So far these past 8 weeks of my internship have been great! The majority of my work has been effectiveness monitoring, which I described in detail in my first post, but today I got to actually join our SCA (Student Conservation Association) crews and participate in a large restoration project in our office’s management area. It was very easy to catch on to the process as I’ve been evaluating the techniques used from years past.  I have also had the chance to design and implement some landscaping revegetation for the opening of the newly redone Jawbone visitor center. It’s an amazing set of new buildings that will really provide excellent outreach and information for the visitors to this area of BLM land.

Planting native desert species

I’ve spent more time exploring the Ridgecrest area both on and off the job, and have become much more familiar with the geography and biology of this region. I’ve seen burrowing owls while driving out to work areas and participated in a long-term monitoring project for the Mojave Ground Squirrel, getting to handle and assist in the assessment of their populations in the area (no desert tortoises in the wild yet though!)

Paper Bag Bush (Salazaria mexicana)

Fossil Falls

Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris)

I have also attended a Seeds of Success (SOS) training in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a great experience to meet some of the fellow CLM/BLM interns in the area! A few of us even got to go out with a Vegas crew and help make a collection for the SOS program. We spent part of a rare cloudy, semi-rainy day in Las Vegas exploring Red Rock Canyon, a part of the Vegas BLM land, to identify species and practice assessing possible collections to be made from the local vegetation.

Red Rock Canyon, Las Vegas BLM

It’s been a busy couple of months, I can’t believe I’m already nearly halfway finished! After getting to visit Las Vegas as a BLM intern, I’m even more excited to begin grad school in the Biology department at UNLV in the fall and possibly be working with the local BLM and USGS!

Hi, my name is Stephanie Burkhardt and I am a recent Marine Science graduate from Eckerd College in Saint Petersburg, Florida. I was hired by the Chicago Botanic Garden as an intern for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Roswell, New Mexico! Now,  I know what you are thinking.  Why did a marine biologist take a position in the middle of the desert? Well… the reason I decided to take this position is because it was a new experience that would enhance my scientific skills in a part of the U.S. that I have never lived in before! It seemed like a new and exciting opportunity that I could not pass up!

Now, I have been working here for a little over a week and love it! Everyone here at the Roswell Office has been amazing! The entire staff here has been so nice and friendly! Last week I had a chance to go into the field with staff from most of the different sections of the Roswell Office. My first day on the job, I went out with the range staff (who I will mostly be working with during my internship) to track feral horses in the Fort Stanton area, west of Roswell. We did succeed in tracking the horses which was good news but they also got to show me some of the Fort Stanton area which was icing on the cake! The Fort Stanton area is gorgeous! From this area, you can see at least four different mountain ranges and some of the El Malpais National Monument! El Malpais is definitely a sight to see, it is an area of black basalt terrain in between the mountains caused by previous molten lava spreading from volcanoes! This as my first day on the job was a great start to an 8 month long internship!

I also got a chance to go out into the field with some of the wildlife staff! One of the days I headed out again to the Fort Stanton area to fix a well and to monitor the water supplies in the mountains. One of the major concerns for maintaining the wildlife here in southern New Mexico is the water supply. Unfortunately right now Roswell is in a year and a half drought, so making sure that the wildlife here has access to water is crucial. I am keeping my fingers crossed for some moisture, as they call it here.  This week  the weather forecast says there might be a chance (knock on wood).

This past Friday I got the chance to help the Fire section at BLM! We supported Fire Prevention week at local schools by bringing in a Smokey Bear hot air balloon and talking about fire prevention. A little fun fact is that Smokey Bear, the correct name not to be misnamed as Smokey the Bear as I found out, is from New Mexico! Smokey Bear was saved from a fire on the mountain named Capitan, just west of Roswell! It was a great time!

I cannot wait to see what the other sections of the Roswell Office do, such as: Archeology and Oil and Gas. Until then I am very excited to working here in Roswell for the next 8 months and to start my official training as a range staff member!

Stephanie Burkhardt

BLM Roswell Office

As lost as my name, I have begun my internship with an open mind to new ecosystems and opportunities. A chance to explore my new forests, inhabited by pine and juniper, with only a few deciduous neighbors who only swing by to say hello. Not the eastern hardwoods I have grown to love. To know each tree not only by leaves, but bark, and seed, twigs and all. To watch my step, not only to avoid my herbaceous friends, but to destroy their intrusive and annoying companions from overseas. Yet, in a new world with little knowledge besides what I have read in books, I tread lightly. Not knowing who I may desire to remove from this new ecosystem and who deserves the right to flourish. The lack of comprehension with this new outdoor world excites me to a level near fear. I have five months to gain knowledge of what some study for their lives; I have five months to help collect the seed of species which may fall from fires more intense than ever; I have five months to learn to write in a non-scientific style; and I have five months to find me.

