October was a different month at the BLM in Arcata, CA. The first two weeks were blacked out by the government shutdown, but after that I was able to fall right back into work when everything resumed. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I undertook a new project for the last few weeks of my internship: the herbarium. I spent many office days reorganizing our office’s herbarium so we can join the UC Jepson Consortium of California Herbaria.

The consortium is run out of UC Berkeley’s Jepson Herbarium, and is a large database of California Herbaria that is searchable to the entire world. You can visit our herbarium and the database via this link: <http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/participants.html> Check it out! Some of our specimens are georeferenced and all are available to scientists who need to borrow the specimens for research. To participate in the consortium, I had to register with the Index Herbariorum at the NY Botanical Garden where we were assigned the herbarium code of BLMAR. From there I had to update all the taxonomic nomenclature of our specimens to the most current names and reformat our excel database to fit the requirements of the Consortium. Moreover, many specimens were mislabeled, misnumbered or misplaced, so I went through all the specimens one-by-one to assure that they were correct and in harmony with our database. While our herbarium is by far the smallest in the consortium, we have many specimens collected from areas that very few other people visit. Many of these could potentially be of interest to researchers due to their unlikely collection locations or phonological traits. This project was a productive learning experience for me. The newest taxonomic changes to plants in California were published in the latest Jepson Manual of Vascular Plants of California (2013). Since many of the new splits of families and genera were new this year and some very drastic, I learned the new families and genera as they are recognized in California.

While I was working on the herbarium project, I mixed my office time in with a variety of field work. I helped our fuels specialist clear some fire line around a restored prairie that he is hoping to burn in the coming weeks. I really enjoy physical labor, especially when it is a means to a foreseeable end, such as a prescribed burn. I helped our fisheries biologist by collecting temperature gauges from Lacks Creek before the high winter flows come. I worked with a group of our resource staff to conduct a wilderness assessment of the Elkhorn Ridge Wilderness in Mendocino County. That involved visiting six different sites within the wilderness and assess each for its ecological function, and where it might be lacking.

This will be my final blog entry for my CLM internship. It has been an amazing experience, I am lucky to have ended up in Arcata, as the only intern on the pacific coast (I think). But just like every intern, I got to work in some incredible places doing amazing work. I got to know the area better than most who live here and met many great friends. I gained a great variety of valuable skills that I will undoubtedly be able to apply to the workplace in the future. I can’t wait jump back into it! Thank you CBG.

I apologize for not posting photos this time… I am having trouble with the photo uploader. But trust me, the fall colors and the beaches of Humboldt county are beautiful right now!

September was another solid month with the BLM in Arcata. I really diversified my activities this month, working with several different resource specialists in our office. I also made all the labels and got all our pressed specimens mounted and logged into our herbarium. We had many new collections, plus a stack of plants that had been previously collected and were waiting to be mounted. With that finished, I have also embarked on a new project that will see me through the end of my time here as a CBG intern. I am working on getting our small herbarium (approx. 700 specimens) registered with the UC Jepson Herbarium Consortium. There will be more on that in the future….

I have spent a few days with one of our wildlife biologist, which has been a great learning experience for me. He works exclusively in the Headwaters Forest Reserve, and is currently working on a project trapping fur of Fishers. He is trying to collect as many DNA samples from all the fishers in the area in order to determine the size of the resident population. Fishers are a weasel –like mammal that is currently a candidate for listing, so there is a lot of interest in the species right now. The traps consist of a plastic bucket cut in half long-ways and screwed onto a tree with the opening facing down. The bait (a rotten fish head) is up in the top of the bucket and around the bottom rim is some sticky paper to catch fur as the animal goes up in there to eat the fish. A game camera is mounted nearby to photograph the animal as it goes in (to make sure it’s a fisher and not a bear).

