Hello stranger,

In an attempt to reflect on the past 6 months, I will recount the events of just one day – Thursday, November 6, 2014 – and elaborate on the thoughts this provokes.

I woke up at 5 AM, and prepared my backpack for the day.  I was ready for sun, rain, and snow.  I got to the office at 6 AM, gathered the navigation equipment, scraped ice off of the truck, and set out on the familiar drive to the field office.

Let’s stop there.  Waking up before the sunrise has become a habit.  I feel well prepared to work in a variety of weather conditions.  I feel confident driving a pickup truck over difficult terrain.  I can navigate with Trimble GPS units, and if they ever malfunction, then I can still reach my destination with a map and compass.  These abilities are largely a product of my CLM internship experience.

I love the sunrise, and it has been a pleasure to see the majority of them for the past 6 months.  I will miss this sight tremendously:

The sun rises as I enter the field office

Soon after entering the field office, I turned onto a gravel road, and then again onto a two-track road where I was met by rocks, barbed wire fences, and loitering cattle.

Let’s stop again.  I was not expecting to learn so much about livestock during this internship.  However, they are a major player in rangeland dynamics, and I am grateful to have seen where our Nation’s beef comes from.

I’m going to miss these gals.

I pulled over by the stretch of land where I would walk approximately 10 miles of slickspot peppergrass transects.  Some may find this task monotonous, but there is nothing else I would rather do.

Allow me to explain.  The internship began with sage-grouse habitat assessments, which required identifying an abundance of new plants, and mastering new monitoring techniques.  The focus shifted to locating remotely-sensed wetlands, and describing their vegetation composition and water source.  This task allowed us to explore some amazing country, where we often wondered if anyone else had ever been.  Next we downloaded thermographs for water temperature data collection in streams, which were quite welcome in the heat of the summer.  These priority projects were broken up with various trainings and other opportunities such as mineral pit compliance inspections, frog searches, and rain gauge measuring.

After working hard to internalize all of this new knowledge and skill, it was nice to just soak it all in while walking around looking for slickspot peppergrass – to just be out there.

Happy to be out there, and start walking

I listened to the coyotes howl as I began my walk.  Their howling was lost in the wind, which was sometimes interrupted by chirping birds.  I flushed sage-grouse every once in a while, and smiled at the thought that these birds are what brought me out here.  While walking, I proudly distinguished between about 10 different species of dead grass, and marveled at the recently snow-covered mountains.

So while it is time to go home, I leave not just with new botanical skills and land management experience, but also with a strong relationship with a landscape that I could have never imagined.  I am proud to have helped sustainably manage and conserve our Nation’s land, and am surer than ever that I want to keep doing this for the duration of my career.

Thank you,

Jonathan Kleinman

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

Hello Stranger,

I’m happy to report that this is not my final blog post, and that I get to spend another exciting month working for the BLM, Jarbidge Field Office.

As interns, our primary objective has shifted to conducting transect inventories for the proposed endangered slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum), and mapping its critical habitat (slick spots).  These slick spots create a unique heterogeneity in our field office, and have been compromised by common rangeland threats such as fires, trampling, and invasive species.  We have mapped many slick spots, but have not found any slickspot peppergrass.

Walking through the high desert all day has proven to be a very meditative experience.  I enjoy listening to music and taking in the vastness of the sagebrush steppe.  Fall on the range is beautiful.  Everything is golden.  The air is smoky and crisp.  To top things off, I saw a bobcat last week!  I followed it with the pickup before it jumped into the brush to crouch down and stare at us.  Talk about a once in a lifetime experience.

As always, thank you for reading.  This continues to be an incredible internship.

Jonathan Kleinman

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

Golden grass: A picture I took while inventorying wetlands

Well hiya Stranger!

My mentor just sent me home with a carrot cake for my birthday.  Isn’t that awesome?  My mom makes me carrot cakes for my birthday back home in Georgia.  I’m so thankful for my mentor and other coworkers/friends for making Idaho feel like home.  “Idahome” to quote Avery’s last blog post.  In fact, I’m writing this post in a bit of a hurry so I can get a ticket to see our coworker, Peter, in a local musical. Avery, Taters and I will be departing for Yellowstone in the morning.

Tough life right?  I promise, I’ve been learning a tremendous amount of information recently, and doing good work.  Yesterday, we went out with the fire ecologist to see fire rehab projects at different stages of succession.  Talking with her about the fire mitigation and rehabilitation projects she is working on was extremely fascinating.  To continue the Idahome theme, it was heart warming to hear her perspective and well wishes for us young conservation scientists.

The four work days before that were spent training and working with local experts to identify and interpret wetland/riparian features, and to assess their current and potential functioning condition.  It was very rewarding to feel like an active part of their team, and to discuss management options to best conserve these sensitive areas.

The above only captures a fraction of the incredible experience that I am having during this internship.  To summarize, I’m feeling very inspired and grateful.  Thank you for reading.