In addition to the valuable career experience gained through the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Conservation and Land Management (CLM) Internship program, there are plenty of good times to be had as a CLM intern! Although my work focuses primarily on botany, one just can’t avoid encounters with the animal side of wildlife when working in the field.

DEER–HERE, THERE, AND…ALMOST EVERYWHERE. In some areas in and around the Pine Hill Preserve, it is not uncommon to see deer.

Caught on camera: A buck pursuing his dear doe for a date

SMALL CREEPY, CRAWLY CREATURES. I am fascinated by spiders (there are so many kinds, some with beautiful coloration and patterns), and I like to observe and photograph them. BUT the thought of just one crawling on me creeps me out. Thus, I am generally attentive to what is in front of me when I walk through any type of grass and herbaceous vegetation where they tend to build their webs. During the spring before conditions turn hot and dry, ticks are typically abundant so it is important to always do a tick check when leaving the field. And in the aquatic habitats, one may be able to watch a slinking slug move effortlessly and gracefully, leaving a trail of slime behind itself.

Black and yellow garden spider, a common orb web spider typically found in gardens and fields

Green lynx spider on sticky rosinweed

Watch out for these little suckers (literally!)

Slimy stealty slithering slug

BIRDS AND FLYING INSECTS. By participating in bird counts at the Cosumnes River Preserve, I am beginning to learn how to identify some of the waterfowl and wetland bird species. Interestingly, one of the Pine Hill Preserve neighbors has a couple of emus (he had a few more but supposedly they were taken as a meal by a mountain lion). Although wild turkeys are relatively common, there are a few peacocks which roam a residential neighborhood bordering the Pine Hill Preserve. When wildflowers are blooming in the spring, butterflies flitter about, moving from flower to flower playing a critical role in pollination. Near aquatic habitats, dragonflies can be seen darting around. Every now and then, I encounter a praying mantis; now these guys can be fascinating to watch if they begin acting aggressively toward other creatures (including pestering humans).

A neighbor's emu

Wild peacock on a neighbor's lawn

Dragonfly

Praying mantis

FROGS. Every now and then we’ll come across a tree frog while collecting seeds or conducting botanical surveys.

I'm by no means a herpetologist, but I believe this is some type of tree frog

SNAKES. Having grown up in an area of Iowa void of poisonous snakes, it has been both a bit nerve-racking and thrilling to conduct field work in rattlesnake territory. A few rattlesnake sightings occurred either in the BLM office parking lot or just outside the shop garage door, but I didn’t personally see them. Another CLM intern and I did come across a young snake in the parking lot one afternoon; the pattern looked like it could be a rattlesnake, but it’s head wasn’t the right shape and it lacked a rattler…the snake expert of the office confirmed its identity as a gopher snake. We also had the privilege of first hearing then seeing a rattlesnake in the wild! The snake actually warned us from behind with its rattle. We were walking along a trail and stopped to look at the map on the GPS unit when we heard it. When we turned to look, we saw the tail end of the snake disappear from the trail into the vegetation about 10-12 feet behind us. Exciting! And I’m so grateful it wasn’t any closer or any more of a surprise than it was!

No worries--just a gopher snake

Young rattlesnake coiled up just outside the shop garage door of the BLM field office

HERP IN CAMO. The horned lizard is appropriately named; the distinguishable pointed “horns” above their eyes and along the back of their neck can make this little lizard look a bit like a dangerous dragon, downsized. Due to their coloration, they are not so easy to see in the reddish, high-in-iron gabbro soils in and around the Pine Hill Preserve.

The horned lizard blends in well with the gabbro soils of the Pine Hill Preserve

THE PROOF IS IN THE PRINTS. As much as I would like to see a bear in the wild (but from a safe distance and not as a surprise close encounter), sometimes I have to just take what I can get. Like a paw print providing evidence that yes, a bear has tread the same trail as I.

Bear print near the South Fork American River

HEE-HAW. Like the plants, some of the animals we meet are not native but have been domesticated. This neighboring donkey gets a little curious about what we’re up to every now and then when we work on the Pine Hill Preserve parcel across the private road from his stomping grounds. One time he even tried to distract us by making funny faces and noises at us. 🙂

"Whatchya doin'?"

Neighbor's donkey making funny faces