Non-native Invasive White sweetclover (Photo courtesy of J. McMillan, BLM)

Summer got a slow start this year. It was snowing and below freezing until 2 weeks ago…and last week it was 80 F and our leaves popped out overnight. So, needless to say, the invasive weeds that are the focus of my fieldwork have yet to grow. In the office, I have been busy filling the various training requirements of the federal government: first aid, cpr, aviation safety, ATV safety, Arc Map/Pad, Bear safety, defensive driving….to name a few!

My past experience with working for the federal government was with the National Park Service. The BLM has a much different feel. I like that it is a multiple use agency because resource managers are not as tightly constrained by parks and wilderness protections; such as with my project, which is managing invasive weeds along the Dalton Highway.

The Dalton Hwy is a rough, industrial road that begins 84 miles north of Fairbanks and ends 414 miles later in Deadhorse, the industrial camp at Prudhoe Bay. It provides a rare opportunity to traverse a remote, unpopulated part of Alaska. It has been estimated that invasive weeds such as bird vetch and white sweetclover have been advancing northward into previously uninfested habitats, most abundantly along the roadside. These plants are also finding their way into other areas by way of burned (disturbed) areas adjacent to the roadside and by river transport. Additional vectors include maintenance activities, commercial transport and tourist/resident populations. This summer I will be conducting inventories of all white sweetclover and monitoring known infestations of the other HIGH PRIORITY invasive weeds (priority is based on their invasiveness).

I am looking forward to getting out in the field and bringing back stories from the arctic far north of Alaska. Until then, I wish you all the best of experiences in your internships.

We started the week with an orientation and safety meeting. The members of our team included a few Fish and Wildlife employees, a couple private consultants, an ever-cheery volunteer, and ourselves (four CLM interns).  We were here to survey an endangered endemic plant. The largest population of this particular plant, however, happens to be adjacent to where planes take-off and land; which means we were surveying at the Klamath airport! The safety training was a solid morning and covered the meanings of taxiway and runway markings, safety zones and the theory behind them, and was happily interspersed with some good humor. Turns out this particular airport had more than one lost car inadvertently take a wrong turn and end up driving down the runway. Thus adequately briefed, and with hearing protection in hand, we commenced our week of airport surveys for the protected Austragalus applegatei.

Because of impending developments (specifically, a new runway), our surveys aimed to find and accurately map all individuals in previously-identified occupied areas. Our basic method was to walk arms-length apart up and down fields until we encountered plants, then flag each individual in the area (A. applegatei is found in clusters), and continue searching while a GPS team mapped polygons around the cluster. Simple, right? There were a few extenuating circumstances; perpetual wind, rain and even hail, airport escorts, limited time in safety areas, lack of any cover for female surveyors (goodbye modesty, hello air traffic control!), airforce jets taking off and landing right next to us, and coordinating a large group of people from multiple agencies.

One of the best aspects of biological surveys is that same joy as a kid on Easter morning when you wake up to a treasure hunt for coloured eggs, or the thrill in playing pirate and hunting for hidden gold. I used to build my own treasure hunts and try to make my sister follow them (well, maybe I’m a little unusual, because she got bored pretty fast). Walking through the field, flags in hand, there was always a little “hooray!” when one of us found a plant and dutifully planted a flag. We counted over 11,000 plants in those 5 days, and by day 2 the image of A. applegatei was burned in each of our minds. I was afraid to blink too long for fear of missing seeing the little plant. But even after such long days, I still had a little satisfaction with each plant counted. It feels somewhat more significant finding endangered species, versus eggs and chocolate. We also found a pygmy horned lizard, and saw many of the beautiful Melissa’s butterfly that feeds on A. applegatei.

Cheers,
Caitlin Chew
USFWS Klamath Falls

I just started my internship working with WYNDD, the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database at the University of Wyoming in Laramie with Dr. Lusha Tronstad, lead invertebrate zoologist, and Dr. Michael Dillon, Assistant Professor in Zoology and Physiology.  I am helping graduate student, Sarah DePaolo on a very exciting project in cooperation with the BLM.

Wyoming is very windy.  I have already experienced many excessively windy days since arriving here two weeks ago — and I’m coming from Chicago, another place known for its wind.  Because Wyoming has high plains with ridges ideal for turbine development as well as lots of publicly owned land, it is slated to house the largest wind farm in the US.  Sierra Madre and Chokecherry, the sites we sampled last week and this week, respectively, is the location for this mega wind farm.  It’s currently wide open and gorgeous — not a power line in sight!

