Despite the government shutdown, the past four weeks have been filled with some interest. During a full week, the entire computer system was down due to the Colorado flooding. No email, no shared drive, no files (a lot less than what a number of people experienced). It was time for the office to get creative. As a group, the four of us interns received some fuels duties from the office fire ecologist which involved split team mapping of soon-to-be-burnt slash piles and assessing previously burnt ones. The assessment of burnt piles was basically supplying photo points and native/invasive regeneration documentation. The soon-to-be-burnt pile mapping was quite literally that… mapping piles of slash. While it may not seem that important, this practice actually helps the fire crews find and burn every pile during the heavy snows in winter so their resources are spent more accurately and wisely. This was somewhat monotonous, but what a wonderful break from the office. I’ll take a paid high elevation woodland hike any day!

Around the same area, we had a small amount of trail maintenance going on. Three of us on that day kicked that trail’s butt. Albeit short for a trail, it held some gorgeous views and perfect weather. Lunch on a shaded rock with some cool people and more high elevation hiking… yes please!

Having the chance to receive saw training (“chainsaw” if you’re a newb like me), I jumped on that as fast as I could. The classroom part of training held at a nearby field office supplied the chance to meet some other BLMers and get some absolutely incredible Mexican fast food for lunch. Did you say, “what the what!?” Me too. Authentic Mexican as fast food? Unbelievable. That stuff was awesome! One plate being enough to feed two, it kept my appetite at bay for quite some time afterwards. My eyes are open to a new world of possibility. It’s probably for the best that this place is a long drive from Buffalo. I’d be broke, heavy, and happy. Then again, maybe that’s the purpose of life. Later on in the week, us trainees went out with our awesome office fire crew for the field part of training. I felt great on how my cuts and felling (dropping) went. The trees landed right where I predicted they would. Limbing (bucking) was a fun chore, but my gosh do those saws get heavy. Assessing rangeland all summer can make one’s arms soft. As a side note for the hyper-concerned about cutting trees, they were near a major road, close to town, and adjoined a larger stretch of forest. The cutting of smaller trees serves as a fire break so the larger trees don’t catch, destroying the whole forest and local buildings causing more harm.

While on furlough, I’ve been looking for other jobs for when this awesome one ends – Harder than it seems. I’ve also been hanging out with my fellow interns – Always a blast. And I’ve been exposing myself to educational documentaries of every kind – The more you know.

Any-who, it’s been an interesting ride lately. What else does the world have to offer?

Greetings from Wyoming!

We don’t mess around here in Laramie—October 4 marked our first snow, and it was not just a little flurry. It’s hard to say how many inches it was, because the wind whipped it away so fast. In the front yard there were four inches, while the back had drifts a foot deep. But it really is still Autumn, and it was practically gone the next day. The field season is rapidly coming to a close. But what a summer it’s been!

Although I’m doing Seeds Of Success work, part of this learning experience at the University of Wyoming is getting the insider’s perspective on graduate school. Much of the excess seed we collect will come back here to be used for research, and I have enjoyed getting to know the students in the lab and being able to help them with their projects. Because of being here, I have a much clearer idea of what higher education means for me and what I want from a program. These internships are designed to help people make contacts and get the kinds of experiences that will be valuable down the road, and that has definitely been true for me.

Currently waiting for the government to reopen, and I am chomping at the bit to get back out there and start bringing in the sage!

Cheers,
Abby D.

My name is Eric Livermore and I am currently an intern at the Boise Regional Seed Warehouse (BRSW) in Boise, Idaho. The warehouse supplies seed to government entities for fire rehab, stabilization, and other projects throughout the Western United States. The process of supplying seed is much more than just shipping seed. The warehouse stores more than 800,000 lbs of seed, and just over 35,000 lbs of that is sagebrush that is stored in a cooler between 30 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Proper storage of this seed is very important for preserving its viability and cleanliness, and ensures that the purchase and shipment of seed will be a simple procedure. The BRSW also mixes seed specific to a purchaser’s request. Seed mixes range from a couple pounds to a couple thousand pounds of different types of seed. No matter the situation, seed is usually used for drill seeding and dozer lines to aid in rehabilitation and, in some cases, future fire suppression.

