and started to lick it. When the other calves saw this they started to surround our truck and lick everywhere. D: We slowly tried to move, but they would not budge!!!! The heifers started to join in! We were completely surrounded by cattle who were licking our truck! Even the bull wanted to join in on the action. When we looked in all of the mirrors, all we saw were cow faces with their tongues!! >_< We had to get out of there! I honked the horn once and moved forward, but they were pretty adamant. Apparently, we were the best salt lick this side of Gillette! After five minutes of gently nudging the cows, they eventually gave up and moved aside. Sara and I were happy to see a gate up ahead.

These cows have found the ultimate treat…our truck! D:

When we arrived at the gate, we found out that it was just a gate for the enclosure corral for the cattle. There was only one entrance/ exit out of the State land and we headed back to the entrance we came through. We turned our truck around to drive back…and there they were. All standing in a line staring at us. The little calves were starting to walk forward towards us, but I quickly drove to the left of the herd. All the cows were following the truck as we drove past them. They were like zombie cows with intelligence and they craved the delicious truck bathed in different bug guts and salts collected from the saline flats we drove through earlier! We avoided them the second time and headed towards freedom. We could not get into Rochelle Hills, but we will find a way in the future to get into the allotment while avoiding the red and white cows.

The cows knew there was one entrance/ exit and they waited for us to drive past them again. Luckily we avoided them the second time around.

Found You, Sage Grouse!

Sara and I were in the Eastern section of Gillette monitoring around different oil wells and storage facilities. There was an allotment known as Antelope Draw. This place was isolated and hard to get to because the two track roads eventually changed into cow trails. When we arrived at the site we did see small sagebrush communities, but the sagebrush was dispersed amongst saline sites where nothing was growing. After we completed our monitoring, we started to drive back to the road and we noticed two birds waddling in front of our truck. They stood there and slowly walked away while staring. They were sage grouse!!! (The ones I remember out in Oregon were a lot bigger and these sage grouse were a lot smaller.) We were so excited to actually see them in our district! Usually we always hear about them, but no one really sees them. They flew a couple feet away from the truck into the sagebrush. I was super excited!! I finally saw sage grouse in this area!! I even made a special note on sage grouse evidence for the site.  Hopefully, the H₂S sites don’t impact the local communities. :/

Sage Grouse  (Centrocercus urophasianus)

And Now…. Your Moment of Zen…

Many bees love the Scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium) flower. Unfortunately, this forb was a nasty invasive.

S&G Monitoring and Beyond!

We finished S&G monitoring in the northern Gillette, Wyoming area! After visiting a variety of sites, we managed to do all of the line-point transects, wildlife evaluations, diversity studies, and geologic soil profiles. We have encountered more than sixty different species of forbs, grasses, and other flora! Some areas were incredibly diverse and had many different geologic and biologic processes. There were sites that were very saline that had a nice E horizon in the soil profile. Even looking at the soil profile and different species of grasses, we could understand the ecological significance of each site for many wild and domesticated animals.  I encountered some very disturbed sites that had yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis) and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) galore! Even with all of the cheatgrass and other invasive plants, we saw a diversity of grasses such as buffalograss (Bouteloua dactyloides), blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), needle and thread (Hesperostipa comata), prairie junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), purple red three awn (Aristida purpurea), green needlegrass (Nassella viridula), sandberg’s bluegrass (Poa secunda) and bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata).

BLM Legends ready to do S&G Monitoring!

