Just when work seemed to be slowing down with the end of the field season, the month of September came to the rescue.

            It was time for Marta and I to start going out to various (20+) trend sites located throughout the 400,000 acres of land recently burned in the lightening-caused Buzzard Complex Fire (BCF). At these sites we noted the vigor of remaining vegetation (as well as regrowth) and took plot and landscape photos. Unlike all the other ES&R trend sites we’ve monitored this summer (which burned anywhere from 1-3 years ago), these BCF trend sites burned less than 2 months ago in July.

To be able to explore and collect monitoring data on very recently burned high-desert shrubland-steppe was quite the experience. It is really hard to imagine what 400,000 acres looks like until you are out there on the ground. Let’s just say it is like looking out in nearly every direction from wherever you may be and seeing burned land as far as the eye can see. Here though, it is important to understand that fires do not burn evenly across the landscape in terms of fire severity. So, in the high-severity burned areas the land was completely barren of any vegetation and it was easy to see where shrubs were once rooted in the ground before the fire by looking at the darker spots of the ash covered land. In the moderate-severity burned areas the land was of course still ash covered in many places, but there remained dead, blackened stumps of shrubs and stubs of burned down bunchgrasses scattered throughout.  In the low-severity burned areas remained little islands of still intact (and sometimes very much alive and green; unburned) shrubs and or bunchgrasses. Most encouraging though, there were a good amount of sites that had rubber rabbitbrush regrowth and bunchgrass seedlings sprouting up!

July 2014 Buzzard Complex Fire: High-Severity burned area

July 2014 Buzzard Complex Fire: Moderate Severity burned area

July 2014 Buzzard Complex Fire: Low-Severity burned area

 

 

Attending the BCF tour was another wonderful experience that came with the month of September. The purpose of this tour for the BLM Buzzard Complex Fire ES&R Team (made up of a few Rangeland Management Specialists, Resource Area Managers, Noxious Weed Specialists, and Natural Resource Specialists) and the Burns, OR USDA Agricultural Resource Station (USDA ARS) was to show special interest groups (such as Oregon Natural Desert Association), cooperating agencies and tribal representatives the condition of the land throughout the burned area, all the while discussing the threats (exotic annual grass invasion, herds of feral horses ripping out seedlings, short fire return intervals, etc.), opportunities (exotic annual grass/fuels reduction with grazing, seeding/planting desirable species, noxious weed treatments, etc.) and management actions, in addition to addressing any of post-fire management concerns.

July 2014 Buzzard Complex Fire Tour led by BLM Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Team and Burns, OR USDA Agricultural Research Station scientists

The 1^st stop of the tour was at a (medusa-head infested pre-fire) research plot located in the burned area. Here, the scientists from the Burns, OR USDA Agricultural Research Station discussed the results of their experiments concerning establishment of a variety of seeded/ planted native vs desirable (crested wheatgrass in particular) species post-fire in this low-precipitation, low-elevation landscape. The scientists explained why the natives had a very hard time establishing (virtually no germination success) and why the desired bunchgrass (crested wheatgrass) was much more successful in establishing. Simply put, the crested wheatgrass was much more hardy and competitive than the native species.

Here are some quotes (though I apologize because for some I did not write down who said it as I was scribbling it all down like a mad-man so as not to miss anything) I took from the informed discussion that followed:

• ·         Being a perennial bunchgrass, crested wheatgrass has a very extensive root system, so “just because you see bare ground on top of soil does not mean it is unoccupied underneath…and don’t be alarmed when you see annual grasses in between bunchgrasses because it could be simply due to high precipitation that year, but may not persist” (USDA ARS scientist).
• ·         “Bunchgrasses are key if you do not want the land to convert to exotic annual grasslands of cheatgrass or medusa-head” (USDA ARS scientist).
• ·         “But, then how about the issue of crested wheatgrass taking over and keeping native vegetation from establishing?” (Oregon Natural Desert Association representative)
  • o   “There is competition with native species and crested wheatgrass, but if we seed natives alone at these low-elevation, low-precipitation sites, the seedings will not be successful.” (BLM Natural Resource Specialist)
  • o   “Think of the crested wheatgrasses as a place holder for natives once the technology and resources are made available which would allow us to succeed in native revegetation efforts.” (BLM Resource Area Manager)
  • o   “It is much easier to restore a crested wheatgrass dominated plant community to a native plant community than it is to restore an exotic annual grassland community to a native plant community” (BLM Rangeland Management Specialist).
  • o   “We would prefer to use native species just as much as anyone else. We are not satisfied with looking at a crested wheatgrass landscape and saying ‘ok, we’re done, we’re happy’. No. We need a long-term outlook.” (BLM Natural Resource Specialist).
  • o   “Time is the best tool you have to get back the natives” (BLM Resource Area Manager).

