Last Monday, I was sitting in the board room of the Surprise Field Office in Cedarville, California. In attendance were members of three separate BLM field offices from northeastern California and western Nevada in addition to members of State Fish and Game, several university extensions, and a handful of NGO’s. The meeting had been called in order to discuss the results of the census of Greater Sage-Grouse which was taken from mid-March through early May across Washoe, Modoc, and Lassen counties in northeastern California and western Nevada.

The data had been collected by an equally diverse group of agencies and volunteers and it painted a pretty clear picture.  Counts of sage-grouse leks (grouse breeding grounds) within Washoe, Modoc, and Lassen Counties were down, depending on location, by somewhere between 35-80% from the previous year.  Generally, counts taken in marginal habitat and peripheral areas had experienced a decline close to 60-80%, while leks in more productive locations which were closer to core Nevada populations seemed to have seen less of a decline.  These were simply rough numbers.  No complex data analysis had yet been rendered, though these numbers were startling to me.  We know that lek attendance and population fluctuates on an annual basis.  But a decline of up to 80% seemed to me a little extreme; especially considering the previous year hadn’t been an atypically dry year, nor could I account for any other glaring reason why there would be such a sharp decline over the course of twelve months.

Having worked with Sage Grouse before, in some of the more productive habitat in the country, this realization came somewhat as a surprise.  I knew that grouse had been declining across their range over the past century and a half, but in Rich County, Utah, it was difficult to tell.  Since I’ve been in Modoc County I feel like I have been able to see the decline first hand, almost as if it was happening before my eyes.  Within the Alturas Field Office we have three primary lek complexes on BLM land.  One of these sites, despite costly and extensive restoration projects, has not produced an active lek in three seasons.  At another of our primary lek complexes we were unable to locate any birds this season, for the first time ever.  The last of these sites, I had a high count for the season of seven birds total (three males and four hens) in an area which is perhaps as peripheral as any; a small sage island surrounded by national forest.  All of this makes me wonder, how long will it be before the birds are unable to sustain themselves in northeastern California?

A day after the meeting in Cedarville I was out in the field at one of the lek complex locations; Hayden Hill, a sage island surrounded by juniper and pine forest in the foothills of the eastern Cascades.  Within the area, there are close to a dozen points which are indicated as being historic or inactive lek sites.  I was just wandering around mulling things over, truthing the sites, looking for signs of sage-grouse use.  Mt. Lassen and Shasta were clearly visible to the west shining brilliantly and snowcapped in the midday sun.  While I was out wandering around I stopped to chat with a local rancher who was moving his cattle from his ranch to his grazing allotment.  He introduced himself as Jerry, a fourth generation rancher in Lassen County.  I told him who I was and what I was up to.  Jerry, as many throughout the region, was quick to tell me his opinion of ‘sage chickens.’  “Back when I was young,” he said, “sage chickens used to be everywhere.  Sure do see quite a few less now-a-days.” Jerry expressed his belief that the lack of predator control, specifically of coyotes, was the main factor which has contributed to the demise of the grouse.  Jerry has lived in these hills a long time, his observations are keen, and shouldn’t be discounted. Though, no such simple or straightforward explanation can account for the complex ecological, economic, and ethical factors which are at stake in the decline of Sage Grouse or any other perceived environmental crisis.

Sage grouse is a touchy subject throughout the Great and Wyoming Basins. Conversations which I have had with biologists, environmentalists, energy developers, and lay people on the subject often reflect these conflicting worldviews. The story of the decline of sage grouse parallels a thousand other stories of habitat fragmentation, the loss of species, environmental toxins, rampant development and so on, painting the picture of an environmental crisis; a perceived crisis which seems to exist on many different levels and in many different ways.  Underlying this story are the varying interests of people and the cultures they make up throughout the west.  All of this makes me wonder; if there is a crisis, perhaps it stems from our lack of ability to account for the varying and often opposing worldviews and value systems with which they are associated and their application to land management and beyond.  We seem to lack a working model, and in some case the desire to work towards developing a working model, through which to integrate and understand these various perspectives of stakeholders.

If the goal is indeed to manage land for multiple uses, how do we as an agency function on these multiple levels? How do we account for various value systems and their priorities? Is it even possible to effectively operate as a federal agency while still doing what is ecologically, economically, and ethically correct?

Phil Krening – BLM Alturas, CA

Hello and thank you for reading my first blog entry! I hope you return frequently to check out my entries, plus all posts from fellow CLM interns. My name is Maria, and I’m interning with the Bureau of Land Management in Cedar City, Utah.

This was my first week at work, and it has been all about transitioning and getting comfortable in a brand new part of the world. I am from Maine, and I went to college at St. Lawrence University in Northern New York, where I studied conservation biology and anthropology. Prior to the Chicago Botanical Garden giving me the opportunity to move out to Utah, the farthest west I had ever traveled in the U.S. was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on a family trip. I knew that living and working in Utah was going to be very new and exciting.

The landscape is the first thing I notice. Even though I’ve been living in Utah for a few weeks now, I still can’t get over the impressive landscape. Cedar City is surrounded by mountains and sagebrush habitat, a stark difference from the heavily forested and gentle slopes of the east coast. Mule deer, pronghorn, and wild horses are a common sight around the Cedar City BLM field office. The birds are different too. I am an avid birder, and working on avian surveys and raptor nesting projects in the coming weeks will help me learn about the many different west coast species that I’m unfamiliar with.

