My internship wraps up today after ten great months with the California Plant Materials Center.  When I drove out here last June, from Illinois, I had never been out West before and as I got closer to Lockeford I started feeling like I had made the wrong choice in coming here.  It certainly didn’t help that everything was so brown and dry for the summer.  However, this internship has been such a great opportunity for me and I couldn’t be happier with my experience.   I’m especially lucky that I was able to spend almost an entire year here to experience all of the seasons and a full cycle of work at the PMC.

Looking back, I can see that I’ve been able to contribute quite a bit to the work going on here.  I’ve collected seed for Seeds of Success, propagated plants in a greenhouse, pulled more weeds than I thought possible, learned to drive a tractor and forklift, written technical documents and guides, assembled irrigation systems, planted in a field for seed production, collected data for several studies, and worked on a year-long riparian restoration project with a group of high school students.

The PMC had an open house this week and I was given the opportunity to discuss a soil health study during our tours.  I’ve been in charge of organizing parts of the study implementation and collecting data, so this served as a nice culmination to my internship.

I’ve grateful for all of the support and wisdom from my mentor, Margaret, my coworkers, the other interns I’ve worked with, as well as Christina from the BLM and everyone from the Chicago Botanic Garden who made my internship possible.  I’m moving on to work for the Forest Service to survey for rare plants this summer, a few hours away in the Sierras, but I’m sure I’ll be back to visit.  I’m sad to move on, but I’m excited for what the future holds.

I am now 2 months into my CLM internship and have already been given several opportunities to expand my resume and skill set.  Last week for instance, our 6 person team traveled to Boise, ID to participate in the BLM Pesticide Applicators Certification Program.  Having passed the general exam and 4 category exams I am now certified to apply both general and restricted use pesticides on BLM lands in a variety of habitat types.

Yesterday our team was able to join a NCC crew to help with their tree planting effort at Indian Creek Campground.  It was an excellent opportunity to get out of the office and meet another group of conservation oriented individuals.

Exploring Cedar Mountain in early spring.

A faint orange glow turns the clouds on the eastern horizon to a fire in the sky. The Warner mountains yawn with warmth as the sun rises over the great basin, Alturas remains dark. It is my first day working for the BLM here in Modoc County, the job still remains as mysterious as the country surrounding me. Yesterday I reached the summit of Cedar Mountain (8,140 ft) in the Warner Mountains. Here lava flows were violently tilted upward in a classic fault garben that was formed with the rifting of the great basin. Erosion has dramatized the mountains by exposing large naked cliffs, towering above clay and fine volcanic soil. Staring to the south feels like gazing into a world unique from the one I am standing in, the north facing slopes of Payne Peak (7,618 ft) are decorated with White Firs towering out of snow, while the slopes I stand on are spotted with Artemisa tridenta and Western juniper and are almost completely lacking snow. To the east alkali lakes and arid desert are exposed in the great basin. To the west Mount Shasta (14,179 ft) gracefully towers above the lava plains, cinder cones, and canyons of the Modoc Plateau. Hot springs are everywhere along these fault blocks, quietly seeping into pools of hot water, breeding unique life forms and reminding us all of the energy Earth contains.  This vantage spot describes what I know of where I will be spending the next five months. Several unknowns remain, but no secrets can hide on the naked Modoc Plateau.

After meeting my supervisor, I am given introductions to the rest of the staff, and we drive to the Suprise Valley Field office to meet more individuals I will be working with this summer. I am starting to get a better idea of the projects I will be working on throughout the summer, one major theme continually arises, Sage Grouse. We also happen to be one of the most western locations containing Sage Grouse habitat, and a nation wide effort to better understand these birds and how we can protect them has created a large money pool, and tons of collaboration. From habitat modeling to track analysis, and lek counts to bird trapping the number of projects related to these birds are endless. Encroaching juniper threatens portions of critical habitat, creating opportunities for the forester to be involved in restoration projects. My office is participating in a inter-agency Sage Steppe Ecosystem Restoration Project (http://ltdl.wr.usgs.gov/SSERS/default.aspx), and many of my tasks will relate to this effort.

(Two weeks later)

As someone with a background in land conservation, forestry, plant ecology, invasive plant management and wildlife tracking. I have a diverse skill set that allows me to assist on a variety of projects. My primary position is to provide GIS services ranging from data management to more complicated analysis to the staff here in Alturas and Surprise Valley. However, in my first week of work I assisted in tree marking for timber improvement, surveyed noxious weeds, installed recreation signs and assessed the current status of designated OHV areas. In my second week of work I visited a few leks and got busy organizing data. Clearly a diverse number of projects are begging for help and I am very excited to take advantage of the opportunity to diversify my skill sets.

