I had the opportunity to assist in a few rangeland health assessments with our range peoples in the office lately.  This was a great new experience and another weapon in the arsenal of experience this internship has given me.  These rangeland health assessments are done as part of the permit renewal on pasture allotments every ten years.  The assessment consists of evaluating seventeen attributes of an area such as hydrology, erosion, and biotic integrity.  The process starts by running a point step transect with one hundred points and marking what was hit on a form.  Next hooping and clipping is done to measure productivity and then the seventeen attributes can be assessed.  The process is a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data used to give an idea of the pastures quality at that point in time.  The assessment is not used to measure what management practices should be taken on the land, it is simply a picture in time of the condition of the pasture.  The assessments are done multiple times throughout the pasture allotment the areas are selected randomly in order to get a representative idea of the pasture allotment.  Until next time people of the internet! 

 A key component to seed collection is having plants to collect seeds from.  A key component to having plants is rain.  The latter component has been very elusive in the Farmington district however.  It is as though the district is located in a desert or something. Needless to say the lack of rain has brought seed collection to a screeching halt.  The bright side of no rain is that it has afforded us the opportunity to help others in the office out on projects they are working on.  We have had the pleasure of working on a bird survey before a prescribed burn, running transects for a long term bird study, and checking wildlife cameras.  Our biggest accomplishment has been building two large native plant gardens in from of our office.  We planted over one hundred plants from over forty different species into the gardens.  It was a lot of work but the end result looks really amazing.  Hopefully I will be able to regale you internet people with stories of collecting seeds again but until then keep your fingers crossed for rain. Cheers!       

Partially Constructed Garden

Finished Garden

Hitting the ground running

 Since returning from the stimulating training in Chicago, seed collecting has been in full throttle.  We have taken collections from 7 species and 3 of those 6 we have taken multiple collections.  One of the most challenging collections we made was of Tripterocalyx micranthus.  The fruits of these plants have wings and are found in clusters at the apex of the stems of the plant.  Unfortunately this is not where we found the fruits.  We were a day or two late and found these lovely little winged fruits scattered everywhere on the ground throughout the population area.  The proximity of the fruits to the plants did slow the collection process but it did not stop us from making a decent sized collection. 

Figuring out the proper collection technique for the species being collected has been one of the most interesting parts of the job and naming these techniques has been one of the most entertaining.  For example the technique used on Hesperostipa comata is called the New Mexican strip and see.  This species of grass has an inflorescence with multiple seeds and one awn per seed.  When these seeds are ready, the awn curls and bends at nearly a 90° angle while the awns on the seeds that aren’t ready remain straight.  Our technique is to grab the inflorescence with your hand and pull upwards, which generally strips the seeds that are ready off of the plant and leaving the unripe seeds on the plant – which is where the name is derived.  Some of the other techniques in use are the Texas tickle which we used to collect Tradescatia occidentalis or the claw we used on the Aristida purpurea. 

To sum up this internship thus far is to say it has been an experience and I mean that in a good way.  Learning new plant species and collecting seeds have been rewarding. We have also had the opportunity to go out in the field with others from the office which has given us an idea of what else is happening in our region.  Exploring the region on the weekends has also been thrilling.  I feel lucky for the opportunity to take part in this program.

Cheers internet people! Catch you next month.

Aristida purpurea

Tradescantia occidentalis

Tripterocalyx micranthus

                  Hello everybody!  We are nearly finished with our second week working on the Seeds of Success program in Farmington New Mexico and it has been a wild ride.  The first week consisted mostly of training and office days but we did get out in the field a couple of times where we were able to check out some of the plant species found here.  One highlight of last week was getting the opportunity to assist one of the range management teams monitoring pasture sites that will be seeded in the fall.  The canyons and rock formations we were able to see that day were absolutely amazing.  A highlight of the second week, was playing plant CSI and investigating an area where someone had been stealing plants.  As it turns out our sleuthing skills are a little rusty and no culprits were ever determined.   

                We have scouted out a few places we hope to make collections of plants, but still have many more to investigate.  We are hoping to start collecting in a few weeks from some of the earlier succession plants but the lack of rain may not make it possible.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.

This area is full of interesting places to explore from Chaco Canyon to the South, the desert to the west, and the San Juan Mountains to the North.  There will be much to learn, see and explore in the short time we have the opportunity to live in this part of the world. 

 I apologize for the lack of pictures but there will be many more next post.  Until next time!

Our first potential collection
   Delphinium scaposum