Greetings, blog-readers!

This is my first blog post, as well as my first experience as a CLM intern. I am originally from Seattle, Washington, but I will be working primarily as one of two Seeds of Success collectors for the Vernal, Utah BLM field office. Going from a temperate rainforest to a dry desert basin has been quite the climactic adjustment, and I find myself drinking around three times as much water here. In addition, I am seeing a plant community in the Utah Basin that is completely different than what I have experienced before (such as sagebrush, tiny cacti, and pinyon-juniper woodlands), which is great!

Here are some pictures of us in the field during our first few weeks:

So far, the majority of our time in the field has been spent scouting for candidate plant populations that will be used for seed collection. In this picture we were collecting a voucher for Vulpia octoflora, a native grass.

Last Friday we helped set up some transects, which will be used to monitor Penstemon flowersii populations in the future. Despite the ominous clouds, the weather was actually very pleasant!

This little guy is a horned lizard, I believe!

My mentor likes to say that we have the best job in the office, and so far I think she is probably right! I am very happy with the amount of time we get to spend out in the field, the diversity of tasks we work on each day, and especially all the plant knowledge that we are gaining! (Ohh boy, am I going to learn about Astragaluses this summer…!)

I will end this post with some things that I am excited about for this season:

-Learning new plants
-Getting the opportunity to wear my snazzy new sunglasses
-Plants
-Exploring national parks in Utah over the summer
-Experiencing what it’s like to work with a government agency
-PLANTS!
-Hiking!

That’s all for now, folks! Tomorrow I will be heading down south to spend the weekend exploring some of Utah’s awesome national parks.

Jinny Alexander
BLM Vernal, UT

My name is Lorna. I have been working as an intern under the Seeds of Success program via the BLM Spokane District Office. This is the end of my third week. I will be turning 57 next week. I live in Spokane and have an awesome husband, who I met 30 years ago, a straw bale home, and a big garden. So, that is why I stayed in Spokane instead of going somewhere new, where I might have discovered many more new plants!

Last week I was out digging up some voucher specimens (Lupinus sulfureus, or sulfur lupine) when I noticed a tiny creature, maybe two centimeters long, which looked suspiciously like a scorpion! I live in Washington State for goodness sake! Well, using Google, I found out we DO have a little scorpion called the Northern Scorpion, and I also found out that it isn’t any danger to botanists. http://www.bentler.us/eastern-washington/animals/arachnids/northern-scorpion.aspx

I dug up an entire Balsamorhiza sagittata plant one day, using my mentor’s prize digging stick, which is made of the same material as a pry bar, very heavy, but has a T-shaped handle and a curved tip. The balsamroot was in dark soil with lots of basalt rubble mixed in. It was at the base of a basalt cliff. So the digging stick was essential. I was amazed at how fat the root was, about 3″ in diameter, and that it actually had a coarse bark, like a tree’s. When I accidentally chipped the dark brown bark off, a white-ish interior was revealed. Silly me, though–I thought I could slice the root to use in a voucher sample, but it was like trying to slice a piece of wood! Very fibrous.

My mentor, Kim, has taken me to some places to look for likely seed populations. We have eight or nine populations scoped out. I actually have collected seed for Lomatium macrocarpum. I THINK we have about 15,400 seeds. Hopefully I’ll be able to send them to Bend, Oregon, for cleaning on Monday. I’m really curious how many I really collected. First seed collection ever!

Lastly, I was out doing monitoring at recently vacated sage grouse nests, with three other people. One of the guys said that while he was out tracking sage grouse, he noticed a pure white bitterroot with the normally green parts of the plant being yellow-green. That was interesting. Lo and behold, we saw one on the way back to the truck!

I would have posted some photos, but while upgrading to a new version of Apple, I lost everything in my phone and now I have to go down to the phone store!

Hello World,

Since my last post here, we did three weeks of plant surveys, of which I missed the middle week while visiting the National Native Seed Conference in Santa Fe. The conference was fun, but wandering around in the desert is better, so that’s what I’m going to talk about. Luckily, the crew did fine without me, although one window at our office did suffer the assault of a trailer hitch. I did the same thing to a post at a hotel last year, but the post just needed to be put back on its footing while the window requires a bit more intervention. Gist being: be careful backing up in those big pickups, OK? (And BLMers getting new vehicles: maybe they don’t all need to be huge pickups. Sometimes we need ’em; more often, they’re a hindrance in the field as much as in town.)

