We’ve returned from Central in one piece, and it was definitely an interesting stint. We were out in the field from September 11-22, which proved to be well into the Alaskan autumn. When we arrived, the birch leaves were aglow in all their ochre glory, and by the time we left, the trees were bare and the flurries were falling.

Central, as seen from the helicopter

It was a bit challenging (and admittedly sometimes frustrating) to ID Salix spp. that lacked catkins entirely, and sometimes with senescing leaves.

Mornings were often in the mid- to lower-20s (Fahrenheit), and midday rarely exceeded the mid-60s. It was a dream come true. And, to add to the whimsicality of it all, I saw my first aurora borealis!

But the wonder doesn’t stop there. The ranges surrounding Central — the White Mountains, the Crazy Mountains, the Victoria Mountains, etc– are interesting because that region of Alaska was never glaciated. Thus, the rolling topography there hasn’t been scoured by glacial retreat or carved into arrêtés and valleys. It isn’t the scenery one typically envisions when imagining Alaska, but its shrub-dwarf/lichen expanses are majestic in their own right.

Still, there remain many exciting things ahead in our final 90 hours as CLM interns. Today we checked the final box on our SOS-organizing checklist (at least from the herbarium end), and our vouchers are on their way to the Smithsonian (and to Fairbanks) as I type.

And, at the end of this month, there will be not one but TWO conferences at which to publicly botanize! The first is the Alaska Invasive Species Conference, for which Katie, our co-intern in Fairbanks, will be visiting! The second is the 2014 Alaska Botanical Forum, at which Charlotte and I will be presenting on our CLM adventures. Good stuff, no?

Hope all is well in the lower 48!

BB

Today would have been my official last day of the five month internship, but luckily I am here for 6 months and possibly more thanks to the princess sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata var. wyomingensis and A. cana). One of the big goals of this internship, according to my mentor, is to acquire huge sagebrush collections and since seeds won’t be ready until November sometime, I get to wait until they do. And according to all the rumors, they are late bloomers this year; they are just so special.

The sagebrush seeds will hopefully be used for restoration projects; I am hoping for crested conversion fields and other weed-infested plots of land where straight up broadcasting of seeds wouldn’t be enough. The plan is to grow up seeds so that 2-3 year old plants can be transplanted (by willing volunteers). I wish I could stay on to see this come into fruition. Although I may not be here for that, I did recently get to observe and take part a little in the second process after seed collecting; the growing. The BLM has a partnership with Special K Ranch, a working community for high functioning adults with mental disabilities. It turns out for the past several years they have been able to help out BLM offices in Montana with the space and labor it takes to grow up seedlings for restoration projects.

I met up with some folks from the Dillon and Missoula field offices as well as Wendy, our state botanist, who heads up this partnership and cheerfully describes it as her rogue operation.  I was amazed to see an entire greenhouse filled with 2 year old baby sagebrush plants, which actually were destined to be transplanted by a MCC crew this fall in northern Montana. Woohoo! So good to see stuff getting done. Not only were there sagebrush, but a few river birch and other wetland plants to be used for riparian stabilization next year. They, too, were collecting seeds at the ranch, although from grow-out plants (so they were at least all in one easy to get to place) the fall forbs being some asters such as Prairie coneflower (Ratibida columnifera) and Hairy golden aster (Heterotheca villosa). I left after helping lay out a weed cloth for next year’s garden (it’s expanding!) feeling refreshed and inspired by the wonderful people and the wonderful work they are doing.

I recently was granted another opportunity to interact with the public outside of BLM. I volunteered for the 7^th grade science teacher at the local junior high school to help with a river monitoring field trip at the local Big Spring Creek. This was an amazing science experiment that the teacher, Mr. Paulson, had been conducting for the past 22 years! Measuring things like stream depth, velocity, macroinvertebrates, dissolved oxygen content, total phosphorus and nitrogen, and total fecal coliform, his science class has collected a fairly good amount of historical data. Not only have they collected the data, but their findings have been used to make important changes. One year when the total fecal coliform levels were extra high, they brought it to the attention of the town who quickly found out there was a sewage leak that had gone undetected.

I got to play the part of resident “scientist” for the day and perform the chemistry tests with some of the students. I have to say, I was really nervous at first not having dealt with 7^th graders in a while, but they were surprisingly fascinated by what we were doing, were really fun, and super well-behaved thanks to their teacher.  If there are seeds left in the next couple of weeks, I plan on taking the students out for another hands-on experience to help me with seed collecting (yes! Free labor!).

