This is my second field season here working for the State Botanist at the Colorado State Office.  Having the opportunity to continue working for the BLM has been fantastic. I was able to behold the beauty of spring and truly appreciate this ephemeral month. It’s just the beginning of July and its starting to feel like summer is here to stay. The poppies (Argemone sp.), columbines (Aquilegia sp.), and cacti are flowering. The bees and butterflies have dutifully taken on the task of flying to as many faraway places that their little wings can take them to pollinate whatever is in sight.

The past couple of months have been quite busy with monitoring Astragalus debequaeus, scouting new public parks and BLM lands, making collections, and planning future trips to monitor other rare, threatened, endangered, sensitive, or species of concern flora populations.

Finally, the new CLM interns in our office have started, Nathan and Katherine, which is very exciting. We have the great opportunity to check out a few of the many beautiful BLM sites here in Colorado and capture some scenic views that are true to the state welcoming sign “Colorful Colorado.” We have already started making some great collections and there are many others to be found. In the upcoming weeks, we will begin helping with environmental education trips with the State Office’s Fisheries Biologist, Jay Thompson.

Like all great CLM interns would say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” (So, here are 6,000 words)

Astragalus debequaeus monitoring trip in Silt, CO

Aquilegia coerulea

Thalictrum fendleri

Pediocactus simpsonii var. simpsonii

Frasera speciosa

North Sand Hills Dunes a few miles from the Colorado/ Wyoming boarder.

Happy Scouting!

Darnisha Coverson

Colorado State Office-BLM

Lakewood, CO

Thousands of acres set aflame! Gone are the pinyons, the junipers, and who is to blame?! The quail flee from their nests, their proud plumes singed with soot! So much smoke in the air- what nefarious deeds could be afoot?! Zeus himself has decreed our Pine Nuts to burn! The misery! The pain! To whom can we turn?! But wait! There- in the distance! What do I see? A Hot Shot coming to rescue me!

Since my return from Chicago, Dan (the other range intern) and I have been busy cranking out transects. Being in a fairly dry area, and at an elevation that ranges from 4,000 to 5,000 ft., we’ve honed our skills quite quickly to get as much of the grazing allotments done within the short growing season. “It’s all about teamwork,” is what you might hear just before we back each other up singing hits from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s on the way to the next allotment. We’ve also had the pleasure of a few jam sessions with the SOS interns, as we assist each other on our various projects. Nick and Kelly are awesome!

Things have been great! I’ve finally got desirable items in my apartment after loads of yard sale scouring and free item snatching. That affordable, non-air conditioned place is starting to feel like a home. I’ve never needed much, and I feel college, backpacking, and all my other hobbies (or shenanigans) have prepared me for a nomadic lifestyle. However, I do like cooking and lounging, so I’ll gather those “necessary” items for the time being.

My plans for the near future entail monitoring as long as the fields hold some color, hanging out with other employees, and hiking the Big Horn Mountains. Despite day hikes, I have yet to pull an overnight hike near one of the many peaks in that range. Although, I suppose my problem is a good one. Getting caught up in the frequent festivals and employee get-togethers are a welcomed treat from Buffalo and its inhabitants.

That’s all the news for now. Goodnight, Buffalo.

Here I am standing in front of one of our soil health study plots to test and see how cover crops affect the soil nutrient composition in areas used for crops like corn which is now being grown where the cover crop was at before.

