Turkey Creek Restoration Weekend

Back in July we participated in a restoration planting weekend alongside members of the Sky Island Alliance and the Nature Conservancy at Turkey Creek and Cobra Ranch (in/near the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness). We stayed at a fantastic house on the Nature Conservancy Property. They had a sleeping porch and it was AWESOME!! The only thing that was not awesome was that I hadn’t put on bug spray the first night and in one hour of being outside around 6pm, I had gotten over 20 mosquito bites. That has been one constant in my life; if there are biting insects within a one mile radius of me, they will find me!! HAHA

Nature Conservancy Guest House – Our home for the Planting Weekend. It sure beat camping!!!

The sleeping Porch at the Nature Conservancy House. Loved sleeping “outdoors” but with the screens to keep the bugs out!!

At both our sites we were planting Giant Sacaton. It is traditionally found in flood plain ecosystems. In the areas we were working, past land uses had disrupted the flood plain cycle and taken the area towards a more river-channel model. So historically this area experienced rain events and the water would be caught up in vegetation, spread over a large area and stay for a relatively long time and soak into the ground. However, with roads being cut into the earth by ranchers in the area (who have not been in the area for 50+ years) and grazing taking away much of the vegetation that used to slow down the water, now when there are rain events the water flows into the channels formed by former roads and speeds off the landscape. This then allows fewer plants to grow, due to lack of water, as well as these roads/streams continue to be cut further into the earth and when rain comes it won’t spread across the landscape because it now has to crest a stream bank. It is in an effort to stop this cycle and restore a floodplain cycle that BLM and the Nature Conservancy are manually filling in old road channels and planting Giant Sacaton to try and slow down the water of new rain events.

Turkey Creek

The whole goal of the involved planting process is to allow the small plants the best opportunity to survive in this desert environment they are suddenly thrown into. Holes are dug and then filled halfway with water. This water is then allowed to soak into the ground. This provides the plant with a moist environment so that it isn’t immediately stressed out when it is planted.

Hole that is pre-watered and ready for planting!

Once the holes are pre-watered a glop [a very scientific term, I know] of DriWater is added to the bottom of the hole. DriWater is a gel that is about 97% water and the other 3% is cellulose and some other materials. Apparently how it works is that when it is placed in the ground the microbes in the soil will eat some of the cellulose and other materials and the chemical reaction that that produces will release water to the plant(?!?!). That’s at least the gist that I got from trying to research the product.

Sky Island Alliance Volunteer Alan holding DriWater

Then the plants are placed in the holes and the dirt is back filled into the hole.

Planted Giant Sacaton

Then the plants receive a layer of water on top in order to help settle the dirt around them and to once again give them the best chance to survive. Then a layer of mulch is added to help trap water as well as keep direct sun off the dirt surrounding the plant. The more water you can give to and the cooler you can keep plants in the desert, the better!

This is a field of our plantings. They have been top watered and are just waiting for mulch. Everywhere you see a yellow or black tube, there is at least one of our plants there! We planted about 5 times the area you see in this picture.

And no trip would be complete without some seemingly disastrous turn of events forcing biologists to be resourceful in order to save their project!!! To begin with the water trailer we brought with us was leaky down where the hose joins the tank and the motor. And the drive out to the Turkey Creek planting site was…rough?…undeveloped?….insane? Any of these would work. And when we drove up there we had to haul the large water trailer behind our truck. Needless to say there was always concern that something bad would happen. We made it through the first day of plantings at Turkey Creek, using as much water as we could, as quickly as we could, in order to get as much out of the tank before it all leaked out. The next morning however, on that INSANE drive out to Turkey Creek, we were about 0.1 miles from our site when we looked behind us and the ground was getting soaked. On the last big set of rocks the leaky hose had been completely ripped off the tank. Then a 20 minute ordeal ensued of trying to get all possible water into buckets, while trying to plug the hole with hands and find some way to get it so we could drive to our site and start using the water. Eventually a pair of leather work gloves were shoved into the pipe and we were able to limp up to our site. Then using some wire off of plant flags and some major ingenuity, the leaky hose was attached and we were once again in a race against the leak to use as much water as possible. It was a level of excitement that we weren’t expecting that morning! But we were still able to use a lot of the water and complete our plantings!

The Water Trailer of DOOM!!

