It’s been five weeks since I started my second CLM internship in Wenatchee, and I’ve spent the vast majority of that time sitting at my computer entering data from dusty, decade-old data sheets into Microsoft Access. It was a good task to keep us busy during this snowier-than-usual winter, and a huge help to the field office, which usually doesn’t have interns during the off-season. However, I can only stare at a screen for so long before starting to feel a little crazy. Which is why I’m happy to announce that it’s the beginning of field season once again–the beginning of flowering, the beginning of long hikes and being covered in dirt and ash, and the beginning of another exciting year of learning and exploring in central Washington.

Last Thursday was my first day in the field, and it didn’t disappoint! We traveled a couple hours south of Wenatchee to the Range 12 fire to inspect the aerial seeding of native bunchgrasses into certain portions of the burned area. Aerial seeding is an important part of the Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation process, since it gets lots of seed laid down quickly over large swathes of land. For this area, a mix of basin wild rye, bluebunch wheatgrass and Sandberg’s bluegrass was used. The work was contracted out to Central Valley Helicopters, a business that provides many important land management services such as aerial herbicide application, fire suppression, wildlife surveys and, of course, aerial seeding. Their sophisticated GPS systems and ingenious seed-distributing apparatus (which they built themselves!) allow an incredible amount of precision when they are dropping seed. Watching the helicopter arrive and pick up load after load of seed was one of the most exciting things I’ve done during this internship, and I’m glad we got the chance to experience this important aspect of post-fire stabilization.

The seed dispenser was much more complex than I’d imagined

Hooking the seed dispenser requires lots of precision

Flying off to dump some seed!

We didn’t just drive down to the aerial seeding operation to observe. Due to wind gusts and slight discrepancies between the seeding polygons and the actual draws they are supposed to represent, certain areas may be missed by aerial seeding. Usually this isn’t too critical, but in some cases, when the missed spots are bare, coated in a monoculture of weed seedlings, or showing signs of erosion, it’s important to get them covered with native seed. That’s why we laid down tarps in three of the draws slated for seeding before the seeding began–when it was over, we returned to the tarps to see how much seed had fallen on them. One had a lot of seed, one had a little seed, and two were bare, indicating areas that had been missed. In the spots that were not missed, the areas where the tarps had been will serve as control units later on when we are assessing the success of the seeding.

This tarp at the beginning of a draw was bare after the seeding, indicating that we needed to return for hand seeding

Since there had been an error in calculating the amount of seed that would be needed, we ended up with 500 extra pound of the seed mix. We returned to the seeded area on Tuesday with this extra seed and hand-seeded some of the spots that had been missed, with a focus on particularly degraded looking areas. It was much harder work than I expected it to be, but also lots of fun! We didn’t stop once we finished the aerial seeding area, either. Since there was so much leftover seed, we brought it with us to other parcels in the fire as we drove around mapping structures and scouting the best access routes. We walked along draws and put seed down wherever we saw bare ground and erosional features.

Feeling like a goofy sandwich with my seeder and my backpack!

Kat puts down some seed in a shallow draw

We found this “glacier” in a draw we were hoping to seed. The snow was so deep we were able to walk right over a fence!

While the seeding was fun, the most exciting part of the week for me happened during lunch on Tuesday, when I spotted my first flowering plant of the season in a draw bottom. It’s some kind of Lomatium, but I haven’t been able to identify it to species (yet). It was heartening to see something native coming back, and gave me hope for the area’s recovery.

Lomatium spp…possibly quintuplex or watsonii, both of which are on the state watch list!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee Field Office

It’s the last week of my nine-month internship here in Wenatchee, WA, and things seem to have come full circle. The foothills are snowcapped again, reminding me of the way they looked in March when I first arrived in this valley. After a final flurry of fall fieldwork including a riparian restoration project, seed collection, and AIM monitoring of ESR seeding treatments, I’m back in the office full-time, struggling to make it through days that would have flown by if spent out in the field. I’m already brushing up on my early spring wildflowers, hoping to get a head-start before CLM internship 2.0 begins!

