January 10, 2014

Las Cruces, NM

It’s always nice to end something on a high note. Seven months ago I kicked off my CLM internship with a field trip to the Guadalupe Mountains in search of the rare plant Dermatophyllum guadalupense, or the Guadalupe Mescal Bean. This location in southeastern New Mexico along the Texas border is a proposed ACEC, or Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and our mentor, Mike, needed a better understanding of the plant’s distribution in the region prior to completing the required paperwork. However, our strenuous hike up a canyon in 104 degree heat was in vain, for we did not find any new Mescal Bean plants.

This week- my last week as a CLM intern- Mike and I ventured back to search a different part of the Guadalupe Mountains that hadn’t been surveyed since the 1980’s. We spent two days in the field and located at least six new populations of the Mescal Bean, several with more than 300 individuals! We also identified other locations in the region that are also suitable for the plant due to similar geology. It turns out that the Mescal Bean is likely locally abundant in the Guadalupe and Brokeoff Mountains, or, as Mike puts it “rare everywhere but common somewhere.” Furthermore, the populations that we found appeared healthy, and the small plants scattered throughout the population suggested that plant recruitment is faring well. This finding was amazing. I cannot think of a better way to end my internship. This experience has truly come full circle.

Mescal Bean Habitat, Guadalupe Mountains

Mescal Bean Habitat, Brokeoff Mountains

Guadalupe Mescal Bean

Guadalupe Mescal Bean

I’ve come so far since the beginning of this internship. During my time in Las Cruces, I’ve destroyed a pair of hiking boots and driven about 25,000 miles while on the job. That distance is equivalent to driving from coast to coast across the United States about 8 times. More importantly, I’ve been able to explore and learn about a part of our country that I never would have visited without this internship. I cannot think of a better way to spend a few months after graduating from college.

These guys stuck with me til the end (barely)

On that note, goodbye New Mexico! It’s been real.
-Elisabeth Ward

January 6, 2014

Las Cruces, NM

Hello and happy New Year! Today is my first day back in the office after a relaxing holiday vacation, and it sure feels great to be back. Chicago, where I am from, is currently experiencing record low temperatures with a high of -12 and a low of -16. Let me repeat that. Today’s HIGH in Chicago is predicted to be -12. Las Cruces, on the other hand, is still experiencing highs in the upper 50’s and lower 60’s. Like I said, I am very happy to be back.

Before the holidays, Kate and I were busy monitoring the rare plant Peniocereus greggii var. greggii (Night-Blooming Cereus or Queen of the Night cactus), which is a cacti found exclusively in southern New Mexico, northern Mexico, and west Texas. This species has high ornamental value, and has been extirpated from several regions due to overcollection for commercial and private distribution. For more information about this species, see the New Mexico Rare Plants web site.

Night-Blooming Cereus (Peniocereus greggii var. greggii). Photo Credit: Mike Howard

For three weeks, Kate and I travelled to several populations scattered around the bootheel region of New Mexico to gather data on the species’ health and scout the region for new individuals. Currently, there is very limited data on Peniocereus greggii var. greggii, and its habitat preferences are poorly understood. One thing that is known about the species, however, is that it typically grows within a nurse plant, such as Creosotebush (Larrea tridentata). This relationship is beneficial to the Night-Blooming Cereus for several reasons: (1) the shrub overstory provides physical protection from herbivory, trampling, high winds, or other potential sources of damage, (2) the shrub canopy also provides shade, which may prevent damage from excess solar radiation, (3) the nurse plant also increases nutrient and water availability.

Kate and I were assigned to monitor this species because BLM New Mexico has an ongoing project that may threaten the relationship between the Night-Blooming Cereus and its nurse plant. Restore New Mexico is a nine-year-old project whose mission is to restore New Mexico’s land to its former species composition. This includes promoting the spread of native grasses in the Chihuahuan Desert region of the southern portion of the state. Shrubs, such as Creosotebush (Larrea tridentata) and Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) have come to dominate the Chihuahuan Desert due to a combination of climate change and overgrazing. In order to facilitate the establishment of native grasses, BLM New Mexico applies herbicide to large portions of its land to kill off the dominant shrub cover. This approach, however, may be problematic for the Night-Blooming Cereus since the herbicide kills off its nurse plants.

