Hello again,

First of all, I am sorry to those who have sent me messages that I have not replied. I do not even know how.

This is only my second post and so much has happened since the first. It would take pages to explain so I will be brief. Rose and I have busted out the seed collections and are at 42 collections with 4 specimens vouchered; we are now slowing down. The field season is sadly drawing to a close, but we are happy that we’re no longer rushing about to collect seeds and voucher specimens on time. We are so caught up on our collections and data that we are finding other things to do. Yesterday, we started mounting our ~200 voucher specimens for the Herbarium we are creating in the Lander Field Office. That was fun. Arts and crafts time!

There is still alot of ArcMap work to be done – polygons to draw, data to organize so that it can be accessible to others in the office, etc. We have scheduled a meeting with the GIS specialist in the office to learn how to go about doing this. Sounds like I know what October and November looks like!

I have gotten a chance to do some different work around the area. A few weeks ago I helped out the Fish and Game department in Lander during their five year fish population assessment of the Sweetwater River. To do this we electroshocked a section of the river to stun the fish so they were easy to spot and catch with a net. At the end of the run, we weighed, measured, and identified the fish to species. Although it was a little un-nerving to be standing in water (with rubber waders on) while sending out an electrical current, we had a blast. The Fish and Game guys are good people, and it was nice to get my hands messy with some wildlife.

This week I am helping out a PHD student from the University of Wyoming. He is doing a sage grouse study and I will be helping him pull all-nighters spotlighting, catching, and radio collaring sagegrouse. I am excited to be a part of someone’s graduate study and to gain some wisdom and inspiration.

Well, I will stop here. Cheers to all of you beautiful CLM interns and I hope your summers have been fabulous!

Sincerely,

Rebecca Stern

 As my internship and summer have progressed here in Lakeview, OR, our work has evolved from special status species surveying to post- fire vegetation monitoring and seed collecting. While both types of recent projects have been interesting to work on, I especially enjoyed fire plot monitoring. The plots we visited varied (sometimes dramatically so) between each other, both pre-burn and post-burn. We went to sites in lava fields and atop grassy and shrubby ridges and saw invasives dominate some plots and natives flourish in others. Monitoring sometimes involved looking at 100 nested plots around a 100 meter transect, but I like how the repetitive nature of the plots forced me to learn some of our grasses better. In such a dry year, we have had to find somewhat alternative characteristics to confirm identification: the way the leaves feel between our fingers (indicating hairs present or not), what the skeleton of an inflorescence looks like post-seed dispersal, or how grasses species compared to each other in a given area. All of this repetitive thinking and comparing of grass field characteristics made me better understand and appreciate the nuances of our grasses.

Seed collecting has dominated our time in recent weeks, in particular the collecting of Cercocarpus ledifolius var. intercedens (curl-leaf mountain mahogany). Our mentor told us to collect 50lbs of this seed for both Seeds of Success and future fire rehabilitation work in Lakeview. Yes, 50 pounds of seed!  For those not familiar with this seed, the best comparison I can think of is a golden feather that sheds tiny fiberglass-like hairs. It is quite a beautiful seed, with many forming curly-cues that twist out Dr. Seuss-style from the branches. While the best trees to collect from had many seeds in easy-to-grab clumps, grabbing these clumps often caused clouds of the tiny gold hairs to be released and float onto our faces and bodies.  Itchiness would ensue wherever skin was exposed and/or clothing was rubbing against our bodies.  The hot weather, smoky air (from a nearby wildfire), and sometimes windy days, contributed to a not-so-pleasant environment to work in.  I think that our crew became adept at patience and meditation, given the amount of time we had to simply think while performing the rote task at hand.  In addition to integrating itself into my clothes and skin, the seed also integrated itself into my consciousness, and I began seeing it behind closed eyes and in my dreams.  Two weeks of collecting resulted in tens of thousands of seeds but probably less than 10lbs in weight. Our mentor told us at this point that he had been facetious when declaring our 50lb goal.  While I won’t miss the itchiness of the mountain mahogany seed, I will miss seeing the morning sun causing the golden feathery trees to seemingly glow.

Curl-leaf mountain mahogany seeds.

In addtion to the valuable career experience gained through the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Conservation and Land Management Internship (CLM) program, there are plenty of good times to be had as a CLM intern! Within a BLM field office, it is likely that any one employee will work with a variety of BLM specialists. (Personally, I have worked with the botanist, wildlife biologist, archeologist, recreation director and planners, engineer, fire/fuels management officers, realty/land specialists, public relations, and IT personnel.) Furthermore, civil servants (such as BLM employees) and careers in conservation and land management involve interacting with individuals and groups from the public in multiple ways: educating students, promoting conservation as both a career option and an opportunity for public participation, guiding field trips, facilitating volunteer activities, administering public meetings, and working with neighbors to protect their property and ours.