Sierra Madre

Wind farming has been touted as clean, renewable energy.  Unfortunately, the turbines are killing wildlife.  Many studies have documented the toll wind turbines take on bird and bat populations; however, little work has been done to assess the effect of wind turbines on insect populations.  It’s well known that insects accumulate on the blades of wind turbines, cutting the efficiency of the turbines by up to half and requiring that the blades be cleaned regularly.  The commonly used colors for the turbines, white and light gray, are insect attractants.  Migratory insects will have to pass through the wind farms to reach cruising altitudes.  Some flies mate at the ridges and hilltops where turbines will be located.

For this project, nicknamed Windy Bugs, we are sampling insect abundance and diversity in plots on rims, mid-slopes, and valleys in proposed wind farm sites and adjacent control sites.  We are setting out bee cups and vane traps at three times during the summer for 288 plots in four sites.  We are also recording the floral resources available to insects at each plot.  This data will be collected next year as well, after the wind farms are up and running to measure the effects of wind farms on insects.

Adrienne Pilmanis, BLM botanist, with a vane trap/bee cups combo

We collect the insects after twenty-four hours.  We have caught quite a variety of bees, wasps, moths, beetles, and more.  Common bees include Anthophora, Melissodes, and Agapostemon.  Since we’ve been going out for about four days in the field, we have had time to pin some of the insects right away.  I’ll post on that later.

(L-R) Aaron Strube, research assistant; Joy Handley, WYNDD botanist; Sarah DePaolo, UWyo graduate student; Sadie Todd, CLM intern

The plant life here is adorable — lots of little mat plants like Astragalus as well as some showier blooms, like bitterroot and lupine, and of course Erigeron and other smaller asters.  The Opuntia are budding and I can’t wait for those!

A pronghorn skeleton laying among the Erigeron

We have seen tons of wildlife in the field!  Besides insects, we’ve seen a great horned owl, horned toads, mule deer, pronghorn, and three rattlesnakes in the last three days!  It’s wonderful to see so much life.

Rattlesnake!

Hey curious readers!

You’ve probably heard a lot from interns who’ve been out in the field, so now it’s time to get the low-down from an  intern fresh to the program. This week was the CLM workshop held at the gorgeous Chicago Botanic Garden. There were about 50 of us in attendance, and only a handful have yet to start our exiting adventures at our respective field stations. My fellow intern at the Eagle Lake Field Office and I will head out west to Susanville, CA. next week to begin our work helping the BLM with a number of tasks. Meeting so many interns who’ve been out in the field for some time already was great. I got some clues as to what to expect from my job and future home, and I am more eager than ever to get started.

The workshop was a wonderful experience. I’ll give you a quick summary of our activities:

• Monday: Introductions to the CLM Internship Program and federal jobs, an overview of the Endangered Species Act, and a fun activity on field navigation using a compass and GPS
• Tuesday: Monitoring and Inventory Methods and Great Basin Ethnobotany
• Wednesday: Flora of the West
• Thursday: Seeds of Success Training (and a tasty BBQ at the Garden!)
• Friday: Career and grad school advice, Conservation Genetics, Field Hazards, and some more on field navigation

These sessions were taught by an experienced and wonderful group of professionals from both CBG and federal agencies and were jam-packed with great information. I’m honored to have the opportunity to learn so much from such knowledgeable people. The interns came from all over the US, are interesting, enthusiastic and a lot of fun to be around. Some of us are already planning a 4th of July trip to the Tetons! I’m shocked this week is already over. Before I know it, I’ll be writing a post about my first month in Eagle Lake!

Until then, I’ll leave you with a picture of the Chicago Botanic Garden:

http://botanic-gardens.findthebest.com/

Deb

After two weeks in Carson City, NV I have experienced camping with the crew, HAF transects (a form of vegetation-based range monitoring), seed collection, and I’m getting to know Jepson (Key to higher plants of California) pretty well. My fellow interns have been welcoming and extremely helpful, and camping with them has been a delight! The days have been hot, as expected, and the nights have been refreshingly cool. I have already visited a variety of sites, from desert/sagebrush to subalpine, and have enjoyed each site in it’s own way.