One of the Peniocereus greggii populations that Kate and I monitored was divided evenly between treated and untreated parcels of land. Therefore, Our Peniocereus greggii var. greggii monitoring work will hopefully be the beginning of a long term project to assess the affects of herbicide application on Night-Blooming Cereus health. While the data we collected this year have not yet been analyzed, we were surprised to find a significant number of healthy Night-Blooming Cereus individuals within the treated parcels of land. However, long term monitoring is still needed to determine whether it is safe to apply herbicide to areas occupied by rare plants, such as the Night-Blooming Cereus.
-Elisabeth Ward

November 25, 2013

Las Cruces, NM

Greetings!  So much has changed in the past month both in the office and out.  For one thing, it snowed here this past weekend!  As interns in Las Cruces, we have a housing agreement with the BLM.  In exchange for government housing, we have the responsibility of monitoring the trails at Dripping Springs Natural Area two weekend days each month.  Fulfilling this duty yesterday was an absolute pleasure.  As a native Chicagoan, I shouldn’t be so awestruck by snow, but witnessing fresh snowfall in the mountains of New Mexico was stunning.

This weekend’s snow was also a reality check.  For the most part, life in Las Cruces has felt a lot like an extended summer vacation.  Between the consistently sunny weather and my remote living situation (no TV or internet at our house), I feel pretty separated from reality.  I keep anticipating September weather typical of New England, indicating its time to pack my bags and head back to school.  The snow this weekend has set me straight.  My undergraduate years are behind me for good, and the CLM internship has been the perfect jump start to life in the real world.

Pictures from my snowy hike up to Dripping Springs

We have also experienced several changes at the office.  Seed collection season is essentially over, and in its stead, we have helped out with several monitoring projects, including one involving the sand pricklypear cactus (Opunita arenaria).  Because it has a relatively narrow habitat range limited by sandy soils, and it is highly susceptible to changing environmental conditions (e.g. water availability, winter temperatures) and herbivory, the sand pricklypear is listed as a rare plant species in the state of New Mexico.  Several years ago, local officials announced plans of constructing a dam and flood retention pond on a site occupied by a sand pricklypear population.  BLM agreed to the proposal under the condition that the sand pricklypears within the construction site would be transplanted to a new location.  Furthermore, all the transplanted individuals had to be caged in order to minimize herbivory during the plants’ initial establishment.  A couple weeks ago, Kate and I had the opportunity to monitor the success of the sand pricklypear transplant project, and, ultimately, we wrote a comprehensive report summarizes our findings.  I absolutely loved working on this project. I have been quite nostalgic about my college days, and it felt great to write an analytical paper again (did I really just admit that I miss paper-writing?).

One of the caged, transplanted sand pricklypears (Opuntia arenaria) from our monitoring project

Last week, we also worked on an oil well pad restoration project outside Roswell, NM (fun fact: the site we worked at was where Felix Baumgartner landed after his famous space jump).  The ultimate goal of this project has to re-vegetate the area using native plant materials in order to provide suitable habitat for the lesser prairie chicken.  However, the deep sandy soils characteristic of the region are extremely difficult to re-vegetate, so our mentor, Mike Howard, used this project as an opportunity to experiment with restoration techniques.  Sand bluestem (Andropogon hallii) was planted throughout the 3 acre well pad at different pot depths.  While deeper pots are known to facilitate plant establishment, they are also more expensive ( $15 per pot), and Mike wanted to determine if there was a cheaper solution that had a comparable success rate.

Sand bluestem restoration monitoring project outside Roswell, NM

– Elisabeth Ward

October 29, 2013

Las Cruces, NM

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that BLM New Mexico only has two botanists stationed throughout the state—one in Farmington and one here in Las Cruces.  This has implications for plant conservation.  Our mentor and local botanist, for instance, is responsible for managing approximately 11 million acres of public land.  However, in addition to managing an enormous area of land, botanists in the state have the added hardship of being responsible for two full-time jobs: seed collections for Seeds of Success and threatened and endangered (T&E) species monitoring. Because seed collections are more time sensitive in the short term, work on T&E species usually occurs later in the season, after SOS projects are nearly complete.

Until now, 95% of our efforts have been focused on seed collections.  However, Kate and I are now beginning to plan several T&E related projects for the upcoming weeks.  A few weeks ago, we helped Evelyn Williams, a researcher from the Chicago Botanic Garden, set up a preliminary pollination study for the rare plant Lepidospartum burgessii (LEBU), and in a few days, we will return to the LEBU site to check up on the progress of her experiment.  We are also going to be involved in projects related to several other T&E species, including the Sand Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia arenaria) and the night-blooming cereus (Cereus greggii).  While Kate and I really enjoyed our Seeds of Success work, we are excited to mix it up and experience a new aspect of plant conservation in the upcoming weeks.

