Last week concluded my five month internship at the USGS in Las Vegas, Nevada. I have had an incredible, unforgettable experience working here – it’s hard to believe it’s already over and that I have to say goodbye to my fellow CLM interns and the wonderful crew at USGS that I had the great pleasure of working with.

If you’ve been reading my blog posts, you may have read about the diversity of projects that I’ve been working on over the last few months. At the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northern Arizona, I helped survey experimental plots that had varying combinations of herbicide and seeding treatments, which were being analyzed for effectiveness for use in large-scale restoration. In the Eureka Dunes in Death Valley National Park, California, I helped monitor two endemic desert dune species by assisting with physiological measurements on target plants. I also helped out with a project which involved vegetation surveys to see see how much forage material was available for desert tortoises that were being translocated to a new area.

However, the project that I believe I spent the most time working on throughout my internship was our “common garden” experiment. At the beginning of my internship (February-March) we established three “common garden” sites to assess ecotypic variation of three different perennial species commonly used for restoration. Over the next few months (March-July) we went back to these sites several times to water the plants to help them establish as well as take measurements (ex. cover, density, reproductive effort) on each plant. This project was very rewarding because it was the only project we helped out with that was in its first year. We helped out with every phase of this project – from digging trenches for the rodent-proof fencing to planting over 2000 plants to working on data analysis in our final weeks. Data collection will continue for another few years, and it will be very interesting to see what findings come out of this experiment that we lent an initial helping hand with!

Taking the plants from the greenhouse to our “common garden” sites!

Fort Irwin National Training Center, where one of our “common garden” sites was located!

I’m so grateful to have spent these months in the Mojave desert. Before arriving here, I didn’t know anything about the desert really, and now upon leaving, I feel as if I know this landscape intimately and I have grown to respect and admire its extremes. Surviving in this environment was certainly challenging, but I have learned a great deal from these challenges. To all the new CLM interns just starting out – I wish you the best of luck with your internships! Immerse yourself as much as possible in your new environments and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

— Meaghan Petix

Las Vegas Field Office, USGS

Hi Everyone!

This past weekend I attended my “alternative” workshop, which was a Jepson Herbarium workshop focused on the flora of the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir in Baja California, Mexico. I had been looking forward to this trip for the last few months, and it completely exceeded all my expectations! The workshop was led by Jon Rebman, who is the curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum; Jon’s intimate knowledge of this region as well as his passion for its preservation were remarkable. We started the trip out by driving from the UC San Diego campus to the Parque Nacional Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, which took quite a while (roughly 9 hours). However, the drive was very interesting because Jon pointed out vegetation all along the way! We drove through chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and coastal succulent scrub as we made our way up to the mountains. Sierra de San Pedro Mártir is the highest mountain range on the Baja California peninsula; its highest peak is Picacho del Diablo (Devil’s Peak), which stands at 10,157 feet. Although we didn’t go to the top of Picacho del Diablo, we did climb pretty high up into the mountains while we were there, hoping to find a few rare endemic plant species that were only located on granite rock outcrops at high elevations. We also hiked to a few meadows, which even though they were very dry this year, still hosted an array of plants, many of which were endemics! There were so many endemics!!!!!!!!

Here are some photos from my trip:

Picacho del Diablo (Devil’s Peak)

Dudleya pauciflora (endemic!)

Castilleja applegatei martinii

Sphaeromeria martirensis (endemic!)

Potentilla luteosericea (endemic!)

I learned so much during this workshop and I’m very grateful to the CBG for giving me this opportunity!

Thanks for reading!

– Meaghan

Las Vegas Field Office, USGS

Hello Everyone!

May has been our busiest month yet! We’ve been out in the field every week, working across four different states (Nevada, Utah, California, and Arizona)! Even though I’m stationed in Henderson, NV, I have spent the least amount of time working in the field actually in the state of Nevada. This month I did get to help out with a project here in southern Nevada, at a location we call “Coyote Springs”. Every month we’ve been going out doing vegetation surveys at Coyote Springs at locations that are in both burned and unburned areas. A team of researchers from our office has been working on translocating desert tortoises to Coyote Springs this season, and our vegetation surveys are useful in seeing how much forage material is available for tortoises at different areas of the site.

