Hello again!

I have now been working at the BLM here in Roswell, NM for a little over a month and still love it! The staff here at RFO is just amazing and to add to that recently a few more people were added to the mix! A couple of weeks ago, two more range interns arrived in Roswell which has made this experience even better! It is really nice to have some fellow interns along for the ride and that ride was really jump started when they arrived! Before they arrived I got a chance to experience pretty much all of the aspects of the BLM which was very interesting but it is great to get all trained up for the next seven months of work! When they first got here we got to undergo some official training, such as: CPR & AED, First Aid, Radio, H2S, GIS and GPS. We have also started training for compliance checks and traditional and post-treatment monitoring! We have gone out a couple of times now to perform compliance checks on our own which is nice! Just the other day we were out on an allotment and were exploring some of the land… We saw what looked like a natural reservoir but it was actually a large gully with a couple small caves, so we got closer to take a better look and then sure enough we found a BOBCAT!!! This was awesome… a little frightening but awesome! We also found two doves’ nests with eggs and of course a bunch of cattle that day as well! Also I have recently been going out with some of the range staff to perform post-treatment monitoring. The post-treatment monitoring more specifically is looking at the effectiveness for mesquite treatments around the Roswell area. Overall so far, being here at Roswell and working at the BLM has been a wonderful experience which I think will only get better as my internship continues and of course more interns arrive (on Monday!)!!!

Stephanie Burkhardt

BLM Roswell Office

Well, I’m into my second month here at BLM’s West Eugene Wetland office, and things are really picking up! A few weeks ago the Willamette Resources & Educational Network (WREN) held an educational event called “Walkin’ and Rollin’ through the Wetlands” for families, and BLM had a booth. I created fact sheets on Fender’s Blue Butterflies (an endangered species found only in Oregon’s Willamette Valley) and Western Pond Turtles for it; we ended up with about 90 visitors over the course of four hours, which is pretty good considering it  was cold and cloudy.

Our Walkin' and Rollin Booth

Speaking of Fender’s Blue Butterflies, I’ve been assisting our monitoring lead, Christine, in, well, monitoring. We’ve been keeping track of the Fender’s populations over the last month using long distance sampling and then catching butterflies to determine the ratio of Silvery Blue Butterflies to Fender’s Blue Butterflies (the Silveries look very similar to the Fender’s, so to get a more accurate read from the long distance sampling, we actually have to ID them). Catching butterflies is one of my favorite tasks so far. It takes so much more skill than I ever imagined to net a butterfly: you have to catch the butterfly, avoid damaging their host plant (the Kincaid’s lupine), and avoid getting the net caught in blackberries (I seem to have a special talent for accidentally netting spiders, which is unfortunate because they frighten me quite a bit). That moment you catch a butterfly and successfully identify it as a Fender’s is really rewarding!

Female Fender's Blue Butterfly

Male Fender's Blue Butterfly

Christine and I have also just finished up the Lomatium bradshawii monitoring and have moved on to Kincaid’s lupine monitoring. I find it interesting to compare this year’s findings with last year’s data. As part of the restoration process, some of our prairies were burned last year, and it’s truly amazing how well our native plant species are growing in the aftermath!

Kincaid's lupine

I’m really enjoying seeing the wildlife in the wetlands. There’s a Great Blue Heron that hangs out next to a bridge we have to cross to get to one of our sites (I’ve seen it every time I’ve been to that site, and it’s always a treat). I’ve also seen a few Western Grebes out by our Fender’s population, and having never seen–or even heard of–one, I was absolutely fascinated. The real highlight, though, was seeing a river otter. They don’t show up around Eugene very often, and I’d never seen one in the wild–it completely made my week! (Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a picture of the otter. I saw it on the one day I didn’t have my camera with me.)

Great Blue Heron

Western Grebe

Til next time!

It’s been a BUSY several weeks here in Cody, Wyoming. I have been scouring the field office in search of plants to collect later this year for the Seeds of Success program, taking specimens for herbarium vouchers, and documenting locations. Along the way, I inspect reservoirs for the plant Rorippa calycina (persistent sepal yellowcress), which BLM classifies as rare in Wyoming, as well as any amphibians and reptiles. In the midst of all this searching, I have also been visiting known sage grouse lek locations to collect feathers for a genetic study, although I won’t pretend to understand the specifics at this point! I look forward to learning the results of this study, but that will be some time in coming.

Last week I was assigned to begin one of my favorite tasks: monitoring two golden eagle nests. The chicks are very young still, between 10 and 25 days old. They are fluffy and white, and very clumsy at getting around in the nests. Although it can be challenging to manage 6 hours of monitoring a week per nest on top of everything else, it’s definitely worth it. We are working on finding a way to multi-task while I sit at the nests with binoculars and spotting scopes, mostly by transferring work projects to my personal laptop so that I can accomplish more while I’m out there, such as analyzing sage grouse count data in relation to vegetation treatments. It’s cool to be a part of firsts here: looking at sage grouse trends specific to the BLM’s Cody field office and its management strategies, helping to conduct the first bat survey ever done in the field office, and even setting up a real herbarium in which to store plant specimens that until now have been stored in a cardboard box on top of a shelf. I am again realizing how spoiled I am getting to have such an amazing job where I can be useful, busy, and blissfully outdoors practically every day. I wish I could keep this job forever!