At the second stop, the matter of feral horse herds on post-fire/rehabbed areas was discussed. I have not learned much before about the influence of feral horse herds on public rangelands, so, I found this part of the tour to be very interesting.

The third stop was to demonstrate winter grazing annual exotics with nutrient supplements post-fire. It was explained, as expected, that the cows lost a little weight in the beginning and there were problems with the adult cows kicking the calves off the supplements, but near the end the cows were again at good weight. Although this practice of biological thinning is a rather slow, less effective way to combat exotic annual grasses (due to grazing after the annuals have already gone to seed), it does nonetheless reduce the fine fuels on site.  So, it helps. It is this type of treatment action that will hopefully take place on medusa-infested areas of the BCF in winter if resources are made available by permittees (which have been really cooperative since the permittee meeting in July when the BLM ES&R Team presented to them their BCF management) and if there is enough precipitation this fall.

In concluding the tour, everyone shared their final thoughts on the matter of fire rehabilitation and the need for pro-active fire management (i.e. Tri-State fuel breaks, fine fuels reduction to increase fire return intervals, etc.), instead of re-active fire management (i.e. millions of dollars spent on fire suppression, leaving little money for rehabilitation efforts) and were all very appreciative of this opportunity to be on the ground to really understand what happened on the land and what needs to be done to ensure the land does not degrade further and transition into an exotic annual grassland.

 

Ariana Gloria-Martinez

Burns, OR BLM

 

Last week, I had the great pleasure of volunteering at and attending the Regional NW/Great Basin Society for Ecological Restoration Conference in Redmond, Oregon (titled: Collaborative Restoration: From Community Efforts to Landscape Scales). This conference was just what I needed at a time when I will be finishing up this internship in less than a month and be on the hunt for my next chance to gain professional hands-on experience with anything related to ecological restoration.

            My goal of attending the conference was to get to know and have real conversations with the many other practitioners, scientists and enthusiasts that were also in attendance. It was a bit of a different conference experience than I was used to because I was there as a lone ranger (in that I did not have the

Sagebrush-Steppe Restoration- A Paired Watershed Juniper Study, led by Tim Deboodt and Michael Fisher

comfort/security of friends from a University student club with me). Yet, as a recent grad it turned out to be really good because it allowed me to break out of my shell and develop my professional skills and learn of the many job opportunities I should apply for soon now that they have a face to my name J.

            I spent most of my time at presentations related to shrubland/grassland restoration since that is where my educational and experiential background is, but also made sure to expand my horizons by going to panels and presentations on more unfamiliar topics such as urban restoration, energy mitigation, native plant development and materials, and conservation through prisons. Also, the poster session I attended (and more specifically the grad students I spoke with about their research) added to my excitement about going to back school in a year or two to pursue an advance degree in ecological restoration!

            Then, Friday I attended the Shrub-Steppe Restoration-A Paired Watershed Juniper Study fieldtrip led by Tim Deboodt (staff chair of Oregon State University Extension) and Mike Fisher (Forestry Professor at Central Oregon Community College). The goal of the study was to evaluate the impacts of removing (cutting) western juniper on the hydrologic function of the two watershed sites (one of which was used as the control- no juniper removal). What I enjoyed most about the fieldtrip was learning about the geologic, ecological and management history of the study site from the people who know it best (Tim and Mike who’ve been working on this site for 20+ years and saw the importance of collecting 11 years of baseline data and who also have not determined an ending date to the study as they will be passing it off this year to another scientist to lead the research). I also really enjoyed our two mile hike between the two watersheds because I was able to observe first-hand the visual difference between the control site and the site where juniper had been removed.

