The autumnal chill in the air is a sure sign that the field season is coming to a close. Thus, this is my last blog post from my internship in Farmington, NM. My co-intern finished last week so it’s just me for the next few weeks. Although today is the last official day of my CLM internship, I will be staying on for a few extra weeks as a volunteer to help whip our herbarium into shape and possibly assist with some other ecological monitoring around the office. We are working to wrap up our season and will be finishing up our last SOS collection next week, which should bring our total to 32 SOS Collections for this season. It may not sound like a lot to some, but I consider each one of those collections a hard-won victory due to the continuing drought in Northwest New Mexico.

Range Management Specialist Angela Yemma prepares to collect Typha latifolia (broadleaf cattail) complete with plastic bag booties! Note: The plastic baggies failed spectacularly and we ended up with wet feet that day. Next time we will definitely wear waders

This internship has greatly improved my plant identification skills. Although I completed some botany coursework in college, this internship was a place to put what I learned in school to use and expand greatly upon those skills. Back in Massachusetts, I spent a great deal of time studying trees, only to work in a place where there are very few trees.  Although I struggled at first, I think I truly rose to the challenge and learned a lot along the way.

I will definitely come away from this internship with a greater appreciation for the desert! It’s incredible how everything just comes alive after the slightest bit of rain. I will miss the enormous skies and beautiful landscapes I’ve been privileged to work in and visit this field season. The Four Corners region is an incredibly diverse and special place.

Some beautiful badlands in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

I would like to thank the folks at the BLM Farmington Field Office for a wonderful season. I was made to feel welcome here and like a member of the team. The biggest thanks go to my wonderful mentor, Sheila Williams. She took me under her wing and showed me the ways of a botany ninja, as well as gave me a candid look at what working for the federal government would be like. An additional thanks to Hannah, my CLM sister and buddy throughout the internship. She dealt with my eccentricities way more than anyone should have to and was a joy to work with.

Hannah, Sunny and I enjoying the sights in Coyote Buttes, Arizona

After I leave the Land of Enchantment next month, I will be headed for South Florida to enjoy a warm winter and (hopefully) find more fieldwork. We’ll see what the future has in store for me.

The collection season is continuing in full swing in Farmington helped along by recent heavy rains. This past weekend it rained more than an inch in less than 24 hours! If that doesn’t sound like a lot, consider that this area only gets about 8 inches of precipitation in an entire year.

Last week we were fortunate enough to take a camping trip up to Disappointment and Big Gypsum Valleys in Colorado where we were able to make four collections over two days.

Disappointment Valley, Colorado. The purple flower is Machaeranthera tanacetafolia (Tansyleaf tansyaster), a target species for SOS Collections in the Colorado Plateau!

A few weekends ago we climbed Hesperus Mountain! Although we didn’t summit, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery. As we were leaving, it began raining, producing many rainbows and a perfect Polaroid moment with the stunning stripes of the mountain and blazing yellow Aspen:

Hesperus Mountain, Colorado. The beauty of this place makes it easy to see why Hesperus is the Navajo People’s Sacred Mountain of the North (Dibé Ntsaa).

As many of you know, September 27th was National Public Lands Day. Farmington held a clean-up of several recreation areas near town. In total, we collected over 120 cubic yards of trash, including refrigerators, mattress, toilets, televisions and several dozen tires. We had a great public turnout for the event, including a 97-year-old, a volunteer who rode to the event on his donkey, as well as several people who scouted for trash from their dirt bikes.  As CLM interns, Hannah and I played our part by becoming Seymour Antelope, the BLM Mascot. We enjoyed our day out with the public as an antelope.

I transformed into Seymour Antelope for National Public Land Day!

Some authentic Seymours (Antilocapra americana) showed up to National Public Land Day as well. Photo credit: Tamara Faust

This particular volunteer was a little apprehensive to meet Seymour. Photo credit: Tamara Faust.

Last time I wrote, we were waiting for rain here at the BLM Farmington Field Office. Now the rains are finally here! Many of our target plants have really perked up and we’re looking forward to boosting our collection numbers over the next few weeks. For now, though, we’re spending quite a bit of time indoors because the increased rainfall means that the roads turn to mud. Therefore, this blog entry is more about the awesome things I’ve seen in my free time.

The San Juan National Forest is only a short jaunt north of Farmington, so we’ve been taking full advantage of the cool mountain air during the hot summer in the high desert. There are so many great hikes that it would take me years to fully explore the forest.

We made a cute snake friend with a Liochlorophis vernalis (smooth green snake) along the Piedra River, CO

As a part of our work with Seeds of Success, we’ve partnered with the BLM and USFS in Dolores, CO to make some seed collections in Southwest Colorado. Last week we visited Disappointment and Big Gyp Valley, where we hoped to find a robust population of Plueraphis jamesii (Galleta grass). Disappointment Valley lived up to its name and was disappointing on that front, but we encountered some good populations of other native forbs and grasses and may return in a few weeks. Additionally, we learned all about one of the first settlers of Disappointment Valley, an English pioneer-woman named Lizzy Knight. After her husband left her, she became a blacksmith in the mid-1800’s to support herself and her daughter and later immigrated to Colorado with her second husband. As a homesteader she began cattle ranching and was the first female resident of Rico, CO. After divorcing, she wound up marrying her son-in-law and the couple lived in their cabin in Disappointment Valley until the 1930’s and the cabin is still standing to this day. Our all-female Seeds of Success team aspires to live up to a bit of Lizzy Knight’s spark.