During this weekend I saw some other awesome animals. I saw my first tarantula in the wild. While walking in the stream bed at Cobra Ranch we saw a turtle near the bank. It kept trying to climb the bank to get away from us, but the angle was too steep so then he would tumble over backwards! 🙁 After he did that twice we placed him on the top of the bank so he could get away and stop stressing out. Later that day we startled a rattlesnake and in its attempt to run away it fell off and tumbled down the side of a fairly large stream bank too. We were just an epidemic of scaring animals that day!

The planting weekend was a great experience. It was fun to work with and learn from a group of dedicated and impassioned people who come out on their weekends to help restore ecosystems!

Heather Paddock
Safford, AZ
BLM

Rainstorms and Restoration

Another month has passed working at the BLM office in Safford, AZ and it is hard to believe the summer is almost gone. I have extended my internship, and am thrilled that I have more time to be involved with all the interesting projects that my mentors are working on.

Our crew has been working on restoration projects a lot within the last month. Sands draw is a 480 acre wildlife exclosure in the Sam Simon Valley. This area has excluded grazing in recent years in an attempt to re-establish a native grassland. The San Simon Valley use to be almost entirely grassland, but in the late 1800’s was so over-grazed and degraded that cresote scrub-bush dominates now. The workn in this exclosure consists of digging holes, pre-watering the holes, planting native grass seedlings with a product called dry-water, rock and straw mulching the seedlings, and then top-watering the plants. It is a time consuming process, and the seedlings must be handled with care to ensure their success. Our BLM crew has worked in this area several times, and last week an American Conservation Experience crew traveled to the area to assist in this work as well. Having a larger number of workers in the area brought new challenges, but also allowd us to get a lot of seedlings in the ground. Due to the complexity of the process used to plant the grass seedlings, teaching a large group of mostly inexperienced workers took time. Once the group was up to speed on the procedure the work went smoothly.

 

The last day the crew was in the field with us, we went to another wildlife enclosure called Howards Well. This area has a large pool that is home to populations of Desert Pupfish and Gila Topminnow. The sedges and cattails that ground around the waters edge have begun to severely encroach on the water habitat. The plants have to be cut back in order to prevent too much sediment build up and complete loss of water habitat. The crew helped us to clear the pond of the sedges and cattails with hand saws. The work that the ACE crew assisted us with was very strenuous and challenging and they should be commended for their endurance.

I am continuing to prep for SOS scouting trips and collections. We will be doing our first SOS collection next week! Very exciting. I finished a study guide of all of our target species and rare plants to keep an eye out for, and in down time look over the guide to be ready for collecting season. I have also been introduced to GIS and am learning to transfer coordinates from my GPS unit to GIS. We will also be using GIS to look at soil maps in an attempt to find areas where certain plant populations may be likely. GIS is a daunting program with so much information to offer. I am excited to become more familiar with it and learn more ways in which it can assist me in my work.

Work in Bonita Creek to removal non-natives continues. It is a staple to our fieldwork and we don’t usually make it more then a couple weeks without visiting the stream. Its a lovely place to work though, and I enjoy knowing that it will be part of my schedule. However, at some point the non-native removal will be a complete success hopefully and the native populations will be able to thrive without our weekly intrusions.

An exciting meeting took place several weeks ago in which myself and five others met to discuss possible project ideas at Discovery park, Eastern Arizona Community College’s auxiliary campus. Jeff had the awesome idea that we should install a pollinator garden. The plans are in motion now, and the group that will be working on the project, myself included, is an interesting collaboration that will undoubtedly produce amazing results. Discovery park is expansive, and many other project ideas were discussed at the meeting as well. The potential in this park is really thrilling. The new greenhouse is up and running now and Alex Dragotakes, the greenhouse manager, has started seeding! The greenhouse grand opening is just around the corner, and I think the community is really in for a treat.

My days continue to be varied and fulfilling. I’ve already learned so much in my time here, and am very pleased with my growth in field biology, restoration, and conservation. I hope all the other interns are enjoying their experience as much as me 🙂

Stepping into the Sagebrush Steppe in Prineville BLM

The Shadow Collector

the mystery collector?

