Bye Carlsbad!

Today we had our final day at the Carlsbad Field Office. Saying goodbye to everyone was really difficult, and I will miss a lot of wonderful people that I’ve met here. I have gotten to see such amazing landscapes in the field here and feel incredibly lucky to have been able to work outside most days doing what I love to do.

Dark Canyon from up in the cliffs, one of my collection sites

Dark Canyon from up in the cliffs, one of my collection sites

By the Black River, a field site we frequented this season

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The dunes at the peak of the season, teeming with wildflowers!

Centaurium maryannum, one of my favorite plants we encountered here and a gypsum soil endemic

Centaurium maryannum, one of my favorite plants we encountered here and a gypsum endemic species

Yucca in full bloom, a rare sight this time of year as most we've encountered have only had dried seed pod remains

Yucca in full bloom, a rare sight this time of year, as most we’ve encountered have only had dried seed pod remains

As a side project here in Carlsbad, I have been working on an insect collection to try and demonstrate insect diversity in the area. Today I finished it and put it up for display in the Field Office lobby outreach section, along with a couple of the herbarium vouchers Brooke and I mounted this season! It was great to see it all come together and leave something that we made here at the field office. We also included a plaque (not pictured because we hadn’t put it up yet when I took this photo) with information on the Seeds of Success program!

The finished product!

The finished product!

Our projects from the season on display!

Our projects from the season on display!

After this I will be moving to Albuquerque because New Mexico is the bee’s knees. Let me know if any of you are ever in the area!

– Meridith McClure, Carlsbad, NM BLM

Our Final Field Days in the Desert

The past few weeks here in Carlsbad have been ultra busy getting in as many collections as we can! After getting a late start on collections with the late rainy season here, we ended up doing 46 collections this season! We were especially lucky to get permission to collect at Guadalupe Mountain National Park in collaboration with the National Park Service.

Ipomoea lindheimeri nestled in Sotol at the GMNP

Ipomoea lindheimeri nestled in Sotol at the GMNP

Spaeralcea angustifolia by the Black River in Carlsbad

Spaeralcea angustifolia by the Black River in Carlsbad

This month, I also got to participate in Wildlife Water inspections with a couple of my coworkers. This involved cleaning out the waters, inspecting and repairing any broken fences, and sometimes repairing water tanks! We did six sites in a day, finding lots of interesting wildlife along the way.

One of several black widow spiders found at several of the sites we inspected

One of several black widow spiders found at several of the sites we inspected

A juvenile black widow spider-may had built webs in the corners of the Wildlife Waters.

A juvenile black widow spider-may had built webs in the corners of the Wildlife Waters.

An oil well against the sunrise on the way to inspect Wildlife Waters

An oil well against the sunrise on the way to inspect Wildlife Waters\

We found a huge field of milkweed at the first site! Brooke and I are going back to the site to do a collection this week.

We found a huge field of milkweed at the first site! Brooke and I are going back to the site to do a collection this week.

Only two weeks are left for me and Brooke here in Carlsbad, with only two more collections remaining this week! We’ll be doing a lot of office work after that, mounting vouchers and wrapping up paper work here at the field office. I will definitely miss this wonderful place and the people I’ve met here!

-Meridith, Carlsbad, NM BLM

Collecting Cactus!

Since my last post Brooke and I have been very busy collecting seed here in Carlsbad. After a lot of waiting, plants are finally beginning to seed left and right! One of our more interesting collections this month was that of prickly pear and cholla cactus. The thick gloves we had brought to collect with were immediately bombarded  with thousands of tiny glochids and the occasional spine, which often went right through our gloves.

Opuntia engelmannii var. engelmannii fruit we collected + prickly pear pads for pressing!

Opuntia engelmannii var. engelmannii fruit we collected + prickly pear pads for pressing!

Cylindropuntia imbricata (cholla) fruit!

Cylindropuntia imbricata (cholla) fruit!

Pressing these cactus species for herbarium vouchers was an exciting and challenging task. In order for them to dry out enough, we had to cut the prickly pear and cholla in half, and essentially skin them. This is not easily done and involved glochids everywhere (I’m still finding them stuck to my backpack somehow) as well as several cactus spines to the finger despite our gloves.

Prickly pear ready to be pressed

Prickly pear ready to be pressed

Cholla!

Cholla!

As we round on our last month of the internship, we have a lot to do and will be mega busy collecting seeds!

 

-Meridith McClure

Carlsbad, New Mexico BLM

 

Rains and collections!

It’s finally started to rain here, and that means lots of new potential collection populations have popped up! With the recent rain things are getting very busy, but it’s also been incredibly exciting to see so much new plant life at our collection sites!

Dimorphocarpa wislizeni

Dimorphocarpa wislizeni

Rasahus thoracius assassin bug found while collecting Isocoma pluriflora seed

Rasahus thoracius assassin bug found while collecting Isocoma pluriflora seed

In addition to working on seed collections, we got to help the Range department with an erosion control project earlier this month. This involved bracing a section of land in a riparian area from further erosion during flooding with burlap bags filled with mulch and a tiny fence we built.

Me, Jorge, and Nicole during the erosion control project

Me, Jorge, and Nicole during the erosion control project

We were also able to do another milkweed planting this month at the Black River, during which we planted 200 plants of two different species, Asclepias speciosa and Asclepias latifolia.