So much has happened already in my first couple weeks at the the PMC as we call it here! I have never had an opportunity to work in an agricultural environment before, and this one is so interesting because we are working on growing native plants for all sorts of projects. So far, I have baled hay, learned about setting up and maintaining drip lines, setting up flood irrigation, moved pipes, helped set up a combine for harvesting, and cleaned more seeds then I have ever seen in my life, worked on a soil health study, monitored pollinator plots, learned native plant ID, pulled weeds and trained on all the safety needed around the farm! Its great to get my hands dirty and work outside in the Cali sun…well at least some time in the sun! It gets hot fast out here, and my first week was spent working outside in the longest heatwave anyone around here has seen in a while! It was 102-112 every day for about 12 days in a row! Hot Hot HOT!!! But we worked smart in the heat getting here early in the morning and getting the sweaty work out of the way before the really hot stuff set in for the day. It isn’t too bad in the shade or inside but its hard to keep yourself cool when its that hot. I was drinking at least a gallon of water a day to stay hydrated and productive. Thankfully I am working with a great team here who are super supportive and helped me through that rough weather.

This week is shaping up to be much cooler, only in the 90s for the highs. But the best part of the day is definitely later in the evening around 8pm when the Delta Breeze starts to blow in and cool everything down. From 90s or 100s during the day it will drop into the middle 50s or 60s over night! Its like living in the summer during the day and the spring or fall in the evening. The cool weather at night is so refreshing though, and makes for a good nights sleep after a long hot day working outside.

The family I am renting a room from is really cool as well. The one sister Nellie volunteers at the PMC and another guy, Matt, who is also staying there volunteers and they are both great and such hard workers. The days they come in to help we can get so much more done in the fields, especially since Matt is great at helping out with heavy lifting  and grew up on a farm. Yesterday, he and I were able to apply some of our newly acquired PMC knowledge to set up a flood system to water a newly set up vegetable garden which should help provide us with some great fresh veggies! I’m definitely getting into this farming business I guess! 🙂

This week looks like it will be another busy one especially with all the seed cleaning we need to get done. Our resident farmer, Dennis, just harvested another section of of fields so there is plenty to do! Plus, we have more of the seeds we grew for the National Park Service to clean and send out to them! I’m gonna be busy, that’s for SURE! But I’m having a great time and really am enjoying it so far! Looking forward to finding out what tomorrow will bring!

Until then,

TTFN, TaTaForNow!

Man, are we busy! Training is finally over, and field season is in full swing. We are working long hours most days to complete a long list of allotments due for monitoring, and it’s getting pretty hot up here in Wyoming. Given all that, I still wouldn’t trade my job for anything! I love coming to work every day, and the people here are awesome. I had some reservations about moving to a town as small as Buffalo, but I’m glad I took the plunge. It’s hard to get used to most of the stores closing before I get off work, but there are plenty of other things to do besides shopping. I still haven’t explored much of the Big Horn Mountains yet, but there are lots of trails and things close to town that are really neat. My new favorite haunt is the Clear Creek Brewery, which I would highly recommend to anyone passing through here.

It’s kind of sad that field season is almost over: it really flew by. However, I know that the indoor parts of range management are just as important as the outdoor parts, if not quite as much fun. Anyway, I hope all my fellow CBG interns are having as much fun as we are here in Buffalo! Stay safe in the field – you run into all kinds of crazy stuff, as I’m sure you all have figured out. One important lesson I’ve learned out there: you can never have too much water!

With this my first post I would like to thank the CLM Program, and its staff, at the Chicago Botanic Garden for this great opportunity of working with the BLM at the Surprise Field Office in Cedarville, CA. My first official work week of the internship started with the workshop at Chicago. At the workshop I had the chance to meet lots of fellow interns and of course the CLM staff (Krissa, Wes, and Matt) who throughout the week exposed to us the objective and purpose of the internship program. The training included vegetation monitoring and analyses techniques, plant ID practice, and navigation with compass and GPS units. Also, the Seeds of Success program was explained, and the protocol for species collection was reviewed to make sure it was followed for a successful collection this year.

Following the workshop week, I arrived at Cedarville in the Surprise Valley. The week started with a staff meeting where I was introduced to the people working in the different departments at the BLM office. The first day continued with driving, computer and first aid certifications and laying out the plan for some of the projects I will be working on.