I would have to say that seed collection has been my favorite activity so far. I put my headphones in and could spend the whole day collecting Achnatherum speciosum seeds (wonderful little feathery seeds!). Wandering throughout the sagebrush with various lizards sunning themselves and the occasional jack-rabbit, accompanied by the constant drone of cicadas, it is easy to forget that it is work (although the heat is an ever-present reminder).

I am happy to be learning plenty of new plants and excited for whatever experience is coming next!

The second month has brought the transition from rare plant monitoring to seeds of success (SOS).  We’ve added Penstemon grahamii to our list of rare species we’ve monitored, but other than that we have spent the majority of our time locating populations for SOS and doing all the background work for collections.  So far we’ve scouted out 10 or 11 populations from which we’ve collected herbarium samples and filled out the data sheets on.  However, this week we spent our time at the CBG Workshop and we’re rethinking some of our collection sites, based on the information we learned here.

Even though we’ve been working for 2 months, getting to go to the CBG Workshop has been an amazing experience.  I’ve met a lot of the other interns and got to hear about their experience in different areas of the US and got to hear about some of the different foci of the internships, although most are SOS.  I thought my co-worker and I would be the minority here, having already started, and that most of the other interns would be just starting, but it turns out there are only a handful of people that are starting this week; most have worked 1 or 2 months already.  The most helpful thing from the workshop was learning about SOS.  We found out some of the best collection methods, how to make certain our collection will have over 10,000 seeds, how to use a Munsell soil chart, and the drying and shipping process.  After the workshop, I’m going to feel a lot more confident going back to Vernal and making collections.

Right before we left for the workshop we checked out all of our seed collection populations to start making collections.  However, most of our populations were not at natural dispersal stage, so when we get back this coming week we’re going to have a lot of catching up to do.  Aside from that we also have a lot of commitments in the month of June.  We plan on doing a week long survey with SWCA to monitor Sclerocactus wetlandicus, we’re going to teach kids about plants at a workshop, and we’re getting taken around the Pariette Wetlands one day to prepare for the workshop.  Hopefully we’ll be able to keep up with everything!

Here is a picture of some of the CLM interns at the Workshop as well as the Penstemon we surveyed for.

The past two weeks have been packed full of many training sessions to prepare me for the rigorous field season that lies ahead. I have had Alaska regional Exotic Plant Management Team training in Anchorage, First Aid/CPR, bear safety, B3 aviation safety, ATV training and I this week I am at the Chicago Botanic Garden for a week of training as well.

ATV Training!

I am originally from Wisconsin, so it feels good to be close to home in the midwest again, and take a short break from Alaska for a week. I have been learning so many things to help me on the job once I return. My favorite part so far is the botany practice we are doing here at the Gardens, there are SO many interesting plants to observe and key out! I have also been enjoying networking with other CLM interns and staff at the Garden. I have been thinking of graduate school and other options to pursue next in my career and having the opportunity to talk to other people my age in the same field has really helped with some of the decision making process I am going through. Tomorrow is our last day of training here at the Garden and I am looking forward to Krissa and Wes giving us advice for admittance into graduate school and the steps we may take in our career after this internship. I am also looking forward to getting back to Alaska and starting field work!

-Morgan Gantz, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

My CLM internship with the San Bernardino National Forest in Big Bear, CA came to a close last Friday; ending as quickly as it began. Although I felt conflicted in deciding if I wanted to continue working for the Forest Service or if I wanted to move on, I know now that I made the right decision to move north to be closer to my family in Central California. That being said, I have nothing but fond memories of my year in Big Bear. It was definitely an adjustment moving from a college environment to a semi-remote area, living alone and oftentimes working alone. But quickly the staff I had the pleasure of meeting and working with became close friends, mentors, and a true community. They have made it clear that I am always welcome back, and for that I will be forever grateful.

In reflection on my time as a CLM intern, I find it hard to articulate how phenomenal of an experience it truly was. The experience I gained was so diverse and has set me up perfectly for the jobs for which I am now applying. Because of my CLM experience, I know I am a competitive candidate for most any natural resource position and feel confident in my ability to land a job in the next few months.

For those of you who have not read my past blog posts, I started as a CLM intern working for the Mountaintop district botanist (my mentor). My main responsibilities were conducting threatened, endangered, and sensitive plant surveys, entering the corresponding element occurrence data in the national Forest Service geodatabase, and making a wildflower identification book for the visitor’s center. In November, I was fortunate to be extended and although I kept the same mentor, I was mainly working for the ecological restoration program. My duties in this position were very eclectic and ranged from leading work crews and volunteers on restoration projects, creating/co-managing the ecological restoration monitoring geodatabase, drafting grant proposals and reports, and standard native plant nursery upkeep tasks. Needless to say, there are many skills that I am taking away with me that I would otherwise not have had.

