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