These past few opportunities along with working at the BLM have allowed me to explore a few different avenues within science/botany, since I’m not totally sure if working for the BLM is for me. Although, now that I see there can be more to the BLM than policies and NEPA documents, maybe it is.

A few random photos because I didn’t take any of what I talked about.

In the North Moccasin Mountains

Bugling elk at the Missouri River Breaks, and yes, I did take this picture with my phone.

Theodore Roosevelt statue at TR National Park in ND

A prairie dog t-shirt found at the local sports store

I have now finished my work as a Conservation Land Management intern for the BLM Bishop Field Office. In the 2014 field season I successfully completed the target amount of 15 seed collections. This was probably my favorite task for the season. I was given the independence to scout over an approximately 750,000 acre area and make my own decisions on what to collect and when. This project helped me to improve my individual organization of field notes, data, photographs, and voucher specimens. It was also perhaps the most official work I have been a part of; this gave me a great sense of pride in what I was doing, especially when it came time to submit all of my vouchers to The Smithsonian. I feel honored to have been a part of the Seeds of Success program.

Sage grouse are a topic of major concern in the Bishop Field Office; which contains a majority of the population and habitat for the distinct population segment of the Greater sage-grouse, which is currently a candidate for listing on the Federal Threatened/Endangered Species Act. I was tasked with measuring vegetation monitoring plots at sage-grouse nest sites, one of the top three priorities for the field office. These plots are a thorough method of observing vegetation specifics in and around birds that nested this year. Data collection involved locating the nest site; which required driving many miles on rough dirt roads, hiking off-trail through dense shrub covered hills, and finding the nest itself upon arrival. Reading these plots called for the following of a strict protocol. After becoming familiar with the protocol by working with my mentor, I was able to lead a volunteer in data collection. It was a good feeling to be given this responsibility. Similar to gathering nest plot data for sage-grouse, I also completed or established post fire vegetation monitoring plots and riparian condition monitoring transects. For theses plots I was also given the responsibility of leading a volunteer or co-worker.

I worked on many other projects over the course of the season as well: rare plant surveys, invasive plant survey/treatment, sage-grouse radio telemetry tracking, boundary marking for fuels reduction treatments, bat-surveys, educational youth outreach, stream restoration construction, herbicide spray treatment vegetation transects, greenhouse construction, baseline wilderness survey, and many more. It has been an inspiring and engaging field season filled with personal development and skill building. I knew coming in to this internship that I had been offered an amazing opportunity, and it has gone above and beyond my expectations. My mentor, Martin, and I got along exceptionally well, and he truly is someone I aspire to be like. Thus I have been offered the chance to return next season, I have proudly excepted and am already anxious to build upon all that I learned this year. Until then it will be Tamarisk removal all day, everyday. Preserve the good, remove the bad is now my season to season dichotomy. I would highly recommend the Conservation Land Management internship to anyone looking to expand their relationship and appreciation for public lands. Thank you to the Chicago Botanic Garden for supporting such a meaningful and productive program.

Tyler

Greetings all,

I spent the previous five weeks walking the desert surveying for rare plants. As I’ve mentioned before, I was doing surveys for rare plants on areas where herbicide treatments intended to restore grassland in areas that have been converted to shrubland through grazing as part of the Restore New Mexico program. In my previous posts on the subject, I’ve mostly talked about Peniocereus greggii, partly because that is all I was finding and partly because that is all I expected to find. However, since then we’ve found the other, and much more exciting, of our target species: Pediomelum pentaphyllum, a.k.a. Chihuahuan scurfpea, a.k.a. (for those who like USDA codes) PEPE27!

Pediomelum pentaphyllum is quite rare. As of 2008, there were a grand total of two known populations, one near the small community of Sunizona in southeastern Arizona and one in Hachita Valley in southwestern New Mexico. In 2010, a third population was found, southeast of Safford in southeastern Arizona. These three populations gave us a total of around 2,000 known individuals. There are also historical records from additional sites in southeastern Arizona, northern Chihuahua, and, maybe, western Texas. However, searches to rediscover these additional populations have failed, and none of them have been seen in the last 50 years. Maybe they’re still out there, who knows?

