The past month here in Buffalo has been sunny and warm. Pasque Flower and Shooting Stars are coming up but we need more rain and snow. I have been out doing a little bit of archaeological survey work on the nice days. I have not recorded any sites yet this year, but not finding archaeological sites is also valuable scientific information. One of the places I got to do some fieldwork is in the pine breaks in the northeast portion of our field office. From the ridges there you can see the peaks of the Bighorn Mountains, the Pumpkin Buttes and the Devils Tower/ Missouri Buttes. I happen to think its pretty neat to take in all these culturally significant landforms from one viewing location. My work camera is a pitiful piece of technology thus I have no pretty pictures to post. However I will provide a picture of some cows and a frac pad for good measure.

Have a good one.

Nathan

Hello Fellow Interns,

This is my first CLM internship and boy what an adventure it has been thus far. My internship with the Arcata, CA BLM started this past Monday. In order to get here though, I moved from Washington, DC! To say that there has been a change of scenery would probably be an understatement. Yet I find myself constantly in awe of the locations and amazing sights I have seen thus far! Going to school in Lynchburg, VA I was surrounded by the comfortable Appalachian mountains and leafy deciduous forests. Here in Arcata, the redwoods, Douglas firs, and other conifers encase me with spiny needles and the mountains surprise me with their sheer faces.

My forestry internship with the BLM will have me working on a variety of projects. From monitoring SOD (sudden oak death) to helping write a EA (Environmental Action) plan for encouraging old growth redwood restoration. But honestly so long as I am able to be outside seeing the amazing things I have seen thus far, I know I will be happy!

Till next time, stay safe and keep learning fellow CLM’ers!

-Steph

Hello CLMers,

I am in Buffalo, Wyoming for my second CLM internship. This is the same location as last years.  Some ask, “Why, didn’t you look at other CLM opportunities?”  Answer: I really enjoyed my time at this field office.  Living between the Big Horn Mountains and the Sagebrush Steppe habitat with access to a small urban downtown.  Also, co-workers around my age who are still very excited about what they do for a living.

My thoughts go out to Justin Chappelle, a BLM legend, who has moved onto a CLM internship in Washington (round 3), Jill Pastick, an intern with this office last year, whom starts California in June, and a friend Alia Richardson starting in Oregon. I hope your field season is just as enjoyable as lasts, if not more!

Looking forward to plant identification, bird surveys, vegetation surveys and new unique experiences.

Till the next blog post.

Hello World,

I’ll have to make do with a short post this month, since I’m out of office for the next two weeks solid. This week, I’ll be doing more surveys for scurfpeas (Pediomelum pentaphyllum)–they are up, including a fair number of seedlings, due to a wetter-than-average spring. Since this species is not particularly predictable, when they’re up we ought to do surveys. We’ve got a crew together and now we just have to hope the little buggers stay up long enough! Spring annuals on shallower soils are already going crispy; the deeper sand that Pediomelum pentaphyllum prefers stays wetter longer, but we’re looking at warmer temperatures and poor odds of rain until July. Anything with this species seems to be a race against time–by the time they’re up and large enough to think about surveys, you need to get a crew in the field pronto because you don’t know how long it will last. We don’t have too much scurfpea surveying to do, only 3,000 or 4,000 acres, so we should be OK. I hope. We’ll follow that with some Peniocereus greggii var. greggii and Opuntia arenaria surveys, but those don’t care about timing. I’m also planning on heading out to see Peniocereus greggii var. greggii in flower in May, so hopefully I’ll have some good photos to share with you all. I still haven’t seen it in its spectacular flowering state, but only in its 51 weeks of the year “dead stick” state.

The week after that, I’ll be at the National Native Seed Conference in Santa Fe. I assume at least one other CLM intern will be there. Luckily, the survey crew is made up of experienced, reliable folks so they should be fine for a week in my absence.