Me and my boss heading out at sunrise to do yellow billed cuckoo surveys

Round-tailed Horned Lizard. These lizards are rock mimics

Very hard to see but there is a burrowing owl in this picture

Aloha from Carlsbad, New Mexico. A few weeks ago I finished my work on the Dune Sagebrush Lizard. I am proud to say that my team was able to catch 15 of these little guys and we were also able to catch some in areas where no one had ever got close to trapping before. It’s safe to say that after digging over 300 holes to set pitfall traps I have become quite good at digging holes.

I have now shifted my focus on several riparian areas near Carlsbad. Specifically, I have been conducting macro-invertebrate, substrate, and water quality samples to determine steam health and community composition in the Pecos, Delaware, and Black river systems. I also conducted multiple yellow billed cuckoo surveys across the aforementioned rivers to detect a presence or absence of the birds.

One of my favorite days was conducting burrowing owl surveys where a potential oil line may be placed through. Several burrowing owl colonies were discovered in the oil pipeline right of way, so the construction company will have to re-route the pipe so they do not disturb the birds. The owls are quite personal and I was able to observe some of their natural behaviors in a beautiful part of the state. Being a herp nerd, I was pretty excited about seeing my first round tailed horned lizard Phrynosoma modestum while conducting some of these burrowing owl surveys. In the next few weeks I should start work conducting prairie chicken surveys and capturing and tagging birds found in riparian areas around Carlsbad.

The weather is starting to cool down and I am still exploring as much of the state as possible, and thoroughly enjoying myself. I can’t believe this internship ends in about a month. Until next time.

After a lull in collecting, we are at it again, this time with late season Eriogonum species (elatum and strictum), yellow rabbitbrush, and hoary tansyaster. We also are going to do a second collection of Erigonum umberllatum found from a late-blooming population up high. During my time here as a CLM intern I really have gained an appreciation for the rough-and-tough, grow-nearly-everywhere nature of buckwheats. From scorching desert rock outcrops to wind-whipped alpine tundra, from the ashes of recently burned areas to gravel substrate at a 65° slope, buckwheats prevail. This genus not only colonizes and thrives in areas other plants may be too picky, or too “high maintenance” for, but it is one of the most important plants to have around for beneficial insects, and it helps suppress weeds. My mentor recently found a paper published this past May elaborating on how fantastic buckwheats are for conservation, restoration, and pollination. You can read it here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1603/EN13342

I guess my love for buckwheats is a living metaphor for my love of the West.

Growing up in Colorado I may have taken the breathtaking mountains, the sweet, but bitter-sharp smell of the aspens, and the laid-back warmth of the people for granted. It was really never until this summer, traveling between Idaho and Wyoming, spending every single weekend climbing, hiking, or exploring new towns and new wilderness that I realized how amazing and special the West truly is. Eriogonums to me are a symbol of the West—ever progressing, gloriously rugged, resilient, adventurous, and determined in spirit. Their spherical pom-pom inflorescence is like something only from fable and are often overlooked by most, but are sought after by those who realize their importance and character. My eyes have opened to the workhorse that the West is, much like the buckwheat, and how important public land—just like the buckwheat—is to conservation and restoration and producing resources. So here is a sticker-clad worn water bottle toast to buckwheats and to the spirit of the West, and may both ever endure…

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act being signed into congress, here are a few photos from my past two weekends: This is El Capitan above Alice Lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness

Did an awesome 21 mile backpacking trip through the Alice/Toxaway loop in the Sawtooth Wilderness with Joe, our mentor, and Zander. The moon was so bright, it was the first time we had experienced moon-shadows!

Over labor-day weekend I explored the Absarokas in Wyoming. This is on the way up to Franc’s peak–the highest point.

Elk hunting in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness by the WY/MT border outside Yellowstone. Really trying not to get eaten by a Grizzly.

The Panorama view from Sleeping Bear Peak in the Absarokas. This time I was trying to see Grizzlies at a moth site

With our SOS goals met and exceeded, field season is finally coming to a close. At the end of August, we traveled to the remote town of McGrath to make our final SOS collections via helicopter. Three days and forty-two collections later, we met our 70-collection quota for the season! Upon returning to Anchorage, the following week was spent digitizing and organizing data, and on Thursday we sent our seed off to the Plant Materials Center in Palmer for cleaning and processing. Since then, we’ve been mounting vouchers more or less constantly.