That western Texas record is a story in itself. A specimen was collected during the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey in 1853, but the locality is very uncertain. The specimen’s label says it was collected “chiefly in the Valley of the Rio Grande, below Doñana”. A note anonymously handwritten in pencil says “Fields nr the Presidio del Norte, August, Presidio Co., Texas”. This presents multiple problems: Doña Ana (in southern New Mexico) and Presidio del Norte (now called Ojinaga) are 240 miles apart; Ojinaga is in Chihuahua, Mexico, not Texas (although of course “fields near” Ojinaga might be in Texas); we have no idea where that “Fields nr the Presidio del Norte” locality comes from or on what basis we should take it to be accurate. That last problem turns out to be relatively easily solved. The “Presidio del Norte” locality comes from the Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. We’re still left with the first two problems and no good way to resolve them. I’ve encountered this kind of confusion before; specimens from the boundary survey have one locality on the specimen label and a different locality in the report and you don’t know which one (if any) is correct. So far as I can tell, locality information on boundary survey specimens just isn’t particularly reliable. So, we don’t know if that specimen came from New Mexico, Texas, or Chihuahua and it is our only basis for believing Pediomelum pentaphyllum has ever been seen in Texas. Ugh. By the way, you can see this specimen for yourself:

It’s amazing how easily things like this can be tracked down these days. The report is online, a photograph of the specimen is online, it’s all right there! I’m still left with an irritating uncertainty, but at least it didn’t take me weeks of waiting for letters back and forth and schlepping things from the library.

OK, back to Pediomelum pentaphyllum. It’s rare, and most of the surveys for it have come up empty-handed. I did a couple of weeks of surveying back in 2010, for instance, during which I did not see a single individual except for a few at the Hachita Valley population to familiarize myself with the species at a known population. More extensive surveys for the Restore New Mexico program in 2012 had the same result. For this year’s surveys, I basically expected that we’d get to wander around in the desert for a few weeks, see some wonderful places, put a couple hundred miles on our shoes, and not see any Pediomelum pentaphyllum. So it took a while for me to believe what I was seeing when I stumbled across the first one:

And another:

And another:

By the end of the day, the crew and I had found 29 of them. By the end of the survey, we had found about 270 across an area about 8 miles long and 2 miles wide northwest of Lordsburg on Lordsburg Mesa. Now we have four known, extant populations of Pediomelum pentaphyllum. This should also help us determine what habitat it likes. Our new population was in looser, dunier sand than the previously known populations, in Prosopis glandulosa / Atriplex canescens / Artemisia filifolia shrubland with a number of sand specialist plants that are uncommon in the area, including Amaranthus acanthochiton, Heliotropium convolvulaceum, Chamaesyce parryi, and Dalea lanata var. terminalis. Conveniently his habitat is fairly easy to spot on aerial imagery, so I’ve put together a list of similar areas to check. Maybe we can find a fifth population!

Some of the Pediomelum pentaphyllum was in flower, too, allowing me finally to get a good series of photographs of it:

Other notable events in the field surveys:

First, I had the best field crew ever. Seriously, these folks were awesome. Here’s one of them (Jeanne Tenorio) taking notes Pediomelum pentaphyllum:

Second, we found a lot more Peniocereus greggii as well. I’ll spare you all the photos of them… at least for now.

Third, we found a bunch of other uncommon species, including four that are new records for Luna County, New Mexico: Simsia lagasceiformis, Mortonia scabrella, Ipomoea cardiophylla, and Anoda pentaschista. I also got to photograph a half-dozen species I hadn’t photographed before.

Fourth, we got stuck in the mud a couple more times. I forgot to take a picture of the first one, but here’s the second:

That’s the Mexican border at the left. On the border road, they’ve put in concrete blocks through the muddier parts and I was hoping these would be shallow enough that we wouldn’t just sink into the mud. I was wrong. Luckily, we had two vehicles and the second could quickly pull us out.

Hello all,

I was recently asked to help law enforcement with a marijuana clean-up in Clear Creek which is located in Central California. Clear Creek was an awesome experience, especially because not many people are allowed to go into the management area due to the naturally occurring high levels of asbestos.

From Fort Ord (Monterey Bay) it took about 3 hours to reach the gate to Clear Creek, and the road leading up to it had not been well maintained which made for a rough ride. We finally made it, however, and the BLM Ranger I was riding with got his gear ready as we waited for the rest of the team to show up. There were three clean up sites that had already had the marijuana removed but our job was to remove tubing (used for irrigation) and trash from the camp.