PUBLIC MEETINGS. Monthly public meetings were held by our BLM office to engage the public in a community-based planning process to develop recommendations for a management plan for land recently acquired by the BLM. Public meetings are one way for government agencies and organizations to work alongside the public whom they serve. It provides a place where civil servants can inform, educate, listen to, and discuss ideas, issues and concerns regarding projects with the interested members of public whom the project may affect.

Community-based planning for the development of a management plan for a new land acquisition

HIGH SCHOOL CAREER FAIRS. Many high school students do not know which career they plan to pursue; this is precisely why attending high school career fairs to present conservation and land management as a career option is an excellent idea. As a representative of the BLM (which many high school students have not heard of) and of the Conservation and Land Management Internship program through the Chicago Botanic Garden, I have had the privilege of participating at two high school career fairs to promote conservation and land management as a possible career path. Although this did not seem to be on the radar for a lot of students, we were able to engage in conservation about what we do and the career possibilities with some fantastic students who did express interest. We actually have one high school student who already volunteers with us when he is available and have met another student at a career fair who expressed interest in joining us as a volunteer in the near future.

Serving as representatives for the BLM, Pine Hill Preserve, and the CLM Internship program

VOLUNTEER WORK DAYS. I have been granted the privilege of organizing and facilitating a monthly volunteer work event for a local group. Despite the small numbers of participatants, their time and effort have been critical in helping us accomplish important work at Pine Hill Preserve. For instance, they assisted with the installation of jute matting and straw wattles along a newly constructed trail; this was completed shortly before the onset of the rainy season. They have also contributed to conservation and land management efforts at the Pine Hill Preserve by collecting seeds, planting propagated plants of one of the rare species in the Preserve, pulling yellow star thistle, installing posts and signs, and picking up trash; they also participated in staining bridges at a nature area owned by the BLM.

Planting propagated Pine Hill ceanothus at Pine Hill Preserve as part of a volunteer work day

FIELD TRIPS. What better way to spend a beautiful spring day than to walk through a natural area with others who possess the same passion for nature as you! Observing birds by sight and sound, identifying the species of wildflowers making their showy appearance, and photographing the scene, from the broad landscapes to the minute details that catch one’s eye…even the guide and other participating naturalist-type experts typically enjoy and appreciate learning from others in the touring party and sharing the experience with fellow nature-lovers. But I also enjoy field trips in which individuals, particularly young kids to teens, truly encounter nature firsthand for the first time, engaging multiple senses to learn about and experience wildlife habitat that has not been significantly altered or disturbed nor is regularly manicured…sometimes the initial awareness of nature up close can be a transforming moment when one realizes the plethora of mysteries, the intricacies of the smallest details, the coordination of countless interactions, the adaptations that allow unique situations of survival, or the greatness of how it all continues to function as one ultimate system.

Looking at blooming wildflowers and rare plants at the Pine Hill Preserve

On the sagebrush steppe or the Eastern Cascade foothills. Past the old farmhouse, near the spring, in the burned area, or on an ancient basalt flow. Seed collecting. I drive slow, both because the BLM road I am on seems to have more rocks in it than around it, and because I am intently focused on finding seeds to collect. Something catches my eye and I step on the brakes. I jump out of the truck and examine a plant, or remnant of a plant. Perhaps it is something I scouted out months before when it was in flower, before the landscape dried into shades of brown. A dehisced skeleton of a plant, but still offering a seedhead. I eagerly grab it, and use my fingernails or a knife to break open the seed head, capsule, silique, achene, spikelet, follicle, schizocarp or pod. I assess whether the seeds are ready. Too green and soft means its not ready yet. Some fruits may have a small hole in them and a worm rather than a seed, in which case I need to cut open more seeds to determine if they are all like that. If the seeds are dry and hard, they are ready. Then I look up at the population. Are there enough plants to collect from? If so, have they produced enough fruits? I once observed, on a quiet lunch break, a chipmunk running around grabbing lupine stalks with its tiny hands and bending the pods into its mouth, which likely expains why we haven’t been able to find many lupine pods despite its abundant flowers. How many seeds are in each seed head or fruit? Simple math equations run through my head as I keep in mind that our collection target is at least 10,000 seeds and only twenty percent of a population can be taken. If everything looks good, I get a bag and start collecting. If there are 100 seeds per seed head, it may take a matter of minutes, but sometimes there are only several seeds per fruit and it takes hours.

Despite the drought, my field partner and I have been able to make over twenty collections thus far. We have sought out the higher elevations and wetter areas of our field office. Plants also have staggered blooming and fruiting times, meaning that in one trip we may collect seed from an early flowering species and collect an herbarium specimen from a later flowering one. As we get into late August I can tell that the collections will get more and more sparse.

I often think about where the seed that we collect will go. Collection is the beginning of a long process. After being cleaned and sorted, it may end up in a seed bank. Or it may be grown out in fields, producing thousands more. Lately it has been over 90 degrees every day, and large fires are raging all around Alturas, blanketing the area in thick smoke. There will likely be a huge demand for seed in the coming years to stabilize slopes and out compete weeds in the vast areas of the West that have burned this season. 

