Where have the last five months gone? It’s my last day at the BLM in Vernal and it’s strange to think I probably won’t ever be back here. Well, in this office, that is. The way it stands right now, I’m going to hang around Vernal until I find a permanent job or I’m accepted to a graduate school program.

That sentence itself demonstrates how much my mindset has changed over the past five months. My original intention for this internship was to gain experience that would enable me to land a seasonal GS-5 position next field season. After that, I had a vague plan of working up the seasonal ladder before landing a full-time, permanent position with the federal government. I worked as a Biological Science Technician (GS-0404-04) for the USGS in South Dakota a couple years ago and since then, I’ve had tunnel vision about working for the feds.

As I stated above, though, that’s no longer my plan. As much as I would love to continue to living a transient life, working as a seasonal for the government, I won’t. Part of it is my personal family situation. The largest part, though, is that I don’t want to. I’ve learned so much during this internship and I’ve definitely felt challenged, but I plateaued around the halfway point. I’ve enjoyed participating in Seeds of Success and helping the weed crew tackle invasives, but I need more challenges. I can bring so much more to the table if given the chance. And it seems the fastest way to be given a chance is to get my Master’s. It’s always been my intention to do so, but this internship has just spurred me to expedite the process.

This internship has also given me more perspective on working for the federal government and I gotta admit, it’s not my dream any more. Don’t get me wrong, I would still work for the government if given the chance. After working in this office, I’ve become more familiar with positions I could qualify for and I’ve made some professional connections so my odds are better. I’ve experienced the downsides to it, though, and I’ve let go of my idolization. My internship has grounded me and forced me to become more realistic. And I’m grateful for it. I’ve been able to use the tools provided by the program to expand my job search to include other entities besides the federal government.

To be clear, I’ve definitely enjoyed this internship! I would (and will) highly recommend it! This has been my first position that’s actually forced me to use a dichotomous key to (sometimes laboriously) key out a species. I’ve learned to identify so many plants, but have also realized that I’ll never know all of them. And while I should be confident in my identification, I should never be afraid to check myself and admit if I’m wrong.

I’ve never actively protested herbicide application to control invasive plants, but I worked in an environmental chemistry lab so sometimes it’s difficult for me to think about where all those chemicals could be leaching. After walking through stands of Russian olive and swaths of teasel, though, I’ve realized that a lot of the time, herbicide application is the only way to control infestations.

Since I’ll be working odd jobs until my next career move, I’ve definitely appreciated the normal hours (and the pay) of the internship. One downside, though, is the copious amounts of driving necessary to cover this area. I’m sure other interns also experienced this, but I am so over driving 2+ hours just to get to a site. I would rather stay closer to the office and hike around, but I realize that’s rather unrealistic in the West.

I’m really happy that I landed a position in Utah as I’ve always been enamored with this state. In and outside of work, I’ve seen a lot of cool things and I’m very grateful for that. I feel like I can move on to other states now and feel content with my Utah experience. As for Vernal itself, however, I haven’t fallen in love with it. I’ve discovered some gems, but in general the town seems geared toward fast food, big trucks, oil and gas, and church – none of which is my scene. After this, I’m aiming to live in a college town again, where I hope I’ll be around more like-minded people.

This has been an amazing experience and I’m immensely grateful to all those who helped me apply for an internship and make the most of it. A big thank you to Nadia, Tim, Amy, Jessi, Krissa, and Rebecca!

Stay classy, fellow interns.

-Dani

BLM

Vernal, UT

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”

II John Muir II

The Pink Dino – my favorite landmark in Vernal.

I’ve never been skilled at identifying grasses. In all of my botanical college courses, we focused on eudicots and I had little to no problem learning the language of plants. For some reason, though, grass terminology has never stuck with me. Any grasses I’ve learned have quickly been forgotten. This internship is the first time I’ve ever had to actually use a dichotomous key to identify a plant. And yet, I’ve successfully avoided keying grasses for the past 4 months. But this avoidance has finally come to an end. My mentor has officially gone on maternity leave and while Hector is well versed in grasses, I knew it was time for me to step up to the plate. A couple weeks ago, I discovered a wispy, cobwebby grass in the wetland Hector and I were scouting for Spiranthes diluvialis. It definitely had potential for an SOS collection and as we are becoming desperate for species to collect as the field season wanes, I was determined to identify it.