What a day, what a day! Who knew seed scouting could lead me to so many electrifying places. At first, I tried to keep to my comfort zone, up in the moister hills, shaded by trees and buffed away from the wind. Yet, I have found myself tossed out of my shade, my moisture, my home, sent to wander the plains of sage and grasses. I have found myself in the middle of multiple burn sites, exploring canyon cliffs while observing its petroglyphs, to marking plant populations after examining a triceratops dig site. Still, I am drawn more to be amazed by the simple beauty I find all around me, too small to see without the desire to be found. So minute, yet, so overwhelming. Bring on tomorrow!

Over the last few weeks the Mojave and Sonora have become increasingly dry. It’s gotten to the point that even the Larrea tridentata is under stress in some places. Walking through fields of dead or dormant Ambrosia dumosa and Atriplex, I try to stay optimistic that the target species I’m looking for, hope beyond hope, is just around the bend. We’ve had to move to higher elevations, but even in places like the Orocopia Mountains things are bleak.

Despite the extremely dry conditions, we are able to collect many of the most common species and tissue collection for a tortoise forage nutrient study has begun. Wading through cheesebush (Ambrosia salsola), with my hands covered in a resinous coating of cheesebush glue and smelling like the sweetest limburger, I remind myself that this will benefit an endangered animal. But there is beauty in the simplicity of the act of collecting. I get into a rhythm, and feel connected to the desert around me in a very fundamental way. Or, maybe it’s all just a delusion inspired by the 110 degree weather we’ve been having. Regardless, I’ve seen a lot more wildlife and have been having a great time scouting for new seed collection locations.

Green Curcurbita palmata fruits!

It is the start of June and here in the southeastern part of Arizona it is beginning to get hot again. Fires are starting up again on BLM and Forest Service lands. Spring didn’t last long here. But being here for over a year now it has been amazing watching the seasons change in the desert and watching the different plant species come up as well. It is interesting that there are still species blooming.  This time last year there was nothing blooming – not even the creosote was blooming. But, it will be a good summer here.  We have some large projects that we will be working on, and then heading into another seed collection season. :).

My time in Carson City is more to me than the BLM. Generally people, including myself, enjoy our lives more which in turn means we become better workers when we have connections and an interesting life. I am sincerely content in all aspects of my time at the BLM. My coworkers are incredible people–you feel the love and respect we have for one another. The projects that I am involved in are increasing and getting interesting. Field work is always exciting, different, and challenging, what more could one ask for!?

Hello, from Worland, WY! My name is Nate and I come from the distant and exotic land of New Jersey. I began my internship on May 15th but not before a nice little 2,000 mile road trip and getting to see parts of our beautiful country along the way. The Worland BLM field office has 2.8 million acres and the more I see the more I like.  The land varies from a dry sagebrush scrubland to harsh yet gorgeous badlands, canyon carved country side, and finally stopping at breath taking mountain foothills. The flora and fauna here are amazing in their own right, all adapting to this hard environment and thriving. There is a definite learning curve coming from such a different ecosystem but I dove in head first and I’m learning everything I can from weed management to local geology to fire ecology (and most importantly how they all tie together). My mentor, CJ, and the rest of the Worland field office have been great (we even started a weekly ultimate frisbee game) and are more than happy to answer any and all of my questions, which is perfect because I have a slew of them. I am really looking forward to getting into the thick of this internship, tackling some weeds, and seeing all the iconic places WY has to offer (and figuring out how to upload pictures so I can share them with you all). I’ll see you all at the CBG in only a few weeks, have fun, learn a lot, and be safe!
P.S. Let’s go Devils!!!!!
-Nate T

Summer has come early to drought stricken Cedar City, Utah.  With temperatures rising and not a rain cloud in sight, many plants have already flowered and are about to go to seed. One such plant is the dreaded scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium); a noxious and invasive plant here in Utah. Even though scotch thistle is beautiful when flowering, it competes with native plant species for the meager resources available in this high mountain dessert region. To combat this invader we have spent many hours chopping it down and digging it up.

However, not all my time here in Cedar City has been spent controlling the weeds. These last two weeks that I have spent with the Bureau of Land Management have been filled with new experiences and opportunities to learn. I have been able to participate in Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) and southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) surveys, been refreshed on how to operate a 4WD vehicle and toured the field office with the regional botanist. I have had the opportunity to see some native wildlife that, although a native myself, I had never seen in the wild –  the Arizona mountain king snake ( Lampropeltis pyromelana pyromelana) and the threatened Mexican spotted owl.

On the weekends I have been able to enjoy the national parks that are nearby; summiting Lady Mountain in Zion National Park was an awesome feat! Thank goodness for public lands!

Germination tests are extremely important for seed collections because what is the point of storing a seed if one does not know how to make it germinate after it has been frozen? Once a seed lot has been processed it is put into a humidity controlled room. The seed lot is placed in such a room so the moisture content in the seed can be brought down to about a 5%. Once the seed lot reaches this percentage it is ready to be stored in the freezer. We place seed lots into the freezer for at least one month before performing any germination (germ) tests on it.

I’ll use Trixis californica as an example. When we pull it out of the freezer, we take 100 seeds to use for the germ tests. The seeds are put in a weigh boat with deionized water for 24 hours, which is called the imbibe step. The imbibe step is important because it allows the seed to uptake water, thus increasing its moisture content. The next step is to pick the proper germ test for the seed. I am still learning this part. More, once I’ve got it down!