Overall, I really felt lucky to be a part of that conference because it allowed me to learn from a diverse group of practitioners and scientists about the many challenges they have faced as well as successes they have had in conserving the flora, fauna and land of all types of ecosystems through ecological restoration with the help of invested and passionate local communities, academic and private partnerships by way of progressive and productive collaboration.

Sagebrush-Steppe Restoration- A Paired Watershed Juniper Study, led by Tim Deboodt and Michael Fisher

Ariana Gloria-Martinez

Burns, OR BLM 

Hey everyone! 

Wow, can you believe it’s already the end of August? I sure can’t! As CLM interns, this past month has undeniably given Marta and I the chance to work hard and play even harder.

August 2^nd:

Spent the day hiking, botanizing and relaxing at glacial Wildhorse Lake. I’d been saving this trip for a while so that I could catch all the magnificent alpine wildflowers at the peak of their blooming period. Took me about three hours to get down to the lake, not because it was a mile long, switch-back heavy, daunting 1,000+ ft. drop down a rugged rock face into the alpine basin, but because I kept stopping in awe every time I saw a spurt of bright red, yellow, orange, blue, pink, or white flowers shooting out from all directions of the trail. After dipping my feet into the lake and taking a nice rest, I

Alpine Wildflowers near Wildhorse Lake

decided it was time for me to go on a little adventure. I was initially headed straight to a smaller lake down further into the gorge until I heard what sounded like the rush of a small waterfall. I traveled up that way and I swear, I had not seen something as beautiful as that area of the creek–with its pink penstemon, yellow sunflowers, black sedges, blue bells and purple daisies–in a long time. Then, when I didn’t think life could get any better, I began noticing all the extraordinarily lovely grasses (all around me of course) holding this place together! After my time spent with the stunning bromes, poas
 and wheatgrasses I scrambled over a huge boulder patch (soooo FUN!) to get to that smaller lake up ahead.

Beautiful and whispy

smaller lake up ahead of Wildhorse Lake

August 5^th-7^th:

Rooster Comb RNA

Marta and I headed down to (the BLM owned and managed) historic Riddle Brothers Ranch complex located in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area. We were to stay overnight at the Riddle Brothers Ranch (BLM Administration site) for the next couple days so that each morning we could easily access the nearby Rooster Comb Research Natural Area and get to work right away without having to drive hours to and fro. As I’m sure most of my fellow CLM interns have come to find out, according to the Bureau of Land Management, “Research Natural Areas (RNAs) are areas that are part of a national network of reserved areas under various ownerships which contain important ecological and scientific values and are managed for minimum human disturbance”. Our job was to spend the next couple days identifying as many plant species in the Rooster Comb RNA as possible. Hearing the calming flow of the Little Blitzen River to the left, right and sometimes below us while we (wrapped in summer’s warmth) identified the many new grasses, sedges,forbs and shrubs all around us was pure bliss!

Little Blitzen River running through Rooster Comb RNA

Rest of August:

On our way to an ES&R (2012 Holloway FIre) plot/transect site

Since our return from Riddle Brother’s Ranch, Marta and I have been getting closer and closer to finishing up what is left of our fire monitoring when it comes to going out in the field to the different plot sites and collecting data. Since the beginning, Marta, good ol’ Randy and I have had a blast laughing, learning about each other, and familiarizing ourselves with the flora and fauna of a number of diverse ecosystems (such as the shrubland-steppes, high deserts, wetlands, alkaline flats, aspen groves, hot springs, juniper woodlands and alpine tundra’s of eastern Oregon). Lately, we have been working in the office; inputting field data into excel spreadsheets, creating a multitude of graphs representative of our findings and uploading/organizing all the photo point pictures we have taken at each plot site this summer. Yesterday, I happily determined the potential vegetation types of each plot’s ecological site with the use of ARCmap 10.2 and entered that information into the excel data sheets. Oh, how I have missed GIS!!

We saw Greater Sage-Grouse!!!

Annnnnnd did I mention…….