Stepping into the Sagebrush Steppe

My Conservation Land Management and Seeds of Success internship started out a bit abruptly. I went from just beginning to settle into a job at a local native plant propagation nursery when I heard about this fantastic opportunity to be a part of the Seeds for Success program and contribute to the International Seed repository at Kew Gardens in England. I jumped ship (actually with great support from the nursery) for this opportunity. With some quick response on my part (and fabulous support), I found myself (albeit a bit late in the season) here at Oregon’s Prineville BLM and contributing to not only Sage Grouse Restoration , but also the SOS program.
I missed the training in Chicago where I would have met Krissa and the Staff at Chicago Botanic Garden as well as the other CLM interns, but I have been following the blog entries to catch up and expose myself to what everyone else has been doing. Thanks for the Support Krissa and the help getting me on the payroll so quickly!
Coming into this program in the High Desert in mid-July meant that much of what is out in the Sagebrush steppe was decadent.” Necrobotany” so to speak! The high desert is full of color early and as the heat builds, so dies the vegetation… and that is in June. It’s a mad race now to find a live specimen for the herbarium and collect seeds before they all drop. I try to be in the field all 4 days a week.
My area for collection is huge and on the far end of the district. Like all the other interns, it seems, I make the long drive to the office only to pick up a rig and head back the other way to the field area for collection. At least I can do much of my scouting on good gravel roads to start and have not yet had to use a UTV (not having time to get certified on some of the other equipment has definitely reduced my options and encouraged me to hike and bike a lot more into potential collection sites). I don’t have a SOS team here in Prineville but I have been welcomed by field technicians as they head out to the field and they invite me along when they know of a good collection site for me. I get to benefit from their expertise and knowledge.

Castilleja chomosa ( red)


One of my first forays with my supervisor, Kristin Williams, was monitoring one of the special status populations of Calachortus longebarbatus (It was still there considering the pressure of gazing in the Big Summit Prairie area of the district),

Mariposa lily in Big Summit Prarie

calochortus longebarbatus

Luina serpentine ( did not find the populations) and assorted Castillejas . On the way I had some great views and a great population of Castilleja chromosa ( in yellow and red) and monarda fistulosa to contemplate.

Castilleja chromosa (yellow)

 

 

Heart of Oregon Crew picking eriogonum

For my bigger collections, I have been lucky to have the support of the Heart of Oregon Youth Corps (part of Americorps). While most of the crew admitted they did not to want to do this for a living, they good naturedly took direction and supported the effort. It’s much easier to collect 20,000 seeds in a day with 10 people than with one! Together we reached our 20,000 seeds for Carcocarpus ledifolius, Eriogonum saphaerocephalum, Tetradymia canescens, Kolleria cristata, and hopefully a few more.

The collection explosion

collections spilling out of my cubby

My cubby is starting to look like a fire hazard with bags of seeds spilling out into the walkway. Bend Seed Extractory here I come!

I have also had the wonderful opportunity to help with a few other areas of the BLM, from Bat Telemetry research to range management, recreation planning, wildlife monitoring and perhaps even archaeological research – all while scouting and collecting for my seeds.

Of course there are a few trials and tribulations in this bucolic setting of happy seed collecting in the High Desert: 5 bee stings; 2 fire ant bites ( I’m allergic); severe thunderstorms ( got in the rig in the nick of time) ; weak paper bags that rip and pour all those hard won seeds out onto the ground; the oops moment of realizing there is a second species that looks startlingly similar that just got dropped into your bag; cheat grass in the socks, shoe laces and pant legs ; GPS problems because the SOS maps are so large; camera glitches with the fabulous new camera with a macro lens! ( yes have to go back out and get those pics that did not get saved onto the SD card); and a few bumps and dings along the way.
All in all an excellent start to an excellent adventure.  Maybe I will make it to the Wall in the BLM herbarium someday?

Wall of infamy for SOS?

Robin Snyder
CLM/SOS Intern 2013
Prineville BLM, Oregon

How is it the end of August?!?

This last month has flown by once again. At the beginning of the month my Dad came to visit me and we took a road trip up to Northern Arizona. It was an amazing experience to see the Grand Canyon for the first time!

Beautiful Day at the Grand Canyon in Northern AZ

We have had 4 trips out to Bonita Creek for Green Sunfish Removal. It has been very interesting to see the stream change over the past 4 months. The site that we went to our very first day in Bonita was a large open expanse of water that we were able to walk through up to a few pools further upstream. When we visited that same site just last week the stream was almost entirely choked with tall plants and we couldn’t even walk through it. Nature is definitely not a constant thing!

