Hello everybody!

Beautiful snow-capped mountains!

Just finished up a whirlwind first week here in the Jarbidge BLM Field Office in Twin Falls, ID and it’s been great so far! Aside from training, I got to join along an agency tour of some sites managed by my field office, which was amazing! It is still cold enough in the higher elevations that the mountains were still snow-capped. I was also lucky enough to get out before dawn to see some sage grouse leks and help with the male counts, which was really cool!

On my free time, I’ve checked some of the hidden gem spots between Twin Falls and Boise, which offer tons of recreational activities, especially hiking and photography, two of my favorites. I’m amazed by how much history is packed into this state and the different landscapes! Some recommended places are Malad Gorge, Bonneville Point, and anywhere in Thousand Springs State Park. I’m a bit of a history nerd, so I was pretty excited to learn more about the portions of the Oregon Trail which ran through Idaho, and it was cool to see the marked pass points and wagon wheel ruts that still exist today.

The sagebrush landscape

Ritter Island was still closed from the winter season, but it’s supposedly a birder’s paradise, so I plan to go up there pretty soon again because it looked beautiful from the gates.

Next week we start some monitoring projects and spend more time out in the field. Can’t wait!

Cheers,

Maria Paula

Jarbidge Field Office, Twin Falls, ID

Indian paintbrush!

Fellow intern Andrii exploring Centennial Park with Carson City in the background.

Balsamorhiza sagitata

Iva axillaris breaking through asphalt at the base of C hill!

Erythranthe carsoniensis

What a busy few weeks it has been! We’ve added another intern to our team, mapped the illusive and beautiful Webber’s Ivsia (Ivsia webberi), surveyed for rare monkey flowers (Erythranthe carsoniensis and Mimulus ovatus) and monitored drought conditions on grazing allotments. We also got the chance to help out with the Truckee River Environmental Education (TREE) day. This proved to be a welcome chance to play outside while doing something good for the planet on Earth Day.

TREE Day is an environmental education event for 4^th and 5^th graders from Reno, jointly hosted by the Nevada Nature Conservancy and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It’s held at the McCarran Ranch, just west of Sparks, right on the Truckee River. About 250 kids came to rotate around the many interactive stations and learn about the ecosystem they were visiting. There was a water quality station, a meandering river station, and a wetland wildlife station complete with tadpoles and snakes. The other interns and I were responsible for two stations: a Botany Safari and an Invasive Weed Game. I took on the responsibility of editing and running the Invasive Weed Game and it quickly changed from a responsibility to my favorite pastime. I designed a race for resources meant to describe the competitive advantage that makes noxious weeds such a threat to native plants. When the game finally debuted, it was a hit! The kids were thoughtful and bright, energetic and ready to have fun. The game leaders fed off their energy and enthusiasm for nature and the station was a grand success! It was such a joy to hear 9 year olds shouting “Go Sagebrush Go!”

Who knows, maybe we met some CLM 2026 interns on TREE Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Rebecca

Carson City, BLM