Hello all!

This past month has been quite exciting and fun! What I love about this internship is that the types of work we do is always changing and we always see new places. My mentor here in Richfield estimated that we cover 8 million acres of land! It is so great that I am getting to see more of the state of Utah than I have seen in any other state I have lived! At the end of May/start of June, we began taking vouchers for our seed collections for Seeds of Success and then shortly after, we all had the workshop in Chicago. So far our crew has made about 25 collections, so currently we are really on a great pace!

Having fun during seed collection!

A lot of the collections we have made are of Needle and Thread (Hesperostipa comata), Indian Ricegrass (Achnatherum hymenoides), and Globemallow (Sphaeralcea parvifolia). But we have also made a few collections of Machaeranthera tanacetifolia, Astragalus lonchocarpus, and a few others. It is a great experience to look at all sorts of different habitats and try to find big enough stands of plants to get a sizable collection from.

Buckhorn Wash in eastern Utah

Seed collections for Astragalus lonchocarpus!

Searching western Utah for new possible seed collections

One of the other things that I have enjoyed so far is when I have the opportunity to go out into the field with other people from our office, or other nearby offices, and we look and discuss different treatments that have been done to various areas. It is really cool to see and hear about what the area looked like in the past, what it looks like now, if the treatment worked or did not work, what could have been done differently. And hearing everybody’s insight makes for a more complete answer to these different questions.

I imagine by the time of my next post our crew will have even more collections completed, and possibly more then our target of 40! Until next time!

Sam

Richfield, UT

Hello all,

This past month has been quite exciting with all sorts of weather and new tasks to complete. We saw rain, sunshine, and even a snow storm while monitoring for cactus. I even got to ride on a UTV and an ATV for my first time! We finally were able to finish all 207 of the Factory Butte Sclerocactus wrightiae microplots, so now we are able to continue on and work on a greater variety of projects.

Monitoring Sclerocactus wrightiae at Factory Butte outside of Hanksville, UT

Since we have completed the Sclerocactus wrightiae and Pediocactus winkleri monitoring, we have been making less and less trips back down to Hanksville, and have now been exploring more and more of the different beautiful places of Utah. Lately, we have been collecting seeds and trying to scout for new populations of various plants to collect seeds for the SOS program. We have been working on collecting seeds from Pediocactus winkleri and Pediocactus despainii and then sending those samples to BYU, where they are looking at the genetics of both plants to see if they truly are two different species or just varieties of the same species. The phenology of both of the species holds no distinguishable difference, so it will be nice to find out what the genetics tells about each of the plants. We have also begun some monitoring for Sclerocactus spinosior through relocating old populations that have not been revisited since the turn of the new millennium.

Sclerocactus spinosior

Pretty pretty Penstemon confusus!

But besides all of the work I have been doing this past month, I have been able to have lots of fun experiences in my free time. I was able to make a trip to Arches National Park and enjoy the beautiful scenery and get in touch with my inner Edward Abbey. I also had a great time riding up Boulder Mountain on the ATV and going fishing for trout with my boss on the weekend. I had never fished for trout before, so it was definitely a good experience and was able to bring home some tasty fresh trout to cook up.

Arches National Park

Fish Creek on Boulder Mountain

That is all I have to say for now, until next time!

Sam

Hello fellow interns!

My first month in Richfield, UT has been great so far! As a Minnesota native living my whole life in the Midwest, the West has been more beautiful than I could imagine. And I have surprised myself with how fast I have been able to pick up a new flora. The desert is desolate but there is still so much beauty to be found!

Evening primrose

Our average day so far has consisted of a drive over to Hanksville, UT through Capital Reef National Park and then going to different macroplots to monitor either Sclerocactus or Pediocactus. My mentor jokes with us about how sick we are going to get of these cacti, but they still have not bothered me yet. So for our first few months, most of the work is going to center around these two genuses, and then we will start working more with seed collecting for Seeds of Success, which will involve going to a lot more different areas and some overnight camping. Outside of work, Utah has been a great place for exploration. Just this past weekend, the other CLM intern and I drove down to Zion National Park. So much beautiful scenery and great hikes! We will definitely be going back again! I am also looking forward to improving my skills with fishing and hopefully catching some trout. That is all I have to say for now, until next time!

Capital Reef National Park

Sclerocactus wrightiae

Zion – Angel’s Landing

Sam

Richfield, UT