Also, I SAW A COATI!!!!! Well, to be more exact I saw 6 coati, a mom and her 5 babies. We were driving into Bonita Creek and they scampered across the road and into the trees on the other side. I didn’t have my camera with me, and when I tried to get a picture on my phone you couldn’t see them in and amongst the trees. But I saw them and it makes me so happy! 🙂

I have also had the opportunity to get a GIS Tutorial, which is how to use a fancy mapping program (ArcGIS) to locate possible areas of interest based on preexisting water, vegetation and ownership maps (etc), without having to drive to every single site first. It will be very useful in selecting sites for Seeds of Success Collection. I also completed an online NEPA training which concerned the formation and structure of the National Environmental Policy Act. I think it is great to be able to take advantage of the resources available to me as a BLM intern and receive trainings like these. You never know when you will/can use some random information you learned!

This past week we had an American Conservation Experience Crew based out of Flagstaff come down and camp at Sands Draw for a full week. Sands Draw is a large livestock exclosure (keeps cows out) in the middle of the San Simon Valley. The crew planted and seeded native grasses and dug hundreds of planting holes for BLM to use in future planting efforts.

The plants are put in the ground, then have gravel placed around them (acts as a windblock, support and to catch more water), and then additionally have straw placed on top (keeps direct sunlight off to keep plants cooler and will eventually break down into a mulch).

The Crew’s last day in the field we switched over to working at a site called Howard’s Well. This was a large pool that houses native fish, but it becomes over-grown with sedges (cat-tail like plants). If this is allowed to go unchecked, then the sedges will completely choke the pond and it will dry up and all the native fish within it will die. So nine of us (the 6 crew members, then myself, Rosalee and Heidi) spent the whole day ripping and cutting the plants out of the pool. At the beginning we didn’t think we would get too far and hoped for getting half the pool done. But by the end of the day we had completely cleared the pool! That was definitely a great feeling of accomplishment.

Here is what the pond looked like at the begining of our day.

Here is what the pond looked like at the end of our day! Felt extremely accomplished to get everything cleared out!

The over-arching theme of this past month for me has been DATA ENTRY!! I have completed over 100 hours in the last month. I have been consolidating and cleaning up the data files for Heidi’s Green Sunfish removal from 2009, 2010, and 2011. I have also then been confirming all entered data against the physical data sheets. Needless to say this takes quite a bit of time, especially when some of the files are as messed up and confusing as these have been! However, I can’t complain too much. I am one of those strange people who likes to sit down and organize things, likes to sort and figure and get everything worked out. So though it is hard on the lower back to be crouched over a keyboard for 10 hours a day, I still enjoy it!

I am going home for a long vacation around Labor Day Weekend and I am very much looking forward to seeing my family! Once I return I am excited to knock out my last 3 weeks here in Safford. Then it’s back to California and on to other opportunities!

Heather Paddock
Safford, AZ
BLM

Invasives Debate

Here is a quote from an article I read this week:

“Conservationist should assess organisms on environmental impact rather than on whether they are natives…” June 9, 2011 Nature

I thought that this would make for an interesting conversation among the weed warriors in the group that have been pondering the management issue.

Personally, I am on the fence. It can take years to collect enough data to be able to say with any certainty that a species has a serious environmental impact. By then, the invasive may be well established and more difficult to eradicate. On the other hand, spending money to control a species that ultimately would have had no significant impact is a waste of limited land management resources.

Thoughts?

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds

The seed harvest continues here in the Medford District of Southern Oregon, and shows no sign of slowing yet. Our team has already surpassed the initial goal of 60 collections. With each collection being at least 20,000 seeds, that makes 1.2 million seeds so far! More than 100 collections for the year, seems entirely reasonable at this point. The nearby availability of a wide range of elevations, along with an abundance of high-moisture areas, certainly contributes to a sustained seed season in this part of the world. Here are a few of the habitats we have visited lately, along with some of their denizens.

Marsh in the southern Cascades

Cicuta douglasii with characteristic chambered root. Do not eat this plant!

Siskiyou Crest meadow ‘Where the sagebrush meets the stream’

Boykinia major and Aconitum columbianum

Senecio hydrophilus in Cascades vernal lake

Hemizonia congesta and Blepharipappus scaber, together in oak woodland. ‘Won’t get fooled again’

This Cascades fen is home to some fantastic flora…

such as Drosera rotundifolia

Mimulus primuloides, Ranunculus aquatilis, and Gentianopsis simplex

Enjoy the rest of summer, everyone!