After the S&G monitoring, Sara and I went out to different sites south of Gillette. Our goal was to do rangeland health monitoring assessments. This would help everyone with future S&G monitoring when they would come back to the site next year.  We had to do three point line transects that were 150 feet long at 0°, 120°, 240° azimuth. The point was to record the plants that were encountered every 3 feet along the measuring tape. We also had to look at species diversity, measure sagebrush length and height, assess total ground cover percentage, look for signs of erosion, and take notes on grazing practices on the allotment. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are totally ready for the challenge! ^_^

The Osborn Identity

All of the rangeland health monitoring had been going smoothly the last two weeks. Each of the sites we had to monitor were along county roads and took us around fifty minutes to assess. We did encounter one very tricky site known as the Osborn Allotment Site. Sara and I followed the GPS and took many back roads to get to the allotment. The problem was that the local quarries have expanded within the last year and absorbed all of the major roads leading to this site! D: We would make another turn and it would go into a quarry or a man-made valley. When you look on the satellite map, these smaller quarries did not exist. We spent a couple hours trying to find a way into this allotment and we did not want to give up, because we invested so much time into the search. We found a southern route and had to go through a field of cheatgrass and needle and thread. The grass seeds stored themselves in front of the truck and we had to stop to take the seed mass out before it caught on fire. We eventually made it to the Osborn Allotment Site, which was located next to a salt playa near another quarry. There were also a variety of birds that were present on the site such as the upland sandpiper, western meadowlark, lark bunting, lark sparrow, brewer’s sparrow, vesper sparrow, common nighthawk, turkey vulture, American crow, and grasshopper sparrow. Sara and I were pretty happy after finding and monitoring the site. We went on to complete two more sites that day. \(^_^)/

We found needle and thread seeds stuck in front of our truck. We should’ve taken a voucher and collected seeds for SOS. <_<…that was a joke.

The Little Bighorn Ranch Allotment Surprise

The Little Bighorn Ranch Allotment was located in the northeastern section of the Bighorn Mountains, which was located on the Montana-Wyoming border. To enter this allotment, we had to enter Montana and drive down into Wyoming. Sara and I went with BLM Legends Charlotte and Kay to monitor the site. I had to use all of my defensive driving experience when navigating through this valley the allotment was located in. This place was so isolated that it was never monitored before!! O_O We had to go over very narrow bridges and around boulder sites. The marmots were bemused by my twenty point turns I had to do with my truck when we encountered dead end roads.

Bemused marmot.

The valley that we were in was bizarre!! This place seemed like an ecotone for three different kinds of habitats. We had ponderosa forests mixed with many grassland and wetland species. There were huge cottonwoods (Populus deltoids subsp. monilifera) growing along with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) with many types of prairie forbs and grasses. The river was so clear you could almost see the bottom! This was a trout fisherman’s paradise. On top of that, we encountered a variety of birds that should not have been living there according to the bird guides I always carried around. There were a number of hummingbirds, wrens, warblers, vireos, chickadees, towhees, sparrows, hawks, thrush, blackbirds, and flycatchers that made this valley their home. I really liked the broad tailed hummingbirds and American redstarts!

Female broad tailed hummingbird that is posing for the camera.

We eventually drove to the site, which was located near a Wildlife Management Area. We got out of the truck and looked at the GPS and the satellite map. We saw that the BLM site was located on the cliff and a high ridge. No wonder no one monitored this site before! Most of it was on a cliff and a steep ridge. <_< We looked for any way up, but each way leading to the ridge was too dangerous to climb. V_V After investigating the area, we gave up the search for a safe route to site. Charlotte told us that we would work with the Forest Service later on to monitor this site. Kay and Charlotte theorized that there could be another way to access this plot from the other side of the ridge but that could take all day! D: After doing another fifteen point turn in a truck that had a nonexistent turning radius, we headed back to the Tongue River for a site evaluation before heading back to the office to work on more maps and data entry.

BLM site located on a cliff.

Misadventures

The Rare Sighting on Mt. Elbert 

During a small break over the weekend, I decided to visit my sister Rachel and her family down in Denver, Colorado. One of the goals for the weekend was to go with my brother-in-law, Eric, to climb Mt.Elbert, one of the taller 14ers in the state of Colorado. The long hike up the mountain was amazing! By the tree line there were all kinds of interesting forbs, many of which I have never seen before.

A forb I have never seen before.