One of the beaver exclosures built as part of a riparian restoration project

I knew I wanted to be a CLM intern since I first discovered the program in 2014. I was a senior in college, and my conservation biology advisor sent me an email with a link to the web page. I remember the way I lit up while reading about the various responsibilities interns might have…I wondered if it were really possible that I could actually be PAID to do those things that sounded more like fun than work! The whole thing just seemed too good to be true. Though I didn’t get an internship in 2015, I tried again, ended up here, and discovered that it’s even better than I’d imagined. The incredible, fascinating flora of this region reignited my passion for botany–when the foothills were in their full spring bloom, I felt like a kid in a candy shop every time I was out in the field.

Bitterroot–still my favorite Washington plant!

That’s not to say the whole field season was fun and games, though. I pushed myself to new limits during this internship, and discovered a physical and mental toughness I didn’t know I had. Hiking over the steep terrain of this region whipped me into the best shape of my life, I experienced fieldwork in hundred degree heat, and I made it to the top of countless hills that at the time I was sure would kill me. I spent days at a time camping at remote field sites, with neither showers nor reliable cell service. I’m glad things weren’t always easy, because these challenges have made me a stronger person and a more valuable field worker.

Something I did not expect, but am grateful for, is the amount of experience with GIS this internship has given me. In general, I find technology pretty daunting, and will always opt to go outside rather than do computer work if given the choice. But seeing all the ways my coworkers at the BLM used ArcMap, and using it myself as an integral part of my tasks, made me realize what a valuable tool it is for land management.

My position here in the 2017 field season will be the same as my current position–I’ll be focusing on post-wildfire emergency stabilization and rehabilitation, which means that once again I’ll be hiking through recently burned BLM parcels, sending up puffs of ash with every step and likely mapping lots of weeds. But with the relatively light wildfire year we had here in Washington, it looks like we won’t be quite as swamped with ESR, and will likely be spending more time doing things like wildlife surveys. With any luck, I’ll be posting pictures of sage grouse on here a few months from now!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee, WA Field Office

As I read the farewell posts of other CLM interns across the country, it’s hitting me that as far as botany goes, it’s basically the end of the field season. The sagebrush seeds are ready for collection, the wildflowers that had me constantly geeking out all spring and summer are fast becoming unrecognizable in their senescent states, and the steady sunshine and 90 degree heat I’d grown used to have been replaced with a perpetual dampness. Now, instead of slathering on sunscreen and making sure I have 3 liters of water every time I go out in the field, I’m bundling up and checking to make sure I remembered my raincoat and some extra pairs of socks.

Despite the way everything seems to be wrapping up, I’m glad to say that my time here in Wenatchee, and in the field, is far from over. My current internship won’t be finished until December 16th, and there’s already been talk of fence mapping and pygmy rabbit surveying in snowshoes! At this point, I’m up for anything–I’ve done so many things this summer that I previously thought I was incapable of, so why not experience four seasons of fieldwork? Even better, I’ve been rehired by my field office to repeat this internship next year, so after a short hiatus in Wisconsin for the holidays, I’ll be back to work starting in late January or early February so we can get in some early season sage grouse work! Though my heart belongs to botany, I’m thrilled that I’ll have the chance to gain some wildlife experience. My time in Wenatchee has already been the biggest adventure of my life, and I’m so glad I don’t have to say goodbye just yet.

The three months since I last blogged have flown by, in part because I’ve been traveling nearly every week! Starting in September, we got into a pretty steady rhythm of camping out one or two nights each week for work, and that, combined with weekend camping trips and the vacation home I took in early October, has put my life into a seemingly constant state of packing and unpacking. I love it this way, though! There is so much to see and do in Washington.

We went to take post-fire monitoring points at the Range 12 fire, so naturally these ash mustaches happened.

Lakes next to a BLM parcel in northern WA, in the “lime belt” area. The alkaline water gives them that tropical color!

One of our cozy work campsites!

We went up to Little Chopaka Mountain to do LPI and bunchgrass monitoring. We were only a mile away from Canada!

Walking through a patch of Cynoglossum officinale is an ill-advised life choice…

The beautiful Ipomopsis aggregata

It can get pretty depressing spending every day of fieldwork searching for and mapping weeds. Monotonous as well, because (spoiler alert), we ALWAYS find them in abundance! Focus too hard on the knapweed, cheatgrass, and tumblemustard, and eventually it becomes all you see. That’s why I felt lucky the past few weeks to be introduced by Molly, our office’s botanist, to some Washington rare plants, and take a little time out in the field to focus on something more positive!