 

The Awe-Inspiring Tales of a CLM Intern from Burns, Oregon!!!

Finishing Up Monitoring: Trout Creek Mountains

The time was 4:00am and everything was quiet at the Fields, Oregon Research Station. I stared up at the ceiling, reminiscing on all the good and bad times this field season in the Trout Creek Mountains have brought our group. Dan and I, with the help of the living legend known as Randy, have encountered many obstacles and experienced many great adventures in the last leg of our journey.

Flat tires, rugged terrain, rain storms, rattlesnakes, and those pesky red and black ants were no match to our enthusiasm of working in the field. If we encountered a bad event such as a rain storm or a flat tire, we would laugh it off and work together to get everything done. Dan and I would always motivate ourselves thinking what would the BLM Legends do in this situation? Usually Randy’s response would be an “Oh God…” while rolling his eyes. Seriously, we all had a tough time out here and you would have to have a very good sense of humor to cope with the harsh conditions.

Everyday we would pack to deal with hot weather. We would always do a series of checks to make sure everything was sturdy and not forgotten. (It would be a pain in the butt to travel forty-five miles to a trend site and then find out you forgot the rulers…<_<) Dan and I would take turns driving the UTV over many types of rugged terrain. I prefer to drive through shallow rivers, while Dan likes to drive through basaltic rock fields.

Our final day would be in the Maggie Creek Pasture, which would be located on the Oregon and Nevada border. I got up after fifteen minutes of reminiscing and prepared for the field day. We would drive through the darkness in the morning and follow our JUNO GPS device to the potential random sampling sites we would have to monitor. Once we got to an individual site, we would set up a three by three foot plot and record all the species of plants located within the small site. I would photograph the cardinal directions to help the ES&R monitoring report show that we were there and this was what the site looks like. The random sampling plots were established by an algorithm in the ArcGIS to help find areas to monitor plant species. If we found at least two perennial grasses and a forb, the site would be considered in good condition and was recovering from the previous fire. (Usually these random sites would be on a smooth slope under a 35 degree angle and away from water sources. Unfortunately, these sites would be surrounded by sharp cliffs or near running water.) Sometimes we would work up to twelve hours a day or more. (I am sorry Krissa and Wes! I swear I will use those comp hours. ^_^;;) After a hard day in the field, we returned to a nice low pressure shower and a good helping of ramen noodles. That evening there was a fire in our area and our field station was filled to the brim with rangeland firefighters! O_o We even witnessed a helicopter land in our backyard! Overall, Dan, Randy, and I would pack and prepare for tomorrow despite all the very cool distractions that happened at our field station that evening.

A helicopter landed behind our field station to refuel.

By the end of the monitoring season in the Trout Creek Mountains, we must have traveled close to three to four hundred miles of land on our UTV. We monitored close to twenty five trend sites and over ninety random sampling sites. We were covered with dust, but we would be always ready for future data entry. This last day, Dan and I treated ourselves to a BRB milkshake near the Fields Station before heading back to our BLM office.

We sort of miss the adventure and the excitement of the Trout Creek Mountains, but it is time to move on and finish our job. We had Desert Meadows, Lamb Ranch and the Miller Homestead Fires that we would have to monitor. After monitoring and data entry, we would start writing our ES & R reports.

This was a humorous comic based on our escapades in the field.

Lamb Ranch: The Brave and the Bold

Dan and I finished our last field monitoring experience at the Lamb Ranch site. Lamb Ranch was considered a small fire that occurred a couple of years ago. A lot of attention had been invested in this pasture due to one main reason…Medusahead (Bum BUM Baaaaaaaa). You thought cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) was bad, medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae) would be considered the kaiju of all invasive grasses in our area. This type of grass would spread rapidly and grow within a field. Overtime, this grass would form a dense mat of litter that would be considered fantastic fuel for fires. Other forbs and perennial grasses would have a difficult time growing with this sort of grass. In the past, land managers had to pull out the big guns by using Plateau, a form of herbicide that would be used to fight the medusahead. The treatment was considered successful in the past…but did it really eliminate the medusahead from the area??