The rest of the team showed up, including another BLM range and a Department of Fish and Wildlife officer. Our team leader handed us a packet with information on how to execute the clean up; it was surreal to be involved in a project like this even though I am not a member of law enforcement.

After receiving our assignments, we proceeded to the opening of the grow site and waited for the helicopter, or “bird” as they called it, to show up. Once the rangers established communication with the bird, they dropped two more army personnel to assist with the clean up. Watching a helicopter land in a very small clearing like that was a really cool sight to see.

The trail was steep and our progress was slow-going as we scrambled down the trail to the heart of the site. I was required to stay behind everyone else, because I was the only person without a gun. They had done a flyby the previous day and hadn’t spotted anyone, so I wasn’t too worried about it anyways. We finally reached the grow site, and there was trash everywhere: cans, toilet paper, razors, ramen noodles, plastic…the list could go on and on. After I gathered the trash, the helicopter dropped two nets to collect it (this is the way the trash had to be removed due to the remoteness). This whole process was a rather shocking experience: the helicopter gets really low, its wind blows everything into your face, your hat flies off, and you feel like the “bird” and/or the nets are gonna fall right on top of you. Thankfully, they didn’t fall on top of us, and we quickly filled the nets with all the trash, and I learned how to hook them to the helicopter so they could be carried off. It was a lot of work, but it was also an awesome experience.