Floodplains just west of McGrath

Nomex and voucher-material-collecting

The panoramic vista from our collection site at Mystery Mountain

Polygonal tundra!

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Last week, I joined a handful of folks from the BLM Anchorage office, The Kuskokwim Corporation (a Native corporation), and the Army Corps of Engineers on a trip to Red Devil Mine. Red Devil Mine is a retired cinnabar mining facility is currently being rehabilitated by the BLM. Thus far, engineers have rerouted Red Devil Creek so as to minimize contamination from old pilings. My task was to collect seed and to scout for potential next-season SOS collections so that local seed sources will be available when the project reaches the revegetation stage.

Cinnabar! Presumably the namesake of the village, too.

On Thursday, we leave for our final stint with the NRCS Soil/EcoSite Survey crews. This time we’re headed up to the village of Central, which lies about 100mi NE of Fairbanks, and with the Alaskan Autumn already in full swing, it promises to be a chilly stint indeed.

Immersing myself in Alaska’s autumn ochre while backpacking in Kachemak Bay State Park

All in all, it’s been a wonderfully productive field season. I’m sad to see the long days fade, but I’m excited for the season of winter sports and kitschy sweaters to commence!

Until our return from Central,
BB

Trees!

Rain!

I’ve officially spent multiple days in the two things that make me happiest!

Look! Trees! In the distance! Soothes my displaced PNW soul.

Grand Tetons, looking across Jenny Lake. So dramatic and beautiful if really quite cold.

Fall seems to have hit Wyoming early this year. Suddenly, attempting to make our last few seed collections is becoming difficult. We should have had a natural lull between our grasses and forbs and our shrubs but now we struggle just to get into the field. Everything is too sodden. Constant rain and thunderstorms have practically stopped all field work (well, thunderstorms and my sinus infection; goodbye 2-year, illness-free streak). Can’t have soaked, moldy seeds and can’t drive on clay roads in the rain. Can’t really function with your head on the floor or feeling like it should be although you swear you’re sitting upright.

However, as our mentor likes to say “the seeds come first.” So, in the last weeks we’ve finished 18 collections, have one partially complete, all data sheets are up-to-date and all information is written in standardized format, half our collections are shipped, and everything is verified. Now, if it will only pause in the unseasonable rain and let us finish our last Psoralidium lanceolatum, Elymus elmoides, Geranium richardsonii, both our Krascheninnikovia lanata, and both our Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus collections we will only have to wait for our Artemisia collections and we will be done!

I do love grey, stormy weather, I do love rain, but this is August. I just want to finish those collections so we can help with new projects. For example: next week we get a rare break to take two days to help the fisheries biologist survey Muddy Creek, an area of special interest as it is prime habitat for four fish species endemic to the Colorado Basin; Colorado River cutthroat, bluehead sucker, flannelmouth sucker, and roundtail chub. Coal and natural gas development in the area cause huge amounts of waste water that has not always been properly disposed of, often making its way into the riparian system. Agricultural runoff, grazing, and a naturally high sediment load further stress this watershed. Finally, invasive species prey upon and have begun hybridizing with the native species. I really just want to get back to some solid hydrology work. I miss working survey and hydro and I’m pretty stoked to get to learn a new protocol and help with a new project.

Outside work, I spend most of my time trying to find ways to stay sane. Sometimes, sanity is really difficult to find and to keep in a place like Rawlins, WY. So, I run away on weekends. Or I dog sit. Dog sitting is good. I don’t have to stay at the barracks. I get to breathe for a second when I dog sit. I also get a lot of free salmon, antelope steaks, white tail burgers, white tail tenderloin, and ground elk. I never ate much meat before coming here but this is different. This is all sustainably hunted and processed, hormone-free, fantastic, tender, game meat. Shoot, never thought I’d say or write such a thing: I get paid in meat. Ha!

I also ramble, I knew that though. Here, pretty flower pictures! Cool bugs!

Scarlet Gilia, Prospect Creek Road, S of Riverside off 230 E toward CO.

Geranium richardsonii, Prospect Creek Road.

I also apparently forgot to hit the “submit for review” button so this is now quite late. Whoops!

BLM Rawlins, WY