Basal rosettes of a puncturebract (Cienega Seca puncturebract?)

Ruby’s tail. You can see scarring (darker areas) at the very tip.

On Jan. 21^st, we visited a few areas on the forest in the vicinity of the Bighorn Wilderness, which is near the desert side of the SBNF.  The transition to Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) woodland starts a few miles east of the ranger station.  We visited populations of Acanthoscyphus parishii var. cf cienegensis, (Cienega Seca puncturebract), Eriogonum ovalifolium var. vineum (Cushenbury buckwheat, federally endangered), and Astragalus albens (Cushenbury milk vetch, federally endangered).  New finds for the day included a mystery Astragalus (possibly A. tidestromii, SBNF sensitive, or A. leucolobus, Bear Valley woollypod, SBNF watch) and also possibly a new location of Erigeron parishii (Parish’s daisy, federally threatened). We also saw a very large Tucker’s oak (Quercus john-tuckeri).  There was historically a lot of prospecting and mining in the area, and we saw several open mine shafts.  I enjoyed learning a bit about mining law.  Also in late January, we spent a day doing riparian monitoring in the vicinity of the Santa Ana River.     

We’ve largely been continuing work on the invasive plant guide, and are now doing more formatting and editing.  I hiked up to the top of Mt. San Gorgonio on the weekend of January 10-12, and among other species, saw some Eriogonum kenneydi var. alpigenum. The next weekend, I explored the Deep Creek area north of Splinter’s Cabin near Lake Arrowhead.

The office southern rubber boa (Charina umbratica), Ruby, ate two baby mice yesterday (they were already dead).  Southern rubber boas are a sensitive species on the SBNF.  Ruby usually spends her time buried in the litter under her water dish (especially in winter), and so we don’t see her too often.  Rubber boas prey on young mammals, including on deer mice, voles, and shrews.  They are often attacked by the adult prey species in the process of eating nestlings, and so older rubber boas have scarring on their tails (this is visible in the photo).  I didn’t get a picture of her snacking, but it is much more exciting.   

Mountaintop Ranger District

Big Bear Lake, CA

So far, the new year has been relatively calm, as the West Eugene Wetlands is in its slow season. January consisted of a small amount of field work; last fall my partner and I began preparations for endangered plant species augementation. We set up three new macroplots in which plant species will be planted in the spring. We then covered each macroplot with shadecloth to control invasive species that may crowd out the endangered species. In January, we revisited the macroplots to make sure that nothing had happened to the shade cloth. At two of the sites everything was fine, but at one site, we arrived to find several sections of the shadecloth ripped up and what appeared to be a dead animal lying smack in the middle of the macroplot. The supposed dead animal was actually a very ominous and unnerving stuffed animal–a cat, with wide staring eyes that seemed to follow us as we examined the shadecloth. Under the stuffed animal’s scrutiny, we determined that the ripped shadecloth was most likely caused by a coyote looking for food beneath the shadecloth, which will require us to return and patch the holes.

Oregon’s unusual weather continues to persist, I woke up this morning, looked out the window to find a fine layering of snow on the ground. We’ve had our second snow fall in two months, which is nearly unheard of in Eugene. And while I am getting more experienced in driving in snowy weather, at the same time I can’t help but hope for the typical rainy weather of a Willamette Valley winter.

What an incredible opportunity to be able to work and live in the Great Basin! My name is Ethan Hughes and I am working out of the Carson City Field Office of the BLM as a botany intern. The vastness of this area is pretty amazing and I am very excited about getting to learn many new species of plants and animals. Carson City is a nice little town nestled on the edge of the eastern front of the Sierra Nevada range. What beautiful mountains they are indeed!

Today was our first opportunity for field work and we were able to look at the utilization rates of certain plant species by cattle. This field work took us to two really neat places on BLM land. Both were riparian zones and we were able to see Salix exigua, Populus fremontii and other interesting species of plants. The second riparian zone was very cool because it was higher up in Pinyon-juniper woodlands with Juniperus osteosperma, Rosa woodsii, Artemesia tridentata, Elymus elymoides and other species of plants that were very interesting, such as Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum. We also saw a White-tailed antelope squirrel (Ammospermophilus leucurus) and a coyote, which ran across the highway to test his legs!

I am very much looking forward to the great experiences that will be had here and the knowledge gained from this exciting new adventure!

Great Views