Fisher hair trap with camera trap in foreground (left)

I’ve also been working with our geologist and our fish biologist on a project they have going down in Southern Humboldt County. They are working to restore some fish habitat on a small creek that has had Coho Salmon spawning in it in recent years. This creek is a tributary to the Mattole River, which only had four Coho come up to spawn this past year. Coho are listed as threatened species and are in serious decline, especially in this region. This restoration project is very extensive and involves many engineered weirs and structures. The BLM is trying to create suitable habitat now so that the Coho will have place to spend the summer next year.

I got to hike part of the Lost Coast Trail with our fisheries biologist. We did an overnight backpacking trip to collect his temperature gauges in the small creeks in the King Range.

Working with our fish biologist, we dove a small tract of the East Branch South Fork Eel River looking for Steelhead smolts.

     Here is another month of action in Arcata, CA. This month brought some new topics and activities, mostly relating to public outreach. The Humboldt county fair happened through the middle of August and as the BLM is a chief member of the Humboldt county Weed Management Area (HWMA), we set up and manned the HWMA’s booth at the fair. The booth featured lots of information on many of the common and most invasive weeds in Humboldt County. It also included vases full of examples of these plants, so the public could see them up close and personally. My mentor and I set up and maintained the booth, which involved keeping our selection of cut invasive plants looking fresh and beautiful (ironically enough). I also had the pleasure of manning the booth, which turned out to be quite fun. Many visitors were interested in the booth and asked loads of questions regarding various weeds they have in their yards. Some of the weeds we had put on display people did not realize were invasive, so it was good to educate them on the various negative effects these plants have on the landscape.

We also led a public hike to Red Mountain, which is part of the South Fork Eel Wilderness, which is home to numerous rare, endangered and endemic plants due to its serpentine soils. There were a variety of people on the hike with a range of botanical knowledge. Some of them just wanted to go for a hike in a beautiful place, while others wanted to know the name of every plant they saw. And as usual, when you go on a walk with a bunch of plant folks, things move very slowly. Given Red Mountain’s geographical situation and that it is surrounded by private land, it is not accessible to the public and we need the neighbor’s permission to enter. There is only one neighbor that will actually allow us to cross their land to Red Mountain.

Thunderheads forming over the mountains

I have also been swamped with seeds this month. Everything is ripening right now, so I’ve been collecting rather frantically. I think I made seven collections of 10,000+ seeds each this month bringing my total number of collections for the year up to twelve. Since I am a one-man collecting team, and some of the species can be quite tedious to collect, I have spent many days collecting seeds recently. I did get some help from one of our law enforcement officers, who came out with me as part of his homework to work with the resource staff and learn about the resources and land he is protecting. It was certainly an educational experience for both of us, as spending the day with a cop is something I’ve never done. He has to be in a completely different mindset than the rest of us “normal-folk” – always looking for the “bad-guys”.

I collected seeds from the Oregon gumweed (Grindelia stricta) along Seven Mile Beach. Not a bad spot to make a collection.

There has also been lots of fires up here in Northern California, so much of our office’s resource staff has been called into these fires as resource advisors. This has also caused lots of smoke to blow in and out of the areas where we work. Fire certainly is a hot topic around these parts right now…

The time is flying by here in Arcata, I took a vacation at the end of the month to do some backpacking in the mountains NE an SE of here, which were epic trips. I ‘m happy to have ended up in such a great location that has so much to offer.

Spotted this awesome buckeye tree while scouting for weeds in the King Range

Fields of gold in the golden state

Beautiful lichens on a fence post with a non-native bull thistle lurking behind….

Views from Strawberry Rock, where I’ve made several seed collections, looking down on the mouth of the Mattole River

Native lilies grace the hanging fen of Red Mountain

There’s nothing like living on the NorCal coast. It’s foggy just about every morning, but it all burns off by noon and it turns out to be a beautiful day. The Arcata field office also manages an amazingly diverse set of lands. Drive just an hour North East of the office and you’re in beautiful Lacks Creek, where the BLM is currently working on restoring prairies by clearing and pile burning encroaching douglas fir trees. In place of the trees, the BLM is planting native perennial grass plugs, from species such as Festuca californica. These prairies provide crucial habitat for elk, deer, and many rodents, which in turn are important sources of food for native raptor species.