Recently it has been raining a lot in Maine, but in Utah it has been comfortably warn and dry. The relatively arid environment preserves ancient geologic features. The bare rock of the nearby mountains and canyons of Southern Utah are home to more than great wildlife, but also prehistoric petroglyphs. The Parowan Gap, fifteen minutes down the road from the BLM, is a gallery of well-preserved rock art, some of it dating back at least 12,000 years. What exactly the carvings represent is a mystery, but despite that, the drawings of the Fremont, Hopi and Paiute people over thousands of years are incredible and are worth visiting.

So far, working with the BLM has been insightful and a lot of fun. More fieldwork is on the way, and I’ll be sure to report back about further adventures here in Utah!

My internship is taking place with the BLM in Vernal, UT.  The main thing that my coworker (another CLM intern) and I will accomplish is rare plant monitoring and seed collections for seeds of success.  Coming from Michigan, the plants, wildlife, and climate are a whole new experience for me.  Our mentor is essentially doing 3 jobs, so we don’t get a lot of time to go out in the field and learn from him; instead we try and key out plants we find every day or bring back plants that stump us and ask our mentor.  The list of plants I can point out in the field is getting pretty long!  The shrubs still stump me…they all look so similar.  I definitely don’t have an eye for those yet.  My keying skills and my botanical vocabulary is improving though.

I’ve been here 5 weeks now, the majority of which have been spent locating populations of 3 different species, Sclerocactus wetlandicus, Schoenocrambe argillacea, and Schoenocrambe suffrutescens.  We’re also slowly trying to locate populations of other species for seed collections as we monitor the rare plants.  The other thing we’ve done was collection for genetics testing.  We spent 2 days collecting buds from “different” cactus species so that genetics testing could be done to see if they really are separate species.

While the work we’ve done so far hasn’t had much variety, we’ve managed to have quite a few adventures.  On Tuesday we literally ran into our first rattlesnake of the season.  We were walking through some sagebrush when we almost stepped on it; unfortunately we saw it before we heard it.  It was striking at us, but thankfully we walked away without getting bitten.  It wasn’t the best way to start our morning.  Then on Wednesday we got a flat tire in a really remote location and couldn’t get the winch on the truck to lower the spare….which led to us having to be rescued.

Those were 2 unfortunate experiences, but I’ve had some really good ones too!  While we were taking our lunch break on the side of a cliff (while surveying for clay reed mustard) we got to watch ranchers herd cattle.  We also got to watch a thunderstorm roll in and we found an elk antler, a coyote skull, and another antler.  Since everything is really starting to flower now, it’s a gorgeous time to be outside.  It is absolutely beautiful out here (aside from all the well pads) and I can’t get over how far you can see!

My CLM internship has brought me into the wild, to the last frontier…Alaska! I am working for the National Park Service at Wrangell-St. Elias near Copper Center, AK. I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to experience such a historic and unique place. Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest National Park in the U.S., covering over 13 million acres! In conjunction with 3 other parks (Glacier Bay in Alaska, Tatshenshini-Alsek British Columbia Canada, and Kluane Yukon Canada) this area is the largest internationally protected ecosystem on the planet covering over 24.3 million continuous acres!! With 25% of the park covered with ice, Wrangell-St.Elias has the greatest concentration of glaciers in North America and contains the largest non-polar ice field in the world! The vastness of this place is so hard to comprehend. The Copper River runs right through this park, which is the spawning corridor for the famous Sockeye and Chinook salmon. This park also contains a National Historic Landmark, Kennecott copper mine. In the 1900s Kennecott Corp. mined copper ore that contained 97% copper and generated over $250,000 worth of copper throughout the time it operated until 1938 when the mine was closed. A railroad had been built specifically to get copper out of the mountainous region, a huge and very difficult undertaking given the harshness of winters here and the challenge of building around glaciers.

My job here at Wrangell-St. Elias is to protect the pristine plant life that exists here. I am on the Exotic Plant Management team and we are responsible for conducting plant surveys, mapping invasive species, collecting native seeds for re-vegetation projects, and also taking volunteer groups out into the park for re-plantings. A large part of my job is also education and outreach to local communities about the threats of invasive species and how they can help in their own backyard. In fact, most invasive plants arrive in new locations from people planting them in their yard, not knowing that they are exotic, or non-native to that habitat.  The implications of invasive species affecting the planet are HUGE, especially with the occurrence of climate change. There is a new aquatic invasive that has reached Alaskan waters, Elodea canadesis (Canadian waterweed) and if untreated could drastically impact salmon populations, a huge industry Alaska depends on. I am very much looking forward to working in a place where invasive species are realistically controllable. Two summers ago I conducted invasive plant surveys in Wisconsin, my home state, and was almost discouraged by the extent of invasive species infestations already there. The cost of removing some of these plants is immense and can take over 15-20 years to be successful. Hopefully here in Alaska, we can prevent invasive plants from invading before it’s too late.

I titled this blog posting “Into the Wild” because moving here has really been a lifestyle change (and I’m currently reading that book by Jack Kerouac). The ground is still frozen here and our housing has no running water yet. Having to haul in water jugs a couple times a week for our water supply really makes me think about and appreciate those who lived off the land by the river and had to use it for their water supply. We have no wi-fi, no cable tv, and my cell phone doesn’t get reception in the remote area I am living in within the park. I am happy though, living a simple life in the woods is exactly what I wanted to experience. I have more time to read, write, do puzzles, and just think about life more with less busyness, distractions, daily advertisements and loud city noises.

The field season has not started here yet, unfortunately. It just snowed the past two days and there is more snow in the forecast for this weekend! So far, I have just been mounting specimens for the park’s herbarium and planning for the coming field season. I am hopeful that spring will come and sunny days are ahead!

Cheers,

Morgan, Wrangell-St. Elias Exotic Plant Management Team, NPS