Having a blast seed sucking

Time has really flown. I feel like I have seen every season Montana has to offer; from the blazing mid summer heat to the frigid sub-zero temperatures coupled with ceaseless winds. I have learned so much about the Northwestern Great Plains and I have really grown fond of them. I came in knowing nothing about the plants of this area, but working with many range people and other experts in botany, these plants have become my family. This internship has been challenging at times; I did feel like I was thrown into this seed collecting project on my own, and it was a little daunting.  I knew nothing about these plants and I was worried that it may very well take me a summer to learn them all, let alone know when their seeds will be ripe. Luckily, my mentor had faith that I would complete it and do it well, and I’d like to think I actually did alright. I began to realize that I was surrounded by smart, kind, helpful people and that was something I got better at; asking others for help and offering up my help so I could learn from them. So that is my advice to new interns; ask a lot of questions and don’t be afraid to sound stupid because you are still an intern, you’re allowed to be. I am so thankful to have met so many wonderful people who work hard at managing these lands whose jobs are never ending and thankless. I haven’t yet decided if I’d want to continue working with the BLM, but I do know that this internship confirmed my passion for plants and allowed me to look at plants in terms of how they relate to animals and the people that use the land.
Thank you Chicago Botanic Garden for this opportunity, it has been swell.

snow!

It seems like only yesterday that I made my perilous journey out west, braving hazardous weather conditions in our tiny BMW and Penske truck full of furniture.  It was a little difficult finding a way out here. I have a little boy, who is now 5. He, my boyfriend, and I moved all the way across the country. My boyfriend had to attain permission to work remotely from his company in Chicago, and I had to find my son a new school. There was a lot to consider, but I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door and gain new jobs skills, so my family supported me, and I am very grateful to them for that.  I remember finally arriving, and being taken back by the new and different landscape that laid before me.  I wasn’t used to the desert, let alone alone mountains.

I knew nothing about the vegetation in the Great Basin in the beginning, I hardly knew how to identify sagebrush. However, as time progressed, my botanical skills became stronger, and I was able to indentify most flora on sight.  Trips to the University of Nevada Reno herbarium helped me to improve my taxonomy skills, as well as my verification skills. When fire season began, I picked up on many new protocols and also builded on my growing botanical skills. I really enjoyed conducting education outreach events as well. It was great to share my knowledge with the general public and the youth, and it was great to see their curiosity and enthusiasm. I have seen some breath taking sights out west, and those memories will remain in my memories forever.

I’ve met some great people from all over the country, and other countries for that matter. We are all now going our seperate ways, and it’s a little sad, but it is also a new begininning. I have gained many skills through this internship, and hopefully this will assist me in finding the perfect job in the perfect place.

“Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”

In light of the approaching holiday season and the conclusion of my internship I have written a song, with the help of the other interns, to summarize my internship. I have tried to incorporate parts of all of the major aspects of my internship; my time was divided mostly into SOS collections and fire monitoring. Our field work contained many adventures with rugged mountain roads, wildlife, and inclement weather. I am thankful for the great opportunities this internship program has given me to gain professional work experience and skills. I will be leaving Carson City, NV at the end of the week with fond memories and ambition to further my career as a botanist!

12 Days of Seed Collecting (to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas)

On the first day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
A plant press in a juniper tree.

On the second day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the third day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the fourth day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the fifth day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Five ER-NA*
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the sixth day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Six cows a grazin’
Five ER-NA
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the seventh day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Seven sage a seedin’
Six cows a grazin’
Five ER-NA
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the eighth day of seed collecting
Eight interns camping
Seven sage a seedin’
Six cows a grazin’
Five ER-NA
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the ninth day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Nine weeds a mappin’
Eight interns camping
Seven sage a seedin’
Six cows a grazin’
Five ER-NA
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the tenth day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Ten fires finished
Nine weeds a mappin’
Eight interns camping
Seven sage a seedin’
Six cows a grazin’
Five ER-NA
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the eleventh day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Eleven roads a washed out
Ten fires finished
Nine weeds a mappin’
Eight interns camping
Seven sage a seedin’
Six cows a grazin’
Five ER-NA
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree.

