My time here in Pinedale, Wyoming is rapidly approaching it’s end. Summer here is fleeting but beautiful. The snow on the mountains barely had time to melt away before it started accumulating again.

This is a typical aspen stand (good for elk bad for snowshoe hares)

Working in a field office so immersed in mineral development has proved to be a challenge at times, and certainly an experience I will not soon forget. I have had many opportunities to work on various different projects around the field office, but was primarily involved in surveying the for snowshoe hare habitat (aka Canada Lynx foraging habitat) in areas where an aspen regeneration/conifer reduction project is proposed. To do this we measure horizontal cover, count and measure the tree species and count the rabbit pellets. I like to keep my bear spray readily accessible in case I startle a grizzly. I have yet to see a hare or a lynx, but I haven’t given up yet.

The view as I am heading into work for the day

I also spent a large portion of time surveying the landscape for pygmy rabbit habitat as well as for raptor nests and prairie dog towns. After my initial fears of contracting the plague subsided, I decided that they can be cute… from a distance.

Jack Rabbit, Cottontail, Pygmy Rabbit...

I hope everyone is having a good time and learning a lot.

~ Audrey

It is hard to believe September 09 has rolled around so quickly!  It seems like we were all together just weeks ago watching condors sore along the Grand Canyon’s south rim.  As I am certain those amazing birds continue to sore and flourish in that  place of grandeur, here in central Colorado, my experience with plants is soaring for me.  I truly am enjoying working and learning with one of the best botanists in the country, Carol Dawson.  I also have had the opportunity to work with Peter Gordon, who has worked with Carol now for 5 years.  Both of these folks are fantastic mentors and have shared their knowledge and skills with me throughout this internship experience.  We focus our time monitoring rare Colorado plants and collecting native seeds for SOS.

So I have a couple stories to share with you.  One is about a very rare Penstemon.  I had the opportunity to help monitor and obtain data regarding this plant a couple of weeks ago.  The other story involves collecting seeds for Seeds of Success.  Peter Gordon took all of these great pictures (well I took the one of him), so thanks Peter!

So beautifully rare and precious: It is hard not to think about Darwin and speciation when you work with rare endemic Penstemons.  I always do (think about Darwin when I work around Penstemon species).  And I have a special love for the genus Penstemon since I worked on a rare endemic Penstemon for three years in grad school.  Penstmon is the largest endemic genus in North America.  Scientists believe this is one of a few genera that is an example of continental radiation.  So rather then tons of species evolving quickly on an island setting (adaptive radiation), here tons of Penstemons evolved relatively quickly (5-10 million years) on a Continent, our continent.  Lots of these species are endemic and many are considered rare,  threatened, and globally imperiled.   This summer we have worked with and observed a few more here in Colorado including: Penstemon grahamii, P. penlandii, and P. debilis.

A couple weeks ago we took off toward Glenwood Springs, Colorado to monitor P. debilis, or Parachute Beardtongue. From I-70 looking north you can see the approach raod to get to the place these plants grow.

Sadly you can not see the road zig zagging in this photo, but the site is up in the far oil shale cliffs where they mined for oil shale rock in the 1980's and I think the 1990's.

It looks like a trail zig zagging back and forth switch-back style, a trail you would hike up maybe, but certainly not drive up!  Peter assured me our final destination was near the top of the plateau on an upper most zag.  He did suggest I sit on the left side of the car so as not to pass out while looking down out the window.

Looking down on the road to the site where we worked with Penstemon debilis.

We did zig-zag up, and true to Penstemon style, I was amazed at where these plants had decided, (I know there is no deciding in evolution), to evolve to selective pressures and become a species, absolutely unbelievable.

Here is a small population growing near the opening of one of the mine shafts. I think you can see flags indicating individual plants.

The plants literally live on steep rocky slopes with thin slabs of shale constantly falling on top of them.  Just like plants that have adapted to shifting sands in sand dune environments, these plants have adapted to thin pieces of shale rock constantly covering up their little plant bodies.

Shale rock cliffs above the plants. Rocks are constantly falling adding to the talus slope made of shale rock. Actually a rock fell near Peter as we were collecting data!

Their stems continue to grow outward beyond the rocks that land on them.  You begin to realize why this is one of the rarest Penstemons in North America!  We proceeded to stretch the measuring tapes across the monitoring site and began the process of counting stems.

This is the population of plants we monitored on the steep shale slope.