Until the next fun adventure,
Manny

At approximately 8:30 AM the challenge was accepted. The players: two Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists, two Alaska State Wildlife Troopers, one safety officer, one BLM wildlife biologist and two interns. The stage: Chicken Ridge and surrounding area. The foes: careless and conniving hunters, egregious crimes against sportsmanship, testicle-less caribou. The departure time: 10:00 AM. YIKES. FRANTIC PACKING. TRIP PLAN. STOP FOR BREATH. FOOD ACQUISITION. Six hours later our heroes arrive to the Chicken Field Station. They rest their weary heads and prepare for several days of sore legs, thumb cramps, tight backs, caribou blood and hunter’s tales. Day 1: Teams assembled and assignments handed out. ADF&G (Jeff, Bob) along with BLM (Ruth) will patrol the road from Dead Man’s Corner (where last year a hunter took his last breaths in his truck parked on the side of the road—breaking character to tell you that this is actually a true story, troopers drove past this guy several times before becoming suspicious enough to check it out…inside the found, you guessed it, a dead guy) to the Y and everywhere in between. Male Trooper (Russ) and Intern #1 (Steve) will head to the border. Female Trooper (Maggie), safety officer (Leo) and Intern #2 (Katie) will take on Chicken Ridge Trail. All teams mount their trusty 4-wheeled steeds and speed off into the wilderness. Dawn breaks above Chicken (ok, it was actually 9:30 AM, this part exaggerated for effect). Our story follows team 3. Thumbs primed, hand warmers engaged, spines sturdy, team 3 tears up Chicken Ridge Trail in search of transgressing hunters. Quad wheels grip dirt and gravel, splash through puddles, climb treacherous hills, tilt sideways against mountain sides and traverse ridges. In past years chaos has reigned—antlers abound, tattling sportsmen, echoing gunshots, a blood bath, a meat market. This year however, all is quiet. Merely the grumbling of whiny hunters and the groan of four-wheeler engines giving up on the hunt after only a few hours. Skies are blue and views are gorgeous as the crew progresses along the ridge, branching out to investigate side paths, cruising up and down streams (as intern #2’s environmentalist soul cries for the gas and other chemicals leaked into the clear water). With no crimes to avenge, the group merely investigates camped hunters and chats with them about weather and lack of caribou. As the day progresses, weather takes a turn for the cold along the highest ridgeline. Hail strikes the enforcement team and nearly puts holes through their exposed noses. Views remain beautiful. The weary and unfulfilled team crawls to the farthest extent of the trail then and turns around, pounding pavement back to the field station. End of day: 10 PM. Day 2: Teams prepare for another uneventful day. The only intel: caribou between Chicken and Birch Creek, up to 80 miles away. Our crew again speeds off towards Chicken Ridge. Today the sights are similar: whining hunters and a parade of ATVs giving up after mere hours of effort. “Where are the caribou?!” demand the hunters. “How could Fish and Game do this to us? We took off work for this!” exclaim the whiners. The team forges on and is rewarded for their perseverance: two sets of caribou antlers float towards us atop mounds of camping and hunting supplies. Their owners slow their ATVs and prepare to be inspected by State Trooper #2. Conversation ensues, meat is unpacked and inspected, antlers are measured and… what’s this?! A testicle-less caribou is presented. Under state law failure to provide proof of sex (both male and female caribou have antlers) is grounds for a fine and confiscation of the animal. Trooper #2 explains this to hunter #2 while hunter #1 rudely sidesteps questions and barks at us to hurry up. Hunter #2 immediately turns sour and explains that he is on probation and will surely go to jail if ticketed. Trooper #2 holds strong and writes the citation. The hunters pack up and ride, grumbling, away. Later in the evening the plot thickens. Other hunters tell of a fellow sportsman who has had his fishing and hunting guiding licenses suspended numerous times for foul play (baiting animals, running business under wife’s name while suspended etc.). Said sportsman is currently on probation. Said sportsman just rode off with caribou antlers on his wheeler and an accomplice. Said sportsman left much of his caribou meat at the kill site (another citation, hunters are required to harvest as much meat as possible—leaving neck and rib meat is not acceptable). After writing a sad, albeit lessened, citation to a young Guatemalan woman who shot her first caribou while possessing the wrong hunting permit (an honest mistake) the team splits up. Intern #2 heads back to the field station around 7:00 PM. Trooper #2 and safety officer prepare for another 5 hours of work. They ride off further along the trail, return to the kill site, inspect the left behind meat, finish cleaning the animal and haul all the wasted meat out, returning to the field station at midnight. The meat is weighed and it appears justice will be served to the shady huntsman. Day 3: Mission called to lack of activity. End Scene In all seriousness, hunt monitoring was an extremely interesting experience. Most of the hunters we talked to were very nice and had admirable goals of shooting caribou honestly, harvesting the meat correctly and enjoying the prize with friends and family. Some were less friendly. All though, had an irritating sense of entitlement about hunting. This specific caribou hunt takes place in and around Chicken in September. It opens on a certain day and closes whenever a set quota of caribou is met. Often the hunt only lasts a few days and sometimes it is over in a day. This is because hunters swarm the area and pick off caribou from the trail as they migrate through in a large herd. In past years it has been absolute chaos with gun shots ricocheting everywhere, caribou falling all over the place, and arguments abound among hunters. Altogether way too easy of a hunt agree the staff from Fish and Game, BLM and Law Enforcement. F&G, who organize the hunt, say it is a wonder no one has been shot. Because of this precedent, hunters are used to coming in at 8 AM, setting up a small camp and having a caribou shot and cleaned in time to have lunch and head out—easy. This year, when that didn’t happen, all hell broke loose in a different way—a cacophony of complaints. They feel entitled to a caribou rather than privileged to be able to take part in the hunt. I certainly don’t pretend to know much about hunting but this attitude seemed wrong to me. Hunting is a sport that should require skill and patience. In other news, I spent this past week teaching wildlife ecology to 7^th graders at the Lost Lake Outdoor Camp.  It was an absolutely wonderful, exhausting and rewarding experience.  I loved getting to know, impart knowledge to and have meaningful conversations with the middle schoolers and they constantly surprised me with their passion and creativity—especially since I was expecting lots of apathy and attitude.  The camp taught me lots about how to translate my knowledge so that it can be shared in a fun and meaningful way to others.  Having never been to camp myself, I was excited to finally have this experience and help make it magical for the kiddos. Back in the office I am slowly working my way through a leaning tower of unidentified pressed plant specimens dating as far back as 2006.  Lots of hours spent with me, myself, my tunes and my scope.  In all honesty though, I enjoy the challenge and puzzle of plant ID—although I will admit the pile of grasses and sedges remains largely untouched…  After identifying plants, I am mounting them for filing in our office’s small herbarium.  This part of the process is a wonderful creative outlet. Peace, Love and Botany Katie O. Fairbanks

Our steeds for the week.

Hunt monitoring=long hours. Dusk along Chicken Ridge Trail.

Stopping two of the very few successful hunters to inspect their kills.