On the twelfth day of seed collecting
My mentor gave to me:
Twelve PVC pipes
Eleven roads a washed out
Ten fires finished
Nine weeds a mappin’
Eight interns camping
Seven sage a seedin’
Six cows a grazin’
Five ER-NA
Four pruning sheers
Three soil samples
Two GPSs
And a plant press in a juniper tree

*Ericameria nauseosa, a common shrub of the Great Basin.

Mary

CCDO

Much like our window for preventing the Earth from becoming a big, stormy swimming pool, my CLM internship is soon coming to a close. There were laughs (both “at” and “with”), there were tears (both “of sadness” and “in all of my work shirts”), there were many, many tins of smelly kipper snacks eaten in the field. I am grateful to have had the privilege of working with dedicated, loving, and mostly hygienic people who consistently brightened my days with warmth and affection.

My colleagues were undoubtedly the heart and soul of a most memorable field season in Groveland, CA, but the shock and awe of surveying the vast swaths of scorched moonscapes that had once been shiny-green conifer stands of the Stanislaus National Forest will not soon be forgotten—burned into memory, if you will.

“Hey, why did someone replace all the lush crowns of pine and fir trees with acre upon acre of gangly, black sticks that look like the burnt skeletons of creepy scarecrows?”, is what I assume we were all thinking on our first day in the field. It was soon explained to me by Google that the “someone” was the 2013 Rim Fire and the “why” was because that’s what historically massive, high-intensity fires do.

It was a sight to behold, certainly. Some of my coworkers thought that the toasted hills and grilled valleys were still beautiful, but just in a different sort of way. Okay, I think I can understand that. Like how a Jackson Pollock is beautiful, just in a different, less beautiful sort of way than pretty much any other painting.

Though I tried to see beauty in the destruction, the pleasure I derived from our newly redecorated forest was not from the multitude of charred things everywhere. I was quite taken, however, with the absence of a pesky understory that normally inhibits one’s ability to walk through a decadent forest without constantly tripping and getting poked in the face by twigs. It had all been burned away! The simple act of leisurely strolling from A to B instead of army-crawling and bush-whacking my way there was proof enough for me that there was a bright side to the effects of the Rim Fire.

And there were other benefits of working in the burn zone all season. Through the month of June we found ample flushes of black morels (Morchella sp.) almost daily. Did we leave them be, in accordance with the Forest Service’s foraging policy for employees (and because of our unfair advantage over the public, to whom this year’s unprecedented MOREL-TOPIA was not legally accessible)? I’m going to go with: “Yes, we did.”

But, as a less cliché-prone writer wouldn’t say, the season was not without its challenges. Do you remember the tears I mentioned in the opening paragraph? They were real. We shed real tears (figuratively) over the shortcomings of our vehicle fleet, the odor that descended upon our cramped office space, 30-crewmembers deep, at the end of the day, and the overall charlie foxtrot that was our grasp on protocol and logistics for a not-so-brief portion of the season. Did we dwell on the myriad speed bumps and misfires? Perhaps, but only in confidence.

Our crew soared to great botanical heights, lifting our sensitive plant brethren out of darkness and casting a cleansing light on the plague of noxious weeds. Each and every day the Botany Superteam of Groveland was out there flaggin’ and GPSin’ all kinds of sexy plants: slenderstem monkeyflower (Mimulus filicaulis [aka Mimulus phil collins]), mountain lady’s slipper (Cypripedium montanum), yellowlip pansy monkeyflower (Mimulus pulchellus), and a bunch of Clarkia spp. all over the dang place. Seriously, that stuff was everywhere.

What else can be said about my 2014 CLM internship? Probably nothing blog-worthy, to be honest.  Well, there was that one day when I walked around for half an hour with a lizard in my hard hat.  But I will say this: even though glimpsing the inner workings of a small slice of the federal government gave me a new and unsettling understanding of what libertarians are so mad about, and aside from the nauseating stench of bear clover (Chamaebatia foliolosa) on all our boots, it was a (mostly) rewarding and productive experience. Not to mention the hilarious “dirt leggings” we wore at the end of each day from walking through so much dust.