Since I started my internship, I have worked in the office helping with seed requests, creating pick lists for selecting the seed to ship, and setting up shipments. Due to a heavy fire season, there has been a heavy workload to deal with. Among other things, there is a new regional warehouse opening in Ely, NV. I was very fortunate to be able to take a week to go down to Nevada and assist with the seed deliveries. That training gave me a very good idea of what it would be like to be a warehouse manager. During that training, I communicated with over 15 private vendors that sell seed to the BRSW, set up the layout in the warehouse for seed storage, and inventoried all seed that was delivered. It was quite the experience.

Other tasks that I have been assigned include calculating total amounts of cheatgrass that existed in each lot of seed from the largest seed buy of fiscal year 2012, creating spreadsheets analyzing peak operational efficiency in the warehouse, and creating an informational seed booklet for use throughout the BLM. Tracking historical seed prices and figuring out how many seeds have been purchased since 2011 are among other things I will be working on as well. Unfortunately, the shutdown did affect the schedule of completing my to-do list. However, I am confident that due dates will be flexible due to my inability to change the actions of others.

It is obvious that I will be busy in the coming weeks, but I am fortunate enough to pick and choose what tasks I accomplish as long as they are completed by their due dates, and in a reasonable amount of time.

Boise Regional Seed Warehouse

Bureau of Land Management

In late September I had the opportunity to participate in a partnership event put on by the BLM, City of Eugene, and Willamette Resources & Educational Network. This event invited volunteers from the community to help in a restoration project; at the site I was working at, this meant helping to restore a path from the damage and overgrown vegetation it had acquired over the dry summer.

We had a fairly decent turn-out considering that the weather report called for rains and high winds. The volunteers worked hard, and it was nice to see community members passionate about restoration and their environment. We were able to get the path into top-notch shape and everyone was able to leave with a sense of accomplishment.

I’m looking forward to more adventures to come!

Till next time!

Hello all!

It seems like ages since my last post on this blog. I see everyone is still very busy in their internships, those of us who haven’t already completed theirs anyway. Things are still rolling fairly smoothly here in Buffalo, WY as well. Our field monitoring season has ended some time ago, and now we are in a different sort of work entirely. I miss our old task of driving to the middle of nowhere to lay down a transect and collect some hard data, but our new tasks are every bit as interesting, if not more so.

A little while ago, we got to help out with a high school biology field trip by teaching the kids about various topics in ecology. It was a whirlwind of activity, but it was a lot of fun! My station involved drawing a tree stump using materials found in the forest, and then writing a poem about the stump to share with the group. There were lots of groans (“Poetry?! Ugh!”), but I think the kids secretly enjoyed their little creative task. We have also been involved in some burn pile monitoring, which involved wandering around the forest to locate isolated piles of slash and marking it with a GPS point so that it gets burned. That was a great couple of days, and we even found some unexpected scenery to enjoy! Perhaps my favorite task recently was to help re-blaze a BLM trail in the Bighorn Mountains called Poison Creek. The trail was beautiful, and it felt good to be helping with a public service to make the trail more enjoyable for everyone. This internship keeps getting better, and I sorta wish it would never end! Alas, it will be over soon, but that is for a later blog. Until then.

Daniel

Hello everyone,

Since last month we have made good progress on the ESR monitoring on the Lost Fire burned pastures. After completing the data collection on the grazing allotments, the data was analyzed and the decision was made that grazing is not yet recommended.
After completing the Lost Fire monitoring project we moved on to collect post-treatment data on fuel reduction (Juniper tree cuts) projects that were completed last year. We decided to adopt the same monitoring protocol that we used for ESR since we were familiar with it and the data could also be used for grazing and management decisions.

With two more collections made we have also scouted possible populations for various sage-brush species collections. Hopefully there is still some time left after the government shutdown is over. Time also has been spent entering data in the SOS database, which includes plotting population points on a GIS database for future reference.