Elisabeth Ward

August 30, 2013

Las Cruces, NM

In my last two blog posts I commented on some of the differences between the Midwest/Northeast, where I grew up, and the Southwest.  One of the most obvious differences between these regions is people’s attitude towards rain.  Unlike the water-logged Midwest, where disastrous floods are commonplace, people in New Mexico actually hope for rain.  In addition to providing a marvelous spectacle (lightning) and offering a welcome break from June’s scorching heat, rain also supports all forms of life in the desert.  The welfares of farmers, wildlife, and local flora alike are all linked to the regions annual precipitation patterns. New Mexico’s positive attitude towards rainy weather is readily apparent in the office; small talk conversations centered around the break room coffee maker almost always revolve around the most recent bout of rain.

In Las Cruces, monsoon rains, which occur during the months of July and August, account for the vast majority of annual rainfall.  So far this year, New Mexico has experienced above average rainfall, and this influx of water has had phenomenal effects on the landscape. Formerly dry, dusty arroyos now trickle with streams and the once crispy stands of vegetation are now flush with color.  These changes to the landscape have enabled Mike, Kate, and I to have an extremely productive month in terms of seed collections.  We spent nearly all our time out in the field this month, and we have completed 10 collections.

Dripping Springs- the namesake of our home in the Organ Mountains- is usually little more than a trickle of water, but July’s generous rainfall has turned this tiny spring into a respectable waterfall.

Patches of wildflowers are sprouting up all over New Mexico in response to the monsoon rains. This is one of our potential seed collection sites located outside Magdalena, NM.

Arizona cottontop (Digitaria californica), one of the ten species that we collected this past month.

However, climatologists around the state warn New Mexicans about becoming too complacent due to this year’s stormy weather.  In the arid West where over 87% of the region is abnormally dry, New Mexico is the poster child for drought.  The state has been under drought conditions for so long that it has built up a water deficit, meaning it will take many years of above average rainfall to replenish New Mexico’s shrinking reservoirs.  This prolonged drought has drastically altered the plant species composition of southern New Mexico.  Formerly, grasslands covered the majority of the northern Chihuahuan Desert, but a combination of drought and grazing pressure has caused shrubs, such as creosote bush and mesquite, to outcompete many grass species.

For more information about New Mexico’s drought see this article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-parched-20130806-dto,0,5922502.htmlstory

As usual, I will end this post with a couple vocab words:

Hoodoo: A tall spire of rock, often composed of sedimentary rock, that arises out of a canyon or other drainage

Hoodoo (located on the right)

Boot heel: The boot heel of New Mexico is the southwestern-most chunk of the state that shares two borders with Mexico and one with Arizona.  This area is extremely remote and sparsely populated (with the exception of the many Border Patrol vehicles continually monitoring the area).

The Boot Heel

-Elisabeth Ward

July 26, 2013

Las Cruces, NM

In my blog post last month, I talked about how people from the Northeast perceive the Southwest, but I forgot to include one important observation.  People on the east coast generally think that New Mexico and Arizona are interchangeable.  I can’t tell you how many times someone at school asked me when I was moving to Arizona after I had informed them a few weeks earlier that I was going to live in New Mexico after graduation.  Now that I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Arizona, I can tell you firsthand that Arizona and New Mexico are entirely different, both culturally and ecologically.  I won’t delve too much into the cultural differences (let’s just say golf courses are much more common in Arizona than in New Mexico…), but the ecologically differences are astounding.  To an outsider, the two states are superficially similar seeing as they are both covered in desert.  However, the Sonoran Desert  in southern Arizona and the Chihuahuan Desert surrounding Las Cruces host immensely different ecological communities.

The Chihuahuan Desert in southern New Mexico is located at a higher elevation, making it cooler than the Sonoran Desert and more prone to freezing temperatures in the winter.  The Chihuahuan Desert also has a single rainy season during the summer monsoon months, whereas the Sonoran has two distinct rainy seasons, enabling it to have the highest plant diversity of all the desert ecosystems in North America.  These environmental differences have left the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts with strikingly different plant communities.  For instance, even an outsider would take note of the curious absence of Saguaro Cacti—the quintessential cactus portrayed in desert cartoons everywhere—in New Mexico.  Let me repeat that.  Despite the countless New Mexican postcards with the silhouettes of Saguaros set against a southwestern sunset, there are no Saguaros in New Mexico.  

