Well, it’s that time of year again. The end of summer where I finish up the majority of the exciting work for the year and begin to strategize about surviving another winter. As this field season comes to a close I’m left with nothing but positivity from this internship with the Vale, Oregon Bureau of Land Management. I was fortunate to have a helpful mentor who is passionate about conservation and botany, an intelligent and energetic co-worker, and all the diverse job experience I could ask for across the whole 5 million-acre district.

I figured that this final blog post would be a great opportunity to share some of my favorite pictures that I took during the internship so that you can see a little bit of what Eastern Oregon has to offer.

Our big blue pickup truck that we took into the field every day. It is pictured majestically hanging out in park at Leslie Gulch.

My favorite flower seen thus far in the high deserts of Eastern Oregon. Desert blazing star, Mentzelia laevicaulis.

One of our main SOS target species: Machaeranthera canescens.

A horned lizard found by the Owyhee River, looking sassy.

One of my favorite views of Leslie Gulch, taken from a bank of the Owyhee River. The truck is parked near the bottom of a boat ramp, which might give you an idea of how much water covers this area in the winter months.

One of the greatest moments of my life, pictured in a Gem Stop parking lot.

If I wrote about every great experience I had through my CLM internship I would have to make another blog post to fit it all. This summer has provided me with countless experiences to expand what I know about plants, animals, myself, the earth, and the many ways by which everything on it is connected. I am looking forward to taking everything that I learned here on to my next stop in life and continuing to let this knowledge grow. Best of luck to all my fellow interns that I got to meet in Chicago and to anyone else taking the time to read this. You are #1!

Eli

I’ve just started to get a feel for the way that things operate here at the Bureau of Land Management’s Vale, OR office, and I must say, everybody here seems to have a great time managing their district. So far my supervisor, Susan Fritts and several others have been gracious enough to allow me to shadow with several different positions at the office so that I can get a feel for how they all work as a team to oversee the area. I was able to take a trip out to the field with one of their range technicians to spot cows and check barbed wire fences to ensure that all cattle were in their allotted pastures. Additionally, I went out to see if some areas around the district were suitable to be turned into gravel pits for road construction. I was even allowed to delve into some biology this week as I accompanied a large crew of employees from the BLM, Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service to survey Columbia Spotted Frogs along Dry Creek (5). This was a great experience in animal collection, handling and tagging protocol, as well as an in depth look at how riparian habitats function in our district. All else aside, there has still been plenty of time to learn Botany. Justin, our botany intern, has let me accompany him on several monitoring trips, and he has even been kind enough to help me learn to identify some common forbs and shrubs in the area. Some examples of plants we looked at include Bitterroot – Lewisia (1), Buckwheat – Fagopyrum (2), Indian Paintbrush – Castilleja (3), and Hawk’s Beard – Crepis (4). I’m very much looking forward to next week’s course on seed collection in Chicago, and finally to the actual seed collection, which begins on the 18th. I’m excited to see where this internship will take me by my next blog post!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.