Greetings from beautiful Carson City, Nevada, home of the ever-present sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides), and Vivid Dancer Damselfly (Argia vivida)-just to name a few symbols that represent our nation’s 7th largest state!  I arrived here a bit over three weeks ago, and it has been a wonderful change coming from the never ending winter of Connecticut.  I do love my home state, but something about stepping off a plane to blooming flowers and sunshine has been nothing but refreshing.

So much has happened out here already while interning with the BLM botany team.  I was the 6th intern to arrive, and the others have helped make my transition a smooth one.  Although not quite caught up with identifying all the desert flora or recognizing unfamiliar bird calls, there is an obvious sense of community within the team here, and I think it will be no time until I’m brought completely up to speed.  Particularly appreciating the casual plant ID discussions and stories of field days that occur over our home cooked meals once a week, it is certain to say accepting this challenge of creating a life across the country has been more than a wise decision.

A few highlights from the past three weeks have included becoming certified to apply pesticides on federal lands in efforts to eradicate invasive species, working in some of the most beautiful locations, and (as of this week) beginning to monitor and develop a conservation plan for Ivesia webberi, a soon to be listed endangered species.  It is especially rewarding to me to bring a voice to things like plants that just can’t stand up and say, “Hey, protect me from those soon to be grazing cattle” or “Watch out, there are nonnative species out competing me for space to grow!”  What can I say, I love plants!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time out here thus far, and anticipate things getting even better as the season continues.  Looking very much forward to using my conservation degree from UConn for practical applications in the field, becoming fluent in GIS, and looking up at a star lit sky from a desert perspective!  Until then, enjoy a couple photos from my first days in the field!

Be Well,

Andrew

Carson City BLM Field Office

First Day in the Field Collecting Seeds

Beautiful Pyramid Lake

Wild Horses Do Exist!

Ivesia webberi

This was my favorite botany job yet and unfortunately I am ending it early. Good news is I’ve landed a permanent job after a few years of constant moving about. I will have to incorporate the native plant restoration work into my new position. I enjoyed working with each part of the plant cycle in native plant propagation. I enjoyed collecting seeds, cleaning, storing, and treating seeds, growing them in the greenhouse, and planting them at their final destination restoration site. It was a beautiful experience. But I got out before the summer heat.

Each weekend I jumped on a different trail in the area. What is neat about the Redding BLM and the surrounding area is the amount of recreation. It seems to be the (only) thing to do around here- but it’s a good one. You’ve got the Lassen to the east, Mt. Shasta to the North and the Trinities to the West. It really is a beautiful place.

Besides on the ground restoration work, I developed a restoration handbook for the next seasonal. It includes maps and pictures of the restoration sites and what plants go there, as well as other tips. What I learned in my short time at the Redding BLM is invaluable.

Here are some photos from my stay:

Little buddy hanging out with me in the greenhouse

buckeye seed

buckeye seedlings at the greenhouse

buckeye growing in drainage area.

View of Redding from the bluffs- Sacramento River, Sundial Bridge and the Trinities

Phacelia sp.

We’ve been doing surveys for TESW (Threatened, Endangered, Sensitive, and Watch plant species) along proposed OHV routes in the high desert, north of Big Bear Lake.  There’s a lot blooming, and some hillsides have even taken on a yellow hue.  Sensitive species in the area include Mojave paintbrush (Castilleja plagiotoma, SBNF Sensitive) and Lemmon’s syntrichopappus (Syntrichopappus lemmonii, SBNF Watch, middle).  We also did survey work at a mining claim nearer to the desert side of the forest.

 In late March we attended a bryophyte foray near Santa Cruz, CA.  (My point-and-shoot isn’t so well-equipped to take great pictures of mosses, especially in dim light, but I had a little better luck with wild ginger, Asarum caudatum, top).  It was a wonderful opportunity to talk with some big names in the moss, liverwort, and hornwort worlds, and a good introduction to bryophyte keys.

Additional survey work this month will focus on mining claims and proposed OHV routes.  We’ll also be attending a Poaceae workshop at Rancho Santa Botanic Garden.  

The last time I posted here, I had been in town for all of a week, and was just getting settled in. It’s honestly a bit shocking to me that that was only four weeks ago: I’m already feeling very comfortable with the job, even as I’m thrown/throwing myself into new tasks every few days.

