Two months ago I moved to Colorado to get started on the Seeds of Success program at the Bureau of Land Management State Office in Lakewood, CO. Collecting seeds from native plant species was also part of my CLM internship at the BLM in Cheyenne last year but here in Colorado I will be completely focusing on this project.

Lakewood is a Denver suburb at the edge of the city and at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. In fact, it is an easy drive from the office up into the heart of the Rockies and numerous park areas just west of town.

During this first month, I have been working with the rest of the Seeds of Success team on the first stages of seed collection. The mission of Seeds of Success is to collect, conserve, and develop native plant materials for stabilizing, rehabilitating and restoring lands in the United States. We have started by scouting undisturbed areas to search for target species and assessing the plant populations we find in order to decide whether they could be suitable for our purposes. This preparation work is a key part of the project and sometimes it takes quite a lot of time. Some species have started flowering in recent weeks, particularly at lower altitudes, and we are already considering the ones we could potentially collect seeds from in the next few weeks.

This internship includes a lot of travel throughout Colorado, and I am looking forward to being able to explore most of the state in the coming months. During the first part of May we went to Rifle and Grand Junction, CO on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains to take a look at some BLM lands. Since our Seeds of Success team will be covering the whole state we are hoping to find some plant populations that work for us in western Colorado too. The few trips I have taken so far have already given me the opportunity to see some amazing places in different portions of the state while at the same time becoming familiar with the project as a whole. I have been enjoying working in the field most of the week, which allows me to get to know various types of vegetation and environments and learn a lot about the biology of the plants.

In addition to our trips outside the Denver area, we have also been scouting the parks in the mountains near the office and have collected some plant specimens. I like the fact that there are lots of great open areas close to Denver because we can take more time to study the area and find what we need. And I can personally enjoy the Rockies environment here during my free time without driving long distances. I’m looking forward to the next few months that I’ll get to spend here in the Denver area.

Lorenzo Ferrari

Lakewood, CO

Colorado BLM State Office 

This is the start of my 4th week in Cedarville, CA working at the BLM Surprise Field Office. The weather has been cool and rainy and so far I have visited only a fraction of the resource area. I have done some scouting for the SOS program and hopefully this week we will be able to collect seed from a Lomatium population that covers about 5 square miles. The image was taken off of Barrel Springs Road on the California-Nevada border.

First of all, I never thought I would get to work where people actually pay to visit on their weekends. This is no surprise though, because coming from the remarkably flat suburbs of Chicago, the Columbia River basin and the surrounding landscape still astonishes me. Working closely with the regional floriculture and making daily observations has allowed me to witness first-hand the reproductive lifecycle of the general flower populations in my collection areas. And as for these collection sites, they’re not exactly tiny and they’re not exactly the easiest to navigate, but after hiking in a circle for 2 miles and finally looking and up and staring in to Microseris troximoides heaven, I get a greater satisfaction than I’ve had from any other internship. After patting myself on the back, I (and you will too, believe me) immediately thank god for my handheld GPS and mark the site for future reference. Any and every ecological/biological worker should know how to use GPS as easily as (s)he can ride a bicycle. But heck, when you’re in a beautiful area like this, the getting lost part is just as fun.

On a professional level, I’ve developed an understanding of the standard practices involved with working for a multisite organization which oversees so much land and so many employees. But nothing is arbitrary! Every bit of safety training can come into play when least expected. Going out alone as far as 2 hours from the field office can be downright dangerous without the right training. I never thought I would be unlucky enough as to get a flat tire on a 20 degree downhill slope, but all’s well. Folks, these are responsible research and life lessons … And never forget to shake out your clothes for ticks!

Michael Bolouri
Seeds of Success Intern
BLM Field Office, Wenatchee, WA

I am writing this blog from the Surprise Café in Cedarville. The owners of this fine establishment are good enough to offer free Wi-Fi to its patrons. All-in-all, Cedarville and its residents are growing on me. My neighbor, Bud, sells me farm-fresh eggs for $1.50/doz!

It has been unseasonably wet and chilly in Cedarville (or so I hear). It has made for fewer and muddier field excursions than I would have liked thus far (especially in the North Cowhead area of the BLM), but it seems to be warming up and drying out. Keep your fingers crossed that “74F and sunny” is an omen of good weather to come.

Thus far at the BLM, I have helped many other seasonals work on their time-sensitive projects and have learned a lot—anything from native species identification to driving manual on the euphemistically named dirt “roads” in Nevada. I’m looking forward to training for my Aspen/Wildlife Monitoring Project this week and to the months to come!