Jonathan Kleinman

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

Hi there, stranger.  In my first blog post, I described an allotment called Little Island, where Taters and I proudly scrambled up and down canyon walls in the name of Sage-Grouse habitat assessment.  Well I returned there today with a BLM employee, Peter, to inspect some fences, and check for signs of livestock grazing along the riparian section of the allotment.  Returning to the area brought up good memories from the beginning of my term, and helped me realize how much I have learned since then.

In addition to assessing Sage-Grouse habitat and checking for signs of livestock grazing, the crew and I have been inventorying wetlands, downloading stream temperature data from thermographs, and searching for sensitive frog populations.  Soon we will conduct transect inventories for the proposed endangered Slickspot peppergrass (Lepidium papilliferum) and its critical habitat.

While I will continue to use the land management skills that I have learned during this internship for years to come, the experiences that I have had only happen once in a lifetime.  Please find a brief description and pictures below of two recent adventures I have had here in the stunning Jarbidge Field Office.

On August 4^th, we, the monitoring crew, went into the Bruneau Canyon to download some stream temperature data.  After wading through the river to access the thermographs, we made a quick stop to enjoy the Indian Hot Springs.

Indian Hot Springs

A very hot spring indeed

On August 2^nd, I climbed to the top of the Jarbdidge Mountains with a fellow CLM intern, Alexi, from the Shoshone Field Office, and thought, “Hey, I can see my field office from up here!”

View from the field office

View from the top!

Jonathan Kleinman

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

I am writing from Carson City, Nevada, where I am participating in a soil and plant ecology workshop.  The workshop has focused on interpreting the geomorphology of an area, understanding how that geomorphology affects its soil composition, and how its soil composition determines what type of ecological communities it can support.  The course has been taught by both academic and resource management professionals, who have done a great job of explaining how this information is used to make critical management decisions.  I am grateful for the new perspective, and am excited to dig some more holes!

In the spirit of my previous blog post, I would like to tell you about another one of my favorite days this summer.

I woke up early on Wednesday, July 2^nd, stepped outside the trailer, and celebrated under the stars.  The Milky Way formed a rainbow over my head, and I stumbled around in an awestruck, sleepy stupor staring up at it.  I woke up later that morning to an alarm, the sounds of the rest of the monitoring crew getting out of bed, and the trumpeting of Sandhill Cranes.  I drank black tea and watched the purple sky turn pink and blue.

A coyote – the first I had ever seen in the sunlight – lunged in front of our trucks as we drove lupine-lined two-tracks to our last two HAF sites of the season.  HAF stands for Habitat Assessment Framework, and outlines a methodology for assessing the suitability of Sage-Grouse habitat.  We have put a lot of effort into reading these sites, and so it was bittersweet to complete the project.

We were rewarded for our commitment to the project.  While conducting wetland inventories later that day, we flushed out about 20 Sage-Grouse.  These were the first Sage-Grouse I had ever seen.  We saw almost 100 more Sage-Grouse the following week while conducting more wetland inventories.  It was very special to see such large numbers of the birds we had been working so hard to conserve.

I could not be more grateful to work in the remote and wild Jarbidge Field Office, and I look forward to continuing to conserve it.

Jonathan Kleinman

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

Hello stranger,

Just finished up another long week in the Jarbidge Field Office completing habitat assessments for the Greater Sage-grouse, a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

I’d like to tell you about my favorite day this summer: Tuesday, June 3rd.  We – a BLM monitoring crew made up of four CLM interns and a temporary employee – were spending our third week camping in the stunning canyon formed by the Jarbidge River.

Jarbidge Canyon

It sure is nice waking up with the birds and bugs.  We loaded up our two trucks with food and water, navigation equipment, vegetation and soil monitoring equipment, and motion tablets for data recording.  Taters and I were on our way out of Idaho and into Nevada, heading towards a point on our map and GPS called “Little Island.”

I love when the vast, rocky desert of southern Idaho and Nevada, blanketed with sagebrush, suddenly opens up to reveal a lush green canyon.  We drove to the edge of one of these oases, loaded up our bags, and headed downhill.  We soon realized that our destination, Little Island, was on top of the opposing canyon wall, guarded by columnar shaped rock outcrops like a castle wall.  So we pointed to a gap in the rock wall, and then pointed our steps in that direction.

About two miles, one creek crossing, and a lot of rock scrambling later, we discovered why the site was named Little Island.  Little Island is an island in the sky, standing tall between the juncture of two canyons with an incredible view of the snow-capped Jarbidge Mountains.  Spirits were high as we counted, measured, and described the grass, brush, forbs, and soil of the area.

Indian Paintbrush

The day concluded back at the campsite where the rest of the crew was waiting for us with a fire and hot dogs ready to roast.  A crescent moon, and an incredible view of the stars followed shortly after.

Thank you everyone who helped me get going on this incredible journey.

Take care,

Jonathan Kleinman

Jarbidge Field Office

Bureau of Land Management