A fun experience we had was a day when large numbers of dead geese were reported on a dry lake bed. So we went out on a UTV which is the only fast way to get there and did the survey for birds (which in the end the result wasn’t nearly as big as they had reported). Close to being done, we sunk in a mud pit and the UTV got stuck. After trying our best to get it out by digging and adding rocks etc. etc., our attempt failed, so we radioed the office to send help and ended up waiting there for three hours before we could head back home.

One of the last projects I will be working on is part of the restoration of burned areas, which consists of seeding and planting seedlings of native plant species to return wildlife habitat and grazing lands to a stable site. So far we have gone out and verified the soil characteristics of the possible planting sites to plant bitterbrush and sagebrush seedlings that were grown in the local high school greenhouse.

Hopefully we can get back to work on our projects real soon!

Until next time,

Hector
2013 CLM Intern
BLM Surprise Field Office

Hello all,

Hard to believe it’s almost the end of September. (I know, I know – how characteristic of me to start with an exclamation of wonder about how fast time passes, really novel). Thinking back on the month’s activities nothing really stands out- but I believe this is because I’ve become quite comfortable with my pleasant routine.
Eli and I have accomplished quite a bit this month- we have met our 25 collections goal (crowd cheers!) and continue to monitor numerous plant populations. I can also confidently say that we are New Mexico driving experts and have logged over 10,000 miles in our quest for botany greatness. A number of these miles have been on hideous roads that don’t deserve to be called roads – they seem more like ancient wagon trails or rocky-slopes-with-negligible-vegetation-masquerading-as-roads. I think my 4-wheel drive experiences have encouraged me to be more liberal in driving my own little Honda sedan, Sparkle Stallion. Driving to work one morning, Sparkle Stallion forded multiple streams crossing our road and navigated a section that had actually become the stream channel! Sparkle Stallion performed wonderfully! (No one tell my parents).
In other news, there is an upcoming event that’s stirring up quite a bit of excitement at the BLM- the potential government shutdown!  It’s interesting to be on the side directly affected; I know that a lot of beneficial and important services will be suspended and people relying on the BLM will be negatively affected. I can only hope that all will be resolved soon! (A girl can dream).
In other (positive) news, my ascension to ultimate plant nerd-dom continues! (Cue my college friends groaning in unison). My keying skills have drastically improved, I can rattle off the Latin names of native plants at lightning speed, and I’ve begun pressing flowers for my own personal collection. All in all, I’m pretty stoked with the direction my life is currently taking.
That’s the update for this month- I will leave you all with some poetry. This piece was inspired by the thousands of insects I’ve slaughtered while driving around New Mexico. Buggies, this is dedicated to you.

SMEAR

PING PING PING
Fighting with my windshield
Losing
PING PING
75 mph impact
Gelatinous streak
PING
Yellow, orange, green
Rainbow of insect innards
PING
Not quite dead
Fishing them out of the fender with a stick
Mangled exoskeletons
Squishy squishy
Inglorious death
PING

-Kate Wilkins

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the end of September. Time flies out here. It seems like I just started this internship. But what a wonderful experience I’ve been having. I’ve learned so much in the months since I’ve been here. Seed collecting, monitoring Special Status Plants, BLM’s AIM protocol for monitoring, map making using GIS, and countless others along with meeting really great people. The weather in the Eagle Lake Field Office is starting to get colder and the field work is starting to slow down. Now, begins the finishing of office projects which we (Deb and I) want to get done before this internship ends.

In the past few months we have been doing a lot of monitoring of Special Status Plant populations and collecting seed as part of the Seeds of Success program. We’ve spent a lot of time recently in the Sierra Valley which is the southern part of the field office. It’s such a beautiful valley we didn’t have a problem spending several days monitoring there. The plant populations we were looking for were Ivesia aperta var. aperta (Sierra Valley Ivesia), Astragalus pulsiferae var. pulsiferae (Ames’ Milkvetch), and also found Penstemon sudans (Susanville Penstemon).