Long-sepal globemallow, Iliamna longisepala

Ute ladies’-tresses, Spiranthes diluvialis

Coyote tobacco, Nicotiana attenuata

Having rare plants to search for while out mapping weeds is a nice distraction. Mostly, I’ve just confirmed that certain known populations of these three plants are still around, but last Thursday I had the excitement of discovering a previously unknown population of coyote tobacco! Because my fellow weed-mappers and I are either harder-working or more foolish than some of our other coworkers at the Wenatchee field office, we tend to hike the steeper parts of our BLM parcels than most people would probably categorize as inaccessible. (There’s a reason this internship has me in the best shape of my life!) While we were walking along a high ridge and bemoaning the fact that there was dalmatian toadflax absolutely everywhere, I found a clump of at least 20 coyote tobacco plants, and then more as we walked along further. I was thrilled, and even more so later on when I told Molly about it and she said no one had reported that population before. For once, I was able to give somebody in the office some good news, and it felt great!

Though the mild weather this summer held out much longer than I expected, we are finally experiencing the Wenatchee heat that everyone warned us about, and I’m learning how to survive fieldwork in hundred degree weather. The keys, I’ve found, are water and a good sense of humor!

Here are some more pictures from the past couple weeks:

We rode in a UTV for the first time! It was mildly terrifying.

Since I’m not an entomologist, I’ve decided to call this little buddy a unicorn caterpillar!

Another day, another gorgeous, sweeping vista. I love my job!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee WA Field Office

The weeks since Chicago have been so busy and exciting! I was thrilled to get back to Washington–that brief time spent in the the dense, muggy Midwest renewed my appreciation for my new home and was enough to remind me why I am never, ever moving back to that climate! I’m forever grateful that I was placed in Washington–it’s funny how sometimes you don’t even realize a place is wrong for you until you move somewhere else.

Now that the constant stream of traveling and training that defined our spring is over, we’ve been getting down to business with our ESR work and making plans for the rest of the field season. With this planning comes the realization that the task ahead of us is nothing short of monumental. On a map, the many parcels that we need to survey for weeds look small and manageable. But after being out to some of the smallest, and still spending hours and hours combing these areas for noxious weed populations, I admitted to myself that it’s going to be a lot slower going that I’d imagined. I’m not complaining–the work is tough, but enjoyable–but I’m definitely overwhelmed. Managing land, even the relatively small amount of land that the BLM owns in WA, is a HUGE job! There’s just so much area to cover, and so little time. Luckily, the fact that we are only surveying areas that burned recently narrows our focus a bit. Not much though–last summer was one of the worst wildfire years in Washington’s history.

Last week Katherine, Gabe, and I camped out for work for the first time. I wasn’t sure how well I’d handle it, since I REALLY hate going to bed dirty, and trekking through the burns somehow coats even the clothed parts of me with a layer of dirt and ash. I toughed it out though, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected (at least, not once I’d used half our water supply to scrub my legs clean! I’m only exaggerating a little here.) We’re camping again tomorrow night, so this time I’ll be sure to bring my own, personal water supply!

Lilium columbianum. Exciting!

I had been waiting to see Clarkia pulchella for ages, and my patience was finally rewarded!

Since we had both Friday and Monday off this past weekend courtesy of our 4-10 schedule and 4th of July, Katherine and I took advantage of our four days off by heading up to Vancouver and taking a mini-vacation! Highlights of the trip included a hike in the breathtakingly beautiful temperate rain forest, a trip to the aquarium, a brewery tour, dinner at Dark Table (a restaurant where you eat in the pitch black!) and making fun of the way Canadians say “out” and “about”. Though we were sad to leave, the bacon cheeseburgers we had upon our return made me glad to be back in the good ol’ USA.

Vancouver!

