Snow has descended upon the interior of Alaska, effectively halting all botany related field work. Flowers have long gone, rose hips shrivel on branches, and the kaleidoscopic fall leaves have browned and fallen and been covered in white.

Sad rose hip

For me this means I am now huddled up in my office getting cozy with ArcMap, my microscope, and Holy Hultén (the Alaska botanists bible).

Holy Hulten. ‘Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories.’ Decorated by my predecessor.

Since we last spoke I have helped service waysides on the Elliott Highway in the snow, attended a Fire Science Workshop, participated in a two day field office NEPA training and paid a fall visit to Denali.  NEPA training was an excellent opportunity to learn more about NEPA (obviously), but also to learn about how the process actually occurs on the ground and how field offices organize their leadership structure and communicate with one another.  An unexpectedly awesome crash course in communication.

Fred Blixt Cabin along the Elliott Highway

Denali fall scenery

Denali grizzly up close and personal

Currently I am working on wrapping up field work and data from this summer, and planning for next summer. I am organizing and analyzing NISIMS data collected this summer, working on a Strategic Plan for invasive plant management in the Fortymile area, scouting locations for Boreal Owl and Tree Swallow nest boxes for a project, gathering data on raptor nest locations along the Fortymile River to plan for raptor monitoring next summer and keying lots of grasses.  Although I am sad that field work has ceased, I am excited to get to learn more about the entire process that takes place at the office: from data collection, to analysis, to resource management planning and execution.  My plant ID skills have improved considerably after working through a large stack of un-keyed specimens. I’m also really digging into ArcMap for many of these projects and sharpening my GIS skills immensely.  Participating in the Strategic Plan and NEPA discussions has given me an appreciation of what all goes into making informed decisions in a multiple-use agency.

12-Headache torture device, er, microscope
13-Grass waiting to be keyed. Curse you grasses
14-Plant mounted on paper for the herbarium. Cerastium maximum (hopefully)
*(excerpt from office tour)

This weekend I will be travelling to Anchorage to attend an Invasive Species Conference and meet up with my Anchorage CLM counterparts Bonnie and Charlotte!

also: AURORA BOREALIS

All the best from Alaska,

Katie