Drowning in Lupin – The Needle in the Haystack

FBB eggs 2013 planting

Drowning in Lupin – The Needle in the Haystack

For the past two weeks, my field partner and I have been looking for the needle in the haystack, the needle being the number of butterfly eggs and the sea of lupin the haystack. Meter by meter, plant by plant, leaf by leaf, we sorted through the infinite in search of the infinitesimal, a tiny, itty bitty white donut the size of a small freckle. It is amazing to consider the uncertain future of this little bugger, to think about all the obstacles it will face…the long leaf, the tall stalk, birds, wind, the frigid, bone soaking winter. This thing has a long, but oh so short life ahead.

Never has a plot so small, 30X30m, seemed so big! And never have I become so familiar with an environment. I had all the birds in the area mapped out in my head, meadowlarks, grasshopper, savannah, and song sparrows, pheasants, common yellowthroats, and redwing- blackbirds. Their territorial battles waged on unendingly, singing songs that set my mind at ease. However, underneath the warm Zen blanket of prairie nature, the cold reality crept in…I was trapped in my own head. And the thoughts came. What am I doing? What does this all matter? So what if I miss an egg? Wait, did I just see one? Hold up, did I already search this plant? No Egg…no egg…no egg…Oh! Egg! …this egg looks like a donut caked in powdered sugar…mmm…I am hungry…no egg…no egg…what am I doing…no egg…no egg…no egg…what time is it? How long could I possibly do this for? Will my efforts actually help this endangered species? What does this all matter? Is this worth my time?

I started to realize that I would have to be crazy not to ask these questions. I think that everyone should ask themselves these questions. What does this all matter? How do I want to spend my time…my life? I believe these are the very moments that help give us guidance.

I now know that I don’t want to monitor plants for the rest of my life. It can get repetitive and boring. However, I think most jobs are repetitive and boring anyway, and it’s okay to be a little bored sometimes. But I am lucky I get to be outside in such a beautiful surrounding and I am stoked to learn as many plants as my brain bucket will allow. Most importantly though, I believe in what I am doing. While I don’t think that it is the most important step to saving our environment, I know that it is an important step.

Random thought/question… Is it worth it to use herbicides, a known toxin, as tool for restoration when we don’t understand all of its negative impacts?

Also check out The Community Environmental Defense Fund and Thomas Linzey! I saw him speak this past week in Eugene. It was very inspiring! He is an environmental lawyer who gave up on environmental law because he realized that it doesn’t work. Now, he is fighting corporations’ political rights head on by drafting a “community bill of rights” for municipalities who have suffered negative health and environmental impacts (from fracking, mining, factory farming, etc.). This “bill of rights” is drafted to give communities and the environment rights over corporations.

Shrubs as a restoration tool for the endangered leopard lizard

Hey all!

I have been continuing my work looking at animal activity in the Panoche Hills but I am now expanding that work to look at the ability for shrubs to act as a restoration tool to help mitigate the effects of climate change on the endangered blunt nosed leopard lizard. I have set up motion activated cameras in paired shrub-open areas to record animal activity at both sites. Some shrubs will later be removed, and shrub mimics will be built in order to compare animal activity with and without shrubs. Mimics will help separate any potential biotic effects of shrubs on leopard lizard activity.

Most of the time the cameras catch vegetation, flags or clouds moving in the wind and you see something like this…

…or this

but then we get exciting animal pictures like this
Jack rabbit coyote bobcat ground squirrel kangaroo rat
and most exciting of all…the blunt nosed leopard lizard!left side of shrub right side of shrub

 

Prey Surveys & Coyote Springs

Hi everyone,

Since my last blog post I have had the opportunity to get involved with yet another research project here at the USGS Las Vegas Field Office. I recently assisted with nighttime prey surveys that involve driving along designated transects late at night, shining a bright light out of the car, and noting the animals that are encountered throughout this process. During these surveys we saw kit foxes, poorwills, jackrabbits, kangaroo rats, and several other small rodents. I enjoyed having the opportunity to see how the desert comes alive after the sun goes down.