So far, I have worked with the wildlife department improving sage grouse habitat by recognizing and assessing areas for potential thinning of juniper tree stands to open up the area for more suitable habitat. The removing of trees will also improve hydrology as more water yield from snow melt and rainfall is expected. Other work with the wildlife program has include installing game cameras in new water developments created for recently introduced big horn sheep.  I have also spent time scouting the resource area for seed collection sites, and so far I have made four collections, and am waiting for more native plants to seed out.

I hope to keep enjoying my job here and, of course, keep learning and applying new principles and techniques for conservation and land management.

Until now this is all.

Hector
2013 CLM Intern
BLM Surprise Field Office

So far, my adventure with the Conservation and Land Management internship has been exciting to say the least. After leaving the workshop at the Chicago Botanic Gardens Friday night, I only made it a few hours before totaling my car. Around 9:30pm I had an unfortunate encounter with a deer on interstate 88 near the border or Illinois and Iowa. Long story short, my car ended up 150+ feet from the side of the road and I was still 1300+ miles (over 20 driving hours) from my destination. With a lot of help from relatives, strangers, and my coworker Zack, I was able to make it to Escalante, Utah and in time for my first day.
The first week of work really revealed what my partner and I had gotten ourselves into, the position is driving intensive to say the least (something I didn’t take out of the interview). The Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument spans nearly 1.9 million acres and it’s our job to find important plant species to eventually make seed collections from. Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t mind having to drive so far each day, I really love the scenery; even when we’re driving through unbearably hot desert-like areas, I still find it beautiful. Sometimes the roads are pretty rough, we’re lucky to have such a large work truck otherwise I doubt we could make it. Sometimes the roads are paved, sometimes not, sometimes you’re on the edge of a mesa and the two-way road is barely more than one lane wide and you have a wall to your left and a sheer drop off to your right. I live for those roads, they’re exciting and terrifying all at once.
In terms of botanizing and plant identifying, the experience has been incredible. Back home in NY, this is part of what I do for fun, I know I’m not cool but I’m lucky to have nerdy friends that like the same thing. Often for me, the recreation and exercise of hiking is secondary to identifying plants, birds, fungi, etc. It’s great to be forced to do it for part of the job. Of course, identification is really as far as we take it for most species in the field, but when we get out of work, I get to studying the plants further, including associates, etymology and anything else I find interesting. I’ve really felt that pay off when I get back to work the next day. Knowing the Latin really helps you connect with the plants in an interesting way. A lot of the time the general and specific epithets are pretty descriptive if you know what they mean, and since I’ve never been to Utah before, I tend to learn what names mean before I actually get to see the plant in person. Finally seeing the plant and realizing why it’s named the way it is, really makes for a fascinating moment. Learning characteristics of plant families and having a good base knowledge in etymology is a great mechanism to identifying plants in the field you’ve never seen before, and it works no matter where you live.
I think this internship is a really great opportunity to study what you love in a place you’re not familiar with. It’s a rare opportunity, and I’ve been lucky enough to experience it twice. I went to school in New York, took an intensive field ecology course in the Florida Everglades during my last semester, and now I get to work across the country on the Colorado Plateau. Each experience so far has been so unique, but at least when I came home from the Everglades I was mysteriously a bit more knowledgeable about ecology in New York. I’m excited to see how 5 months here pays off back home, and I already feel like it will a great deal. I’m sure I won’t live in NY forever, but I know a broad range of experiences in different environments will pay off anywhere I end up.
To wrap up, I’d like to add that I don’t mind not having a car here in Escalante, sure it limits me to areas that are within biking distance but there’s so much to see right in and outside of town that I may have overlooked had I had a car here with me. I’ve had a great first month and am looking forward to what the next 4 will bring.

In the past week here in Carson, lightening and thunder storms have become more frequent. It looks like an average sunny day. Hot, no clouds, and birds singing. Without much warning, a storm can come in and be on top of you within minutes. Dark angry looking clouds appear. The wind picks up and the birds disappear. A little bit of rain is scattered throughout.  Then the lightening and thunder starts. Sounds exciting but when you have a metal clipboard in hand or are carrying a metal optical device, it is a different story. There was a range specialist in our office that once told us “when it rains, there will be fire!” This is from the high number of lightening strikes that will hit ground within one storm.

