Big Bear Lake is a place of escape for many Southern Californians. Folks come out in droves to leave the smoggy summers of their respective concrete jungles, or to opt out of their non-winters to get some snow time in. And I don’t blame them, because it is absolutely beautiful there and everybody deserves to experience the great outdoors. As for myself, I had never spent any time at Big Bear Lake until I was given the opportunity to spend the last week of August shadowing Marta Lefevre-Levy, the regional botany technician of San Bernardino National Forest in the Mountaintop Ranger Station in Fawnskin, CA. The week turned out to be a great opportunity for exploring, learning, networking, and of course, botanizing.

A view of the lake from Juniper Point

My work for the week consisted of establishing and surveying 10x10m and 1m diameter-circular plots in critical habitat areas within the 2017 Holcomb fire area. The critical habitat areas are known as the pebble plains and the carbonate hills, which host a number of threatened and endangered plants that are tiny and adorable. The pebble plains are a relict habitat left over from melted glacial deposits that have remained in place for tens of thousands of years. Apparently the pebble plain has such small plants for a number of reasons. One reason being that there are so many pebbles in the soil column that churn about over time that it is a very hostile environment for a plant’s roots. Thus, the smaller plants have evolved deep, strong taproots or many fibrous roots that minimize pebble movement around the plants. Another reason is that there is not much available water for the plants to grow, and being small is growth strategy for plants to persist in extreme conditions. Though they may be small, you can’t let the buckwheats fool you; some of them range from 500-1200 years in age.

Eriogonum kennedyi var. austromontanum

The Holcomb fire mostly impacted the pinyon-juniper woodlands adjacent to the critical habitat areas, however, during the fire there was a misapplication of aerial fire retardant in  the pebble plains and carbonate hills. They are considered “designated avoidance areas as discussed in the 2011 Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Nation-wide Use of Aerial Application of Fire Retardants on National Forest System Lands” (USFS, 2011). The release of fire retardant in the pebble plains and carbonate hills triggered the establishment of monitoring plots to be surveyed for the next three years because aerial fire retardant has high phosphorous and nitrogen content in its makeup. Nitrogen and Phosphorous are two of the three plant macronutrients, so naturally there is some concern with the fire retardant stimulating the growth of non-native and invasive species.

Tiny Gilia sp. found in the pebble plains

The standard protocol for conducting the monitoring surveys involves the establishment of 10×10 meter paired plots. We established 9 paired-plots (18 total) to compare parts of the critical habitats that did and did not receive inputs of aerial fire retardant. 6 of the paired plots were within the pebble plains, and 3 were in the carbonate hills. Within each plot, we measured percent canopy cover by species within a circular 1-meter quadrat placed 5 meters from the southwest corner of the plot. We took photos in each cardinal direction, and created a species list of all plants present within 10 x 10m  boundary. The listed plants in the critical habitat area include southern mountain buckwheat (Eriogonum kennedyi var. austromontanum), silvery mousetail (Ivesia argyrocoma var. argyrocoma), Bear Valley sandwort (Eremogone ursina), ash-gray paintbrush (Castilleja cinerea), Cushenbury buckwheat (Eriogonum ovalifolium var. vineum) and the below featured Cushenbury oxytheca (Acanthoscyphus parishii var. goodmaniana).

Acanthoscyphus parishii var. goodmaniana

I spent most of my free time at Big Bear Lake hanging out with Sophie Heston (my fellow intern at Chuchupate), Andre Jackson (Restoration and Phytophthora intern at Big Bear Lake) and Veronica Avalos (Restoration and Phytophthora intern at Big Bear Lake). Though I only spent a week in their barracks, I could tell Andre and Veronica had become great friends through working and living together throughout the summer. They drove me around the lake and showed me where they liked to hang out, we played a couple rounds of uno, and talked story for hours. I really admired them and the time we spent together. They are bright, sensitive, beautiful, hilarious human beings! I’m hoping that our paths cross again in the near future.

Fellow interns and friends, Sophie and Andre

Also, big shouts out and thanks to Marta Lefevre-Levy for making this week happening! It was great working with her and I learned a lot about the Big Bear area, its plants and career opportunities because of her. I wish her luck in her future endeavors!

Signing off,

Eli Grinberg

US Forest Service

Los Padres National Forest – Mt. Pinos Ranger District

Chuchupate Ranger Station

A change of pace has taken place since the WRI interns finished their internship. I have been spending less time in the field collecting seeds, and spending more time organizing and updating my insect collection. Nevertheless, I am still pretty pleased with how I am spending my time! I have been sorting through the bees and butterflies I have caught, and attempting to identify them has been pretty challenging. The most valuable identification resources I have been working with have been a mix of books, websites and diagrams (i.e. Gretchen LeBuhn’s “Field Guide to Common Native Bees of California,” BugGuide.com, Ken Davenport’s “Butterflies of Kern and Tulare Counties, California”). I also have to give credit to Nevin Cullen and Peter Jump for sharing their expertise with me. They have taught me quite a bit about bees, moths and butterflies since I’ve started this collection!