Big Gyp Valley, CO. The name comes from the gypsum-rich rock in the background. In the foreground, the meadow is dominated by Krascheninnikovia lanata (Winterfat) and Hesperostipa comata (needle and thread)

My parents came out to visit and we took a long weekend exploring Southeast Utah, including Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. While there I finally got to meet my favorite buckwheat, Eriogonum inflatum.

Eriogonum inflatum (Desert trumpet) at Arches National Monument, UT. The Kayenta Navajo made a lotion out of this plant that was used to heal bear and dog bites.

A lovely view through an arch in Canyonlands National Park, UT.

This past weekend we had the privilege of going on an edible mushroom hike sponsored by the Four Corners Native Plant Society. We learned about a variety of both edible and non-edible mushrooms and took a beautiful hike in the Lizard Head Wilderness west of Telluride, CO. After the hike, we had a delicious potluck dinner hosted by our gracious trip leader where we sampled the mushrooms we collected. I definitely feel more confident about my mushroom field identification and the day inspired me to try my hand at foraging.

Mushroom hunters hard at work.

Chopping up our bountiful harvest of Cantharellus cibarus (chanterelle). They were scrumptious!

This blog post also marks the approximate halfway point of my CLM internship. It’s truly flying by and I feel extremely lucky to have this opportunity. I’m looking forward to (hopefully) making many more collections when the rains let up. With that, I leave you with an enchanting New Mexico sunset:

Sunset at the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness near Huerfano, NM

Lately we’ve been spending a good deal of our time thinking about the rain. Northwest New Mexico is currently experiencing what the USDA calls “extreme drought” (for more information about current drought conditions across the U.S. visit this website) and everyone here is holding their breath to see what this monsoon season will bring. Areas outside of Farmington are definitely getting some rain; we can see thunderstorms in the distance and some of our field sites are currently inaccessible due to flash flood conditions from rain that fell in the La Plata Mountains and elsewhere. For now, though, the plants in our district are still very, very thirsty.

Despite the drought, we have been able to make several collections from some very hardy plants. Last week we made a  robust collection of Hetrotheca villosa (false hairy goldenaster) from a population that is holding on to life in a dry wash. This species is especially fun to collect because the mature seed heads are similar to dandelions and are most easily collected using a handheld Dustbuster vacuum.

Heterotheca villosa (false hairy goldenaster) — one of the target species for the Colorado Plateau Ecoregion.

We also made our second collection of evening primroses for Dr. Krissa Skogen’s research on the Onagraceae family (more information about her research can be found here). We found a population of Oenothera pallida ssp. runcinata (pale evening primrose) along a shallow wash a few weeks ago, when the water was barely running. When we returned earlier this week, we could see that the floodwaters had risen dramatically and an area that had previously been dry land was covered in about two feet of water before receding again. Despite being caught in the flood, the little Oenothera were still hanging on! We really enjoy the opportunity to contribute to Dr. Skogen’s research and hope to spot more Onagraceae species.

Oenothera pallida ssp. runcinata (pale evening primrose). If you look closely you may be able to spot some hawk moth scales on the flower’s stigma.

One thing we  learned is that this is the season for baby horned lizards (also called horny toads). We’re really excited about this because most lizards are too fast too catch, but horned lizards are so pudgy that they are easy to scoop up as they waddle along. So far, we’ve caught several babies as well as a full-grown adult. The adult is about the size of my palm, while some of the smallest young lizards are smaller than my thumbnail. Finding horned lizards is considered good luck by the Navajo, so we’re hoping that it’s a good omen that we’ve been encountering so many.

An adult Phrynosoma hernandesi (greater short-horned lizard)

A newborn Phrynosoma hernandesi (greater short-horned lizard). Compare the size with the adult pictured above! Photo courtesy of Tess Johnstone.

We recently had the privilege to meet Dr. Richard Lee, one of the authors of the book Weeds of the West. Unbeknownst to us, Dr. Lee teaches a short course on invasive plants in Farmington every summer. It turns out that we live in a veritable invasive plant mecca! He came into town with a truck full of invasive plants that we stored in my cubicle and he was kind enough to invite us on his guided tour of invasive plants in the area. It was very useful to learn more about invasive plant species and definitely helped me learn what to look out for in the field.

My cubicle turned into a junge of a wide variety of invasive thistles, knapweeds and others for the day.

We hope to be very busy in a few weeks after we (hopefully) have some good rain and the plants perk up. In the meantime, do a rain dance for us!

I arrived at my internship with the BLM Farmington Field Office almost two weeks ago, which have been filled with a whirlwind of activity. Much of my time has been spent learning and studying the flora here, almost all of which are completely new for me. My mentor, Sheila Williams and fellow CLM intern, Hannah Goodmuth have been incredibly helpful and patient teachers and I feel like I’m finally starting to catch on.

Fellow CLM Intern Hannah Goodmuth (R) and I with a flowering Scabrethia scabra (Badlands mule-ears).

The landscape here is  completely distinct from what I’m used to back on the east coast. The area is dotted with numerous and diverse mesas dominated by Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands, which are adorably referred to as “pygmy forests”.

Despite the ongoing drought in the region, we made our first Seeds of Success collection for the 2014 season. We located a large population of woolly plantain (Plantago patagonica) that managed to flower and produce seed in incredibly dry conditions. I truly enjoyed making the collection; we headed out before 7am to avoid the heat of the day and spent a beautiful, cool morning gathering seeds.

The collection site for Platago patagonica this week. The plants are the small fluffy herbs in the foreground.

With the collection season in full swing, I’m looking forward to getting down to work scouting more collection sites for our target species and continuing to learn more about the Colorado Plateau region.