Pictures couldn’t fully capture the beauty of the forest

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee, WA Field Office

I have never been a particularly athletic person. I sweat a lot, pant a lot, and can’t do a push-up to save my life. Though I ran track and cross country in high school, it was always clear that I wasn’t really built for it, and though I tried my best, I wasn’t exactly competitive. (In my book, a win meant not coming in last place.) I never imagined that one day, I would be climbing 600 foot hills on a daily basis for my job! If someone had told me back in March how physically demanding this internship would be, I would have been terrified. But here’s the thing–after a week of weed mapping in 90 degree weather in some of the hilliest terrain I’ve worked in so far, I’ve realized that against all odds, I love it! Despite the general discomfort, there’s something incredibly satisfying about getting home each night covered in dust, sunscreen and sweat, sore from head to toe, and knowing that I gave my all to collect good data. Getting in the best shape of my life wasn’t on my agenda for this summer, but I guess it’s just part of the CLM package. This internship is challenging me in so many ways, and I couldn’t be happier.

In addition to the weed mapping we’ve been doing this past week, we’ve had some interesting educational experiences. Last Thursday, we drove down to Baker City, OR for a workshop about resistance and resilience of plant communities. We learned how different factors such as temperature regime, plant community composition, precipitation, and soil depth and texture can have profound effects on the way a site will respond to disturbance. We visited three different sites and calculated resistance and resilience scores using these factors. For me, the workshop highlighted the complexity of ecological interactions and reinforced the fact that climate and soil play just as important a role as the biotic community when it comes to land health.

One of the beautiful sites we visited near Baker City

Last Wednesday, we were lucky enough to be invited on a tour with Benson Farms, a native seed producer out of Moses Lake, WA. We visited five restoration sites, starting with one that had been seeded only a couple years ago and ending with one that had been seeded twelve years ago. It was interesting to track the progress of ecological restoration this way, and to see how, given enough time, native species will outcompete invasive species to reclaim an area. All it takes is some patience!

Penstemon species, seen at one of the restoration sites. So cool!

Chaenactis douglasii (Dusty maiden)

Because we’ve been working 10 hour days, we’ve had plenty of time off to take advantage of all the recreational opportunities the Pacific Northwest has to offer. On Memorial Day weekend, I took a trip with a friend to the Lochsa River in Idaho to go whitewater rafting (another thing I never imagined I could do!), and despite being flipped out of the boat into rapids and believing momentarily that I was doomed, I loved every minute of it. Then last weekend, we combated the intense heat wave by heading up to the beautiful Lake Chelan to spend a relaxing day at the beach. I have a feeling that with 100 degree weather already teasing, that lake is going to become a haven for us in the very near future.

Suited up and pumped up for whitewater rafting!

This is what relaxation looks like.

Next week is going to be a big change of pace–we’re going to be training at the Chicago Botanic Garden! Midwest, I’m coming for you!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee WA Field Office

I often ask myself how I got so lucky when I’m out in the field hiking the canyons and foothills of central Washington. After all, how many people can say that the work they do for a living is exactly what they’d want to be doing in their leisure time? Observing the landscape, exploring wild places, and (of course) learning all the plants I can get my hands on…none of this even feels like work to me. Out in the field, there are days when I can’t keep a cheesy grin off my face, simply because I’m in awe of my own luck at having found my passion. However, that giddy feeling was never so strong as it was these past two days, when I was introduced to the cutest endangered species there ever was…the unforgettable pygmy rabbit!

Pygmy rabbits are the most critically endangered species in Washington, due mainly to habitat loss. The Department of Fish and Wildlife is trying to help boost their population by keeping rabbits in protected enclosures to breed, then trapping them, taking data on them, and releasing the young into the wild. Luckily for us CLM interns, our supervisor Erik volunteered us to help out with the trapping. The result was the most fun two days of work I’ve ever had!

The smallest rabbit we captured! The young ones were incredibly docile.

We used two methods to capture the rabbits. The first was setting live traps in the enclosures at the entrances of burrows, and plugging the other exits. Pretty straightforward, but also time-consuming. The second, more exciting method was the herding–it was like a cattle drive, but with bunnies! It was also the most comical thing I’ve ever had to do for work. The enclosure was divided into “funnels” with traps at the narrow end, and the burrows were all plugged. Then, everyone took two pillow cases, lined up at the wide end, and slowly started walking forward, flapping our pillow cases wildly as we went. Each time we saw a rabbit, we had to keep it moving forward, towards the trap. The best thing about this method was the escalating excitement as more rabbits appeared, and then the final push at the end to get them safely into the trap. I won’t even try to describe how goofy we all looked flapping and yelling, since words can’t possibly do it justice. Once the bunnies were captured, we weighed them, sexed them, took tissue samples, and gave them a flea treatment. This meant lots of rabbit handling time–yay!!! Finally, we took the young ones out of the enclosure to pre-determined release points, and set them free!