Marta and I nearing the end of the trip! Best backpacking buddy a girl could ask for 🙂

Strawberry Mountain Wilderness

This last weekend (Aug. 15^th-16^th) Marta and I went on a 17.5 mile (two day) backpacking trip around the stunning Strawberry Mountain Wilderness and aaay dios mio!! We summited Strawberry Mountain, camped at Little Strawberry Lake, spent time at near a strikingly gorgeous waterfall and visited Strawberry Lake, Slide Lake and Little Slide Lake! It was so incredibly STUPENDOUS (ha that one’s for you Marta!), physically challenging and overall one of the best times I have ever had in the outside world—one that I will never forget!

Strawberry Lake

Anyone know what our friend Felix is?

Ariana Gloria-Martinez

Hines, OR

Why helloooooooooo there!!!           Wow, it sure has been a good while since my last blog post (you know, the one I said that I would be blogging every other week). Hahaha, seeeeee what had happened was…to make a long story short; every weekend that I was faced with the choice of a) posting to this blog or  b) going out and discovering all that Oregon has to offer, well, I chose b). So, it looks like I have some splainin’ to do! Okay (deep breath in…and out), here it goes:

July 5^th – 6^th:

The day after Marta and I’s fantastic Fourth of July celebrations (see Marta’s “Identifying Grasses is Patriotic” blog post) we took to the gorgeous Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area of southeast Oregon. The Steens Mountain CMPA makes up 428,156 acres of public land offering a wide variety of scenic and recreational experiences such as wildlife/landscape photography, fishing, swimming, camping, and roaming the open country on foot or horseback. Once we arrived at willow and aspen tree enclosed Fish Lake (one of four campgrounds in the Steens Mountain CMPA), Marta and I set up camp, read our beloved books by the water, spent a good amount of time in awe of the stunning riparian plant species surrounding us and then finally jumped in! I hadn’t swam/goofed around in a lake in what felt like forever, so that was definitely the highlight of my day.

Lupine, Columbine @ Fish Lake

Agastache urticifolia (horsemint)

Pedicularis groenlandica (bull elephant’s head)

Swertia radiate (monument plant)

          The next day, before heading back to town, we took in the breathtaking views of Kiger Gorge, East Rim, Big Indian Gorge, Wildhorse and Little Blitzen Gorge overlooks (many of which left me completely speechless) as we traveled along the 52-mile Steens Mountain Backcountry Byway. Though I must say, my absolute favorite part of the 52-mile Steens Mountain loop road was seeing the land around us transition from sagebrush steppe (at the bottom of the mountain) to juniper woodland (further up) to stands of aspen and mountain mahogany and then to high elevation grassland before changing to a subalpine community at the top of the mountain with magnificent blooms of low-growing plants and small wind-shaped shrubs alongside the endemic populations of Steen’s Mountain paintbrush and Steen’s Mountain thistle!

East Rim Overlook and the Alvord Desert in the far right back.

July 9^th– 14^th:

My older brother flew from Colorado to visit me here in Oregon and I was ecstatic! The first day I familiarized my brother with the wonderful town of Burns and took him of course up to the Steens Mountain. He was quite shocked when he saw the beautifully unexpected sights of the Steens. We had a blast hiking around, botanizing (and by that I mean him pointing at the showy wildflower bloom and me responding with the species name), throwing snowballs at each other and yelling at the top of our lungs to hear our echoes fill the vast gorges.

The very next morning we started our drive to Portland!!! As we both expected (thanks to the hilarious season 1 of Portlandia) our time in Portland was filled with good food, weird (I mean interesting people), incredibly wild (I mean fun) nights out and the massive outdoor Saturday Market!

We also spent two relaxing days at Cannon Beach which sits on the northern coast of Oregon! In Cannon Beach sits Haystack Rock, the world’s third largest intertidal monolithic rock –and we got to see all the red, orange and purple starfish, green and pink sea anemones, red-orange crabs, chitons, limpets, snails, terns and PUFFINS that call its tide pools and nesting sites home! We also watched as early-morning beach-goers dug for bright orange razor clams. Being from landlocked Colorado it had been nearly 6 years since the last time either one of us stepped foot on the West Coast. We didn’t want to leave.

my bruver Adan!