Most recently we’ve been collecting a lot of native seed which will be used for helping the part of the field office which was affected by the Rush Fire last year. Valda, our supervisor and the ecologist, has sent us to find and collect Great Basin Wildrye and Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany. There is a great Mt. Mahogany stand on the top of Fredonyer Mountain (7789 ft.). We spent a few days collecting the irritating seed while wearing gloves resulting in several giant seed bags full of seed. She was very happy to see so much seed to say the least. And when we went back up the mountain the next day we found snow. It was everywhere in small piles and flurried the whole time we were up there. It was so pretty sticking to the fir and pine trees and the sun shining off it. We may have played in it a bit and took many pictures.

Snow on Fredonyer Mountain

Collecting Mt. Mahogany

I’ll miss the beauty of this place when my time here comes to an end.

Hello fellow interns! I hope you are all continuing to enjoy your amazing work in your prospective western cities. For those of you that are already seeing snow, stay warm!

With seed collecting long over, the interns in the Buffalo Field Office looked elsewhere to help out other scientists and managers. I’m all for it, as I am learning even more than my internship originally entailed. These following weeks we have been mapping I-90 and Barnum public access roads with a GPS so that the BFO can know which roads (after looking at our records) are not supposed to be there and can be rehabilitated, which are redundant and can be re-seeded, and those that are the best for the public to use and can be revamped to encourage heavier use for hunting, four wheeling, camping, etc. Not the most difficult of work, but still important for our recreation department. Another project that was completed by Sean, Dan, and I for the recreation department was the Poison Creek Trail Maintenance project. This involved hiking this 2 mile one way trail up in the Bighorn Mountains and raking pinecones, removing plants in the trail’s path, marking nearby trees, inserting carsonites, and installing water bars. We still get to come back and remove trees in the trail’s path and nearby dead trees after our wildland fire chainsaw training is complete at the end of this week! Ohh yeahhh.

We have also been helping our fire ecologist with her projects that she hasn’t gotten the chance to get to this year. Mainly these include mapping already made fuel piles that will be burned this winter so that our contractor won’t miss any outliers and we can know approximately how much smoke will be produced so we can report this to the state. Also, we took data on already burned fuel piles to assess how much small fuel was left unburned, weed growth, and nearby scorching on trees. These burned piles were also re-seeded with our native grass seed mix to try to help beat weed takeover. We interns were also recruited for a day to be swampers for our fire crew (stacking fuel piles after our sawyers delimbed ponderosas). We have a few more of these projects to get done.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to tour Bridger Plant Materials Center. Our office is aiming to transform one of our parcels with water rights near the Tongue River into a Native Plant Propagation Farm. The tour was meant to learn about Bridger’s processes/tools/struggles/etc. and to ask their opinion about our tentative plan. While I am not an integral part in the farm and probably won’t be here for its beginning, I was appreciative of the opportunity to tour this facility. It was awesome to see how native seed is produced in a large scale, Bridger’s seed sorting equipment, and their storage methods. My other career interest besides conservation is agriculture, and so this was a real eye opener to see how these are being combined already and possible career directions I could take. I had some ideas about how native seed production could improve, which perhaps someday I could play a part of.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is my Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis germination experiment I have been working on. The BFO had a large bag of Wyoming big sagebrush seed from 2012 who’s TZ test came back to be 64%. I decided, out of curiosity and knowledge that it could be an important study for the BLM, to see how temperature and light affected the germination of these seeds. I mostly used materials the BLM had on hand, in order to see if the BFO could germinate and grow Wyoming big sage for restoration easily and effectively. So far, the most successful method seems to be germinating at room temperature with ambient light (just on my desk). I had over 69 seeds germinate in 3 days. After they grew cotyledons in the petri dish, I planted them in a mixture of sand and potting soil. Their survival rate has not been good, and so I plan on doing a study to see if direct seeding them would maintain high germination rates and better seedling survival rates. I appreciate my boss for letting me have the freedom to do this experiment!
It’s been a wild ride.
Kelly