When we got to the top of the mountain I noticed a couple of small finches hopping on the ground. I took a closer look and was totally shocked! They were brown capped rosy finches!! OoO I was beyond thrilled to see these very rare finch species. I told Eric and everyone around me. Then I took a large amount of photos of them just to prove to my friends that I have seen this species. We reached the summit and viewed our surroundings before heading down the trail. Reaching the summit with Eric and finding the brown capped rosy finch really made my day at least 20% cooler. ^_^

(/O_O)/ Behold! The Brown Capped Rosy Finch!

Blue Bank Road

One weekend I decided to follow a rock hounding lead to an area near Worland, Wyoming, which was located on the other side of the Bighorn Mountains. Rumors say that there were many fossils and very unusual geologic formations on this BLM land. I decided to investigate this region to see if the rumors were true. I did some research and found out this area was located on Blue Bank Road and was called the Honeycombs. When driving to the location, I packed a lot of water and some food in case of harsh, sunny conditions.

Blue Bank Road was very gravely and would be considered a back country road. I drove up to the first pull off and I was in awe!! The area looked like the Badlands in South Dakota, but they were far more colorful. Red, pink, white, brown, tan, and black could be seen in all of layers of the rock formation. I investigated each formation at every site and found all sorts of bizarre geologic wonders. There were plenty of agates, very colorful chert, degraded fossils of plants, and different gypsum rocks. The formations were quite impressive. I have a minor in geology and there were some geologic oddities that really puzzled me. There were a variety of birds that populated this area such as the canyon wren, rock wren, western meadowlark, chukar, grasshopper sparrow, western kingbird, mourning dove, lark sparrow, sage thrasher, and ferruginous hawk. Overall, the trip to this area was very successful and I found many awesome rocks!

Blue Bank Road Badlands

Treasures of Blue Bank Road!

GIF of the Week!!

When I go out into the field with Sara and monitor different sites for grass and forb species, I always dreamed of seeing one of the land owners in the distance watching us and nodding his or her head in approval for the work we are doing… just like Jeremiah Johnson in this gif.

RHA Monitoring To The Max!!!

For the last couple of weeks we did Rangeland Health Assessments (RHAs)! We had to go to a site that was previously monitored the prior year and we had to monitor it again this year. We did all kinds of monitoring! Many of the BLM employees and interns worked on a variety of protocols. We did three point line monitoring transects. We spread out three measuring tapes measuring to 150 feet at 0°, 120°, 240° degrees and read the species composition and the ground type every three feet along the transect. To monitor the sage grouse, we measured the height and length of all the sagebrush in the transect. We wanted to see if this site was a healthy representation for sage grouse habitat.

The Daubenmire monitoring protocol looked at the percentage of annual/perennial forbs, annual/perennial grasses, bare ground, and last year’s plants within a Daubenmire rectangle every ten feet along a transect for one hundred feet. This could help us see the general composition percentage of plants, litter and bare ground of the site we were working on. We checked for all kinds of shrubs and assessed their age. We wanted to see how many shrubs were young, mature, desiccant (half dead…or half alive??), or dead.

The soil and site assessment looked at the soil composition to see what type of soil was on the site. We would dig a deep hole so we could look at the soil composition and soil profile. Typically, the soil was loamy to sandy on each of the sites. We can also tell what kind of soil the site had based on the species composition of the site. For example, we could tell it is a sandy site based on the large percentage of needle and thread grass (Hesperostipa comata) everywhere. One of us would go out and try to identify as many plants as possible on the site. We would develop a list of shrubs, forbs, and grasses for the plant accumulation assessment part of the monitoring. The final assessment to complete the RHAs was the erosion assessment. We looked at the landscape to determine if there were any signs of erosion such as gullies, rills, and pedestalling. Luckily, most of the sites were in good condition beyond the cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) .<_<

Buffalo, WY CLM Interns are always ready for more RHAs!!!

