Greetings from Taos, New Mexico.
It has been almost 2 months since I landed in this small, unique town tucked beneath the mysterious and grandiose Sangre de Cristo mountains. The summer is already flying by before my very eyes, but I am savoring every second of it. I remember my first moments of arrival here, being immediately awestruck by the massive dark blue mountains contrasting the sprawling silver-green sage brush land beneath it. The words of friends who have visited Taos echoed in my mind, and I finally understood what they meant of the magic feeling of this place. The land of enchantment is quite an apt description of New Mexico. Taos is an eclectic town with a wide variety of people that live here. The food here is tasty, and I have been thoroughly enjoying New Mexican food, i.e. smothering everything in green chile. There seems to be a lot to do here, whether it be seeing live music, going to the farmer’s market, getting a drink at the Mesa Brewery, attending a festival, floating down the Rio Grande. And you can’t forget the fantastic access to the gorgeous mountains and forests surrounding the town.
Backpack trip up to Trampas Lake
Working in the Taos BLM office has been an interesting and educational experience. The SoS Interns, myself and three others, have made 6 seed collections so far. I’ve grown to thoroughly enjoy the process of collecting seeds; it can be a very relaxing and meditative activity. As someone who has only worked field jobs in the Northwest, I am learning a lot about Southwestern flora. The plants here are quite beautiful and interesting. I love seeing all the different kinds of cactus and their striking flowers, as well as the numerous species of the pretty Penstemon here.
Two weeks ago, our seed collection duties were put on hold for an emergency rare plant survey. Astragalus ripleyii, a BLM sensitive species, was found on a plot of land that was due to be treated. The treatment involves disking, a disruptive method which uses a large disk to tear up the sage brush in order to allow more grass to grow. However, because this rare species of Astragalus was found, a plant survey was needed in order to map out its populations to include buffer areas around them. Thus, the SoS team, and the occasional special guest, went out for 8 days, scanning 300 + acres of land for Astragalus ripleyii. In the end, we found around 6 populations. I am glad I got the chance to conduct my first rare plant survey, as well as learn about this particular type of land management and the politics behind it.
looking for ripleyii
Finally, this past week I had the opportunity to go out with the Taos AIM crew (Assessment Inventory and Monitoring) for a few days and collect data with them. It felt good to go out on a hitch, doing plots and camping afterwards. I recorded some data for them, as well as conducted some Point-Intercept lines. I also took part in identifying soils, which involves digging a soil pit 70 cm deep, classifying and analyzing the various layers within it. It was pretty interesting to see how the soil layers changed the deeper you went, and interpreting its role in the plant communities present. The next day, we got stuck in the mud on our way to a plot in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. There have been unusual thunderstorms pretty consistently the past couple weeks, and as a result, the dirt roads many of us BLM workers have to take turn to pudding. We dug for a while without success, and called in on the truck radio to dispatch (which was exciting and kind of nerve-wrecking) to ask for a fire crew to help us. They eventually came to our rescue, and we learned some things about getting trucks unstuck (which involves gunning it and rapidly turning the wheel left and right to wiggle it out). Later that day at a plot off a solid, paved road, we got close and personal with a rattlesnake! Overall, it was an eventful and exciting hitch, and I hope to go out with them again in the future.
