Well here I am entering my last few weeks as a CLM Intern in Washington. Since my last blog, I’m mainly filled up my time with more rare plant monitoring (Silene Spaldingii), lynx habitat assessments and fire area mapping for severity.

Going out into the shrub-steppe at this time of year can be excruciatingly uncomfortable as I’m sure many of you are aware. Luckily, my field partner, Rosemary, and I have often found ourselves in a number of lush oases, trying to cling onto canyon wall corridors between data collection sites. Wildlife has the same brilliant idea and we’ve noticed these canyons are teaming with all sorts of creatures. In a span of only a few days, we were stopped in our tracks by a badger, porcupine, coyote and great horned owl. I’ve now seen firsthand the importance such corridors between natural ecosystems, particularly in an area so devastated by agriculture and human presence.

One of my recent highlights was trekking up to north-east WA, and exploring some cedar and Douglas-fir forests, searching for Lynx habitat. What a relief from the scorching shrub-steppe!

The Wenatchee field office has been in chaos since the start of the fire season, causing most of our original field plans to be turned upside down. However, it’s been very exciting to adapt to the current situation. Last week I helped map over 6,000 acres of BLM land scorched by the Carlton Complex fire. The best and most exciting part was to actually go out to assess the landscape afterwards for potential restoration measures and fire severity records.

It’s amazing how quickly some of the plants can regenerate, even in high severity areas. Here’s a shot of Asclepias spp., in an estimated population size of 10,000 – Yay for Monarchs!

Good wishes and happy adventuring to you all!

Well, it’s been another great few weeks of my internship, here in Wenatchee WA. Since my last blog, I’ve explored another beautiful part of the state. My field partner and I spent this last week out in Juniper Dunes Wilderness. We set out to monitor the State Sensitive Cryptantha leucophea and expected to find at least a few populations that have been declining over the last few years. To our surprise, were only able to find two plants – we speculate that the population in this region has dropped off almost completely.

After doing some more background reading, I’ve personified this plant as a free spirit, transient- like. Coming and going, quite literally with the wind that shapes the sand dunes. It has adapted to establishing itself on freshly altered sandy slopes, although to the increasing stabilization of sand dunes through the state, it seems likely that this species will continue to plummet.

Apart from a few dismal thoughts about the fate of this species, I truly enjoyed being out in this piece of wilderness.  I was lulled to sleep at night by howling coyotes, and awakened by mormon crickets. Although these crickets are a pest and create a large conservation concern for the BLM, their rambunctious movement over the land created a cacophony of sounds that resembled a babbling brook – very comforting after days of wandering around the scorching dunes!

Here’s some shots of our monitoring sites:

Okay, okay … enough shots of me. Yay – our two plants (Cryptantha leucophea)! (Sorry about the low quality)

It’s great to be able to take time every few weeks to reflect on my experiences so far. Sending good thoughts out to all fellow interns!

My transition from British Columbia to Washington over the past few weeks has been positive and exciting – filled with hikes in the sagebrush hills and some serious botanizing!

My main projects so far have involved rare plant detecting. We (I and a fellow intern, Rosemary) just got back from a few days of camping and rare plant monitoring down in the foothills of the Blue Mountains (southeastern corner of the state).  The days leading up to this field week consisted of looking over field reports and sightings from other botanists, some with Washington Rare Plant Care and the BLM, in order to ensure we were targeting the right places. Many of the sites and plant communities we read about had not been visited since the 1990s! We were on the hunt for a small list of threatened plant species, including Lomatian rollinsii and Ribes ceruem var. colubrium. And…hurray! We found a larger population than expected. Here’s a shot of a wee Lomatium:

Apart from plant work, I’ve had some great interactions with local people.  Some of the more interesting ones have been those with ranchers. I am finding myself progressively more interested in the importance of people in conservation and land management issues. My favorite part of this internship so far has been working with a wide variety of professionals and interest groups in land management. Although focusing on botany, I really enjoy seeing how all these different fields and skills come together in a complimentary way, with the end goal of responsible management and stewardship. I’m really seeing public understanding and acceptance as a large gateway to healthier ecosystems.

Looking forward to many more great weeks ahead.  Happy trails to all of you!