We drove along the rough back country roads of the Stinkingwater Allotment. If you were to drive through this area, it would be considered a roller coaster ride…that goes five miles an hour. The severe bumps, sudden turns, and the occasional Great Pyrenees in the middle of the road made the ride seem very harsh. It is not for the faint of heart! You may be asking yourself, “Justin, why are you even going through this?” My answer would be, “Well…because it is my job!” 😉

We had two BLM Legends with us to help assess the landscape. Bill and Randy had previously been to this location and directed us to where we should establish the plot. I got out of the truck and landed on the ground with a crunch. I looked down to assess what I landed on and noticed the type of grass that was crushed….it was medusahead. I looked to my left and right to see any sort of forb, but all I saw was the invasive grass. I lifted my head and saw that a majority of the landscape was covered with a dense mat of medusahead. The areas that were heavily treated with Plateau had a large amount of crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) growing up. I sighed and looked to the other intern Dan, who was shaking his head with frustration. Bill told us the history of the pasture and how this area had many fires in the past. The medusahead quickly took over the majority of the crested wheatgrass seedings and created an upslope battle for the local land managers. We established our plot and began to monitor the area…

Dan and I never encountered so much medusahead and litter before, but we wanted accurate readings. We wanted to know if there were perennial forbs under the litter or if we got a direct hit on a special plant. We managed to find a few perennial forbs, but they were struggling. This trend site took me a very long time to monitor, because I would have to kneel on the ground and look past the medusahead for other forbs and grasses. This place could’ve had rattlesnakes as well buried within some of the rocky areas surrounded by medusahead, so we had to be on the lookout. Only the brave and the bold CLM interns were up to the challenge of monitoring this last trend site.

Overall, the site had a ridiculous amount of litter formed by medusahead from this year and previous years. There was Wyoming sagebrush (A. tridentata subsp. Wyomingensis), Lomatium spp., Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), crested bluebunch grass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), and Long Leaf Phlox (Phlox longifolia) present, but they were struggling. I saw a group of wild horses looking through the area for potential meals, but they did not look too happy… (Probably due to the fact that we were monitoring near their favorite juniper tree) I do have hope for this site. Even with the large amounts of medusahead, there were still good perennial plants trying to grow. If the land managers were to work together with the private land owners to get rid of the medusahead, the future would look bright. For now…the medusahead was here to stay…

Burns, Oregon is Burning!?
After a long day of traveling to John Day Fossil Beds, I fell over on my bed and prepared to look over some of the reports Dan and I were supposed to do next week. We finished all of the data entry, developed our ES & R folders, and completed all of our field work, which was an amazing feat to do. We had to incorporate all of our data into seven main reports. I fell asleep during my assessment of the reports and slept for two hours…^///^

When I woke up to continue to look at the report structure, I noticed something was very off about my room… I looked at the sunlight and it was a faded gold color. Usually around 5:00pm the sunlight was still bright. I walked into the kitchen to make an early dinner and I saw what was partially blocking the sunlight. On the hillside of Burns/Hines, Oregon, a large column of smoke was rising. A wildfire broke out!

A wildfire on the hill slope of Burns, Oregon… O_O

I saw many airplanes and helicopters assessing the area as the hillside was burning. I quickly traveled to Dan’s house to see if he knew what was going on. He contacted Randy and found out that someone accidently started the fire at the shooting range. The rumors were that the object that caused the fire could’ve been a small explosive ordinance or a magnesium tracer bullet (Well…you know the nature of rumors) . I traveled up the hillside far away from the fire to get a better vantage point. I zoomed onto the site with my camera and got some good pictures of the helicopters and aircraft above the area.

A helicopter picking up water at the local reservoir.

Since Burns, Oregon is considered a major dispatch for firefighters in our district, the fire did not last a chance. Many firefighters were on the scene and extinguished the fire. The fire burned for a couple of hours before it was smothered by water from the helicopters. Thankfully the fire did not spread down the slope to our town. The experience of seeing firefighters take care of this fire was something I will never forget. Even though this was a smaller wildfire, having one so close to town was crazy. At least we don’t have to worry about cheatgrass in the area for a while! ^_^;;

Misadventures

Bromus tectorum All Out Attacks: The Return of the Revenge

You probably heard of the annual plant known as Bromus tectorum: Cheatgrass. (Dramatic organ music momentarily playing in the background.) This grass has been a large problem for many interns and natural area managers. During a fire, this grass was a good source of fuel. This grass ignites when exposed to an extremely hot source such as a vehicle or a lightening bolt. If a fire was too severe, this grass would totally dominant the landscape the following year creating a monoculture of cheatgrass prone to more fires. The most irritating part about this grass were the seeds. Many times I would have to go through a field of cheatgrass. Eventually, my socks and shoes would be covered with seeds. These seeds could stick into your feet and ruin your socks.  The major issue was the transfer of seeds. I always had to clean the seeds off my shoes and socks, so they would not be transferred to a higher diversity site that did not have cheatgrass to begin with.