The Rumble in Thunder Basin

Early in the morning the rangeland workers, wildlife biologists, and a few geologists would drive an hour and a half to different allotments in the Northern Gillette region of Wyoming for monitoring. This region looked like the Badlands in South Dakota, but the landscape was covered with a variety of grasses, forbs, and yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis). (I thought it was horrible and funny to see the yellow sweet clover grow on the back roads. Those flowers made the back roads look like the Yellow Bricked Road from the Wizard of Oz.) Many species of grasses were dominate in the sandy-loamy soils such as Western Wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), Needle and Thread, Green Needlegrass (Nassella viridula), Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis), and Sandberg’s Bluegrass (Poa secunda) to name a few. There were also introduced species present in the landscape such as Japanese Brome (Bromus japonicus), Cheatgrass, and the repugnant North Africa Grass (Ventenata dubia). (/OoO)/ oh no!!

I swear, this is not a painting. This is real! This was located in the Thunder Basin!

The Gillette Region was well known for resource extraction and it was our main area for RHA monitoring. Coal, oil, and natural gas have been mined in this region for a very long time. Massive quarries could be seen with huge terex rock trucks hauling tons of coal to the transportation areas, so the resources could be hauled away by trains within and outside the United States. Some of the tires on the trucks were about 10-12 feet high! O_O Within many of our monitoring sites we would see many pumpjacks (oil horses) working to extract oil from the ground. Every so often we would see H₂S warning signs and we would just roll up our windows and quickly drive through the area. (We were assured that there was nothing to fear and the dangerous H₂S sites were not active in our area.) ^_^;;

Pumpjack/ Oil Horse

Heather, Sara, Jill and I were working on three point line intercepts one afternoon until we heard a soft rumble. It felt like a small earthquake that only lasted a couple of seconds. We continued with work as usual and twenty minutes later we felt another rumble. All of us were curious what was causing the minor quake and we thought it was coming from the quarries. Kay and Dusty were saying that the small rumbles we were feeling were indeed coming from one of the quarries, which were using dynamite to blast more rock. Those small rumbles in the Thunder Basin were really incredible and bizarre at the same time. (I wonder if I can tell time by the number of explosions I feel in one hour?)

Beyond the man-made small rumbles, Thunder Basin has encountered many severe thunderstorms recently. Flash flood warnings, strong winds, hail, thunder, lightning, and torrential downpours were occurring all over the region we were monitoring. Luckily, we managed not to get caught in any of the thunderstorms. You could even see the hail drop out of the clouds fifteen miles away. One of the field work days was cancelled due to flooding on the main road to Gillette, Wyoming. Another bird transect surveying project was temporarily cancelled due to flash flooding and muddy roads. (Seriously, the country roads after a thunderstorm could get very slippery and muddy. Good bye car washed government vehicle, hello muddy object with wheels… <_<)

Severe Thunderstorm near Gillette, Wyoming.

Thunder Basin was an amazing place to monitor! We encountered shallow explosion quakes, viewed a lot of wildlife, and monitored many interesting kind of habitats. I would never forget this region. Now, onwards to the Southern Gillette allotments for future monitoring assignments!! (/O_O)/

Field of BLM Dreams

One of the days, we all got to take a break and go to an area north of Sheridan, Wyoming to plant different grasses. Our goal was to plant nine thousand Green Needlegrass and Bluebunch wheatgrass grass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) in a prepared irrigation field located along the Tongue River. Many BLM employees, seasonal workers, interns, and volunteers were hard at work planting the grasses. We thought this project was going to take two or three days, but we managed to complete the project in one day!! Everything was all prepared and all we needed to do was visit the site a couple of times a week to turn on and off the water for the plants. Hopefully, we will create a Field of BLM Dreams for future seed collections for restoration projects. 😉

Planting Green Needlegrass!!

Devils Tower \(O_O\)

Devils Tower! Look at all of the phonolite!!

All of the Buffalo, Wyoming CLM interns decided to take a Sunday afternoon trip to Devils Tower! We had a very adventurous day. The tour began at the prairie dog village where many prairie dogs were active and chirping. The little prairie dogs were pretty cute and were playing with their siblings. Next, we took a short hike around the base of Devils Tower and watched different climbers crawl up the sides of the geologic feature. Some of the climbers looked super tired and every so often the turkey vultures would investigate to see if everyone was alive. We saw a variety of butterflies and flowers throughout the hike, which made us stop in our tracks and investigate the species. Later on, we met up with Heather’s friend and we were taken on a small tour of the Devils Tower Lodge. At the end of the tour, we got to walk across the slack line. The process was a challenge, but if you relaxed and stayed focused, you could easily walk back and forth on the slack line…with two poles in both hands. Also, we did not see any aliens…just a lot of alien merchandise at the gift stores. 😀

Time for a Prairie Dog Gif Comic

Whenever Prairie Dogs see a CLM Intern.