In addition to the prey surveys, my fellow interns and I also recently completed our third set of vegetation surveys at Coyote Springs this field season. Temperatures in the Mojave Desert are rising as we head into the late spring and summer months so we started work early each morning to avoid the heat of the late afternoon as much as possible. While we were out in Coyote Springs this past week my fellow intern Meaghan and I spotted a Burrowing Owl. This is a bird I had been wanting to see ever since I moved to the Southwest so it was a pleasant surprise for me.

It is hard to believe I only have about a month left in my internship but, when I reflect on how much I have learned and experienced since I arrived here, it almost feels like I have been here much longer than 4 months. I am excited to see what lies ahead in these finals weeks.

-Renee

San Miguel Island

On June 3, I returned from a week-long trip to San Miguel Island, where I assisted a botanist with a vegetation mapping project on the island.  San Miguel, a windy, treeless island, is the westernmost of the Channel Islands.  Dominant shrubs species on the island include coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis), prostrate coastal goldenbush (Isocoma menziesii var. vernonoides), and silver lupine (Lupinus albifrons var. douglasii, pictured, sand-covered).  Giant coreopsis (Leptosyne gigantea), San Miguel Island deerweed (Acmispon dendroideus var. veatchii) and golden yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum) are abundant in areas on the eastern side of the island, but are largely absent from its western side. While common on the larger islands and on the mainland, toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), black sage (Salvia mellifera) and lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia) are infrequent on San Miguel.  The rare Northern Island tree mallow (Lavatera assurgentiflora subsp. assurgentiflora, pictured) also occurs on the island.  Common herbs include San Miguel Island locoweed (Astragalus miguelensis), Greene’s dudleya (Dudleya greenei), Malacothrix species (pictured is the white-flowered M. saxatilis implicata) and the non-native sea-fig (Carprobrotus chilensis).

The seals were another fascinating part of the trip.  In some areas on the western side of the island, we were guided by one of the pinniped (seal) researchers.  We saw four species of seals over the course of the week:  northern fur seals, harbor seals, California sea lions, and elephant seals.  Elephant seals breed on the island from December through March.  We only saw a few northern fur seals; the males were on the island establishing their territory.  The trip was a great opportunity to learn the most common elements of the SMI flora (as well as many less-common species), and to talk to biologists and botanists about their work on the islands.

Mountaintop RD, San Bernardino National Forest, US Forest Service

Northern Island tree mallow

Northern Island tree mallow

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A view of Prince Island and eastern Cuyler Harbor.

 

Sand-covered silver lupine

Sand-covered silver lupine

 

Cliff-aster

Cliff-aster

Back into the marsh

For most of my time here in Dos Palmas, I’ve been working in the desert scrubland surrounding the oasis: lots of creosote, saltbush, mesquites, and a few small trees like the smoke trees I gushed over last month. But in the last week, we’ve been working on a new project, placing new transects for future vegetation surveys in the dense marsh near the area’s main outflow. I have to say, seeing grasses again is a big change, and wading into trackless stands of reeds, saw grass, and cattails, chasing after a point on a GPS unit – well, thats something I didn’t think I’d be doing in the desert. But as someone whose nature experiences begin with playing in cattails (if you hit your little brother with the ripe ones they’ll burst), getting back into a marsh is always good.

Of course, there have been other projects, some of them less fun. My boss (and his boss) are involved in a tense negotiation with the organization that owns the nearby canal: they are required by NEPA to feed water into the oasis for to preserve habitat for its endangered species, but parts of the oasis are drying up dramatically. My part in this process is mostly data management, making sure that our conclusions are based on the best possible research. Its great work, and it is exciting to know that your data work helps support local conservation policy, but its less fun than hiking through the marsh.

And in “sorry I don’t have pictures” news, this month I was lucky enough to see a ringtail cat (imagine a cross between a lemur and a raccoon), and more excitingly a yuma clapper rail: one of the very rare endangered species that make Dos Palmas home. The rest of my field team doesn’t believe me about that last one, or rather they don’t want to believe that the one day I was out on my own a clapper rail showed up.