I’ve spent days monitoring rangeland and even more days pulling invasive weeds. We generally focus on the brooms (all from Europe), which have the potential to completely invade grasslands and turn them into monocultures of broom. I buddied up with the Mattole Restoration Council and worked with them on treating invasive weeds in the King Range. There’s nothing like pulling weeds with sweeping views of the California coastline.

Johnny Jack Ridge in the King Range: One of the places where I have collected seed for SOS.

Sudden Oak Death (SOD) is a hot topic here in the Arcata Field Office. The fungus Phytopthera ramorum has been found on BLM lands in our office, and its spread is threatening to enter the Hoopa Indian Reservation. This is especially problematic for them as the disease kills nearly all of the infected Tan Oaks. Tanoak is a huge producer of acorns, which have huge cultural and nutritional value to the Hoopa Tribe. No effective treatments have been found to stop the spread of SOD, but there is serious pressure on the BLM from the Hoopa Tribe to slow the spread of the disease. While the foresters in our office are taking the lead on this project, it has been interesting to see how it is playing out. Given the challenging terrain and the limited success of other methods used to stop the spread of SOD, the BLM has elected to go with more of a forest health improvement approach. This method has been encouraged by one of the lead researchers on the topic at University of California at Davis. This thinning of tanoaks and bay laurels in forests that are generally overstocked with tanoak will take place later this year and into next year. I look forward to hearing what happens.

As a land manager, one of the best things you can do is get out on the land and see what’s there. This is exactly what I have done. I continue to visit new sites and properties, exploring for the presence of weeds, looking for rare plants/species of interest, and generally just seeing what’s going on. One of my new favorite spots is on Red Mountain, which is unique due to its serpentine soils, which host a whole suite of species that are endemic to that soil type, some endemic to Red Mountain.

Eriogonum kellogii, endemic to Red Mountain, state listed as endangered, and recognized federally as a species of concern.

On one of our trips up there we forgot the key to the gate, so we walked in from another direction that we wouldn’t normally go. On this different route, we found an old grow camp (1-2 years old), which was important to note; something we would not have seen had we remembered the key. This emphasizes the importance of getting out on the land, you never know what you might find.

View to the Northwest from the top of Red Mountain.

The first month of my time in Arcata, CA has been a real trip. After a half week of safety training in the office, I shipped out to Chicago for the CLM workshop. The workshop offered lots of intensive learning opportunities, the most pertinent of which was on the Seed of Success Program. Since I was relatively new to the internship, I was previously unfamiliar with the program. There was much discussion about the program’s history – dating back to the Royal Botanical Garden’s initial request for seeds. Now seeds are being kept in national seed banks and are reproduced for use in restoration projects- right on!

After a week of pampering in Chicago, I returned to the beautiful redwood country where I work. I dove right into getting to know the lands our field office manages, with the guidance of my botanist mentor, Jennifer Wheeler. I was soon on my own to guide, supervise and work with groups of California Conservation Corps members. We spent time pulling the invasive French Broom, in areas where it was threatening crucial native plants/habitats. Working with these kids is a great experience, most of them are my age, which allows us to connect really well. It is also refreshing to do some real physical labor.

When my mentor took off for two weeks, I was left with a “to do” list. This was perfect for me, I was able to write my own schedule, while also figuring out how to do all the things on the list… the best way to learn. I became familiar with the Trimble JUNO GPS unit and how to run the National Invasive Species Monitoring System (NISMS) so I could record locations of and treatments applied to various invasive plant species. I was also lucky enough to work with other members of the resource staff in our office, including the forest ecologist and the fisheries biologist. We worked in the famous Headwaters Forest Reserve, flagging thinning units, and in the beautiful King Range, sampling invertebrates. I was also fortunate to work with the CCC again pulling invasive European Beach grass and Yellow Lupine in the coastal sand dunes. What a treat to get to work at the beach! So far soo good.