Our milkweed planting team: Janna, Joe, Nicole, and me

Our milkweed planting team: Janna, Joe, Nicole, and me

A very feisty rattlesnake that we found near our planting site

A very feisty Western diamondback rattlesnake that we found near our planting site

Planting milkweed!

Planting milkweed!

After a particularly heavy few days of rain, we found several turtles in the field over the course of one day. This was after having never seen any for the past few months!

Moved this feisty lil guy out from the middle of the road last week!

Moved this feisty little ornate box turtle out from the middle of the road last week!

In addition to getting very busy with our collections this month, we also had to say goodbye to all of the HACU interns here at the Carlsbad Field Office as well as our mentor, Johnny Chopp, who is moving to Pennsylvania to work with the Army Corps of Engineers!

With HACU interns Cynthia, Jorge, and Nicole in Santa Fe!

With HACU interns Cynthia, Jorge, and Nicole in Santa Fe!

 

Lizard Lovin in the Desert

This past month, we’ve been mega busy setting up and monitoring pitfall traps in various locations as well as doing recon for seed collections here in Carlsbad. Our pitfall traps are set up in dunes for a presence/absence survey of the dunes sagebrush lizard, Sceloporus arenicolus. This species is not yet listed as endangered, but it’s been proposed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Its numbers have dramatically decreased because its habitat in sandy dunes dusted with shinnery oak and sand sagebrush are also prime locations for oil wells. Although we haven’t yet found any dunes sagebrush lizards in the locations surveyed, we have found many side-blotched lizards as well some Texas horned lizards and common lesser earless lizards.

Side-blotched lizard- Uta stansburiana

Texas horned lizard- Phrynosoma cornutum 

Common lesser earless lizard-

Common lesser earless lizard-Holbrookia maculata

Rifling through the pitfall t

Rifling through the pitfall traps

To determine whether or not we are recapturing the same individuals, we sharpie the digits of any lizard caught before releasing it from the trap. On the tinier juvenile lizards which are starting to become abundant as eggs hatch, this can be a little tricky! In addition to lizard monitoring at these sites, we’ve also started on an insect collection since so many insects are often caught in the traps. There hasn’t been much study on the insect diversity in the area, so I look forward to identifying the insects we’ve collected so far.

Besides our weekly lizard monitoring, we did our first seed collection this month!

-our first seed collection!

Ratibida columnifera– our first seed collection!

Along with the HACU interns at the BLM, we also did a cleanup at a nearby recreation area, Conoco Lake, which included milkweed planting to set up monarch waystations! The cleanup was super, and we are planning on planting more milkweed in several other sites in the coming weeks both for restoration and to set up more waystations.

Me and two of the HACU interns, Jorge and Nicole, planting some milkweed!

Me and two of the HACU interns, Jorge and Nicole, planting some milkweed!

Meridith McClure- Carlsbad, New Mexico BLM

Caves and Carlsbad

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It’s hard to believe I’ve only been working in Carlsbad, New Mexico for three weeks as it’s gone by in a flash. My first week at the BLM here in Carlsbad was mostly spent training on things such as field safety when Hydrogen Sulfide is a fearsome risk and getting to know the lovely people in the office. While a lot of my days that first week were spent learning how not to die in a freak lightning storm, on Friday we got to go caving with Jim and Stan from the cave department. The BLM in Carlsbad not only has two CLM interns for the next five months, but also interns through a program called HACU who will be with us until August. Our caving experience was wild, and took us through relatively tall passages with breathtaking evidence of the water that flows through the caves at varying levels, to passes where we found ourselves on our hands and knees in the thickest of mud. At one point in the cave, we sat and turned off our headlamps to experience the total and complete darkness, which was incredibly peaceful though somewhat eerie. As we neared the exit, we found ourselves flat on our bellies in a very tight space, slowly attempting to exit the cave. Claustrophobia, spiders, crickets, an alarmed pack rat momma, and rapidly ensuing panic made for a very tense atmosphere as we waited for each person to wriggle out of the tiny opening that was the cave’s exit.

Here you can see the tiny little cave opening we crawled out of

Here you can see the tiny little cave opening we crawled out of

After an eventful Friday in the field, it was time to head off to Chicago for the training workshop. Being surrounded by so many other plant and wildlife enthusiasts was very refreshing, as was a break from the 100 degree desert weather back in Carlsbad. The Chicago Botanic Garden provided a labyrinth of botanical beauty to discover, from a tiny model railroad garden to a captivating butterfly garden.

One of the magnificent butterflies found at the garden

One of the magnificent butterflies found at the garden

Before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye to Chicago and return to the desert. The second week at the BLM allowed for more field excursions, this time with visiting botanists and interns from Taos and Las Cruces. This allowed us to become familiar with many of the local plants, which I was largely unfamiliar with having moved to New Mexico from Tennessee. It also allowed us to visit future collection sites, collect vouchers for flowering target species, and note populations that were soon to be ready to have seed collected.

Centaurium

Centaurium

Monarda punctata

Monarda punctata

Hymenopappus flavescens + Phasmatidae!

Hymenopappus flavescens + Phasmatidae!

The most recent week here at the BLM concluded in completing our defensive driving course and taking the truck out in the field for the first time on our own. Our mentor, Johnny, made sure to teach us how to change a tire before letting us set off into the desert alone.

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Learning how to change a tire on a 4×4 truck!

I’m very excited for my next week in Carlsbad, where we will be setting up pitfall traps to determine the absence/presence of lizard species in certain locations.

Meridith McClure- Carlsbad, New Mexico BLM