Buffalo, Wyoming: The Final Frontier… These are the voyages of a CLM Intern. His five-month mission: to explore strange new ecosites, to seek out new plant life and new allotments, to boldly go where no CLM Intern has gone before…

The Lost World

This week I spent my time in the Fortification Creek WSA. This area was located near Gillette, Wyoming and would be considered very isolated from the outside world. The landscape looked very similar to the Badlands in South Dakota. The steep topography would be a real challenge, especially for many advance hikers. There were many juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) stands, grasslands, prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) villages, and many creeks that made this landscape very heterogeneous, making this area ideal for a variety of many unusual plants and animals. There were elk (Cervus canadensis) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) all over the place and they all looked very healthy. Probably due to the abundance of winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata). I went with a BLM employee and four wildlife biologist from the University of Wyoming: Laramie Natural Diversity Database Research Division. Our goal was to record, observe, and identify as many mammals, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, flora, and birds as possible. This was a five day mission of backpacking, doing transects, and collecting plant and insect pollinator samples! I was beyond excited. I will only include a couple stories…^_^;

A herd of elk!!

Bug Net Training and Animal Crossing!
One of my jobs on this trip was to collect as many different pollinators as possible. Lusha was a wildlife biologist who wanted to look for many different pollinators such as bees, moths, and butterflies. She would set up different insect traps to capture a plethora of different insect species. She gave me a net, a jar of ethanol, and a few wax paper envelopes. I would quickly run into the field with the net and look for all the pollinators. Now you may think catching insects would be easy. It is not! D: They were very quick, agile, and sneaky! Catching these insects was a challenge, but I learned all of their tricks. Handling the bug net was like an art. You had to be methodical, swift like the breeze, and as keen as a ninja. Most of my bug net training came from experience and the game known as Animal Crossing.

Checkerspot Butterfly

We were by a place near Bull Creek and everyone was surveying the area. Lusha was putting out many different traps and she would point out to me a pollinator she wanted. Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) were in abundance followed by different species of butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera Family). I caught almost all of them, but it was difficult putting them in the jar or envelope on a windy day. I also caught different Coleoptera beetles such as the dung beetle, darkling beetle, and tiger beetle to name a few. The tiger beetles were green metallic insects that ran fast and had large jaws. They were very interesting to catch, because they liked to hop around like they were throwing a tantrum before they flew away. Another beetle that was interesting was the dung beetle. I had never seen them before in the wild. They were in abundance in the WSA. They were rolling dung balls everywhere!

One of the most challenging insects to catch was the hawk moth of the Sphingidae Family. I had three opportunities, but they were so darn fast and I missed each one. I found a fourth moth on a white beardtongue (Penstemon albidus). I performed a left to right false swipe with my net near the moth to make it fly away from the flower. Immediately, I did a sky uppercut false swipe to make the insect fly upwards and I followed with net hammer down move. Three hit combo! ^_^ The moth was not injured at all and was in great health! Catching all of these insects was extremely fun and provided a good workout. I collected some nice specimens for the University of Wyoming: Laramie!

The Nature Hike and The Rabid Bat

Ian, Wendy, Bonnie, Lusha, and I were traveling up Bull Creek to find different flora and fauna. Bonnie was looking for as many flora specimens as possible to put in the herbarium. Wendy was in charge of looking for many different reptiles and amphibians in the area. Ian looked for as many birds and mammal species as possible (concentrating on bats). Lusha looked for all of the invertebrates. We hiked up the creek and came across many ephemeral ponds full of tadpoles and aquatic insects. I never seen so many different species of amphibian in one small pond. The experience was awesome! We encountered a pair of red tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) who had a nest in the area. They would screech and fly close to us as we observed them. They had different morphs, which made them look like a different species! As we hiked further up the creek, we saw an elk herd standing on the hill. They were all staring at us making bizarre noises. I never thought an elk could sound like a whining shiba inu… With all of these great experiences, we always had to be on the lookout for ticks of the Ixodidae Family. Ticks were all over the place!! I must have collected over fifteen ticks a day by traveling on elk trails. Wherever we see signs of elk, we had to totally make sure to check ourselves for ticks after.