Saguaro National Park located outside of Tucson, AZ

 In terms of fieldwork, we have successfully completed our first two Seeds of Success collections!  The monsoon season, which typically lasts from the beginning of July until the end of August, has begun, and patches of green and wildflowers are starting to speckle the formerly dry and dormant Chihuahuan landscape.  Because there are only two botanists in the state of New Mexico (the other is located in Farmington), our mentor, Mike Howard, is responsible for monitoring the vegetation of about 11 million acres of public land.  Needless to say, we have spent a large proportion of our time driving to distant field sites scattered around the state.  In addition to collecting the seeds of two different populations and varieties of Honey Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), we have also begun monitoring over a dozen other plant populations for potential future collections!  I anticipate that the coming months will hold many additional SOS collection opportunities.

Field site north of Lordsburg, NM where we completed our first SOS collection

Honey Mesquite or Prosopis glandulosa–the plant species we collected for our first two SOS collections.

Our mentor, Mike, is a very dedicated photographer.

 Like last month, I will end my blog post with some terminology I have picked up during my stay in southern New Mexico:

Virga: An apparent streak of precipitation that evaporates before it reaches the ground.  The word virga is derived from the Latin word for “twig” or “branch,” which is appropriate because like virga, the branches of a tree never touch the ground.

Plinking: Southern New Mexico/west Texas slang for target practice, which is a common recreation activity in many of the field sites we visit.

8-inch Rainfall:  In the desert, this term is not used when we have 8 inches of rainfall, but rather when the raindrops are falling 8-inches apart from one another (in other words, there is barely any rain).

Desert Pinstripes: A term that refers to the appearance of your vehicle after you have been driving off-road through thorny shrubs such as Acacia and Mesquite.

-Elisabeth Ward

June 28, 2013

Las Cruces, NM

Two weeks ago I left my humid hometown to come work for the Bureau of Land Management in Las Cruces, NM.  Although I grew up outside of Chicago, I spent the last eight years of my life in the northeast, where I attended school in Connecticut and Rhode Island.  As their names imply, the northeast and southwest are polar opposites.  In the northeast, states are small and densely populated.  Forests prevail in the humid climate, and the long, sinuous coastline is never more than a few hours away.  But I left behind the land of poison ivy, Lyme disease, and fickle weather and entered the realm of tarantulas, rattlesnakes, and incessant heat.

My friends in Rhode Island were astonished when I mentioned that my post-graduation plan included moving to New Mexico.  New Yorkers apparently associate New Mexico with only two things: (1)  the UFO spottings in Roswell, and (2) illicit drug activity as presented in Breaking Bad, a TV show set in Albuquerque. Luckily, I have not encountered either of these two stereotypes.  Instead, the southwestern stereotypes that I have experienced have been quite pleasant.  What’s not to love about our adorable adobe apartment nestled in the Organ Mountains, beautiful sunsets, and gooey, cheese-filled Mexican food?

Our adobe apartment at Dripping Springs Natural Area

View of the Organ Mountain on the Road Home from the Office

Sunset view from Drippings Springs Natural Area

Life in the office has been exciting as well.  This week, Evelyn Williams, a conservation genetics researcher from the Chicago Botanic Garden, visited us to collect clippings from Lepidospartum burgessii–a rare plant that no longer produces seeds.  Lepidospartum burgessii is an obligate gypsophile, meaning its range is limited by the narrow extent of gypsum-based soils.  One theory as to why the plant has failed to produce seeds is that it has lost genetic diversity through inbreeding, which has increased the plant’s homozygosity.  Evelyn and her fellow researchers will  transplant the Lepidospartum clippings in a common garden and crossbreed the individuals to determine whether increased gene flow prompts seed set in the species.

Lepidospartum burgessii

The gypsum sand dunes near the Guadalupe Mountains- the ideal habitat for Lepidospartum burgessii

My fellow intern, Kate, and our mentor, Mike, recording the location of a Lepidospartum burgessii individual

 I will end this blog post with some local terminology that I have picked up over the last couple weeks:

TAT: Type-A Texan

PNM: Pokey New Mexican

Dust Devil: A small whirlwind of dust common in arid regions, such as the Chihuahuan desert

“Christmas” : A preparation of Mexican food that has both green and red chile sauces

Sopapilla: A delicious, puffy pastry dessert drizzled in honey

-Elisabeth Ward