On one particular day I had a very exciting encounter at Coyote Springs – we were driving along one of the dirt roads to get to a survey point when we spotted a desert tortoise in the road! This desert tortoise was “wild”, not one of the ones that were translocated to the site. Since she was in the road and we had to continue driving down the road, I had the opportunity to put on some gloves and move her gently off the road. This was my first desert tortoise siting! It’s pretty funny that I hadn’t seen one yet because there are so many researchers at our office that study and track desert tortoises, and they get to see them every day.

I finally got to see a desert tortoise!!

Gopherus agassizii

Next week I’ll be heading back to Coyote Springs for another week of surveying – temperatures are continuing to rise (this week it was over 100 degrees for a few days in a row!) but we’ll keep up with field work for another few weeks.

Until next time! Thanks for reading!

— Meaghan

Las Vegas Field Office, USGS

Last week we headed out to the remote Eureka Valley in the northwest corner of Death Valley National Park to collect data on two endemic species – Swallenia alexandrae (Eureka Valley dune grass) and Oenothera californica ssp. eurekensis (Eureka Valley Evening Primrose) – which are both federally listed as endangered species. It was gorgeous there, but it was also one of the hottest places I’ve ever been! I’ve been told (many times) “it’s only going to get worse”, so I tried to go along with the idea that we were actually experiencing fairly mild temperatures while we were there. Anyway, the views from atop the dunes and getting to work with these beautiful endemic plant species definitely made it all worth it!

We went to three different sites in Eureka Valley – Eureka Dune, Saline Spur, and Marble Canyon. Eureka Dune was absolutely breathtaking! It is the tallest sand dune in the state of California, rising more than 680 feet above the lake bed at its base. At each site we located tagged Swallenia alexandrae and Oenothera californica ssp. eurekensis and recorded data on their growth and reproductive effort; these plants are being monitored over a three-year period, with this being the second year of data collection. Swallenia alexandrae has a dense root system which catches and holds drifting sand, thus forming stable hummocks that can be found even on the steepest slopes of the dunes. Using our GPS units, we traversed up and down dunes searching for our study plants, which were sometimes high up on these steep slopes. It was definitely an adventure! 

the large, white night-blooming flowers of the Eureka Valley evening primrose (pollinated by moths!!)

Eureka Valley evening primrose in bloom!

orange sea of blooming Sphaeralcea ambigua (if you recall from my last blog post – one of the species we planted at our “common garden” sites!) <3

satellite image of the Eureka dune!

Eureka Dune under the setting sun

Happy Earth Day! Thanks for reading!

– Meaghan

Las Vegas Field Office, USGS

Last month I began my CLM internship at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Western Ecological Research Center in Henderson, Nevada! It’s hard to believe so much time has gone by already – we sure have been keeping busy! My fellow interns – Renee, Rachel, and Sam – have posted over the last few weeks and have given a great introduction to the work we’ve been doing out here in the Mojave desert.

Our first project is focused on researching ecotypic variation in Mojave desert plant species used for restoration. Getting to help out with this project has been very exciting because it is the first year of the study (it will continue for another ten years). The first task was to help establish “common gardens” across the Mojave desert. Three locations were selected this year, each in a different designated climate zone – one site is in southern Utah in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, one is in California within Fort Irwin National Training Center, and another is in Twentynine Palms, California, just outside of Joshua Tree National Park. All three sites are incredibly beautiful!

We first had to help out with constructing fences to go around our gardens so herbivores wouldn’t eat our plants. After this was accomplished, we began planting at each site. As Rachel mentioned, we planted three different plant species: Ambrosia dumosa (White bursage), Larrea tridentata (Creosote bush), and Sphaeralcea ambigua (Desert Globemallow). These plants were propagated from seeds that were collected from a variety of source populations spanning the various climate zones present in the Mojave.

This past week we finished up planting at the “Joshua Tree” common garden site, which was our final site! Each common garden site now has about 600-700 plants that we hand-planted with love and care.

the “Joshua Tree” common garden site after we finished planting!

relaxing after a long day of planting

sunset as we were driving to our campsite in Joshua Tree National Park

Also, on our drive home from the site this week we stopped a few times along the way to collect annuals that we saw! Here is a photo of Rachel with her Jepson Desert Manual in the backseat of the truck as she guides us through the key:

we were able to ID this one in the backseat – desert chicory (Rafinesquia neomexicana)!!

Happy Vernal Equinox, everyone!! Thanks for reading!

— Meaghan

Las Vegas Field Office, USGS