Our crew was out on an average day doing AIM transects. Birds were singing and the sun was blazing! Within half an hour the clouds, wind, and droplets of rain had arrived. We heard some thunder still at a distance and decided to head to the trucks. As we all piled in, the storm was straight overhead. Long streaks of lightening and huge claps of thunder. We waited for over an hour before the storm passed. During that time, a large storm chasing firefighter truck passed us to go to a vantage point to look for fires started by lightening. Luckily that storm did not start any fires nearby. If that had been the case it could have been a dangerous situation for us.

I have experienced thunder storms before, but never this intense. Usually I am already inside and watching the storm safe and sound. Here in Nevada, with a field job, these storms can be dangerous if actions are not taken immediately. It is an experience new to me and one that I will never forget.

It’s kind of crazy to think that in the past month of working out here in the desert, a field day in 107 degrees weather is really not that bad and is much more preferable than working out in 120 degrees of dry heat. My focus in life right now is to avoid heat stroke! Since coming back from the fabulous workshop in Chicago, Emily and I have teamed up with one of the wildlife biologists in our office to help assess riparian areas by running MIMs, assist with Yellow-billed Cuckoo surveys, and increase our skills in evaluating rangeland health and plant utilization. Unfortunately, I missed out on a wet/dry mapping event at the Agua Fria River due to being sick, which definitely increased my West Nile paranoia from my massive mosquito bites in Chicago! Although my health has gotten better, the drought in Arizona has not. It seems to be getting worse year after year and it has got me looking forward to the monsoon season.

We’ve got a crazy schedule planned out for the next 2 weeks trying to finish up our transects so that the rangeland health evaluations (RHE) can be written up on schedule! Since our mentor has been called out to help with the fires occurring in northern AZ, we want to be as up to date as possible for when he returns.

My thoughts go out to the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who lost their lives in the Yarnell Hill fire.

Hard to believe I’ve already finished the first half of my internship, but as I filled out my timesheet this week, I noticed that I had just hit the 440 hour mark. I guess time flies when you’re out in the field all the time! June and July are definitely crunch-time for our office, and the race is on to collect seed, monitor fire plots and characterize sage grouse nesting sites before everything with chlorophyll in it is turned into crispy, unidentifiable remnants. On the plus side, this means I’m out in some pretty cool places almost every day.

One of my favorites, oddly enough, is the Indian fire, a 13,000 acre burn in the hills just south of Mono Lake.  It must have been a dense shrubland at one point, but after the burn and without any plants to hold down the soil in the big winds off the lake, it has been turned into a sculpted dunsescape. The only trace of the shrubs, and even the fire, is in the ghostly, twisted stems of bitterbrush, charred by the blaze and smoothed by the wind-driven bits sand. However, even in this desolation, the plants have come back strong, with carpets of annual wildflowers, perennial grasses and even resprouts from fire-adapted shrubs. One of the annuals, Phacelia bicolor, is so thick in spots that from a distance entire hillside seem pink! Its pretty crazy to me that a seed weighing maybe 1/100 of a gram can turn into a sprawling plant the size of a plate in only a few months, and all in one of the driest years on record! Makes me feel better when my entire seed collection won’t even fill a sandwich bag.

Another fun little tidbit from the last few weeks was a Cicada hatch! I didn’t even know California had cicadas, but for a week or so the air was filled with the buzzing and clumsy flights of big orange bugs, doing whatever it is that cicadas do in their brief time above ground. I thought it was pretty cool, and I’m sure the birds and other insectivores were pretty happy as well! Anyhow, I’m looking forward to the second half of my internship, and even more so now that I have a fellow intern to work with!

Signing off,

Bridger