As I write this, I’m sitting on a bed of pine needles with a  spotted owl transmitter placed a few feet away on a stick while my coworker uses snazzy instruments to try and locate me in the forest. It’s the best hide and seek game I’ve ever played because I get to read my book in nature and bask in the sun all the while contributing to science! Due to the fact that I have a much more flexible schedule than most in my office, I get to help out with a lot of different projects facilitated by the BioBot staff (as we call ourselves). Currently, I’m pretending to be a spotted owl whose location is known and my coworker is following the normal tracking procedure so that we can gather information that will allow us to calculate the experimental error for a paper that the wildlife biologists are writing on a previous experiment.

In addition to pretending to be an owl, I’ve been keeping very busy at work. Last week we completed our restoration project in the Bighorn Wilderness in the transition zone between the San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert. We built a pipe and cable fence along the BLM/FS property boundary that will hopefully stop the use of unauthorized Off Highway Vehicle roads in the wilderness area. I mentioned in my last blog post that this project entailed a lot of inter-agency cooperation. I really enjoyed the experience I got in field-crew management and fostering an inclusive work environment for folks of differing socioeconomic backgrounds (we had some very different groups working together). After we completed the fence, we seeded and disguised unauthorized road beds and did our best to restore the integrity of the wilderness area. We all came away from the project with a sense of pride and empowerment because we accomplished a major effort in just two weeks of work.

Looking into the Bighorn Wilderness, what we are aiming to protect with our fencing project!

The other main project I’ve been involved with is developing a systematic protocol and geodatabase for our restoration site monitoring efforts on our Ranger District. The details are a little dry, so I’ll spare you, but I am learning so much that I feel like it won’t all fit on my resume! Enough said!

Thanks for the experience,

Lizzy, San Bernardino National Forest

November was a relatively quiet month at the office. A large rainstorm hit the Pacific Northwest late in the month, and Eugene became a bit flooded. This led to quite the change in the West Eugene Wetlands (WEW); our vernal pools have filled up, and ducks and other waterfowl can be seen gallivanting in their depths.

Two months ago, this was all dry!

Earlier in November, I assisted the Willamette Resources and Education Network (WREN) with one of its student fieldtrips. Although earlier in October, I had aided WREN with a student ethnobotany/seed-after-burn project, this was trial by fire: leading my own group of second graders through the trails that surround the WEW Partnership office. The students were excited to be out of the classroom and full of energy; I was terrified. However, it turned out to be tons of fun! The kids learned about Queen Anne’s Lace and Pennyroyal (which, although a non-native species, is a good indicator of vernal pools), and enjoyed seeing ducks and other animals in the wetlands.

In addition to my short adventure outside, I also started training in GeoBOB (Geographic Biotic Observations). The GeoBOB database works in conjunction with ArcGIS, so I’m getting to brush up on the new GIS skills I acquired during the summer.

Anyway, November was a rather quiet month. I”m looking forward to things to come!

‘Til next time!

As we quickly approach the holiday season, the office here in Roswell has shifted into holiday-mode, complete with holiday luncheons, cookie exchanges and food drives.  Overall, the office is feeling quite cheery.  Unfortunately, that is not the case for some other people in the area.  This is the because last Friday, November 30^th, the US Fish and Wildlife Service began the process to consider listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC) as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. 

The LPC range extends from eastern New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.  Due mostly to habitat destruction, the LPC range has significantly decreased from historic levels. The LPC’s habitat is being taken over mostly by oil/gas exploration, cattle ranches and other forms of energy harvesting.  The listing of the LPC is upsetting to many people in these areas because there is a huge amount of the population that rely on these industries as a lively-hood.  If the chicken does get listed, it will mean even stricter regulations on these industries, potentially shutting some of them down, and thus terminating jobs. 

Some people I’ve spoken with about the topic think it is purely politics. Politics aside, the fact is that the Lesser Prairie Chicken has significantly decreased since mass amounts of people have come into its’ territory.  We need to do everything we can to rebound from this and get the LPC back to a sustainable population. 

Since this has all just occurred in the last few days, it will be interesting to see what will happen in the office.  The LPC has already been on the radar for rare species and is often talked about as is.  The US Fish & Wildlife Service will hold a public meeting in February to discuss the topic.  If I’m still in the area, I think that will be an interesting event to attend.

One thing I have loved about this internship and field office, is that we are always getting opportunities to learn new things. In the beginning it was all about learning an entire new set of plants for our range monitoring. Since then, I’ve also attended rangeland trainings, speakers, read multiple papers, and enrolled in the GIS courses online.
The first range training focused a lot on the basics of grazing management, such as what portions of the plant can be grazed without overly affecting plant growth. We did some grass clipping activities to estimate production and the effects on the rangeland. This last rangeland training was focused on a Utah ranch’s success using very frequent pasture rotations to improve grazing and wildlife habitat. They specifically kept cows that could calve on very low quality forage, thus also reducing the ranch’s cost in hay. Meanwhile, in the office during my “spare” time I’ve been able to keep up with my reading. I’ve had some time to read articles on sage grouse, lichens, big game fence interactions, climate change in the rangelands, as well as the NEPA and ESA. Having the time to read this information has helped me so much in understanding a lot of what we do out in the field.
I really do love the Buffalo Field Office. Today is the judging of the Christmas door decorating contest, and the range staff’s door is looking pretty promising. We’ve taken some liberties with the original Twelve Days of Christmas and made it into the Twelve Field Days of Christmas, featuring a few adaptations of the original lyrics, such as “an eagle in a pine tree”. And while I’m excited to go home for Christmas, I know I will definitely be missing the white Christmas likely to be here in Buffalo.

The Twelve Field Days of Christmas Buffalo Field Office Map

As I sit down to write my second to last blog I cannot help but to reminiscence about my experience here in Roswell for the last seven months; however,  I will write more about that in my next blog which will also be regrettably my last. But for now, here is my second to last entry.
With only a couple of weeks left at the Roswell Field Office, I am still exploring and learning from every section of the office. This week in particular I am getting to work with the Archaeology section! When one of the Archaeologists on staff asked if I would be willing to survey for ancient artifacts I of course said yes! So today we headed out east of town to an area where a pipeline is being planned. Archaeologists for the BLM not only survey certain sites where there is known and/or could possibly be artifacts but also any area where the surface is going to be disturbed. We walked in total about 6 miles up and down the sand dunes on each side of the proposed pipeline looking for any evidence of historic value. I was so excited to help that I probably asked about a half dozen times if this rock or piece of metal was of any importance, which unfortunately they weren’t, but they told me to keep it up and that I was getting closer. Then finally after we had completed about three-quarters of the loop I found something and it was a confirmed Isolated Manifestation or IM as the archaeologist call it! I was so excited to have found something of historic value, which is something that is 50 years or older for the BLM!!! Although that was the only historically valued item we found along the pipeline, she took us out to an already discovered site just a little north of where we were and there we got to see a wide variety of pottery and tools!!! And although we did not find much today, we are going to have the chance in the next couple of days to hopefully find some more!

-Stephanie Burkhardt

Roswell Field Office