It’s hard to believe 5 months ago I was fresh in Twin Falls, ID, starting my first botany tech job, adjusting to a new landscape that felt unknown and alien. 5 months ago I couldn’t see the end of it. I felt so far away, geographically and otherwise, to the things and places and people that felt like home. It was a rough transition, and to be honest I never quite adjusted to it. But people told me, and I knew, it would fly by. And it did. I leave Idaho in three days and could not be more excited, and am also grateful for what this experience has given me. It’s so important to step out of your familiar bubble- it challenges us to grow and communicate in different ways. It introduces us to new plants and ecosystems. It reminds us of how big the world is.

It was an interesting experience to be the guinea pig of having a CBG intern on the fuels crew in the Twin Falls office. My official title was “botanical specialist,” though half the time I felt like I was floundering in plant identification in a place completely new to me, while having the people on my crew look to me as their expert. I was learning and teaching at the same time and it really didn’t make me feel very confident. I’m skilled in taxonomy but the speed in which I was expected (or felt like I was expected) to know these new species felt overwhelming at times. I also had almost no experience in grass identification, which was a huge percentage of what we were looking at.
There were a couple crash courses in plant ID of the area in the very beginning, but after that I felt mostly left to my own devices. There weren’t a lot of people I was able to turn to in the office. At least people I was introduced to- as the season went on I would randomly meet people to ask when I had an unknown, but it wasn’t facilitated.
It got easier, and I felt more confident as I saw plants more often, and honestly forb diversity was pretty low in most of the areas we monitored anyway, so there weren’t many I needed to commit to memory. I guess I was just expecting more of a botany mentorship.

Overall though, I did enjoy working in the fire program. I’m interested in fire ecology, and reading old reports on fires and then using them in conjunction with the new data we collected to write new reports was fascinating, and gave me a taste of what it takes to make management recommendations. It also inspired me to go out and get my Red Card next year, because I am interested in prescribed burns.
I also familiarized myself more with ArcGIS (my arch nemesis), learned to use Avenza and Collector, got better at reading maps and using compasses, learned techniques for rare plant monitoring, got really good at driving a 4wd truck for crazy amounts of hours on crazy back road mazes, and  learned how to navigate the bureaucracy that is work in the federal government. I feel more confident in applying to jobs now.
I still do wish I had been placed in the Pacific Northwest, not just because it’s familiar, but because it is where I plan on putting down my roots, therefore finding jobs. Monitoring sagebrush steppe is very different than monitoring coniferous forests, with it a whole other host of necessary skills specific to that ecosystem, which I didn’t gain here. But I do believe that my baseline knowledge and skills, along with obviously being able to quickly pick up necessary monitoring techniques and botanical skill, will be enough experience to help me find a job for next field season.

Truly the gem of this season though was being able to be in a part of the country that I would otherwise spend very little time in. I fell in love with the Sawtooth Mountains to the north. I got to explore Yellowstone. I met badgers and coyotes and moose and three bears (one of which I watched make off with our bag of food). I’m not much of a geology nerd, but I was constantly in awe of the canyons and valleys and volcanic history and crazy rock formations. There may not be jutting mountains or towering trees around Twin Falls, but there are beautiful swimming holes that you don’t see until you walk through farm fields and look into the canyon; and small, fleeting, beautiful flowers; and the stillness of being in an expanse of sagebrush. I appreciate the secret beauty of southern Idaho. I don’t know if I would come back on my own accord, but I am glad I got to know it, even briefly.

 

Ok I did some pretty cool things this summer.

Sofia V

The summer has gone by in a blur here in Twin Falls, ID. I’ve spent the last 4 months learning the flora of the Great Basin, collecting data on areas that have burned, kayaking in the Snake River Canyon, backpacking in the Sawtooths and Yellowstone, and looking at a whole lot of cheat grass.

I’m currently working on a project with the two other CBG interns on the fuels program on 5-year burns. Generally, we collect quantitative data on areas that have burned between 1-3 years ago. After three years funding is often lost, so getting to go out to spots that haven’t been studied for a few years has been interesting. We’ve also gotten to read reports on the history of the fires, the resources that went into them, and the importance of the areas burned, giving us a more rounded understanding of them. We’re compiling reports on our 5-year finding along with management recommendations, which will be sent to the state office, which is exciting.

Other fun things I’ve done recently:
Caving- I went out with the GeoCorp interns to one of the longest lava tubes in the US! It is accessible only with a permit to preserve the fragile environment.
Rare Plant Monitoring- I have gone out with both the rare plant botanist of Idaho to monitor Castelleja christii, a rare Painbrush, as well as the LEPA crew that works out of our office to find stands of Lepidium papilliferum. 
Carex Workshop- myself and one other CBG intern were sent to a 3 days long Carex identification workshop. Carex are incredibly hard to identify or key out, so getting structures guidance was incredibly helpful
I’ve also been trying to spend as much time as possible in the Sawtooth Mountains. I grew up in Alaska and have spent the last 8 years in the Pacific Northwest. I’m a mountain baby. This high sagebrush steppe desert isn’t quite my cup of tea (though it does have a beauty of its own), so escaping to the mountains has been a comfort.To be totally honest there’s not a lot that would bring me back to this area of Idaho, but I would come back for the Sawtooths.

It’s been three weeks since I left the coniferous embrace of my home in Olympia, Washington and made the trek to the sagebrush steppe desert of Twin Falls, Idaho. It’s basically exactly opposite of my home- it’s dry and dusty and the towering old-growth evergreens have been replaced by sagebrush (Artemesia spp., more on that later), Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), and rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus), the Puget Sound replaced by the Snake River. My first week was mostly spent out of the Shoshone BLM office, going on daily field trips to become acquainted with the area and learning the plants.

Starting on Monday of my second week, I began working with the Twin Falls BLM fuels crew as their “botanical specialist”- which is just a fancy way of saying I help them identify plants to include in the data of their monitoring plots, mostly areas that have been burned. Last week we went out to three different plots to collect sagebrush leaves, bring them back to the office, dry them for 24 hours and record the moisture content as a way of analyzing fire likelihood and behavior. I’m excited to learn more about fire behavior and ecology. Most of May and June are training for me, so I look forward to getting it all done so I can dive into the work.

I feel in love with Sagebrush the moment I met her years ago, so I’m excited to get to know the subtle difference between subspecies (sometimes only possible with a UV light!). Sagebrush is really important habitat to the threatened Sage Grouse.

This year seems like an interesting year for the area. As I was driving across the massive canyon into the city, peering downwards at the meandering Snake River, I thought, even without anything to compare it to, that the water seemed high. I learned that this was absolutely true- this area had an especially snowy winter and as the snow has melted, the rivers and reservoirs rose to a high that hasn’t been seen in this area in at least 20 years. Because of all the water and the extra cold winter and spring, the flower blooms are about 2 weeks behind which was good timing for us! Usually by the time CBG interns get here, many plants are past their prime.

Until next time!

Sofia