I spent two hours slowly making my way through the key, learning and relearning terms such as glume, spikelet, panicle, awn. This field office boasts a slew of PowerPoints dedicated to the plants of this area rife with photographs and descriptions. Every time I thought I had the answer, I would look it up in the PowerPoint. Time after time, I had to admit that my sample looked nothing like the grass I had keyed it to be. Finally, I had it: Muhlenbergia asperifolia or scratchgrass. This particular species is an oddball compared to the others in its genus and I had gotten severely confused by its unique open panicle inflorescence. Nonetheless, a success is a success.

With my mentor on maternity leave, Christine, a Natural Resource Specialist with a background in botany, has taken over as our supervisor. In mid-August, Christine and our usual gang headed to Green River, Utah for a 3 day River Rescue course. A large part of the remaining field season will be spent spraying weeds on the A, B, and C sections of the Green River. The most intense rapid in all three sections is a Class Three called “Red Creek Rapids,” but for the most part, floating the Green River is pretty easy and uneventful. My mentor, Jessi, is pretty safety minded, though, so she sent the five of us to this course.

Morning view from our campsite.

The instructor, Nate Ostis, was a great teacher and he obviously had a lot of personal experience both rafting and rescuing on the river. He succeeded in terrifying me of all moving water, but not to the point that I’ll never raft or kayak again. He always referred to the river as a “lubricated mountain” or people boating on the river as “falling down an avalanche.” By using that language, he really changed my mindset on rivers. He has been a part of many rescues and even more recoveries so he’s acutely aware of the hazards of the river.

Me in my “avalanche” gear.

We spent half the time out of the water, learning knots, throwing throwbags, and talking safety. The rest of the time we spent in the water. Our first assignment in the river was to swim down some rapids! It was one of the best classes I have ever taken.  I highly recommend Nate Ostis and the River Rescue course to anyone interested in river safety.

Demonstrating the strength of our shore-based, 2 point load sharing anchor.

We had the chance to put our newfound skills to the test with one last trip down the Green River. The four of us teamed up with two weed technicians from the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge to tackle the Canadian thistle and teasel on the “B” section. Along the way, we discovered a whole island full of Spiranthes diluvialis, in bloom over a month later than Jessi had originally estimated.

The “B” section of the Green River.

Red Creek Rapids are nearly visible upstream.

My other highlights include making it all the way out to the Book Cliffs! I’ve been close several times for seed collection or weed spraying, but I finally travelled those last 10 miles to see what all the fuss is about. Additionally, one last seed collection enabled me to make it out to Nine Mile Canyon – another gem of this area.

The Book Cliffs!

“The Great Hunt” petroglyph panel in Nine Mile Canyon.

-Dani

BLM

Vernal, UT

It’s a rule of thumb that if we’re trying to collect seeds (or even count seeds per fruit), it’ll be windy. It doesn’t matter where we are or what the weather is like – it’ll be windy.

In late July, four of us went hunting for Spiranthes diluvialis (Ute lady’s tresses), a rarely seen endemic of the Basin. We scoped out Brush Creek and a little wetland on the edge of town. We didn’t find any that day, but Hector and I found two populations to collect seeds from and we even went back that same day to grab one them, Eleocharis quinqueflora (few flower spike rush). When we returned a few weeks later to collect seeds from tule (Schoenoplectus acutus occidentalis), we found three Ute lady’s tresses!

Finally! Ute lady’s tresses!

We’ve also collected Allium acuminatum (tapertip onion). At first, it was fun to pop off an inflorescence and get a nice, oniony smell, but it got old pretty quick and it took me two days to get the smell off my hands!

The view from Blue Mountain.

I love learning plants’ scientific names. I’ve realized that I can communicate more effectively with non-botanists if I can also throw down the common names, but I think scientific names are way more fun. While helping with rangeland health assessments one day, all my hard work of memorizing scientific names paid off! One of the range cons was naming off all the plants in the transect when he said, “Western salsify.” As the recorder, I paused briefly, confused, but when he clarified by saying “Tragopogon dubius” I knew exactly what he meant! I know T. dubius as goatsbeard and while I would’ve been able to reconcile the two names by observing the plant, it was a nice “Ah-Ha” moment to realize that scientific names are as important as my college botany professor claimed!