The focus of my internship is the restoration of a desert oasis and the surrounding area, and the main project from the last four weeks has been planting seedlings to encourage recovery following the removal of invasive tamarisk. Since I arrived we’ve planted nearly 200 individual plants in areas that had been opened up or damaged by the removal process, and though we still have some 80 plants waiting to get in the ground, this phase of my internship is nearly done.

The other thing filling my work hours has been GIS training, something I’ve always wanted to learn both because I’ve always been a little geeky about maps, and because it’ll be a huge help finding work in the future. I’m happy to be able to say that in two weeks ArcGIS has stopped seeming overwhelmingly complicated, and is now merely frustratingly complicated, similar to how I feel about R or MATLAB, or every other computer science tool I’ve worked with.

Next week I’ll be starting with the two main projects that will occupy my time and energy through August: vegetation surveys, and seed collection for the Seeds of Success project. I’ve already got experience doing both veg surveys and seed collection from university and previous jobs, so I don’t expect much difficulty jumping into these projects either.

I’ve attached some pictures this time. I’ve always been bad at taking pictures, both in that I don’t have much talent for photography and in that I typically forget that I even own a camera. So I’m sorry to say that I don’t have as many pictures as I’d like to. But let me say: the experience of standing on the San Andreas fault line just after dawn and looking out over Dos Palmas oasis as it is both still shrouded in nighttime fog and lit by the sun rising over the mountains? Definitely worth getting up a few minutes early for. Sorry I don’t have a picture of it! You’ll just have to come see it in person.

habitat restoration in progress

Moving is made easy by cleansing on many levels. Loaded up “Little Red” (my Nissan pickup) with my down-sized life and moved to Wenatchee, WA last Sunday afternoon. Went to work on Monday morning. The Bureau of Land Management, Wenatchee Regional Field Office is situated on the beautiful Columbia River in the center of town with access to a lovely riverfront park and some of the most welcoming, easy-going, knowledgeable staff. Not to mention humorous. I felt at home immediately. Beginning this season for the BLM is a radical shift for me in comparison to the last handful of years in academics, work load, schedule, climate, plant communities, etc. but if there were a definition of a calm transition I might at least come in runner up. I’m so thankful for this, for the chance to gain new perspective, for the opportunity to work for a federal agency managing a beautifully, fragile ecosystem, for the opportunity to expand my heart and my mind. I’m thankful to know that whatever occurs, however long the days, whatever the conditions in the field, I am always capable. Strength and grace always. Best of luck to all of you in sharing this year’s adventure!

Hey there! It’s Alexandra (Alex) live from Carson City, NV. It is now my 6 week in the internship. It was quite a pleasant weather shift, moving out here from the brutal winter Chicago has been experiencing! I find the scenery out here in the wild west amazing. The Chicago skyline is pretty cool at night and all, but I have to say, I love being able to look out my apartment window and see the Sierra Nevada Mountains!

After mainly doing plant biology research in a lab the past two years while working on my Master’s degree, working as a botany intern for BLM has reminded me how much I miss field work. I came out here knowing next to nothing about desert flora, and over the past several weeks, I’ve learned so many new plants. You look out into the Great Basin, and you think you are looking at a monoculture of mostly sagebrush, but once you venture out into it and creep around the desert floor, you begin to realize that there is diverse salad of wildflowers, grasses and shrubs. My favorite place we have visited is the Hardscrabble area/allotment. Another intern and I were surveying the riparian areas for noxious weeds, and we hiked up the canyon to a beautiful Populus tremuloides (trembling aspen) stand. This allotment is adjacent to Pyramid Lake, and we had a stunning view of it from there (sorry I don’t have a photo). All is well so far, more to come soon!

This is my second season as a CLM intern. My first season was spent in the Carson City area of Nevada.  It was filled with adventure, amazing new friends, and knowledge gained.  I am sure that my second season will offer similar opportunities for new adventures, friends, and learning.

It has barely begun, four days in my new position to be exact, and I already love it. I am based out of the BLM Prineville District Office in Central Oregon. Half of my time has been spent completing online training courses and familiarizing myself with the computer files here. The second half of the week, I was lucky enough to get out into the field!  I helped out another employee here at the BLM planting Cottonwood trees along Bridge Creek.  I learned that the purpose of the trees was to create shade, which helps push out some of the weedy species in the area. The trees are an alternative to using herbicides, for fear that the herbicides would leach into the creek.

