Wow. This is it. My CLM internship is over. I can definitely say that this has been my favorite internship so far, for many reasons. Coming out here I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I knew that I would be working as a range tech for the BLM in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. I grew up in Salt Lake so I wasn’t worried about living out west or being in high desert, but all of the plants I knew how to identify were eastern plants. I knew nothing about sage brush or grasses, things I would be working with here. However, I knew this would be a good challenge. In the past four months I’ve learned how to identify at least 10 species of grass, about six species of shrubs, and countless wildflowers. I really impressed myself and I’m excited to head to a new area of the US and learn even more new plants.

For the first month here I spent a lot of time being trained out in the field with one of the range specialists or sitting at my desk studying a book on grasses. After a few weeks I was ready and raring to get out of my own. Finally I was given some tasks to do on my own. I became really good at looking at maps and the GPS and figuring where I needed to be. I also started paying attention to different landmarks, like Hart Mountain or Abert Rim, which helped me orient myself and know which way was north, etc. While out in the field alone I also ran into some struggles, such as opening difficult fences, flat tires, and getting stuck in the mud. Until I had a partner I had to get out of those tricky situations on my own, and that just gave me even more confidence in my abilities.

In the beginning of May another range tech started work. I was not happy about that because I had to train him, and I was so used to being out in the field by myself and doing my own thing. For a while I struggled with working with someone who needed a lot of direction and didn’t do things my way (even though he was doing them just fine. I’m just particular in that way). I soon realized that we would be stuck together for the rest of the summer because we were running out of utilization to do and were starting in on trend plots, which are easier to do with two people. Eventually I got a better attitude about everything and started having fun with my partner. He was a big help, especially when it came to tricky gates and taking out the UTV.

But enough blabbering on here. The point is, I learned so much this summer, made some really good friends (in and out of the office), and gained a lot of confidence. I’m so glad I got to work in Oregon because it is such a beautiful state, and I really enjoyed exploring it on the weekends. Some advice to future interns would be don’t get worked up over small things, learn as much as you can, make friends, and explore the area that you are living in. Because who knows when you’ll be there again.

Allyson
BLM, Lakeview, Oregon

I only have one more week here in lovely Lakeview. Kyle and I have been getting so much work done. For most of the summer we’ve been doing work for just two of the range specialists (each range specialist is in charge of a certain number of allotments). We’re almost done with everything we can do for them, which is quite impressive, if you look at the long list of work we started out with. It feels good to look back and see how much I have accomplished.

There have been a few more frustrating days where we couldn’t find our trend plots or got stuck in private land behind locked gates. One day I went out into the field by myself and went to a small allotment that is split up into two pastures, but the one I needed to be in doesn’t have a road going through it. So I parked in the upper pasture and hiked up a hill then down the other side, crawled under a fence, and arrived in the lower pasture. Then I spent a few hours hiking around the pasture looking for the two trend plots there. I found one, by a lovely little stream, but couldn’t find the second one. After hiking up a steep hill in 95 degree weather I was ready to give up.

One of my favorite days of the past month was riding a horse for work! One of the range specialists, Lori, has two horses and has been wanting to use them for work. She got the paperwork filled out and we finally were able to take the horses out. All we did that day was ride to a certain point and see if there was water there (of course there wasn’t, we’re in a drought). I spent about 4 and 1/2 hours in the saddle that day. It got pretty uncomfortable at the end, but overall I had a great time. Who else can say that they rode a horse for work?

Another fun day was going out with Anna and Lucy, the two CLM botany interns that I live with. They took me to Sage Hen Butte, a place I’d never been to before. They’ve been collecting seeds for the Seeds of Success program, and that’s what I helped them with that day. The plan was to try and collect cherry seeds and seeds from Oregon Sunshine, or Eriophyllum lanatum. There weren’t enough cherry trees to collect seeds, but we collected Oregon Sunshine and Gooseberry, Ribes sp. I enjoyed seeing what they do and all the work that goes into the SOS program.

Highlights from the past month are: riding a horse for work, seeing my first rattlesnake of the summer, seeing a coyote pretty up close, and caving at Lava Beds National Monument with two of my roommates.

Allyson Schaeffer
Lakeview, OR, BLM

I can’t believe it’s almost June! The past month has gone by so quickly. It’s like they say, time flies when you’re having fun. And I’ve been having a lot of fun in the field!

I’ve been going out into the field every day, which is awesome. I don’t mind doing office work and helping the range specialists with their Rangeland Health Assessments, but being in the office for ten hours straight is torture for this nature lover.

The biggest change in the past month is that I have a work partner, Kyle. He isn’t a CLM intern, just a range tech, but we’ll be doing the same work.  After being on my own for so long it was weird to go into the field with someone, but it’s been fun to train Kyle. Once he feels more comfortable doing utilization studies we’ll go into the field on our own, but team up when we have long-term trend plots to monitor.

I’ve been working on learning to identify the many forbes we have in southeastern Oregon. It helps that one of my house-mates, a fellow CLM intern, is working with the botanist here. So whenever I have trouble with a plant I can go to her for help. My list of plants that I can identify is steadily increasing. It’s so fun to go for a hike and be able to identify most of the plants that I come across!

Highlights from the past month: being given more responsibilities at work, learning to identify lots of wildflowers, spending the day with a range specialist and learning more from her in that one day than I have since I started working here.

Allyson Schaeffer

BLM, Lakeview, Oregon

Tufted evening primrose.

I just love purple flowers!

Hello everyone!

For the past four weeks I have been working as a range intern at the BLM office in Lakeview, Oregon. Lakeview is a small town in southeastern Oregon, about 14 miles from the California border and not much farther from the Nevada border. This BLM district is huge, which means I am seeing new sights everyday! So what does a range intern do? Well, so far I have been going out to different allotments and checking on the vegetation in the pastures. I do what is called a utilization study to determine how grazed the pasture is, and basically its overall health. Later on, when more CLM interns join me, I’ll also being doing trend studies.

For this job I’ve had to learn to identify grasses and some sagebrush. That was a change of pace for me since I am from the east coast and I’ve always done better identifying trees. But it’s actually been pretty easy, since I only have to know about six types of grasses and several types of sagebrush. I’m enjoying learning about the flora of the high desert. And it helps that several people that I work with are very knowledgeable about the vegetation around here. Now if only I could start remembering the names of the local forbes.

Some highlights from the past month were: ATV training, going out in the field with different range cons, and learning so much about the local plants. Some lessons I’ve learned are: don’t forget your GPS, and don’t assume your truck can drive through anything (I got my truck stuck in the mud the other day. But I’m proud to say that I got it out all by myself.).

I’m looking forward to the exciting adventures I’ll have to write about next month!

Allyson Schaeffer

Lakeview, Oregon, BLM