The BLM interns in Farmington, NM have been keeping busy-

A couple weeks ago, Emily and I traveled to Silver City, NM for a Native Plant Society (NPS) conference. Professors and botanists presented on a variety of topics and lead field trips to see flora in gardens and natural habitats within the beautiful Gila National Park. It was really nice to spend time with people who have been observing and researching the native plants of the Southwest for years and they seemed to find it refreshing that a younger generation is interested in botany and conservation of native species.

In Farmington we’ve been working on checking off plants on our Target List: we’ve made some more seed collections, and very recently were allowed to go out in the field on our own to monitor sites and make more collections. We’ve also gone out with the BLM Rangeland Health Assessment crew to learn their methods and participate in assessment, while checking out new places and enjoying the scenery. It’s nice that we are getting to experience different aspects of the government’s role in public land management.

Although we aren’t seeing antelope or elk on a regualr basis, we’ve come to appreciate the smaller critters in the desert. We have run across lizards in spades, many of  them bright blues and greens and all of them super fast. The jackrabbits and cottontails bounding across our paths are wicked cute, and birds soar above our heads, calling. The surprise caterpillars and beetles we come across while picking seeds are quite the spectacle and kind of creepy. One species of red and black beetle in particular are like the witch’s soldiers in the Wizard of Oz.

In our cubicle, we’ve done a massive amount of herbarium research and plant species identification, as well as some data entry for a grey vireo project a wildlife biolost is doing, for which we aided him in plant inventory of his study sites.

Over the next two weeks we’re going to be going on field trips with local middle school students to help educate them about native plant species. More on that in a few weeks! Peace!