OOOOWEEE NOW DAT”S GOURMET! Haha they were so funny. Can’t wait to start cooking with the King Cajun spice set and bbq sauces I got!

Haystack Rock @ Cannon Beach

My two arch nemesis: medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae) and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum)

ground photo of Olympus fire plot

Landscape photo of the 2013 Olympus Fire burned Miller Homestead

Travis caught the bullsnake!

Bullsnake!

I LOVE COWS!! SO cute!

Hello everyone!

I am excited to finally be writing to you from the high desert of Eastern Oregon. Just over four weeks ago I traveled from Denver, CO to Hines, OR to begin my conservation and land management internship (Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation monitoring) with the Bureau of Land Management. It felt so good to have just graduated from college a week before and already be starting an amazing internship with a federal agency I have learned so much about over the years as a Rangeland Ecology student at Colorado State University.

The first day of work my supervisor Caryn was very welcoming and introduced Marta (other intern) and I to a number of different specialists and managers in the office that we would be working with during our time here. I couldn’t get over how freakin cool it was to be walking around in a BLM office and seeing so many different natural resource specialists (rangeland management, geologists, GIS, wildlife biologists, land/realty management, fire ecologists, etc) hard at work in order to support people’s livelihoods and sustain ecosystem services!

Our field season officially began the morning of June 1st when Travis (Rangeland Management Specialist) took us out to the Miller homestead site (he manages) where the lightning-ignited Olympus fire burned 3,000 acres last summer. The high-intensity fire spread quickly due to the occupation of that area by many shrubs, native perennial grasses and medusahead (an especially invasive non-native grass which reduces grazing capacity and wildlife habitat, negatively affects biodiversity and creates a wildfire hazard). The site was aerial seeded with alfalfa (very good forage species that is well-adapted to the dry environment of Oregon’s high desert rangelands).

Our job was to carry out the Pace 180 (nearest plant) method to monitor vegetation trend by estimating ground cover, basal cover of perennial herbaceous plants and foliar cover of woody species in addition to perennial plant composition. We also were tasked with carrying out the Line-Point Intercept method to quantify soil cover, vegetation cover, litter cover, rock cover and biological soil crust cover. Additionally, we set out a quad every 5 meters along our 50 meter transects to estimate the density of perennial forbs and shrubs in the burned area. The purpose of ESR monitoring is to determine whether the implemented treatment (seeding in this case) was effective in establishing desirable species that reduce soil erosion (by providing good cover) and positively impact the ecological integrity of the burned site by occupying areas that otherwise would be overtaken by ecosystem-altering invasive non-native species such as medusahead grass and cheatgrass (an invasive non-native annual grass that outcompetes native species especially after a disturbance, reduces agricultural production and alters an ecosystem’s fire regime).

This first day out in the field was quite rewarding! Not only did Travis familiarize us with ESR monitoring protocol and happily tell us (and answer our many questions) about the ecological history of the site, he also had a great discussion with us about the many (environmental and political) threats that plague the rangelands of Eastern Oregon.

On the days we are not monitoring ESR sites,  we are either traveling to different Research Natural Areas (RNAs) in search of rare plants or traveling to different Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) to conduct plant inventories. These days are particularly exciting because we often find ourselves botanizing in some of the most beautiful biologically diverse ecosystems Eastern Oregon has to offer!

In other news, ever since I stumbled upon pieces of obsidian, rough quartz and white crystalized rock the first week in the field, I have definitely become a bit of a rock-hound! Caryn (my wonderful supervisor) fell in love with rock hunting the minute she explored Harney county as well and the other day showed me her very impressive rock collection of obsidian, quartz, calcite, agate, jasper and PETRIFIED WOOD!!! I am pretty stoked because tomorrow morning I will be spending my time hunting for obsidian, agate and sunstones (to add to my first ever rock collection) since I am now the proud owner of 3 rock hunting site maps provided to me (and made by) Caryn!!  Below is a sneak peak of my growing collection.

This is my first time ever blogging, but I actually really enjoy it and feel it’s a wonderful way to reflect on the many experiences I will have as a BLM intern here in OREGON!!

I look forward to blogging at least every other week, so stay tuned 🙂

Ariana Gloria-Martinez

Hines, Oregon