This week I got to know Jeffery, the pine that is, and his relationship with Incense-cedar in lower elevation mixed conifer forests of the Eastern Cascades. The diversity of coniferous trees only increases as you travel north and west from Alturas, and this fact seems to have me very excited, I love trees.

Knowing that the redwoods are just on the other side of the mighty Cascades my adventurous nature beckons to escape the rain shadow and enter the moist lands of the coastal range. Until next time, I am out exploring.

Prost,

Mike

GIS Intern- BLM Alturas Field Office

My internship is coming to a close soon. It has been almost a year since I moved to Wyoming and started my internship. I have learned a tremendous amount since starting last May.
Recently, I have been working to find uses for SOS seeds. I have been matching available seeds to projects we have going on throughout the state. Research projects include establishing seed zones for native forbs and experimenting with how our native forbs will respond to high carbon dioxide in the environment (which is predicted to happen with global warming). Another project has SOS collected seeds that will be planted in reclamation trials.
Although this desk work is not as immediately gratifying as being out in the field collecting seeds or surveying rare plants, it is very important. It is a whole side of the Seeds of Success program that many interns do not experience. I get to see that the SOS seeds will actually be put to use in the ground. It is an important part of the Seeds of Success program’s mission.

I started in the Shoshone, ID field office this week and already it sounds like I am going to have plenty of work to do, and even more fantastic opportunities to look forward to in the coming months.  It sounds like there will be a wide range of projects to work on and the opportunity to hone my plant ID skills and overall field techniques immensely.  So far I have nothing but good things to say about my supervisor and the other people that I have the opportunity to work with.  Looking forward to a great summer and the adventures to come.

Hello, howdy, and salutations!

I once again have the responsibility, nay, the honor to blog about my experience through the CLM program (and one of the things I’ve learned is how hard it is to write about yourself).  So an introduction is in order, my name is Nate Teich and I am a returning intern (last summer was in Worland, WY) to the CLM program in Carson City, NV.  I am roughly 2.5 months into the internship and my mind is already buzzing with everything I have learned so far. This internship is far more technical then my last and I feel like I can truly use the term botanist (…..loosely) to describe my position.  It has been challenging in the best way possible and I am thrilled to be given the chance to develop myself professionally.

The differences between the internships is interesting.  I feel like I have an uncommon opportunity among the interns to see how the BLM operates from office to office.  I think the biggest differences so far are the fact that the Sierra Front field office is practically in the middle of a metropolis compared to Worland.  With more people, I feel like the BLM is much more in the public eye here, I’m not sure yet how I feel about that but it will be something for me to think about during my time here.  The second biggest difference is I’m not the only intern here (hooray!).  My coworkers have been great so far, we have all come in with fairly different backgrounds and each brings something different to the team.

As far as the actual work goes it has been incredibly varied so far.  We have worked on SoS vouchers, put in fire transects (hiking in some amazing areas to do so), worked on plant identification, created conservation management plans, began restoration efforts on weed infested areas, and become certified pesticides applicators.  I am really excited for the field season to start up, to get moving on transect monitoring, seed collection, weed surveying and eradication, and who knows what else.  One of the best things about this job for me is that fact that I will rarely spend too long doing one thing.  Variety is the spice of life!

I am really looking forward to this year, I plan on making the most of it and really doing some solid exploring of Nevada and California.  Hope you enjoyed the snapshot of my life!

-Nate

Here in the Lakeview District BLM in eastern Oregon the growing season is slowly, hesitantly starting. Late spring freezes (and snowstorms!) are common here so the plants usually wait until late May or June to really go all out. So far our few forays into the field have been focused on wildfire rehabilitation areas where we’ve found some optimistic bunchgrass regrowth along with low frequencies of annual invasive grasses (woohoo!), helping me brush up with my vegetative grass ID skills. Winter bunchgrasses ID is like a fun but frustrating puzzle when all you have as references are roots, teeny tiny leaves, and no flowering parts to be seen, but I love it.

I have also been working a lot with the BLM’s GeoBOB ArcGIS-based database system, entering data and helping on collaborative Sensitive Species proposals and plans with other Resource Areas and some of the adjacent National Forests. I am really enjoying getting to know some of the inner workings of the federal system, and understanding all of the work and collaboration it takes in order to acquire funding for special and important projects.

I’m looking forward to the start of the field season in full force, with scheduled projects including Sage Grouse habitat assessments, wildfire rehabilitation monitoring, Sage Grouse-specific seed collection, sensitive species surveys, rangelands health monitoring, and others.

From high desert paradise,

Lisa

Bunchgrass regrowth and seeded species at a 2011 wildfire site just south of major lava flow formations