Tadpoles of various species!

One of the many ticks I found. I called this one Bitey! ^_^;

Later in the afternoon, Ian was setting up a bat microphone near one of the ephemeral ponds and then he saw a bat flying around. The tiny mammal was hunting for insects in broad daylight! The movements and behavior were odd for this kind of species of bat. Ian mentioned that this bat had rabies. O_O We were all shocked and kept an eye out for it. The tiny bat was following us as we hiked on. It came very close a couple of times making us nervous. Sometimes the bat would disappear and reappear unexpectedly! Ian and I tried to get the bat with the net, but the tiny little guy would dodge and fly into something and fly away. This kept on happening for a good twenty minutes. The creature eventually left, but seeing that tiny bat was funny and horrible at the same time! <_<

Bird Transects

We would get up at 4:30am in the morning and do bird transects for the week. Our goal was to go to twelve different transects and record the bird species we would find in that area. The landscape was very hard to navigate in, especially if you were carrying a daypack through very cold and hot temperatures extremes. Some days the grass would be so wet that your pants and shoes would be constantly dripping of water for hours. Some of the transects were located near steep inclines of topography, so I had to take a couple of breaks when hiking up the slopes. Good thing I carried a lot of water and food with me just in case. 😉 Many of the transect places I visited had a huge amount of petrified wood. I called them leaverites, because I had to leave them there due to the fact that we were in a WSA.

Petrified Wood!!

Most of my time I was following different elk trails to my next destination. I love the elk! They could always find the easiest path up the slope! \(^_^/) When I was bird watching I would hear many hidden birds, so I would have to listen to them by ear and identify them that way.

These are the birds we heard or saw. (Sorry, will not include the latin names. :/ )

Brewer’s Sparrow                   Vesper’s Sparrow                    Chipping Sparrow

Blue Gray Gnatcatcher           Red Winged Blackbird           Common Grackle

House Wren                            Rock Wren                              American Robin

American Goldfinch               Black Billed Magpie               Grasshopper Sparrow

Red Tailed Hawk                    Ruby Crown Kinglet              Mountain Bluebird

Lazuli Bunting                        Yellow Rumped Warbler        Yellow Warbler

Turkey Vulture                        American Robin                      Western Wood Pewee

Eastern Kingbird                     Western Kingbird                   Yellow Breasted Chat

Black Headed Grosbeak         Lark Sparrow                          Western Meadowlark

Spotted Towhee                      Mourning Dove                       Brown Headed Cowbird

Short Earred Owl                    Cedar Waxwing                      Violet Green Swallow

Bullock’s Oriole                      Black Capped Chickadee       Horned Lark

Unfortunately, we were expecting to see more bird species, but we did manage to see many unique birds! The overall bird watching experience was amazing, but trying to hike between transects was very exhausting. ^_^;;

Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus)

Misadventures:

Dear Diary: Jackpot!!

On one of the weekends, I traveled with my parents to the Black Hills for a tiny vacation. I love to rock hound around the Black Hills and I would find all sorts of cool treasures. There was this one area I hiked up to that had a massive outcrop of pegmatite (very coarse grained granite). I hit the jackpot!!! There were massive pieces of milky and rose quartz everywhere!! ^_^ I grabbed a couple of specimens and took a picture before moving onwards.

Rose Quartz!!