At last, if I may, I will sum up the entire season with the best joke I heard all summer: What is the best thing about Switzerland?  I dunno but its flag is a big plus.

Chris McCoy
Groveland District Office
US Forest Service

Hello Friends, Family, and others,

The past three months I have been working as a botanist with the Carson City District Office (BLM). It has really opened my eyes to the importance of conservation, and the general complexity of Nevada ecosystems. Coming in, I was new to an already established crew of six who welcomed a co-worker and me with friendly smiles and helpful attitudes. At once, I felt like I belonged to the group. It has been nothing short of a great time, spending days out in the field with a large group of friends, while still being productive. I came in knowing relatively little about Botany. I had worked with plants in the field before, and understood basic cycles and cues for matured seed, however identifying plants and keying them out were novel tasks. I took them in stride and now, at the end of three months, I have learned the majority of plants we have encountered over the season, as well as successfully able to key out plants. Learning these new skills, as well as practicing old ones has been a wonderful experience. Every time I would get tired, or annoyed, it was so easy to lean back, and study the beautiful surroundings and appreciate just being there.

Two interns look at seed viability of Atriplex with a stunning view

Regardless, I have seen awesome wildlife between snakes, scorpions, a tarantula, many hawks, a few eagles, a bear cub, and many other less memorable animals. This internship has been a ton of fun and I couldn’t have asked for a better time.

Signing out, and have a Thanksgiving stuffed with eating,
Ari

Winter is rapidly setting in and it feels as if it has been nudging me out of the field and back into the office.  Well the weather isn’t solely to blame for this, it is also due to my appointment coming to an end and needing to catch up on miscellaneous office work that I have put off for the past 8 months and working on the SOS end of the year wrap up.  But I like to think of if more as the forceful winter chill laying down its icy fist and forbidding me from collecting anymore seeds…

My time working for the Medford, OR BLM is rapidly coming to an end.  It has been a great season of opportunity for me to expand my botanical knowledge and learn about how difference agencies function, bureaucratically as well as biologically.  I gained valuable skills pertaining to surveying, report writing, and communicating with the public as well as other employees within the agencies, all while upholding a professional demeanor.

I spent over 3 weeks in October leading a crew of 8 convicts in a reseeding project of a burnt up forest.  We reseeded some BLM plots within the 36,000 burn zone.  We successfully reseeded over 1,100 of those acres, using  over 14,000 pounds of native grass and forb seeds.  This was a great learning experience both being a crew leader, as well as working with convicts.  This may have been the most enjoyable project I have worked on since starting this internship.  I definitely feel it was the most enriching, granting me an opportunity that I don’t think I would otherwise have been able to experience. This project did not only help me gain people skills but I also utilized some scientific method by setting up 50 picture plot points in order to to back for the next few years and monitor the successes of the project.   It is too bad I won’t be around to watch these grasses grow!

Greetings fellow interns,

Another lovely California central valley winter has begun.  I have really gotten used to the pleasant 60-70 degree days.  It will be quite the shock returning home to the Midwest over Thanksgiving, where highs have been consistently in the 10-20 degree range.  I will be packing every article of clothing I own (and hand warmers).  Christmas visits are pretty much out of the question except via Skype.

I am still primarily working on permitting for a large scale restoration project I have been tasked with.  This project seems to require every permit known to man (federal, state and county).  I have, however, had the opportunity to work on some side projects.

Last fall, my mentor was informed that there was a machine shed style building on a parcel of land within our field office jurisdiction that was going to be torn down.  It seems that the parcel had been leased for several  years by an educational institution while they were conducting research in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.  They had the building constructed during that time.  After the lease and research had concluded the building was left in place, with no plans for removal.  Due to BLM policies, the building needed to be removed prior to taking control of the property once again.  As the Preserve I work for is constantly searching for space to store and protect our equipment, we saw an opportunity to prevent the unnecessary waste of a perfectly good structure and provide more much-needed storage space for our facility.