See you all in Chicago next week,
Joe

Missoula, Montana

Hello from Missoula,

I arrived in Missoula Montana just over two weeks ago, following a three day drive from Rochester New York. The driving portion of the trip took just over 34 hours in total and I passed through many states and saw many landscapes that were unfamiliar to me. Upon arrival I rushed to get set up before starting work just three days later at the Missoula BLM field office.

I met many of the permanent and seasonal employees of the office on my first day, and I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness and youthfulness of everyone that I met. After a full day of training and preparatory paperwork, I was excited to begin field work. By 7:30 a.m. on my second day of work we were on the road to a field site near Garnet, MT to conduct a series of habitat typing surveys. Through analysis of information regarding tree species types, sizes, and prevalences, understory species types and prevalences, and several other factors, the habitat typing surveys frequently conducted by the Missoula BLM make it possible to predict the future conditions of a site as well as create plans for the proper management of such sites. For the next week and a half I participated in habitat typing surveys, rare plant searches, and preparation of a field site for prescribed burning.

I have found my first two weeks with the Missoula BLM field office to be more interesting and fun than I ever thought possible. I have met many great people, had the opportunity to explore the wilderness of the rocky mountains, and had time to explore the city of Missoula. I look forward to spending the next five months here in Missoula working with the BLM

– Vince Fasanello, BLM Missoula Montana

 

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The View From Mount Sentinel (1)

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The View From Mount Sentinel (2)

Lunch Spot in Garnet

Lunch Spot in Garnet

Forest Near Garnet

Forest Near Garnet

Month 1 in Central Montana

The past few weeks have flown by here at the Lewistown BLM office. I am starting to get to know the Big Sky country out here in the center of Montana with its flat rangeland flanked by the welcoming contrast of island mountain ranges. The forever-stretching grasslands are a new concept to me coming from the east where everything is close together or at least densely forested. Distance is measured in relation to large landmarks (mountains) and time is mostly forgotten as I cruise along the gently rolling plains. Often I will be driving for miles before I pass another vehicle and we exchange a wave in remembrance of civilization.

The past few weeks have flown by here at the Lewistown BLM office. I am starting to get to know the Big Sky country out here in the center of Montana with its flat rangeland flanked by the welcoming contrast of island mountain ranges. The forever-stretching grasslands are a new concept to me coming from the east where everything is close together or at least densely forested. Distance is measured in relation to large landmarks (mountains) and time is mostly forgotten as I cruise along the gently rolling plains. Often I will be driving for miles before I pass another vehicle and we exchange a wave in remembrance of civilization.

So far I have done a little bit of everything. Not having an actual botanist in the office has put a little pressure on me to use what resources I can to get to know the plants here. I still am an amateur in the field of botany, but I hope to become a little less so after the 6 months of this internship. With the help from the range specialists who understand the grasses and forbs in relation to grazing, including invasives and noxious weeds that are the on the list to be controlled/eliminated, I am gaining an understanding of the vegetation here. I am using my excursions into the field to not only assist and learn from the wildlife biologists, but to become acquainted with as many plants as I can fit in my mind.

Working with the wildlife biologists has been wonderful. I am not only learning the names of the animals out here, but I have had a chance to learn some animal behavior and monitoring techniques. One of the wildlife biologists and I monitored known raptor nests to look for signs of activity. A dead raptor had been observed at one of the nests the previous year and looking through our binoculars, we thought we may have seen her, or what remained of her. We questioned whether the body would have been preserved for so long and as we got closer it appeared as though her eye was dipping lower into the nest. We realized she was alive, lying as flat as possible on her eggs so as not to be noticed. She was a ferruginous hawk, the largest of the hawks and I was overjoyed at witnessing my first raptor nest especially one of which we were not expecting to be active.