The Pit River canyon. Many of our collections have been from this area of our field office.

We startled some wild horses on a seed collecting trip.

Collecting a sedge at a spring at Yankee Jim ranch.

Joe Broberg

BLM Botany Intern

Alturas, CA

How long is my life
for that I don’t know
It may be a year
before I will grow
The winter may prove to be harsh
Prove to bring much snow
but spring will surely come
But when will I grow?

The start of my life
Will I become a tree
Or possibly a flower
such quaint friends with a bee
Perhaps a mangrove
with such great views of the sea
Whatever the outcome
I hope I have some company

Some more of my kind
or some others for that
I would be quite happy
to be friends with a gnat
the stories we’d share
about this thing or that
The age we would gain
and grow comfortably fat

But these are just dreams
I just thought you should know
They are just hope
Just thoughts about life
Just hopes ’till I sew
pehaps a large field
But when will I grow?

What an adventure this internship has been! I have worked at the BLM Field Office in Bishop for two summers now – 9 months in total, and it has been quite a journey.  I have learned so much – about driving a huge pickup truck and changing flat tires,  to how to identify what seems like a huge number of plants, to using GIS.  I have been able to work with wildlife, going on early morning sage grouse counting trips, and late night bat counting trips  – where I got to use night vision goggles!  I’ve learned a ton of different monitoring techniques and what the advantages (and disadvantages) are of each one.  From stream monitoring, to sage grouse vegetation monitoring, to burn monitoring.  I’ve collected seeds, so many seeds, despite the lack of precipitation this year.

And I have met some truly amazing people who work so hard to protect the land they love. It has been an honor and a pleasure.

– Elizabeth

Idaho is very dry. By now, you’ve probably heard that a couple of Idaho cities, including Featherville, are being evacuated. The fire is so large and its so dry that the fire may continue to burn until a large rainfall or snowfall. It seems all of Idaho is dealing with the lack of precipitation, and the plants are no exception. They produce flowers, and then decide that it would take too much energy to produce seeds. Plants are smarter than people realize. Unfortunately, there is a paltry amount of seeding plants this year, so I have been working in the office.

I spent most of the last month working on a article of new and interesting lichens to Florida. Roger Rosentreter, my supervisor and coauthor, has been working with me through numerous drafts to perfect the paper. This paper will hopefully help in my applications to graduate school later this fall.

The digitization of the lichen collection has continued. The three students are making good progress and are about 1/4th of the way through. Its incredible how many mixed collections there. I have been separating many collections into “A” and “B” catergories. This will help generate more knowledge of lichen ecology and historical records.

Last week, I attended the ESA conference in Portland, Oregon. It was incredible how many scientists were there and how much knowledge was being disseminated and networking was going on. It was a bit overwhelming as my first ESA meeting, but I met many interested researchers and made new friends. It was especially nice to meet graduate students in lichenology.

Barry Kaminsky

BLM, Idaho State Office

Wow, time is absolutely flying by here in Missoula, MT.  Since my last blog post, I have been busy finishing up our last Daubenmire and Pace transects for the season as pictured below. In the first photo we are trying to identify a grass in a Pace survey and in the second photo we are conducting a Daubenmire survey.

We have also been busy monitoring seed maturity and collecting mature seeds (for the following species Camassisa quamash, Lesquerella carintata, Purshia tridentata and Ceanothus velutinus), surveying for sensitive plants (Pyrola picta, White-veined Wintergreen, and Botrychium paradoxum, Peculiar Moonwort) and attending two different trainings in Montana. The first training was a one day wetland plant identification training just south of Missoula at a wildlife refuge. The training was so informative and it was great to meet other botanists who work in the Missoula area for other organizations besides the BLM. The other training took place in Butte and focused on Multiple Indicator Monitoring (MIM) which is a monitoring system for riparian areas. At the MIM training I learned so much about riparian plant communities and how to quantitatively evaluate the health of a stream. The training also covered what to do with data once you have collected it and how it can best be used to affect management decisions, specifically relating to range management strategies. Attending both of these trainings made me think a lot about pursuing riparian ecology after this internship, but who knows! There are just too many fields that interest me right now.

 
Besides attending the MIM training, the other highlight of the past several weeks would have to be discovering a couple rare orchids! The Mountain Lady Slipper (Cypripedium montanum) is found in dry to moist forests in mountain to foothill zones. It has maroon colored tepals and a white lower lip, that slightly resembles a slipper, giving it its common name. The Hooded Lady’s Tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana) has a beautiful spiral of white flowers and is found in moist meadows (see picture below).

It’s hard to believe I am already halfway through my internship. I have learned so much already and I can’t wait to learn more. In the next few weeks we will be conducting more surveys for rare plants and I will be helping out the fisheries team with their MIM monitoring. More on that in my next post! Thanks for reading :).