With a crew of four guys we deconstructed the entire building in two 12-hour days, loaded it on to a trailer, hauled it to the Preserve, and unloaded it into storage.  This fall a new cement pad was poured at the Preserve where the new structure was to be installed, and in October of this year, we rebuilt the building.  We had no instructions, and lots of pieces.  Based on the pictures we took prior to deconstruction, and a numbering system we used to mark the pieces, we were able to reconstruct the shed in about 3 days.  We are still waiting for new skylight panels that we had to order and a few final steps to complete the building, but for the most part the construction process went very smoothly!  It was a great opportunity to learn some basic construction skills.

Stay warm-

Things have been winding down a bit here in Susanville.  The field work has slowed down and my extension has begun.  I have been working on several different projects recently, helping out different employees at the Eagle Lake Field Office.  I helped install a soil monitoring data tower with the hydrologist/soil scientist and folks from the NRCS.  This tower uses solar energy to power several instruments that measure air temperature, soil temperature, wind speed, soil moisture, and air pressure.  The tower then sends the data back by bouncing signals off the tails of meteors!  I had no idea that meteor tails could be used in place of satellites, but this technology is great for gathering data in remote areas where satellite signals aren’t reliable.

I also finished up packaging and shipping out all of the SOS collections I made this year.  It was bittersweet to send out the final box, knowing I won’t be collecting seed anymore.  Some of the best days of the internship were spent collecting seed; it can be relaxing and productive at the same time.  However, I now have a lot more space in my office cubicle with all the boxes of seed gone.

With field work slowing down, I have been spending a lot of time using ArcMap to complete various projects and make maps for other employees in the office.  It isn’t as exciting as field work, but my skills in ArcGIS have greatly improved over the course of this internship.

In my spare time I have gone on a lot of cool adventures recently.  I hiked to the top of Sonora Peak in the Sierras, went to Santa Cruz to see Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit Concert, and took a trip up to Enterprise, Oregon.  Every weekend has been a new adventure with great friends.  I thought coming to a small cow town in the middle of nowhere would be pretty boring, but I met a great group of people and have traveled to some awesome places.  I am truly grateful for the friends I have made and the times we have shared.

I will leave off with some pictures from the last few weeks.

Bighorn Sheep on the way to Enterprise

Sunset over the Pacific in Santa Cruz

Spelunking in some caves near Eagle Lake

Old ranch building

View from the top of Sonora Peak

Sam Gersie

BLM Eagle Lake Field Office

Susanville, CA

The autumnal chill in the air is a sure sign that the field season is coming to a close. Thus, this is my last blog post from my internship in Farmington, NM. My co-intern finished last week so it’s just me for the next few weeks. Although today is the last official day of my CLM internship, I will be staying on for a few extra weeks as a volunteer to help whip our herbarium into shape and possibly assist with some other ecological monitoring around the office. We are working to wrap up our season and will be finishing up our last SOS collection next week, which should bring our total to 32 SOS Collections for this season. It may not sound like a lot to some, but I consider each one of those collections a hard-won victory due to the continuing drought in Northwest New Mexico.

Range Management Specialist Angela Yemma prepares to collect Typha latifolia (broadleaf cattail) complete with plastic bag booties! Note: The plastic baggies failed spectacularly and we ended up with wet feet that day. Next time we will definitely wear waders

This internship has greatly improved my plant identification skills. Although I completed some botany coursework in college, this internship was a place to put what I learned in school to use and expand greatly upon those skills. Back in Massachusetts, I spent a great deal of time studying trees, only to work in a place where there are very few trees.  Although I struggled at first, I think I truly rose to the challenge and learned a lot along the way.

I will definitely come away from this internship with a greater appreciation for the desert! It’s incredible how everything just comes alive after the slightest bit of rain. I will miss the enormous skies and beautiful landscapes I’ve been privileged to work in and visit this field season. The Four Corners region is an incredibly diverse and special place.