I am learning the importance of sagebrush here on the range. I have heard a lot of talk about it and now I get to see what the big deal is all about. The most common here, Wyoming Big Sagebrush, Artemisia tridentate ssp. wyomingensis, is scattered throughout the grassland; its sweet and spicy fragrance get stirred up lingers on my clothes whenever I walk through it. Several species of wildlife are sagebrush obligates, which means their survival depends on an abundance of sagebrush. These include greater sage-grouse, Gunnison sage-grouse, sage sparrow, Brewer’s sparrow, sage thrasher, pygmy rabbit, sagebrush vole, sagebrush lizard, and pronghorn. Knowing so many species depend on this one plant is a scary thought, but it also makes me feel good about the seed collecting that I’ll be doing.

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Some silver sagebrush, Artemisia cana

I’ve also learned from a couple ranchers that sagebrush is not one of their favorites. Some talk about burning their fields (sagebrush) to make room for more palatable grasses for their cattle, which is understandable from their point of view, but not good in the long run. Silver sagebrush, Artemisia cana, luckily is a species that is capable of resprouting after a fire, which is great because fire, whether man made or not, is common around here. Speaking of which, another one of my projects is surveying Goshawks in an area that is prescribed to be burned next year.

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Wildfire in the distance

I am realizing now that I have been learning a lot and one blog post is not enough to share it all; I will save some for later and besides I still have so much more to learn. So far I love that I am getting to know plants, not only to identify them, but their importance in relation to wildlife, ranchers, and fire, all of which are key components in making central Montana what it is.

Some pictures for your enjoyment:

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Horned lizard!

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Sparrow nest

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Wild rose

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The rugged landscape of the Musselshell river breaks

 

 

Where I go I just don’t know, I might end up somewhere in…Wyoming

My departure date drew closer and closer, and I could hardly wait.  My heart has been pulling me west for some time, waiting for an opportunity for the rest to follow.  A long trek from Virginia went by quickly in just a few stops with old friends in some beautiful places.  My journey was coming to a close as I was passing through Colorado, and eventually I realized that the objects I was seeing weren’t clouds anymore, but white top mountains.  The first glimpse of the Rockies is something I won’t forget, and I knew I was in the right place.

Monday rolled around and it was time to get to work.  This first week has been a whirlwind of introductions, meetings, manuals, and papers.  I have been on acronym overload for the past four days.  Although it’s been such a short period of time, I have already gained a clarified view about the BLM’s purpose and function.  What was a cloud of complexities…is still a cloud of complexities, but I have begun to wrap my head around it, teasing apart the vastness of BLM’s tasks and obligations.

-David Drewett, Wyoming BLM State Officephoto2 photo1

Five things I’ve learned about being out West

I graduated a year ago this week and I have been reflecting on my first year out of college and all the cool things I have experienced during my seasonal life out West. Here’s a list of a few things I’ve learned about being out here:

1.  Cattle are everywhere. Even when you think you’re completely alone in a wilderness area you’ll find yourself stumbling upon a herd of cows grazing on the vegetation and navigating all sorts of terrain. I remember even seeing cows in Buckskin Gulch in Utah, coming through the slot canyon towards me. They are curious, but terribly skittish (rightfully so) creatures. They look hilariously awkward when they run. And they are pretty good at cleaning trucks when they’re curious enough to come and lick them.

2. Seeing pronghorn and horny toads never get old. Theses animals don’t look like they belong in the United States- they’re so exotic and ancient looking. Every time I see a herd of pronghorn effortlessly sprinting over the desert/prairie/steppe, I am amazed at their agility to move over the rocks, sagebrush and cactus. They look like they belong in Africa with the springbok and impala. They are extremely curious. Apparently if you get out of your truck and alternate between doing jumping jacks and laying down on the ground, a herd of pronghorn will actually approach you. This has been field tested.

Curious pronghorn

A curious pronghorn evaluates our truck.

Every time I see a horny toad I catch them immediately and am amazed at their calm stoic disposition and their spiny skin. Their bored expression is especially endearing.

Horny toads- the dragons of the desert.

