The End

So…this is it. These past five and a half months have seen me collecting hundreds of thousands of seeds, planting a couple hundred pounds more, doing plant surveys for everything from post-fire monitoring to sage grouse habitat assessments, and tracking sage grouse all over the (northern half) of the field office. It was a lot to pack into what in retrospect seems a very short time—even if I started the internship wondering if five months was going to feel too long.

I came into Bishop with relatively little plant experience and an attitude towards sage scrub that was ambivalent at best. After spending five months in the Bishop field office mainly focusing on seed collecting and vegetation surveys, I can say with confidence that plants are pretty darn cool (don’t get me started on fire restoration projects or shrub adaptations to arid climates unless you want to be there for a while). As for the scrublands—if it weren’t for the lack of deciduous trees and, well, moisture in general, I could happily spend years really getting to know the ecosystem.

Sage brush as far as the eye can see in the Bodie Hills

Sage brush as far as the eye can see in the Bodie Hills

Working in a small field office is great for getting to know people in every department, and I really got a sense of how the office as a whole operates. Seeing how the BLM carries out its mandate to manage for a variety of uses at the ground level was an experience that was both fascinating and valuable—seeing the challenges involved in balancing occasionally conflicting activities and the value of working directly with the public was valuable in shaping my ideas on what I want to research down the road.

Bishop proved to be an ideal location to see firsthand a variety of conservation efforts throughout the Eastern Sierra. Being in town for both the announcement of Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog critical habitat and the announcement of the Bi-State sage grouse population as federally threatened provided opportunities to see different federal agencies interacting with the public, which was interesting in itself, and to get a better sense of the differences between the agencies and their philosophies on habitat management, which was fascinating.

Winter is coming to the Eastern Sierra

Winter is coming to the Eastern Sierra

All good things must come to an end, and once again it is onwards to the next thing—whatever that is. My time as a CLM intern has helped me articulate a few things about where I want to end up in the long run, and even if I don’t end up in a land management position my current research interests definitely reflect my time spent working with land managers on the ground.

Many thanks to my co-workers and friends in Bishop—I couldn’t have asked for a better group to work with. I certainly won’t forget the time I spent wandering the Bodie Hills in the name of all things sage grouse or exploring the Indian Fire any time soon.

Until next time!

The elusive sage grouse

The elusive sage grouse

 

Queen of the Night

January 6, 2014

Las Cruces, NM

Hello and happy New Year! Today is my first day back in the office after a relaxing holiday vacation, and it sure feels great to be back. Chicago, where I am from, is currently experiencing record low temperatures with a high of -12 and a low of -16. Let me repeat that. Today’s HIGH in Chicago is predicted to be -12. Las Cruces, on the other hand, is still experiencing highs in the upper 50’s and lower 60’s. Like I said, I am very happy to be back.

Before the holidays, Kate and I were busy monitoring the rare plant Peniocereus greggii var. greggii (Night-Blooming Cereus or Queen of the Night cactus), which is a cacti found exclusively in southern New Mexico, northern Mexico, and west Texas. This species has high ornamental value, and has been extirpated from several regions due to overcollection for commercial and private distribution. For more information about this species, see the New Mexico Rare Plants web site.

Night-Blooming Cereus (Peniocereus greggii var. greggii).  Photo Credit: Mike Howard

Night-Blooming Cereus (Peniocereus greggii var. greggii). Photo Credit: Mike Howard

For three weeks, Kate and I travelled to several populations scattered around the bootheel region of New Mexico to gather data on the species’ health and scout the region for new individuals. Currently, there is very limited data on Peniocereus greggii var. greggii, and its habitat preferences are poorly understood. One thing that is known about the species, however, is that it typically grows within a nurse plant, such as Creosotebush (Larrea tridentata). This relationship is beneficial to the Night-Blooming Cereus for several reasons: (1) the shrub overstory provides physical protection from herbivory, trampling, high winds, or other potential sources of damage, (2) the shrub canopy also provides shade, which may prevent damage from excess solar radiation, (3) the nurse plant also increases nutrient and water availability.

Kate and I were assigned to monitor this species because BLM New Mexico has an ongoing project that may threaten the relationship between the Night-Blooming Cereus and its nurse plant. Restore New Mexico is a nine-year-old project whose mission is to restore New Mexico’s land to its former species composition. This includes promoting the spread of native grasses in the Chihuahuan Desert region of the southern portion of the state. Shrubs, such as Creosotebush (Larrea tridentata) and Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) have come to dominate the Chihuahuan Desert due to a combination of climate change and overgrazing. In order to facilitate the establishment of native grasses, BLM New Mexico applies herbicide to large portions of its land to kill off the dominant shrub cover. This approach, however, may be problematic for the Night-Blooming Cereus since the herbicide kills off its nurse plants.

One of the Peniocereus greggii populations that Kate and I monitored was divided evenly between treated and untreated parcels of land. Therefore, Our Peniocereus greggii var. greggii monitoring work will hopefully be the beginning of a long term project to assess the affects of herbicide application on Night-Blooming Cereus health. While the data we collected this year have not yet been analyzed, we were surprised to find a significant number of healthy Night-Blooming Cereus individuals within the treated parcels of land. However, long term monitoring is still needed to determine whether it is safe to apply herbicide to areas occupied by rare plants, such as the Night-Blooming Cereus.
-Elisabeth Ward