I’ve never before seen red spines on prickly pear!

On a Tuesday morning a couple weeks ago, my mentor called a powwow of myself, Hector, Lisa, and Jabus. She told us that she had just discovered that Uintah County was holding a special event the next day where members of the public could raft down the “C section” of the Green River. Our office was supplying three rafts and needed an extra person to row. Our boss had decided that this would be a prime opportunity for all of us to tag along and scout the “C section” for weeds and seeds.

Loading up for a day on the river.

We loaded up the next day and headed up to the John Jarvie Historic Ranch. We took a total of seven rafts and two duckies (a.k.a. inflatable kayaks) with around 30 members of the public, 10 of which were under the age of 16! Jabus and I each took a duckie while Hector volunteered his rowing abilities. We encountered quite a bit of Russian knapweed (Acroptilon repens), whitetop (Cardaria draba), Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense), and American licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota). The highlight of the day was spotting a bald eagle sitting on a dead tree only 10 feet from the water’s edge!

I have no idea what this plant is, but I like it!

At the end of the day, everyone headed home, except for us. We drove back to Jarvie and spent the night in the bunkhouse. The next morning, we took our backpack sprayers out and went to work. The “C section” needed more TLC than we could provide in one day so we did what we could and drove back to the office. The next week, we did the same song and dance: spray during the day and sleep over in the bunkhouse.

The water wheel at Jarvie Ranch.

On the second day of the second trip, though, things got interesting. After lunch, we stopped at an infestation of Canada thistle, whitetop, and teasel (Dipsacus sylvestris). During lunch, I had noticed a small, dark cloud above us, but the rest of the sky was bright and sunny so I thought nothing of it. A little while later, though, it began sprinkling. It was still bright and sunny so again, none of us were terribly concerned. We finished the spot and got back onto the river. And then it started to downpour. The little raincloud above us at lunch had morphed into a huge, rumbling storm! We were soaked within minutes. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, it started hailing.

The edge of our “little” raincloud.

We endured the weather for about 20 minutes before it let up. At one point, the sky cleared and the sun shone through. We were still getting rained on and when we looked up, we could see the rain falling through the sunlight. It was pretty cool. By the time we rafted down to the take-out and dried off, it was already time to head back to the office.

Me in the duckie. It’s hard to see, but I’m drenched after the rain and hail.

Since then, things have been rather laid back at the office. Hector and I are on the hunt for warm season grasses and trying to supplement any collections from this year that didn’t make the 10,000 seed mark. Bend told us that our collection of shortspine horsebrush (Tetradymia spinosa) was only about 15-20% filled which was a big disappointment for us. Seed collection is slowing down,though, so I’ll be spending more time on the Green River in my last weeks.

Stay dry, fellow interns.

-Dani

BLM

Vernal, UT

P.S. The last photos are from personal adventures, but I wanted to throw them in because they’re pretty neat.

Split Mountain, up close and personal.

The bottom of Flaming Gorge Dam and the diversion tunnel used to convert the flow of the Green River during construction.

Petroglyphs courtesy of the Fremont People in Dinosaur National Monument.

Our pool of office seasonals has increased from two to five! Hector and I have been joined by two weed technicians, Lisa and Jabus, and a range technician, Daniel. Lisa and Jabus are also under my boss’s supervision so we spend quite a bit of time together. Although we don’t see Daniel as much, we’ve managed to coerce all three of them to help us collect seeds at one time or another.

My mentor had gone to Montana for two weeks of training, so work was a bit different. She left us with a nice list of projects to accomplish in her absence.  Hector and I spent a lot of time collecting seeds. The four of us (Hector, Lisa, Jabus, and myself) teamed up to scout Buck Canyon for Penstemon grahamii (Graham’s beardtongue) and Penstemon scarious var. albifluvis (White River beardtongue). I was grateful for the time I spent earlier this summer hunting for penstemon as I felt more confident independently identifying the white, shaley slope habitat the species prefers. It continues to boggle my mind, though, how important habitat is to species identification here in the Uinta Basin. I’ve never taken such slight habitat differences (e.g. shale color) into account before, only having previously been concerned with different biomes.

