As short as it was awesome, my time in Lander with the BLM has come to a close.  I will always remember Lander fondly and hope to visit again this great little town with a wonderfully welcoming and helpful BLM staff.

My final week here I finally packed away the seed collections with my mentor and entered the remaining data.  Not the most glamorous part of being an intern but at least they are on their way to Bend and the feeling of knowing the seeds are bagged is very satisfying.

As I leave, there is a now somewhat familiar bite in the air at night I only felt my first week in Lander when the final waves of winter rolled through Wyoming.  The heat of summer is becoming less pronounced as the seasons change.  I feel a sense of unfinished business as winter has not yet pushed me from my home away from home. But as i went out for one last evening drive through sinks canyon state park a beautiful storm held ominously over the mountaintops.  A sight I had grown to appreciate regularly in Wyoming.

The experiences I had in my time here from the incredible weather to wildlife encounters I will cherish always and I hope that all the other interns in this program have the same level of experiences I have.

Memories of Wyoming’s remarkable landscapes will stay with me forever as I am sure they have with many before me.

Farewell Wyoming, and thank you to all the wonderful people at the Lander Field Office for the opportunity and making Lander feel like home.  Thank you to Krissa and the staff at the Chicago Botanical Garden for the opportunity and for making it all possible.  And thanks to my fellow interns who I have come to consider good friends for the companionship.  I hope you all enjoy the remainder of the season and find the next step just as enjoyable as I did this one.

After driving 30 hours I finally arrived in Lander, Wyoming.  After recovering our first late night we went to see how our daily commute was going to be and explore the town a bit.  We found that our daily drive into Lander is as picturesque daily commute as one could hope for.

After exploring the town, we looked outwards to Sinks Canyon, a large public area managed by the State Park Service.  We found that the river flowing through the canyon was very high and were later informed that the annual snow pack was over 270% of normal resulting in flushed waterways all over the Lander Field Office.

A few days later we had gotten our bearings being in a western state.  We found ourselves being bombarded by (what the locals say hopefully will be) the last snow of the year.  My family back home enjoyed informing me of the 90 degree weather in Virginia while we were at maybe 20 here in Lander.  Though the snow quickly melted in Lander, the snow pack was left at 320% normal.

The increased snow pack quickly melted and the still somewhat common evening rain has left the field office very lush and many places are flowering very heavily from the usually pretty lush Sinks Canyon.

To the usually very very dry desert we are experiencing our own little super bloom in the Lander field office.  This promises to be an excellent year for seed collection, particularly for collecting those usually small populations and those less likely to produce enough seed in a normal year.  We found places covered in balsamroot (not really uncommon) and other drier places covered with evening primrose of scarlet globe-mallow.  I am very excited for the chance to collect such species and get the season really underway.

  I hope every CLM intern is having as much fun and beneficial experience as I am.  Hope everyone has a great summer.  Thanks.

Chris, Bureau for Land Management, Lander Field Office