So I have been working here in Montana at the BLM Miles city Field Office for almost three weeks. What has really struck me so far about working with the BLM is the emphasis on land use (not preservation or conservation) with the integration and compromise of dozens of different interests going into managing the land. I am based out of the Wildlife Divisions and we must reconcile the needs we see for wildlife withe the needs identified by the Recreation, Range, and Minerals Departments. Everyone has different priorities that often clash and it is mind-boggling the number of things going on in a single piece of country. While the interdependence can be frustrating in terms of compromising on important management decisions, this intertwinging of all the departments has already allowed me some neat opportunities way outside my job description.

For example, to better understand the dynamics between the field office and permittees (ranchers renting land from the BLM), last week I got to help out at a cattle branding. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of helping out at a branding, it is just what you image: men on horses roping calves with lassos, cows bawling in the background, blood, mud, and manure everywhere… I had a terrific time! Wrestling calves all day so they can be branded vaccinated, and castrated may not seem like it has much to do with wildlife, but it really gave me a glimpse at land management from the other side so to speak. I got a few interesting opinions on the wildlife I will be working with. For example, later this summer I will be working with prairie dogs, which to me are fascinating, cool wildlife. But to ranchers, prairie dogs are dangerous pests, destroying pastureland, breaking cows’ legs, and spreading Bubonic plague. Therefore, many ranchers have few qualms about using them for target practice. Working and eating alongside some ranchers for a day (a branding traditionally ends with a ‘feed’ – three kinds of pie!) helped put my work in perspective, as part of a whole range of land use imperatives. And more generally, this kind of interaction between the BLM and ranchers helps keep an open dialogue for establishing management practices acceptable for all players.

In other news, I saw a porcupine and a badger last week…

Catherine Reuter

Miles City, Montana

BLM

Hey everyone! I just started working as a CLM intern for the Bureau of Land Management in Lakeview, OR. So far I absolutely love Oregon and the internship! I will be working with a fire ecologist as well as collecting seeds for the Seeds of Success program. I have learned a lot just the two weeks and a half weeks that I have been in Oregon!

Last week, I helped to collect data at the site, Mill Creek which had been burned in 1996 and then again in 2006. At this site, the fire ecologist that I am working with is monitoring the plant, Pedicularis centranthera, which is a sensitive plant.

Being from Indiana I did not have a background in western plant ID but I have already learned a lot of plants! The botany seasonal crew has been doing clearances in the Lakeview District, I have assisted them a few days and I have learned a lot of new plants!

I just finished  SOS training in Vale, OR. I learned a lot during the training and I got to meet some of the other interns around the area! During our field day we collected seeds of Amsinckia tessellata which has a beautiful scorpioid inflorescence.

Thanks! I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Molly Baughman

I have never blogged before, so this might be interesting. Where to start… I moved from Kansas to California for my internship. I work at the Cosumnes River Preserve just south of Sacramento, CA. As far as land goes, it is not that large, but it has a lot of substance. Habitats from vernal pools, to grasslands, to Riparian woodlands occupy most of the space. The preserve itself is unique in the fact that many agency co-manage the land. BLM, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, local easement land owners, and some water organization which I cannot remember at the time all work together cooperatively to run the preserve and act as stewards for the land. In this aspect, this internship is really good, because I have the opportunity of working with, and observing, many different organizations and their differing methods. This will give me ample information to help me in determining my next life stage.

I enjoy the weather California has to offer. It gets hot here, or will soon, but not as hot as I am used to, and the evenings are gorgeous. I hear the winters are mild, so I will be looking forward to that. I haven’t done a lot of field work around trees before, so the added shade is very nice. Drawback: my allergies have been acting up, and there are lots of ticks here, but I knew what I was getting into, so no biggy.

I like my coworkers. Everyone is real nice and more than willing to offer a helping hand when needed. I get the opportunity to achieve independently, but also work cooperatively to overcome challenges. The only area of contention I have had so far is the fact that my boss has been emphasizing getting the seed collection for Seeds of Success started, but doesn’t really know a whole lot about the process (as neither do I). Since he wants me to get started on that stuff before the field training at the Grand Canyon, I have pieced together as much as I can on how to go about doing this. That’s okay, though, because its probably good to start early, and I will have everything figured out by the time I need.

I have not really had any problems adjusting to a different culture from where I moved. I have always heard about culture shock, but I guess I just don’t get it. I love the wildlife out here. There are lots of birds that I know, but never have been able to see before, and I can’t wait to see a bunch of trees I have on my list of things to see (like redwoods, giant sequoias, sugar pine). I don’t even care if that’s nerdy.