I found a whole hillside of fat cacti one day while scouting!

Our view as we scouted for Penstemon.

I’m not usually a negative person, but I have collected what I deem to officially be the worst plant to collect seeds from:  Hedysarum boreale (Utah sweetvetch). When we first scouted the population, we found a nice patch of beautiful, healthy plants with lots of purple flowers. When we returned to collect seeds, though, the nightmare began. Not only had something predated upon a lot of the big, healthy plants we had hoped to collect from, but the seed pods were covered in small, sharp spikes that wreaked havoc on fingers if you tried to pry the pod open to determine if the seed present was healthy.

Spiny seed pods of Hedysarum boreale.

This less than fun seed collection has been nicely counterbalanced, though, with what has probably been the easiest and fastest collection Hector and I have done so far. The two of us were checking out previously vouchered plant populations on Diamond Mountain when we discovered that our patch of Machaeranthera grindelioides (rayless tansyaster) was ripe for the picking! It was late in the afternoon and rather hot, but we decided to get as far as we could on collecting it that day and come back tomorrow if necessary. It took us 30 minutes to collect 10,000+ seeds. As it’s an aster, plucking M. grindelioides was akin to collecting dandelion puffs and each inflorescence yielded at least 20 seeds. It was great!

Our view from Diamond Mountain, looking toward Split Mountain and the Green River.

One of our last work days in June was spent completing ATV training. I was rather skeptical of the training at first as we were required to complete a 2-hour online course on ATV’s as well as read two packets of information and regulations which, to be honest, were rather dry. Actual ATV training, though, was fantastic! Although we were required to be dressed in pants, long sleeves, and helmets, the BLM shares an RV with other local government agencies and, as the Vernal Field Office had signed it out for the day, we were able to duck inside of its air conditioned confines during any textbook parts of training. The hands-on component was by far the most fun, though.  In high school, I worked for an agricultural crop consultant and it was my job to ride an ATV around farmers’ fields, documenting weeds and taking population counts. I loved riding an ATV, but most fields were pretty flat and boring. For our training, though, we had a course set up for us that included weaving, swerving, U-turns on a slope, and side slope traversing. The last session was a ride along with the instructor who took us over terrain we hadn’t been practicing on so it was a nice test of the skills we had just learned.

ATV training!

Hector, myself, Lisa, and Jabus in front of the RV.

The final blog-worthy experience I’ve had this past month was rafting down the Green River. I’ve been down the White River two times now and have camped both times, but one day on the Green River was definitely superior. The White River is rather murky and isolated while the Green is nearly crystal clear and much more popular. The “B section” of the Green River also boasts a bona-fide set of rapids so our botanical team was accompanied this time by two Forest Service river rangers and our office’s two Recreation guys who safely rafted us through the rocky rapids. Hector and I scouted for potential SOS collections while Lisa and Jabus surveyed the weedy spots.

Stay cool, fellow interns.

-Dani

Vernal BLM

We made friends with some wild horses.

Lovely cattle sitting on our road on top of Blue Mountain.

“None of Nature’s landscapes are ugly so long as they are wild.”

-John Muir

It’s hard to believe it’s already been a month since my last blog post. We’ve been crazy busy here in Vernal and time is flying by!

Since my last post, we’ve revisited the White River and set up our monitoring plots. We had a larger crew this time as we were joined by two crew leaders from Utah Conservation Corps – as they’ll be in charge of cutting down the Russian olive this summer, they were scouting the area. One of the leaders was from Minnesota and we bonded over duck, duck, grey duck and how we pronounce the word “bag.”

Whilst on the White River, we hiked to “Goblin City” and got this great view.

The following week, we went into the field with folks from the BLM in Meeker, Colorado and from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program to scout for White River penstemon (Penstemon scariosus albifluvis). The first day was pretty uneventful, but on the second day we discovered a new population! We spent the day scrambling up and down steep shaley slopes, mapping the population. One of the women working with us later confided that she was 87 years old! She was trekking up mountains just as well as the young bloods. I’m totally going to be that person when I get older – still working field days in the desert after retirement age.