All in all, I am excited for my second season as an intern, now located in Prineville, Oregon!

Springtime has arrived in the Mojave Desert and has ushered in a busy field season! We recently completed the preparation and planting of 3 common gardens across the Mojave Desert (2 in California and 1 in Utah). Additionally, we assisted with a vegetation survey in burned and unburned areas of Coyote Springs, NV and we just started our work in the Eureka Dunes at Death Valley National Park.

Horned Lizard in Coyote Springs, NV

This past week we collected data on Eureka Dunes evening primrose (Oenothera californica ssp. eurekensis) and Eureka Valley dune grass (Swallenia alexandrae). These two plants are endemic to the Eureka Dunes and are federally listed endangered species. It was exciting to work with plants that are found nowhere else in the world and I hope this research will contribute to the improvement of their populations.

Eureka Dunes evening primrose (Oenothera californica ssp. eurekensis)

Eureka Valley dune grass (Swallenia alexandrae)

In addition to collecting field data on these plants, we also installed soil moisture probes 5 meters deep into the dunes using a manual auger. This proved a little challenging at times, but it should aid in our understanding of how these plants are impacted by dune soil moisture dynamics.

digging 5 m deep holes for soil moisture probes using manual auger

Although the field season has been busy I have enjoyed having the opportunity to help with a variety of different projects. Doing fieldwork on several projects has enabled me to discover and learn about a variety of different areas within the Mojave and this has been one of my favorite aspects of my internship.

I can’t wait to see what else spring has in store!

-Renee Albrecht

I arrived at the BLM Ridgecrest, California Office on March 3rd, and things have been a whirlwind since arrival! On top of the paperwork and necessary training, we have been involved in Rangeland Health Assessments, Allotment Monitoring, Endangered Species Monitoring in the El Centro Office, SOS surveying, NOPA writing and the Sand Canyon Environmental Education program. The Ridgecrest BLM office is responsible for about 1.8 million acres of land and apparently our opportunities for expanding our experiences will be very numerous. We have also been lucky this year – we have already received more rain than last year, so the annuals have been very plentiful and it looks like we will have quite a few collections for SOS.  Being from Reno, NV, part of the Great Basin, I am pretty familiar with most of the flora and ecosystems in the area, but it is exciting to be in a new area, seeing the differences of the Mojave and learning how the BLM works.

A fringe-toed lizard from the Imperial Dunes.

Imperial Dunes with rare cloud coverage.

Piersons Milk-vetch, the endangered plant we monitored in Imperial Dunes.

An interesting guy eating our annuals.

Probably the most unique find so far.

Cheers,

-Leah

Ridgecrest BLM Office

The first month-and-a-bit of my CLM internship has gone smooth as ever. Still living with great roommates and working with great co-workers. Recently, I’ve used comp time to take a few Fridays off–and one was particularly interesting. I used the long weekend to go with a group of USGS scientists to Vermilion Cliffs, Arizona as a volunteer on a rare plant survey. We were searching for a small species of cactus, censusing plots that have been monitored for 25 years.

So the Vermilion Cliffs themselves are beautiful and a sight to see. We found the first rare plant plot right along the edge of Badger Canyon at the base of the cliffs. After orienting ourselfs in the plot, we quickly noticed three huge birds perched on an overhanging rock in the canyon wall. Turns out there are re-introduction sites for California condors nearby the Vermilion Cliffs–and we were looking at three of the re-introductees. Two juveniles (still huge) and an adult. Some folks on the trip had seen the birds before, but needless to say, we dropped what we were doing and just watched. The condors were perched totally still on the overhang until they all at once spread their wings out wide to soak up the sun. It was a truly amazing spectacle. We were less than 100m away from the birds and they were really putting on a show for us. Everyone snapped pictures and watched for a good 30 minutes. Then, back to work for the rest of the day. We looked and looked for the remainder of the weekend but didn’t see the birds again–not surprising since they can cover 250 miles in a single day.

Work the past few weeks has been great. Energized by seeing the condors, us interns have been planting native species gardens across the Mojave. We got all the plants in the ground, watered, and now we wait a few weeks to begin monitoring. Next week we’re off to the Eureka Dunes, CA to install weather stations and collect seeds of some endemic plants–another new site and a new adventure in the field awaits.

Sam Somerville

USGS, Las Vegas Field Station

Henderson, NV