I fondly remember how I packed my little blue car full of all of my belongs and traveled almost 2,000 miles from Georgia to Colorado. I finished my internship in late December. I am proud to say that I have been a Conservation and Land Management intern for 1 year and 7 months at the Bureau of Land Management Colorado State Office where I worked for Dr. Carol Dawson. I learned so much during my time here in Colorado. The CLM program is the best opportunity for recent college graduates interested in gaining experience in botany and wildlife conservation and land management.

My first field season in Colorado was a whirlwind of excitement. I enjoyed working with such an amazing team: Carol, Dr. Peter Gordon, and Sama Winder. With the help of Carol and Peter, we were able to expand our Colorado flora knowledge – and even fauna. During my second field season, I had the great opportunity to become lead intern of our team with Katherine Wenzell – who was always willing to be a team player. I was able to share my experiences and contribute my knowledge as a second year intern. I feel lucky to have had Carol as my mentor – she truly is the best. I am very thankful and grateful to have earned this opportunity. Overall, I have learned a lot about myself and who I am, I have become a stronger person and better botanist, and learned how to welcome the unknown and celebrate the feeling of leaving all things familiar to embark on a new journey.

There were many projects that I was involved in during my internship including outreach environment activities, seed collecting, vegetation surveys, rare and endangered plant monitoring and assessment projects, and plenty of retirement parties (it’s always fun to support those around the office…and eat cake!). I’m excited about all of the friends that I have made. I am sure I will continue to stay in contact with many of them. During my free time, I joined a Denver kickball team, learned how to ski, dined at Denver’s best restaurants, became a volunteer at the Denver Botanic Gardens, hiked part of Mt. Evans (literally), attended some pretty awesome concerts at Red Rocks, and visited the X-Games in Aspen.

To mention a few exciting events happening after my internship, I accepted a full-time, permanent position within the government working in a forensic laboratory in Denver. I’ve been happy to learn more about botany and wildlife biology; however, I am looking forward to getting back to working in a lab and becoming more directly involved in research. It’s been a fun and educational experience. Thank you to Chicago Botanic Garden and past employees – Krissa, Wes, and Marian. You are the best. Thank you again to everyone who supported me, the great friends that I have made, and I look forward to the new chapter of my life.

If you find yourself in Denver, I’m sure I’ll be see you around!

Happy Trails,

Darnisha Coverson

BLM Colorado State Office

Moving to Colorado inspired me to explore the west. I planned a trip and hiked my way into the Grand Canyon (seriously, this is the steep trail that I took).

Months after the Soldier Basin Fire scorched the Patagonia Mountains of Southern Arizona in May 2013, I was lucky enough to pass through the aftermath while scouting out plants and collecting seeds with Steve, a skilled botanist and ecologist, and Gooch, a tracker and guide. While this mid-December walk was certainly a successful trip in terms of scouting and collecting from one of the major preserved canyons and intact drainages of the watershed, we also got to explore post-burn habitat.

As I peaked a ridge, the first observation that stunned me was the sea of crisp trees, covered with charcoal. They were in patchy patterns, with clumps of live trees, shrubs, grass and ground cover intermixed with armies of tombstones on bare soil.

Drainages were generally less scorched than mesas and open flats. While there were many plants that had been dislodged, namely succulents, many of the shrubs and trees were still rooted, holding back soil.

Most impressively to me, Manzanita shrubs were not only still rooted, but many were still alive when half of their branches had been burned off. Perennial grasses that had been burned down to the soil in the inferno were some of the most productive plants after a relative dry spell. Like the phoenix – out of death comes life.

Burnt Mesquite

Desert Spoon fire bomb

Steve and Gooch explore a burned landscape

This past weekend I participated in the nation-wide Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey.  During the winter many Bald Eagles migrate south from northern areas like Alaska.  The purpose of the survey is to monitor the status of Bald Eagle wintering populations.  Along with the amounts of Bald Eagles seen, supplemental data on where they were located and in what habitats they were located in were also recorded.  Across the country, non-overlapping designated routes are driven during the same time each winter.  Overall, we saw 12 bald eagles.  Unfortunately, country-wide data is not yet available.

Greetings,

Happy New Year. The holidays came and went pretty quickly. Since going back to the grind, not much has changed. I continued to work on the PowerPoint up until this last Thursday, when I finally completed it. In some cases, the results were as I expected, but in others, not so much. Probably the most surprising result was the lack of seeding of certain species. For example, just less than 110,000 lbs of Vavilov II (agropyron fragile) was distributed since 2011. Vavilov II is a popular seed to be planted throughout the Great Basin due to its drought tolerance. More recently, it has been a popular substitute for a variety of different species when they are not available. However, in three seasons, approximately 110,000 lbs was distributed across three states. In comparison to prior years, that’s quite the decrease in distribution. I think the fact that it is an introduced species plays a large role in how often it is used.

Anatone (pseudoroegneria spicata), a bluebunch wheatgrass, had results that I expected. Since 2011, over 270,000 lbs of Anatone has been seeded in 8 different states. That’s twice as many lbs as Vavilov II in nearly triple the states.  Since it is a native species from South Eastern Washington, it is a more widely accepted species, with little to no controversial drawbacks.

After completing the PowerPoint on Thursday, I was able to jump right in to the next project of calculating historical seed prices for some of the most popular species to be sold from the warehouse. The species included bluebunch wheatgrass, bottlebrush squirreltail, Sandberg bluegrass, Wyoming big sagebrush, and a few others. Depending on need, the prices of some of these species changed in price by a little, or a lot. For example, Wyoming Big Sagebrush sold as low as $1.88 per lb during one seed buy, and went as high as $35 per lb in another seed buy. The final average over a 5 year period ended up being $11.56 per lb. Now, the increase in price (from $1.88 to $35) did happen over a period of two years, but when studying all the price changes over a 5 year period, the increase in price is considered to be a drastic one. On the other hand, Sandberg bluegrass had gradual increases and decreases in price. The low came in at $2.09 per lb and the high came in at $12 per lb. The average was $6.45 per lb. As you can see, some of the changes were huge, where others were not.

A couple weeks before Christmas, I completed an informational seed booklet. Upon completion, I had it copied professionally for distribution. Over the holiday, I received the copies and thought I would post a few pictures of the finished results.

Information about Basin Wildrye. Courtesy of NRCS.

Until next time.

Eric Livermore

Bureau of Land Management

Boise, Idaho