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