Teaching The Next Generation

A couple of weeks ago, our boss offered Jill and I an experience to help out with an outreach project for the schools led by Allison and Dusty. We were supposed to go teach an elementary school class of 5^th graders (I think they were fifth graders ^_^;;) the difference between flora. We had to explain to them about forbs, shrubs, trees, grasses, and grass look a likes. The children were all excited about learning and doing the plant scavenger hunt. The BLM employees and the interns would go out and help identify each of the plants for the kids. The kids constantly took specimens to show us. I was in my element! I was explaining to them the history of the plant and how to identify each of the species. They loved to talk about all of their experiences which included nature hikes, camping, Jesus, and Pokemon. By the end of the program, many kids were taking grasses and other plant specimens back to their rooms. Overall, the nature class was a success!!

________________________________________________________________________

Thank you everyone for reading the entry for this week!! Have a great day!

Justin Chappelle

CLM Intern

Buffalo, Wyoming

I will leave you with a picture of some dung beetles. Enjoy!

Dung Beetles!!

Hello everyone!!! This is Justin Chappelle reporting from Buffalo, Wyoming! This is my second year as an intern for the CLM (Conservation of Land Management), and I am beyond excited. Previously, I worked for the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) in Burns, Oregon on ES&R (Emergency Stabilization & Rehabilitation) monitoring throughout Harney County. I liked the experience so much, I wanted to do another internship with the CLM through the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Presently, I am an intern for the Buffalo BLM station working on rangeland monitoring, SOS (Seeds of Success), and other side biology projects. This is my first week here and everything has been very busy. The other intern, Jill, and I did a couple field excursions and certification classes to help us get adapted to the upcoming field season. We will be monitoring many trend sites and scouting out locations to collect seed for SOS projects. Working in the high plains desert will be tough, but the experiences gathered from this internship will greatly help with my future job.

Certified and BLM Approved.

In order to go out in the field we would have to take a series of safety classes. Half of the training was done online and the other half was with BLM employees. I learned a lot from the CPR class, because our teacher was really hands on. The other intern and I had to learn how to work with AEDs, learn how to help people when they are choking, and learn how to efficiently do CPR. The class was exhausting, because we had to pair up with BLM employees that were a lot taller and bigger. We had to catch them as they fell over and we had to put them in certain positions to allow them to be resuscitated. (I had my workout for the day.) We were tested at the end and we passed with flying colors. We were CPR certified…and BLM approved. 😉

The next major training we had was defensive driving. The four hour long computer course was extensive and detailed…and sort of dull…but it had to be done! ^_^; The next step was to take a four hour class within the BLM building. We watched that BLM driver safety video that was done in the Western Oregon forests. I think it is funny how the video was mostly in a forest setting, while most of the BLM lands are in high plains deserts or drier regions of the United States. We passed the examination at the very end of the course and had to take our driving tests with one of our bosses. Jill and I easily passed. So we were certified in defensive driving …and BLM approved. 😀

Field Excursion: Into the Powder River Basin!

There were many opportunities to go out into the field to view all of the BLM land. Our mentor wanted to give us as much experience with the roads and the local flora. We went out to look for many SOS plant locations and identified many of the key high plains desert species. I noticed many of the plants that were in the Powder River Basin could also be found in Illinois (where I am from) and Oregon! The grasses were a little difficult to identify, because they were just emerging. Except Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass)…that grass was fully grown and ready for action. <_< Hesperostipa comata (needle and thread), Poa seconda (Sandbergs bluegrass), and Pascopyrum smithii (western wheatgrass) were some of my favorite grasses to identify that were sprouting out of the ground. This land had many diverse grasses and it will be very easy to collect the grass seed portion for the SOS projects.

When we entered the Powder River Basin, the area reminded me a lot of the Badlands in South Dakota. I could see most of the rock outcrops were made of kaolinite, goethite, and aluminum based minerals. The clay feel of the soil with the erosional patterns of the outcrops definitely looked like the Badlands. Many of the flowers and plants we saw in this section were adapted to these soils. There was a lot of Zigadenus venenosus (meadows death camas), Sarcobatus vermiculatus (greasewood), Penestemon angustifolius (broadbeard penestemon), Phlox hoodii (spiny phlox), and various scurf pea species. In some areas, we saw Opuntia polyacantha (plains prickly-pear cactus) and Pediocactus simpsonii (hedgehog cactus), which were very majestic in a spiny Wyoming way. Eventually, we saw a majority of our key SOS plants blooming. For some of the species we will have to make a mad dash to collect all of their seeds.