With this plant it is impossible to count plants.  Most of the plant is covered with rock which makes it difficult to distinguish separate plants.  Carol Dawson decided years ago, when they first began monitoring this little jewel, that the best way to determine the health of the population from year to year was to simply count stems.  So count the stems we did.

Peter Gordon counting stems of Penstemon debilis.

Here I am struggling to keep stable on the shifting shale as I count Penstemon debilis stems.

We also determined how many stems had flowers or fruit and how many for simply vegetative.  I was amazed and the amount of seeds these plants were producing.  And with my interest and love for pollination biology, I wondered which bees were hard at work pollinating this plant.  Most Penstemons are pollinated by Osmia bees, so I suspect these were insects hard at work weeks before the seeds developed.

Penstemon debilis flowering. Notice all the seeds below the plant indicating a bee was hard at work weeks before!

Another lovely shot of this extrordinary plant, Penstemon debilis.

And then you have to wonder, where do those seeds go with all of this rock, and just how do the seedlings get started??  It really is all so amazing that species can survive in such seemingly adverse environments.  I think this is one of the most incredible plants I have seen and had the honor to work with, and this is by far one of my favorite experiences this summer.

A day in the life of a CLM Intern…. Hmm, I would rather say five months in the life of a CLM Intern. Granted I won’t discuss all five months and keep you captivated for pages upon pages of experiences and happenings that have made my life so incredibly amazing since the beginning of my internship. Rather, I just want to stress how important and connected each and every one of those days that would make up my time here in Vernal, Utah. Most of what I do is connected to what each and every one of you is doing as well. Hence: Conservation and Land Management. I came into this position with the hopes of expanding my knowledge of plant morphology and taxonomy. I’ve gained so much more than just that; I still have a month or so left!

The Bureau of Land Management’s Vernal Field Office is an Oil & Gas Pilot office for the entire northeast portion of Utah, which covers a HUGE amount of land with an incredibly diverse landscape and ecology across all the areas that make up our portion of the Uintah Basin. It’s absolutely fantastic to be able to go out into the dry high desert two hours south of Vernal and survey and monitor for two rare species of Penstemon one day and then venture up into the green areas northeast of the Ashley National Forest to monitor other bureau sensitive and/or federally listed species. All the while ventures around the entire area between monitoring stints to collect native seeds for Seeds of Success. I can honestly say that my bloody phalanges are entirely worth it since it means experiencing such diverse and astonishing beautiful landscapes in the process. And since Vernal is big with oil and gas, those seed collections that I collect go to something so important: reclamation and restoration of oil pads and wells that have been shut down or abandoned. And those rare plants I mentioned just a while ago…well, they are being directly impacted by industrial-type actions like drilling and similar money-making ventures that don’t typically take place in the traditional American backyard. Mind you, this isn’t a rant against the oil and gas industries. In fact, I understand just how incredibly important they are in our current society’s workings and going-ons. Do I wish there were stricter reforms in place to regulate exactly what they can and cannot do? Of course! If not for the betterment and advancement of our national culture, at least for the sake of the PLANTS!

With a fantastic mentor guiding me along the way and an amazing co-intern keeping me from zoning out in the desert sun…not to mention the countless other amazing people I’ve met out west (I’m from NYC, fyi), the people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve created thanks to this internship have made it all more than worth it. Three words: Net-work-ing! Ok, I know, one word. But let me stress just how amazing this entire program has been in terms of…you know…”meeting people.” People that are incredibly beneficial to have in your little black book. After all, this field we’re all entering, trying to enter, hoping to enter, or just experimenting with, is an incredibly difficult thing to break into. Some might even say it’s all about the people you know…. We’ll see if that’s true….

Coming from the city that never sleeps to a place where most people carry the motto “I HEART DRILLING” can be quite devastating and demoralizing. In fact, it’s the opposite! It’s inspiring to become a part of an environmental movement at the national level where conservationists like me are working hard to save that which we love: those amazing landscapes I experience each and every day. At the same time, it strengthens my morals as I’m constantly tested and put in check by big-business and forced to question the goods and the bads, the rights and the wrongs and the choices each and every one of us have to make every single day we’re breathing on this wonderful continent (both the good air and the bad air, of course!).

I leave you now with a quote from one of my heroes:

“Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Truly,

Daniel Winkler, CLM Intern, Vernal, UT

Saving the world...one little cactus at a time!