View from along Chicken Ridge Trail

The collection season is continuing in full swing in Farmington helped along by recent heavy rains. This past weekend it rained more than an inch in less than 24 hours! If that doesn’t sound like a lot, consider that this area only gets about 8 inches of precipitation in an entire year.

Last week we were fortunate enough to take a camping trip up to Disappointment and Big Gypsum Valleys in Colorado where we were able to make four collections over two days.

Disappointment Valley, Colorado. The purple flower is Machaeranthera tanacetafolia (Tansyleaf tansyaster), a target species for SOS Collections in the Colorado Plateau!

A few weekends ago we climbed Hesperus Mountain! Although we didn’t summit, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery. As we were leaving, it began raining, producing many rainbows and a perfect Polaroid moment with the stunning stripes of the mountain and blazing yellow Aspen:

Hesperus Mountain, Colorado. The beauty of this place makes it easy to see why Hesperus is the Navajo People’s Sacred Mountain of the North (Dibé Ntsaa).

As many of you know, September 27th was National Public Lands Day. Farmington held a clean-up of several recreation areas near town. In total, we collected over 120 cubic yards of trash, including refrigerators, mattress, toilets, televisions and several dozen tires. We had a great public turnout for the event, including a 97-year-old, a volunteer who rode to the event on his donkey, as well as several people who scouted for trash from their dirt bikes.  As CLM interns, Hannah and I played our part by becoming Seymour Antelope, the BLM Mascot. We enjoyed our day out with the public as an antelope.

I transformed into Seymour Antelope for National Public Land Day!

Some authentic Seymours (Antilocapra americana) showed up to National Public Land Day as well. Photo credit: Tamara Faust

This particular volunteer was a little apprehensive to meet Seymour. Photo credit: Tamara Faust.

The smoke from the King Fire finally cleared up last week, and we can finally breathe easy. I’m from the Midwest, so I grew up around tornadoes and floods, not fire. I’ve never checked the weather forecast and seen “smokey” as an actual weather condition. It’s almost unbelievable that the King Fire burned tens of thousands of acres, and nearly 8,000 firefighters were fighting the fire. The cold front and recent rains from last weekend definetely helped in the containment of that fire. There are even snow capped mountains now, which is a lovely site.

The Carson City team finished up the last of our fire monitoring transects recently, and now we’re wrapping up the Fire Monitoring ESR reports.  The actual fire monitoring process was informative, as we learned a lot of new techniques used to measure soil stablility, perennial vegetation, and other things.  Writing up the reports helped me see the big picture, and I was able to actually visualize how the sites we monitored were recovering. We monitored about 10 fires over the summer. I will never forget lugging some of that gear around over hilly, rocky terrain, sometimes having to hike over a mile to reach the plots. We saw a lot of beautiful sites in the process, so it was worth it. That’s all from Carson City, right now. Peace!

The Changing of the Seasons

The seasons were teetering back and forth between Summer and Winter here in Buffalo, Wyoming. Since we were closer to the mountains we got an unusual fluctuation of temperatures. We had two snow falls already with a couple of Summers thrown into the mix. I think the trees were pretty confused so they were slowly losing their leaves while keeping a couple of branches of leaves for insurance purposes.

The seasonal weather forecast for this week in Buffalo, WY.

The Office Frontier

I am very busy in the office doing all kinds of data entry and organization! I am finally finished with DIMA data entry! WAHOO!!! \(O_O\) That took a couple of weeks to do. The other DIMA entry that Sara did would have been error checked by Jill and I. After completing the error checks, I worked on the comprehensive reports for the S&G sites as well as our allotment sites Sara and I monitored this year. The comprehensive report showed the percentages of soil surface, different types of litter, and plant composition. I had to work with Access and Excel for great lengths of time. If the office had some kind of badge system that the Boy Scouts have, I would have definitely got the Microsoft Excel Badge. These reports would be printed out and included with the allotment folders.