Horny toads- the dragons of the desert.

3. Driving long distances is not a big deal. Out east driving more than five hours seems daunting. But out West covering hundreds of miles in a day is nothing. This country is so vast and the traffic minimal that it’s actually somewhat enjoyable. The terrain varies so much out here- one minute you’ll be meandering on winding snowy mountain roads and the next minute you’ll be going 70mph through the desert.

4. The government owns a lot of land. I already knew that about a third of the US is federally owned, but that’s not something that is very apparent when you’re living out East. If you look at a map of federally owned lands in the U.S., the government owns most of the land west of the Rockies. My home is near Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and until this year that was the only National Park I’d ever visited. This year I’ve visited (and worked in) at least 20 different National Park units in CO, SD, WY, UT, AZ , NM and ID and I plan on visiting a lot more during my CLM internship! Not to mention the countless lands owned by the Forest Service and BLM that I’ve found places for free dispersed camping.

Map of Federal Lands in the USA

Map of Federal Lands in the USA

And lastly,

5. The desert/steppe is an amazing place. I have the deepest respect for the plants and animals that not only survive in this harsh environment, but actually thrive in it. I am reminded of one of my favorite Edward Abbey passages from A Desert Solitaire:

“The wind will not stop. Gusts of sand swirl before me, stinging my face. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning. Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other place but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom”

The last few weeks we’ve seen many of the desert flowers come into bloom. Here are my favorites so far:

Penstemon palmeri (Palmer's penstemon). Now I understand why penstemons are called beardtongues!

Penstemon palmeri (Palmer’s penstemon). Now I understand why penstemons are called beardtongues!

OECA (4)

Oenothera caespitosa (Tufted evening primrose). We’ve noticed these have started to bloom among the lava rock in our field sites.

 

Until next time,

Avery

Shoshone BLM Office

Shoshone, Idaho

From graduation to cow struggles, my first days as a CLM intern

Hello! My name is Anna Freundlich and I am working in the BLM office in Lakeview, Oregon. Here in Lakeview I am going to make seed collections as part of the Seeds of Success (SOS) program and these past few weeks have already been pretty exciting. I graduated May 19th, went home for two days to pack, and then drove from my hometown of Lexington, Ohio for six days to arrive here in Oregon. While we were a bit rushed, my sister and I had a good time traveling across the U.S. From hiking in Wisconsin to visiting Mt. Rushmore to seeing bison on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake we had plenty of adventures. And besides getting lost in California for two hours on my last day of travel, the commute went pretty smoothly.

My first week and a half of work was rewarding and challenging. As one can imagine, the plants here in Oregon are quite different from the plants out east. Nearly every plant is foreign to me, but luckily the local botanist Ian Grinter and my fellow intern Lucy Landis are very patient and are helping me learn the plants out here. Because our Lakeview office is in a higher elevation and this area has been in a drought for the past three years, the seed situation is “interesting”. Our plants normally flower and set seed later in the season, but combined with the drought some populations are setting seeds later than anticipated or are not setting seed at all. My first day in the field Lucy and I went to check out a population of Trifolium macrocephalum clovers, only to discover that there were no seeds for us to collect. We also hit bad luck when we went to collect seed from a population of Lupine; we were dismayed to discover that the cows had beaten us to the lupine flowers. If only we had known that the flowers were so tasty!

But things are not hopeless. Today we went out to Sage Hen Butte in the southern part of the district with some botanists from Alturas. On a hilltop overlooking the mountains, we finally found a site that had potential for seed collections. Here we found many different populations of native plants including Indian paintbrush, multiple species of Eriogonum (Wild Buckwheat) and my favorite plant of the day Lewisia rediviva. This small plant had red stems, beautiful white flowers, and seemed to crawl out from under the rocks. After our CLM training trip in Chicago next week, we plan on making many collections at this beautiful site.

I am looking forward to a great summer and I am so glad I have this opportunity!
Lakeview, Oregon BLM

Favorite flower of the day!

Favorite flower of the day!