Helping collect data meant bunny snuggling time!

Katherine releases a rabbit!

Although the pygmy rabbits were the highlight of the past two weeks, our ESR work also continues to be fun and rewarding. We did recon of post-fire treatment at some really incredible sites, and I continued to geek out as I saw new plants beginning to flower (the penstemon is starting now, woohoo!) As June rolls around, I’m preparing myself for hotter temperatures, dustier conditions, and the threat of wildfire. But for now, I’m just enjoying the beauty of Central Washington in the spring, and all of the amazing things I get to do here.

A site near Salmon Creek

My first horned lizard! I had no idea how tiny they were.

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee WA Field Office

Training is complete, and the Wenatchee CLM interns are (finally) getting down to business! The past two weeks have given me a much better idea of what kind of work we’ll be doing day-to-day in the field, as well as a better understanding of what ESR (post-fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation) actually entails. It turns out that weed monitoring and treatment are a huge part of ESR, since fire can create perfect conditions for invasive plants, such as cheatgrass, to completely take over an area. The large amounts of highly flammable litter that this annual grass creates raise the potential for future catastrophic wildfires, and a positive feedback loop is established. This makes it highly unlikely that a site will be able to recover.

The first site I’ve seen with a solid stand of cheatgrass. Yuck!

A big part of my internship this summer will be mapping weed infestations in recently burned BLM lands. These maps will be given to our spraying contractors to help them create an attack plan, as well as to track the spread of infestations from year to year. For me, doing the mapping is a huge step up; I’m used to being the person who actually does the spraying and pulling! After many a summer doing weed work back in Wisconsin, it feels positively luxurious knowing that I’m not the one who will actually be doing these treatments. After all, the rule of invasive species control seems to be that there is ALWAYS more than you expect, and that has certainly held true in the sites we’ve visited so far. A BLM parcel in the Wenatchee foothills that burned in 2015 has proven particularly depressing. This area is infested with Whitetop (Cardaria draba), a perennial forb that is highly invasive. It grows in thick patches that look like a fungal infection on the landscape when seen from afar. We mapped these patches using a combination of methods: for the smaller, easily accessible patches, we used our Trimble unit, and for the larger patches further from the road, we drew them on a paper map and later digitized these polygons into ArcPad using the contour lines for guidance. It was a long process, but seeing the end product was so satisfying! Of course, I can never seem to escape a weed infestation without getting my hands dirty, so I wasn’t surprised when our supervisor told us to go out and treat some of the smaller roadside patches by clipping the flower heads before they go to seed. This won’t kill the plants, but now that we have the patches mapped, we can see if it at least stops them from spreading.

Cardaria draba infestation

Fortunately, not all the sites we’ve visited have been so disheartening. We traveled to some areas that were sprayed for Russian Knapweed (Acroptilon repens) about a month ago, and were pleased to see that the weeds are indeed dying! We also did a little reconnaissance at some of last year’s burn sites to check for accessibility and soil compaction, since we are hoping to go in and do some planting. One site in particular up by Lake Chelan was doing very well–I identified 18 native forb species, and the two invasives I saw (cheatgrass and bulbous bluegrass) were only located right along the edge of the road. Seeing the diversity of this site reminded me why what we’re doing is so important!

Calochortus elegans (Elegant cat’s ear)

Castilleja elmeri (Wenatchee paintbrush)…possibly my new favorite plant!

Katherine Schneider. BLM. Wenatchee WA Field Office.

It’s been a crazy two weeks for the Wenatchee CLM interns! Today is our first day in the office since April 15–we spent last week in Reno, NV and the week before that in Prineville, OR. After a total of 38 hours in a car together, I’m glad to say we still like each other!