Skill #1: how to record good data. I had the luck of entering past employee’ data early in the season and realized that a lot of times when multiple forms are being filled out for the same area, not every field is marked. It feels redundant to do this while at a field site because all of the information is the same. However, back in the office, after the forms have been moved and shuffled and the data recorders have moved on, the forms lack the necessary information to enter in the database. My frustration with this made me meticulous in the field, which certainly paid off when I had to enter my own data from the field season.

Skill #2: field management of crews. My supervisors allowed me to explore my managerial capabilities by trusting me in leading volunteer groups and various collaborative work crews. I now know that I am an effective leader in the field and have realized that the challenge makes me thrive.

Skill #3: GIS skillz. When I entered this position, I don’t think I could even perform basic editing tasks in ArcGIS. Many of the GIS skills I gained were through trial and error, but most came from tutorials from a phenomenal co-worker who showed me how to create and effectively manage a large geo-database. I quickly became well-versed in ArcMap, ArcCatalog, ArcPad use, making user guides for future use, and performing data check-in and check-outs for Trimble field units on a regular basis.

Skill #4: grant writing. I love to write and have always known that grant writing will play a role in my future. So, I was thrilled when my restoration program boss approached me about helping her with a couple of grant proposals and reports. I felt lucky that as a mere intern I was instrumental in obtaining $800,000 in grant money.

The above four skills are only a few of the many that I am taking with me from this position but I view them as the most marketable ones, and the ones of which I am most proud. As a next step, I plan to explore public land management, but in the private sector. I also aim to focus on exposing youth to the environment around them to instill a sense of pride, belonging, and stewardship.

I humbly thank everyone who played a part in making this internship possible for me; especially my advisor in college who told me about the program, my mentor for seeing my potential, the staff on the San Bernardino, and Krissa and the crew back at CBG. Thank you!

Cheers,

Lizzy Eichorn

Oh, and one of the coolest things I saw in my last month of my internship was a larva of the yucca moth responsible for pollinating Joshua Trees! SO cool!!!!

So far we’ve been carrying out our usual outings into the desert trying to find certain key areas that had not been checked on in decades. However, the new fun thing I was able to experience for the first time was to ride in a UTV! I even drove it down some bendy roads so I did not even mind my eyes watering and my hair blowing like crazy in the wind. I was also able to build MIM frames today for one of our office’s wildlife biologists and even signed on to create a device to attach to the sitting water tanks that would allow for an efficient drip irrigation system. I’m looking forward to completing these projects but, in the meantime, am completely excited to meet all the other interns and gaining some new knowledge at the workshop! See you guys soon!

The Bishop field office for the BLM covers a lot of ground, from  Owens Lake in the South all the way to the Nevada border near Bridgeport. Three-quarters of a million acres of habitats ranging from true desert to sagebrush steppe, alkali flats, wetlands and windswept mountains. While tracking down sage grouse nests and populations of seed-bearing plants I’ve come to appreciate all that our region has to offer, but my favorite habitat at the moment has to be low-sage scrub. Artemisia arbuscula is not a particularly showy plant, its grey-green limbs barely rising above the baked clay soils it prefers. Male sage-grouse prefer it for their leks, since females can watch them prance about unobstructed.  The reason I like low sagebrush however, is that our small islands of A. arbuscula seem to contain the vast majority of flowers in our field office. Even in this especially dry year, hardy perennials like Biterroot and Crepis species are turning the barren expanses of clay bright shades of yellow and magenta with their blossoms. Coincidentally, these are some of the same species that I need to collect seed from, so I get to soak in the display as I look for mature seedheads.

On that note, 10,000 seeds is a lot of seeds! I recently finished my first collection, the not-as-showy but still lovable Lomatium nevadense. Even with 20-100 seeds per plant, it still took a lot of searching with my head down to pick enough for a collection. Worth it though, since according to our wildlife biologist L. nevadense is a favorite snack for the sage grouse.  I know that if I spent my mornings jumping to and fro with huge yellow sacks on my chest, I would want a snack as well so I’m glad that we now have this seed to potentially use for revegetation efforts.