My next step was to create a large amount of allotment folders. I followed the BLM format and added my own twist with each of the allotment folders. I included two different scaled maps, a directional photosheet of the site, the comprehensive report, and all of our notes and recordings from the field. I love using my GIS skills and making the maps look like a work of art while maintaining all of the needed information to help guide future monitoring staff to the transect area. One of the days I had to use the crazy label maker…we did not leave on good terms, but the job was completed! (The label maker had a huge ego and required the finest of yellow labels.) I am almost done with all of the allotment folders and my office looks like a filing system met a tornado. I call my cubicle the organized chaos filing system prep room. ^_^;;

Other interesting jobs our bosses had us do were car checks/ maintenance and do recycling trips! Jill and I would go to different trucks and check for supplies, fluid levels, anything that needed to be fixed, and tire pressure. We would fill out a report and organize receipts to be submitted to one of the offices. Usually everyone would do this, but it is hunting season and many people were away. It was a great experience and I was able to use my car maintenance skills. Heather and I did the recycling runs and took two trips to deliver all of the recycled paper, cans, and cardboard. Now our office was squeaky clean!!

Bird Monitoring

One of the wildlife biologists, the BLM Legend Don, asked if I was interested in helping him out with a bird survey since I knew a lot about birds and could identify them by their calls. I was beyond excited and started nodding saying, “Yes. O_O” before he finished asking me. He invited all of the other interns and wildlife biologists to Welch Recreation Area! I brought two binoculars and my National Geographic Bird Guide for North America. We stopped every five hundred feet along the river trail for five minutes and recorded all the birds we saw or heard within the general area. We saw American Robin, Spotted Sandpiper, Black Billed Magpie, Canada Goose, House Wren, Great Blue Heron, Wood Duck, Mallard, Orange Crowned Warbler, Black Capped Chickadee, American Crow, Spotted Towhee, and Red Tailed Hawk. We were sort of disappointed, because we expected to see a lot more species. We did have a great experience and we walked through some cool sections of the Welch Recreation Area. One section had the Coal Creek Fire. This was a fire that kept on burning for a couple of years without being extinguished. You might be wondering, “Justin, How is this possible?” Well, there was a fire that sprawled across the prairie and came across some underground coal beds. The coal caught on fire and has been smoking for a couple of years now. I thought that was fascinating and a little horrible at the same time.

Seriously, when we were monitoring, Black Billed Magpies were everywhere!

On a side note, I have been bird watching all the time in the Buffalo/ Sheridan/ Bighorns/ Gillette region for the Summer. I expected to see a lot more species of birds, unfortunately I did not see a lot.  I saw 131 species, which was a pretty nice number. My favorite birds to watch were the Lazuli Bunting, Yellow Headed Blackbird, Mountain Bluebird, Red Crossbill, American Redstart, Lewis Woodpecker and the Burrowing Owl. I did not see a Mountain Plover, but they were definitely living in the area southeast of town according to many biologists and bird watchers. I did not care for the Eurasian Collared Dove, they always coo’ed at 4:00am in the morning and liked to relieve themselves on my car. :/ Overall, the bird watching experience in Buffalo, Wyoming has been tough, but rewarding. \(^_^)/

Top Five Invasive Plants in our Area

Every morning before work and during lunch time, I took time to read the updated CLM blogs. Yes, you all have a fan!! Even though I really do not comment, I find all of your blogs very VERY useful in identifying invasive and native species. I find it interesting how in different parts of the West, interns see different non-native or invasive plants. For example, some BLM offices in the West used Crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) with their seed mixes to help establish soil after intense fires. Some BLM offices swear by this plant calling this non-native a very good soil stabilizer and a good plant to help other native plants establish themselves. When I worked for Burns, Oregon last year for my internship, this grass was very useful and did not seem invasive at all. When I got to Buffalo, Wyoming, this grass was everywhere. Many mining and cattle ranching conglomerate companies used this grass and in some areas it looked like it is the only grass within a three miles radius with the exception of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus). I heard some people say that it was an invasive grass and that it was taking over, even though I thought this grass did not behave like that.

Anyways, I was thinking if people who have read this section in my blog, if they could comment what invasive plants were trouble for them in their office, I think that would be great and give people an interesting perspective of what invasive plants were in each field office district. Here was my list of the top five troublesome invasive for the Buffalo BLM Office.

5.)Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis)

4.)Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium)

3.) Russian Thistle (Kali/Salsola tragus)

2.) Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia esula)

1.) Cheatgrass and other Unwanted Brome (Bromus spp.)

0.) Special Honor goes to our invasive, yet native cactus species: the plains prickly pear (Opuntia polyacantha).

1.) Yellow Sweet Clover   2.) Scotch Thistle   3.) Prickly Russian Thistle                           Alright…I really did not have a good picture of a Scotch thistle…so I inserted the selfie I took with one. /)_-) Yes… I do take selfies with plants, especially orchids.