At the AIM training in Prineville, we learned multiple quantitative methods for monitoring our rangeland sites. Line-point intercept, gap-intercept, vegetation height, species inventory, and soil stability testing were the main protocols that were covered, as well as the digging of the all-important soil pit. Personally, my favorite part of the week was learning how to texture soil, because who doesn’t like getting their hands dirty? At the end of the week, we ran through all of the protocols individually in order to make sure that we were all somewhat calibrated to each other. I had a hard time getting a hang of some things, especially gap-intercept, but shockingly, I calibrated successfully!

Katherine and Gabe practice reading LPI in Prineville

Makeshift rain shelter at the campground, courtesy of the Robel pole! 🙂

We went for a moonlight hike with some of the other crews!

After a quick but relaxing weekend at home in Wenatchee, we were back on the road again the following Monday, this time going twice as far! Luckily we’d had the foresight to take some audiobooks out of the library; the 13 hour drive was made much more exciting thanks to the addition of Jurassic Park. When we arrived at our hotel, a casino resort called The Nugget, I was completely overwhelmed–the place was like a labyrinth of flashing lights and mirrored walls, filled with bars, restaurants, and hundreds of slot machines. Finding our way to the check-in desk was an adventure in itself!

At training the next morning, we were excited to see many of the people we’d befriended the week before in Prineville. IIRH turned out to be a lot more complicated than AIM, and we spent a full day watching presentations before even heading out into the field. The qualitative nature of the protocol made it more difficult for beginners like me, since accurately assessing the 17 indicators of rangeland health requires actual experience seeing these indicators in the field! However, I was feeling much more confident by the end of the week after running through some practice sites and discussing our assessments at length with the whole group.

Leaving Reno felt a little bittersweet: although the constant training and travel was exhausting, and I’ve gotten a bit sick of living in hotels, it was great being able to spend time with the other crews, and I’ll really miss some of the people we met. I feel so lucky to have an internship with so many travel opportunities, and to be in a field with so many like-minded people. And now that I’m all trained up, I’m looking forward to actually applying what I’ve learned back here in Washington!

A beautiful yellow Castilleja I found in Reno!

Hit up California for the first time on the drive back from Reno, and it didn’t disappoint!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee WA Field Office

The past two weeks have been filled with training, traveling, and wildflowers! The Wenatchee foothills are bursting with color, and it’s all I can do to keep up with learning the new flower species as they start to bloom. Luckily, I’ve already met some great botanists who are willing to let me pester them with questions out in the field, and I’m taking full advantage of their knowledge!

Last week, two of my fellow CLM interns and I drove down to Prineville, OR for a GeoBOB (Geographic Biotic Observations) mobile training course. Although our “field practice” with taking GPS data on our Trimble units ended up happening in the office parking lot, and all of our “observations” were purely fictional, I learned a lot, and I feel much more confident with the protocols of checking data in and out of the GeoBOB database and recording observations than I did before the training. However, the most educational part of the trip ended up happening outside of training, when my fellow interns and I decided to go for a hike at Chimney Rock after class and two botanists decided to come along! It was slow going, what with us stopping every time we saw a new plant, but the views were incredible and I learned so much.

We finally made it to Chimney Rock!

We had another memorable experience earlier this week when we traveled out east to join the Spokane tribe for their annual Root Day event. Over 450 people showed up, many of them schoolchildren, to take part in some traditional digging of Lomatium canbyi roots. These plants are known as biscuitroot, and their tuberous roots are edible (although the raw ones I tried smelled and tasted a bit like diesel fuel!). We spent a couple hours scouring the ground for the coveted plants, and after collecting some roots for the tribe elders, we filled our pockets with our own and are planning to roast them to see if that helps their flavor at all. After the digging, we drove over to Twin Lakes for a barbecue, where I tried salmon for the very first time!

Super excited about my root 🙂

This week we were also introduced to the AIM (Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring) and IRH (Indicators of Rangeland Health) protocols by our supervisor, Erik. It was great being out in the field, especially because the weather has cooled off a bit from the week before. The sites we visited all seemed relatively healthy, and therefore were easy to evaluate, but I’m sure we’ll see a greater range of conditions sooner or later. With AIM training in Prineville next week, and IRH training in Reno the week after that, we’ll be experts at these protocols soon enough!

This site looked like the opening scene in The Sound Of Music!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee WA field office