Pediocactus simpsonii

Opuntia polyacantha

Most of our trips through the Powder River Basin were accompanied by large thunderstorms. During this time of year, the field is inundated with storms. Looking at a green prairie with a back drop  of a massive cumulonimbus was strikingly beautiful. Even when identifying plants, the clouds kept the sun out of our eyes. This won’t last for long, but the scenery was breath taking.

The Powder River Basin had a lot of activity! There were many Lepus spp (jack rabbits) and (Antilocapra americana) pronghorns! They would gracefully eat grass or try to out run our vehicle. We would use our defensive driving knowledge and be aware of these creatures in case they ran in front of us. (Which was like 40% of the time.) The pronghorn seemed to dominate the area and were comfortable with eating around oblivious cattle. We did not see any jackalope, because they do not exist. There were many Cynomys ludovicianus (black tailed prairie dog) villages in the Powder River Basin and some of them had Athene cunicularia (burrowing owls) nesting on the outskirts.

Season Variations for Buffalo, Wyoming.

There was a lot of human activity as well dotted throughout the landscape. The Powder River Basin is known for the natural resources such as coal, oil, uranium and natural gas. We would pass different pumping stations that would help with resource extraction. Many trucks would be hauling different resources around the back country to processing plants. Viewing both natural and human processes in effect reminded me of the importance of restoration and preservation. Learning how to balance different processes is the key for the success of future generations. ^_^

Zigadenus venenosus              (meadows death camas)

Penestemon angustifolius (broadbeard penestemon)

Misadventures

This is the section where I talk about my adventures outside of work.  \(^_^\)

A Slice of Cowboy Life

My roommate Sean invited me to go with him early in the morning to look for Tympanuchus phasianellus (sharp tailed grouse) leks. I was ecstatic! I have never seen this bird before and there is a good chance that I would be seeing them this morning.  We went on a red sandy road east of Sheridan, Wyoming and arrived at the site around 5:45am. We saw two leks and both of them were active. The male grouse were strutting their stuff and did little dances for the females. They looked like a B-52 bombers with an erect wagging tail. The females were unimpressed and probably did not care for the rainy mist going through the area. The males were trying extra hard to shuffle and make thumping noises. The experience was incredible! O_O

We were traveling back to the car and we saw a truck hauling a horse trailer coming towards us. The cowboy pulled over and asked if we were here for the branding. Sean and I introduced ourselves and said we were looking for sharp tailed grouse and did not know about the branding occurring on this pasture today. We noticed more trucks and trailers coming towards us and so we went along with the caravan. We talked with many cowboys and cowgirls who were getting ready to herd the cattle. We stayed in our car as they herded every cow into the corral. When it was safe to exit the car, we walked to the corral. The goal of the branding was to brand, vaccinate, and neuter the calves. This was a community event and around twenty five people showed up with their families to this event. They were all here to help this rancher with the tasks. Sean wanted to help out and I was a little hesitant at first because I was not dressed for it nor was I prepared to help with the cattle. Eventually, Sean and I talked with the cowboys and the head rancher, asking them if they needed any help. They showed us how to gather the calves and brand them. The process was very quick and it seemed like the calves were in no pain at all. They were running around and staring at everyone after. Sean and I both helped out with holding the calves down. They were very strong and by the end of the branding we were covered with mud and poop. We were both tired from the event, but we met many different ranchers and cowboys/girls. We learned a little about the slice of cowboy life in Sheridan, Wyoming.

I could not get a picture of myself beyond this point, because I was pretty busy helping.

Rook is the best herding dog!

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That is it for this week, everyone! Thank you for reading and have a nice day!! ^_^

Justin Chappelle

Buffalo, Wyoming BLM

And now…please click on the below picture for your moment of zen…