Thunderstorms All Over the Freakin’ Place!
Recently, there had been a large number of thunderstorms that entered the Burns, Oregon. These storms were very severe and caused numerous fires in our area. I noticed that there were two types of thunderstorms.

The first type of thunderstorm would be the slowly paced storm. Sometimes I would see a very menacing storm out in the field or at home, so I would quickly get all of my work done before the storm would hit. These storms would take forever to come. Instead of the five minute wait like in Chicago, the storm would take two hours to get to my present location. One time I was walking home and it started to rain out from the approaching thunderstorm. I walked quickly and found out the rain suddenly stopped. I turned around and saw the edge of the rainstorm slowly creep at me from down the street. I could actually out walk the storm and rain!

The other kind of storm would be the windstorm. This type of thunderstorm would produce very high winds and lightening. A couple of them rolled into town this year. They would produce duststorms with hail! So if you were caught in this storm…well run to a store or your car because getting dust in your eyes and getting hailed on would not be cool.

A typical dust hail storm traveling through Hines, Oregon.

John Day Fossil Beds and Blue Basin

I was about to go rock hounding in the Lakeview District, but after my previous flat tire incident while looking for sunstones made me nervous about the idea. While thinking the situation through, I decided to head northwards into the ponderosa pine forests of Oregon. When I was a kid, my parents took me to a place called John Day Fossil Beds, which was located an hour and a half away from Burns, Oregon. This place was amazing and helped me learn more about the Cenozoic Era when I was younger. I packed my lunch and left very early to go bird watching on my way to John Day Fossil Beds. Unfortunately, the white headed woodpecker still eludes me…

I finally got to John Day Fossil Beds. The topography and the rock formations were outstanding!!! After seeing almost four months of basalt, the sedimentary layers were welcoming to the eyes. There was a place near the visitor’s center called Blue Basin, where I took a small hike. This place looked very similar to Badlands National Park, but everything was a bluish-green color. Overtime, the deposited volcanic ash slowly turned into claystone. The blue color comes from the minerals that were leached into the claystone. With extensive erosion of the soft rock over a long period of time, the Blue Basin was formed. Blue Basin was an amazing site to see in terms of flora and rocks. There were many other locations in the national monument, but I had to return home. If you were into geologic time and enjoy taking pictures, John Day Fossil Beds and Blue Basin would be the place to go for an afternoon of adventure.

Blue Basin!!

Sponsored By: BRB: The Legendary BLM Milkshake of Choice

This CLM Blog is sponsored by the “BRB (Banana, Reese’s Cup, and Banana)” A BLM Legend’s Official Milkshake Flavor of Choice.

Greetings from Escalante, UT

Where oh where to start.  This month has been very packed with events.  To start with the reason why we are here, seeds.  We have been collecting quite a bit, many of which we have to do multiple collections due to the seeds ripening in waves.  This can be frustrating because it means we have to check on the same populations relatively often.  We went through a fun time with sending out our first batch of fleshy fruits.  Since we are in a “remote” location according to FedEx, we have to call ahead in order to have our over night package picked up.  But you can not call over a day ahead and when you do call a day ahead they can not guarantee they will come to pick up unless they have a driving coming to the area to deliver a package.  This we all find out the hard way but in the end the package was shipped.  We were frustrated to find out that a buckwheat we had been watching for awhile actually went past collectable.  It had never been collected before, we know why now, so it wasn’t the end of the world we missed it.  Other than that collecting has been uneventful.  We are waiting on a few species still that are taking their sweet time.

 

Other news not so much related to seeds.  We have been seeing a lot of wildlife, which has been awesome.  So far we have seen: mule deer, coyote, black bear, bobcat, scorpion and great horned owls.  Some other fun activities we have had the privilege of partaking in include banding hummingbirds, mist netting bats and aiding a paleontologist on dinosaur digs.  These have been great not only because they are really cool and an amazing opportunity to meet new people and learn new things but also because it really helps to break up the seed collecting.

 

Until next month.