Some beautiful badlands in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona

I would like to thank the folks at the BLM Farmington Field Office for a wonderful season. I was made to feel welcome here and like a member of the team. The biggest thanks go to my wonderful mentor, Sheila Williams. She took me under her wing and showed me the ways of a botany ninja, as well as gave me a candid look at what working for the federal government would be like. An additional thanks to Hannah, my CLM sister and buddy throughout the internship. She dealt with my eccentricities way more than anyone should have to and was a joy to work with.

Hannah, Sunny and I enjoying the sights in Coyote Buttes, Arizona

After I leave the Land of Enchantment next month, I will be headed for South Florida to enjoy a warm winter and (hopefully) find more fieldwork. We’ll see what the future has in store for me.

Hello my fellow CLMers,

Originally I believed this internship at the Buffalo Field Office (BFO), Wyoming, would last me until November and then I planned on heading back to Vermont.  Plans changed last month when I got offered an extension till January. After talking to my co-workers, I realized myself and one other were the only people interested in the extension.  I thought, “hey, more for us!” But, as the other interns slowly leave, one after the other, I am left alone and lonely in the small 4,500+ town.

Justin C. left last month and having been a CLM intern in Burns, Oregon 2013, he mentally prepared me that it would get slow.  Overly enthusiastic I thought, “hey, I would love to have that period in my life where things slow down”. Although, things haven’t really slowed down, the opportunities are there, but I have limited myself. I don’t want to over-commit and spread myself thin. Consequentially, I have had and am bound for slow days.

My time is divided between two projects;

One of those projects being my own, Powder River Basin Restoration Initiative (PRBRI) work, restoring Wyoming’s native habitat in the Greater Sage Grouse (GSG) ‘core’ area.

The ‘core’ area is determined by multiple GIS layers indicating where the GSG migrate, brood, and lek. These numbers are determined by ocular estimation, telemetry and other field methods.  I have not gone out on a GSG survey yet, but hope to sometime with the Wildlife Biologists.

My work for PRBRI is to compare the vegetation seen in aerial imagery (classification), captured this past summer,  to what’s on the ground, also known as ‘ground-truthing’. With snow cover now on the ground, I can’t map vegetation outside, so this will be strictly GIS work until snow melt.

The other project is for the Range Specialists, it has the acronym RIPS-Range Improvement Project something-heehee. This is when Sara, Jill and I, with our mentor, Charlotte, have gone out to BLM land, via F-150 trucks, to map data points for fence lines, stock tanks, reservoirs and counted cattle herds, with GPS Trimble. We have a range improvement data dictionary that was created by previous CLM intern, Nicholas Dove. Also, we record weed encroachment on the aforementioned data points. This will be a winter long project and an easy way to get in the field instead of another office day.

Outside of work, I am hanging with what’s left of my friends/co-workers in town. One of them being this lovely lady;

Puggle=Pug+Beagle 

This 10-year old is still spunky and dresses in warm apparel. She fashions the latest faux fur-lined hoodie with skull and cross bones on the back. Her purple plastic footwear keeps her paws warm from the snowy and freezing outdoor temps. Seriously, freezing (see below)!

Check out that -8F reading!

Aside, from the freezing temps, it has snowed here in Buffalo, Wyoming.

:: My apartment’s      parking-lot::

Thankfully snow removal is included in the rent..speaking of rent it is CHEAP in Buffalo, WY. Especially when you split a 2-bedroom apartment between 4 people! There have been times we have all needed space but now that 2 of them are leaving it’ll be bittersweet with all that open space.

After all the slow days, I still have a lovely apartment to sleep and eat in. It’ll be desolate after everyone’s departure from Wyoming, but it’s home.  My Plan: put up my feet and drink some hot cocoa once the place is cleared.  Also, working out at the YMCA around the corner and visiting my local library are all good things to keep a college town gal busy in a small town.

Hope you enjoyed,

Heather B.