My partner in crime, Hector, taking in the view.

Hector and I also revisited some plant populations that we had been monitoring. Our first collection was the Streptanthella longistrosis at McCoy Flats. Collecting the long siliques  spoiled me as the seed picking was relatively quick and easy between just the two of us. Later that day, our field office hosted a safety day for all its employees and I got to change a flat tire and use an extinguisher to douse a fake fire.

For the rest of the week, we teamed up with botanists from SWCA, an environmental consulting firm, to conduct yearly Sclerocactus monitoring. We used quadrats to collect data on canopy cover, including that of Cyanobacteria and lichen. One of the women from SWCA had done her thesis on biological soil crusts and told us that in some desert environments, Cyanobacteria is the only nitrogen fixer present! Protocol also dictated that we collect 10% of the cactus seeds which was pretty cool since I’ve never seen cactus seed before.

All of my gear for Sclerocactus monitoring, including a stylish pink tool belt.

This past week was devoted to the CLM Workshop at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. The majority of this year’s interns were present and it was great to be around so many other young people with similar interests. Not only did I learn more about Seeds of Success, but I also got a crash course in Botany of the West, and a refresher on monitoring and management methods. All of the speakers who presented to us were fantastic and they definitely inspired me to continue on my path to be an ecologist!

The Chicago Botanic Gardens at sunset.

A close-up from the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”
II John Muir II

BLM Vernal Field Office

Hello, readers! As this is my first blog post, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Dani and I am an intern at the BLM in Vernal, Utah. I’m originally from Minnesota, but I moved here from La Crosse, Wisconsin where I graduated with a B.S. in Biology in May 2013. I first learned of this program through my botany professor at UW-L and I was beyond excited to be offered my current position!

Today marks the end of my first month here in Vernal and it has definitely been a whirlwind. I’ve spent the past weeks assisting other branches in the office with their vegetation work. I’ve hunted for our endemic (and threatened) cacti, Sclerocactus wetlandicus and Sclerocactus brevispinus, in the Pariette Wetlands; I performed line point intercepts for the first time among Artemisia tridentata var. vaseyana and Claytonia lanceolata on top of Blue Mountain; and I’ve hiked up Coyote Gulch for a glimpse of Frasera ackermanae, another endemic and sensitive plant of the Uinta Basin.

Frasera ackermanae, a BLM sensitive and a Uinta Basin endemic.

As you might’ve guessed, our threatened and endangered (T&E) species are a main component of our botanical work. Within the past couple years, Vernal has experienced another boom in the oil and gas industry and in ensuring that our T&E species are not adversely affected by the industry is a top priority.

On the contrary, we’re also responsible for managing our invasive species as well. I’ve had the opportunity to accompany Jim, our main weed man, out to the field twice now to spray for Russian knapweed (Centaurea repens) and whitetop (Cardaria draba). Spraying weeds is actually kind of fun! We have a UTV with two long hoses on the back and it’s strangely satisfying to hunt down and spray the invasives – especially because the blue dye we use makes it easy to see what’s been sprayed.

On the way to spray weeds – did I mention that it snowed in the mountains?

The best part so far, though, has been rafting on the White River. My boss, my fellow intern, myself, and two guys from Wildlife spent three days and two nights rafting the river, inspecting the banks for Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) and tamarix (Tamarix ramosissima) and brainstorming a monitoring plan. This summer, young folks through the Utah Conservation Corps will be cutting down the Russian olive and we want to document the ecological effects, if any, the removal will have. We’ll be going out on the river again next week to implement our monitoring plan.

Our view from McCoy Flats as we scouted for plant populations.

In case you were wondering, the reason for the title of this post is two-fold: not only did I definitely get wet (and muddy) feet during our trip down the river, but the past weeks have been a crash course in flora of the Uinta Basin. I love learning new plants and I’m excited that every day I’m able to identify more and more species. It’s a good thing, too, since my fellow intern and I spent this week scouting for Seeds of Success populations. We even took a couple vouchers! To my fellow interns, happy (seed) hunting!

Streptanthella longistrosis, one of our first voucher specimens. (Look at all those seeds!)

A patch of Eriogonum inflatum from which we also collected vouchers!

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”
II John Muir II

BLM Vernal Field Office