Misadventures: North by Northwest!

Yay!!! Time for a comp time vacation! I really needed to use my comp time…it was over 100 hours. <_< I decided to go with my parents up to Glacier National Park and to Alberta, Canada. I have been to Glacier National Park and it was beautiful, but I have never been to Alberta, Canada! Glacier National Park was closing down in a week and we decided to visit the park. We saw brilliant fall color, awesome geological formations, and a grizzly bear! We moved up into Canada afterwards. We went to the towns of Calgary and Edmonton. Both were thriving and growing cities of Canada. Within the last year, 40% of all growth in Canada was in Edmonton!  My parents and I visited the badlands of Drumheller, which reminded me a lot of the landscape east of Rapid City, SD and west of Tensleep, WY. One of my favorite parts of the trip was traveling to the Rockies west of Edmonton to Jasper National Park. There were blue alpine glaciers all over the place!!! The landscape, geology, the clay blue rivers, the animals, yellow aspen, the flora, the eroded canyons and clouds were…incredible. O_O…….O_O I think my mouth was open most of the time, because I was in awe of everything. The ice fields in the south entrance of the park had the most glaciers and I was able to walk up to one!! This trip was amazing and I had a lot of fun!…Now back to work!! 😉

A sample of what I saw in Canada. \(^_^)/

Season Finale!

What!? Already???? Man, this internship flew right by. My next blog entry will be the Season Finale! I will talk about what I have learned, seen, and did on my Buffalo, Wyoming internship. Lost stories, comics, gifs, and other tidbits will be included.

And Now….Your Moment of Zen…

Very Zen…much beauty…such fall color…wow!

Howdy Folks,

The last few weeks in the Mojave have been an exciting and productive time for me. Following the monsoon rains we had in July and August, large populations of annual plants appeared and flowered all over our field office. As we have moved into early fall, many of those populations have been producing and dispersing seeds, which means that there has been plenty of seed collecting for me to do. And that is a good thing.

He’s a little shy

But this blog will not be about seed collecting. The temperature has been dropping for the last few weeks (Hallelujah!), and as it gets cooler the plants have certainly been reacting, but they are not the only ones. The cooler weather has also caused an increase in activity for one of the Mojave Desert’s very charismatic reptiles: Desert Tortoises!

Mojave Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) are a Federally Threatened species. So they receive much management attention in the Needles Field Office. Earlier this summer, I was able to go out on a tortoise-monitoring trip. We used radio-telemetry to track down and record data from tortoises (more affectionately called “torts”) that had already been tagged with a radio transmitter. Quite the fun trip.

This is a tortoise shell. I think it is rather beautiful.

But that is not quite as satisfying as finding tortoises on your own, so I have been thrilled to find five of them in the last three weeks! After the hot summer, during which the tortoises are fairly inactive, the cooler fall gives them a chance to spend more time searching for food before they head underground to hibernate through the winter. So the time is now for me to find them, and the tortoises have delivered. I’ve seen big adults, an adorable baby, and I even had to rescue a tortoise that was trying to cross a highway. It has been great.

“Hmm, if I walk really fast, could I make it to the other side?”

The Desert Tortoise is one of the most unique desert critters that I’ve seen in my time out here. Their appearance is probably familiar to you: a long neck with a beaked head on the end, thick scaly legs, and a hard, high-domed shell. The torts here in the Mojave can grow up to about 15 pounds and 15-inches long. I have heard stories about the impressive ages that tortoises can reach, perhaps even surpassing a century. 100 seems to be out of reach for the Desert Tortoises here, but they can get very old, living for more than 50 years in the wild, and perhaps approaching 80 in captivity. That may still be long enough to outlive me.

A baby tort. So cute.

Tortoises have earned a fabled reputation as patient and deliberate creatures. That characterization is certainly appropriate. The tortoises I’ve seen have been content to take their time slowly ambling along the desert floor, unhurriedly taking in the shrubs and rocks that surround them. I think it is delightful to watch an animal moving at such a unique pace. I should mention, however, that they can turn the speed up a little bit. We have three tortoises that are kept at our field office, and when you have food the torts often will push the gas pedal all the way down and “run” to you. It is quite the sight.

Until next time,

-Steve

Needles Field Office, BLM