Here Nevin soothes a fritillary with his bare hands. Smashing!

There are there are about three insects in my collection that remain a mystery. One of them is a bumblebee, a male specimen that doesn’t resemble anything listed in Johnathan Koch, James Strange and Paul Williams’  “Bumble Bees of the Western United States.” I’ve included a photo of the mystery bombus below.

Mystery Bombus sp.

The second mystery insect is also a bee, but this one is smaller than a honey bee, is a metallic-black color with scopae on its coxa and femur (sadly, I do not have a picture of this bee!). And my third mystery insect was a very photogenic beetle I found on some Yampa. As you can see, it has very long antennae, long legs, and wood-brown elytra with black markings. If anybody who reads this has any guesses, let me know!

Mystery Beetle

Identification is only one part of processing the insects. Once I have made my guess on what an insect may be, I have to pin it and posture it correctly. Proper pinning is a matter of using a pinning block that places the insect at about 3/4 the height of the pin. The pin should be placed through the right side of the insect’s thorax. If the insect is too small to pin, you stick the pin through a small piece of triangular card stock paper with a dot of glue on the end, and stick the insect to the piece of glue. Once the insect is pinned properly, you must posture them to make them look presentable in your display box. I posture my insects with forceps and a magnifying glass. The need for posturing comes from the fact that the insects usually contract their limbs into stiff and strange positions when they die. If I’m lucky, their limbs and wings will be flexible and stay in the position that I put them in. If not, their limbs, wings and heads usually snap off. The objective is to posture the insects so that all of their limbs are showing and all pairs of wings are spread open. I will admit, I definitely have some horror stories when it comes to pinning and posturing. It’s always a shame throwing away a good butterfly when its head pops off.

My collection as of 8/8/17. It still needs some rearranging and more insects to fill that blank space.

This is Eli Grinberg reporting live from Chuchupate Ranger Station of Los Padres National Forest in Frazier Park, California! I am a recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a bachelor of sciences in forestry and wildlife biology. I have been here in Los Padres National Forest for two weeks and I am loving the work so far. My primary responsibilities are collecting seeds to be used in the envisioned drought-tolerant pollinator “Foster Garden,” (named after the late Mike Foster, a pervious employee of the forest service here and prominent community member of the area), catching insects to be featured in a collection of pollinators found in this region of the forest, and reporting to my supervisor and Resource Officer, Ivana Noell. A typical day involves a hike with my fellow interns to the various springs and water rights that belong to the Forest Service; the Forest Service “Pathways” interns are responsible documenting and updating water data, while I collect goodies to be processed later in the office.

(Xylacopa sp. visiting Argemone munita, the prickly poppy.)

I have spent plenty of time in Los Padres National Forest, though I had only been to this area of California once in my life prior to my internship. I was on the desert trip headed to Joshua Tree for my field botany class in the spring, and we made a brief stop on Lockwood Valley Road to learn the dominant plants above the Sespe Wilderness. I did feel familiar with the plants of this area when I arrived, but I feel that I have learned so many new flowers and shrubs and insects in the last two weeks! Ivana and friends have provided me with some great resources for identifying pollinators, mainly distinguishing characteristics among bumble bees and butterflies. I am still in search of beetle, fly, wasp and hummingbird resources to help with identification, feel free to pass them my way if you have any. Pam DeVries also has supplied our the station with some copies of her book titled, “A Field Guide to the Plants of the San Emigdio Region of California,” which has been invaluable for identifying and learning new plants!

(Penstemon labrosus, San Gabriel Beardtongue. I snapped this shot on the Mt. Pinos Summit trail!)

I am most excited to learn more about the different flowering and seeding times of the plants of this region. Based on what seeds are mature in the field right now, I can make an educated guess that some of the first blooming plants in this area were the cobwebby thistle (Cirsium occidentale), the array of Ericameria species represented here, the deltoid balsam root (Balsamorhiza deltoidea) and the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica)…this obviously changes with elevation so I will specify within the ranges of 5000-6500′. I am also extremely excited to continue documenting our hikes throughout the summer, huge thanks to Liz Buchroeder for letting me use her amazing camera and lenses!

(Ladybird Beetle hanging out on some Urtica dioica, or stinging nettle flowers)
Eli Grinberg

Chuchupate Ranger Station

Mt. Pinos Ranger District

Los Padres National Forest

US Forest Service