Invasive Weeds & Native Seeds

Working on invasive weeds in Alaska has been really enjoyable as there is still hope in preventing the introduction of many threatning weeds to the state. Last week, I helped organize a public weed smackdown volunteer event. Community members and agency workers came together on a Saturday to pull a large patch of Melilotus alba (White Sweetclover) that is growing at a roadside construction site in Glennallen, Alaska. The entire road is being re-paved and a biking path is also going to be paved there. The purpose of the weed pull is to prevent further spread of the plant by the construction company doing the road work. This event was the first ever collabrative project between the Park service, the Copper Basin Cooperative Weed Management Area, and Wrangell Institute for Science and the Environment. We pulled over 200 lbs of weeds in a little over 5 hours. We are hoping to have this be an annual event in order to reduce the seed bank.

Weed Warriors: Copper Valley Weed Smackdown

Wrangell-St.Elias National Park is also trying to take a proactive approach to invasive weed management in Alaska. Last week I lead the first ever “Need for Seed” native public seed collection event in Kennicott, Alaska. The old copper mining site currently has many buildings under stabilization construction and many ground cover areas have been disturbed by machinery. The overall goal of this program is to create a native seed bank that the Park can use in re-vegetation projects after construction and also a seed bank avaliable for local residents. When re-planting within a National Park, it is required that the seed is collected within a 20 mile radius of where the seed will be planted, so we got to hike the trails in Kennicott and collect seed from the wild. A youth conservation corps group of volunteers came out for the week and I taugh them about plant propogation and general plant ecology. Some of the species of plants we collected seeds from were Lupinus arcticus, Geranium erianthum, Aster sibiricus, Delphinum, Polemonium acutiflorum, and Oxytropis campestris. Overall, I really enjoyed collecting seed and learning the several different stratification techiniques associated with different seeds in order for them to germinate and propogate properly. I am looking forward to more work like this in the future!

Lupinus arcticus seed at natural dispursal

 

 

Need for Seed collection volunteers

Morgan Gantz, Exotic Plant Management TeamWrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska

SOS and Searching for Rare Plants

Hello Curious Readers,

This month, Carrie and I have been working on our main two tasks, collecting seed to use for the re-vegetation of the Rush Fire and monitoring Special Status Plants (SSPs). We searched for the candidate species Webber’s ivesia, aka wire mousetail, Ivesia webberi, at a location near Vinton, Ca, where it had been seen in the ’90s. We unfortunately could not find it. We have stumbled upon a couple populations of Susanville penstemon,  P. sudans, while searching for other SSPs and collecting seeds. 

The endemic Susanville penstemon grows in some unlikely places, including this rock outcrop at an elevation of 6,000 ft.

Beautiful outcrop on a slope near Babbitt Peak.

We collected seeds from Mountain Mahogany, Cercocarpus ledifolius var. intermontanus, on Horse Mountain, and Great Basin Wildrye, Leymus cinereus, in Secret Valley and near Willow Creek.

See the corksrew shaped tail? When the wind blows on the seeds, it drives them into the soil. The hairs on the seeds are also very irritating–they feel like insulation.

Basin Wildrye, the large clumping grass in this picture, was growing mostly on the steep slopes of the valley wall, making collection a little challenging!

We’ve assisted in some other projects, too, which have proven to provide great field experience. Last week Carrie and I helped Valda, Amy, one of our rangeland managers, and Derek, our rangeland supervisor, in completing surveys of AIM plots. I practiced my line-point intercept, canopy gap, and soil characterization while getting to experience the Horse Lake area in the cool, gray early morning. During the last week of July, Carrie and I assisted Missi, our wildlife biologist, Valda, our ecologist, Marilla and Sharynn, our archaeologists, and Clif, our fuels specialist, with a survey of the Jeffrey pine forest near Cleghorn Reservoir. The forest needs to be thinned to allow for saplings to grow and to prevent overly-destructive fires. But before treatment can occur, the units have to be surveyed for sensitive plant and animal species and habitat, archaeological artifacts and other aspects that could be damaged from the machinery and process of cutting down the trees. Surveying required long days of constant walking, but it was fun to spend time in the vanilla-scented forest—most of our field office is high desert—and I learned a few things: how to identify black bear scat, the call of a nighthawk, what a young red tail hawk looks like, how uncomfortable water-bars are to drive over, and dozens of plants.

On top of look-out near north Eagle Lake.

Deb