Anyhoo, here’s the gist from the recent stint of rare plant surveys: We found rare plants! Specifically, about 85 Pediomelum pentaphyllum and about 40 Peniocereus greggii var. greggii. We also got to see some of the varying results of previous herbicide treatments. These treatments are intended to restore grassland by removing shrubs that have become more abundant due to grazing. Sometimes, it works admirably–especially at a little higher elevations where we’re near the current shrub / grass transition zone or in places where grazing pressure has dropped down towards sustainable levels. Sometimes, it’s basically a wash, neither better nor worse. Sometimes, removing shrubs just gives invasives a chance to take over. I think we’re getting better at doing more “best case” and fewer “worst case” herbicide treatments, but when you spend a couple days out around one of the worst case scenarios–basically, tumbleweed heaven–it erodes optimism and belief in progress somewhat. Luckily, I think Las Cruces District is ahead of the curve on putting monitoring plots in place so that we can learn from our mistakes and move towards the holy grail of Adaptive Management. Mistakes are unavoidable in land management; if we’re doing it right, we don’t repeat them.

Enough of that, here are some pictures!

Pediomelum pentaphyllum habitat:

And Pediomelum pentaphyllum:

Peniocereus greggii var. greggii habitat:

And Peniocereus greggii var. greggii:

Also, Crotaphytus collaris fuscus:

If you were paying attention on the Peniocereus greggii var. greggii photos, you noticed that they have flower buds. I’m headed out shortly to find them with flowers, so that I can get pictures of this species’ ephemeral but spectacular stage in which it does not look like a dead stick.

In other news: I looked for a very rare species (Spermolepis organensis) and didn’t find it. Two papers from my academic days are about to be published, which will result in five new species in New Mexico. I head off to seed collection training in California next week, and rangeland health training not long after. The rangeland health training is, luckily, near Moab–which means I can drive up and botanize en route. If I can drive, I do; if I can take a couple extra days to poke around on the way, I do that as well. Why go somewhere awesome and not dedicate some time to wandering around? (Just don’t forget important items at your campsite, because you’ll have to backtrack and retrieve them–did that a couple weeks ago, and not for the first time. Hopefully the last. Probably not the last.)

Also, Shameless Plug for Commerce: That little yellow thing in one of my Peniocereus greggii var. greggii photos is the Bad Elf GNSS Surveyor. It’ll send 1-meter accuracy locations to an iPhone, iPod, iPad, or probably other Bluetooth devices. It isn’t cheap but it’s cheaper than a Trimble (even if you have to buy the iDevice to go with). The available apps are better than ArcPad, too. Trimble wins only if you need submeter, have a big pile of cash handy, and don’t mind a dramatically worse user experience. I am not associated with Bad Elf in any way other than as an enthusiastic customer. My assessment is not that of the Chicago Botanic Garden nor of the BLM.

Hello! This was my first week on the job, so I don’t have too many exciting stories yet. Most of my adventures thus far had to do with my drive from the midwest across the nation to Utah. It really is amazing how the sights change as you drive along. I’d have to say my favorite part was going through the Rockies. It was breathtaking!

The Rocky Mountains covered in snow.

Of course, I had to stop and see Arches National Park on my way to Cedar City. After seeing Delicate Arch on the welcome sign to Utah, I knew I had to see it in person.

Delicate Arch! The rock formation found on Utah’s license plates and welcome sign! A bit of a hike, but worth every step!

Cedar City is a great little town and even though I’ve only worked with the BLM for a week, I know it’s going to be amazing. The flora and fauna are almost completely different from back home, which is both overwhelming and exciting. There is just so much to learn and experience! As a wildlife technician, I’m going to be doing a lot of field work and identification. To help with that, we’re working on putting together a quick reference field guide to assist us when we find something new.

Putting together a quick reference guide by researching the wildlife we’re likely to see in the two counties we’ll be working out of.

We’ve also been doing a lot of reading up on the project sites we will be monitoring. Today was my first day out in the field. The station’s recreation officer took a fellow intern and I out and showed us the access roads so that we would be able to find all of our worksites.

We drove to the top of a trailhead we will be monitoring and the recreation officer helped us get an idea of where we would be working over the next few months.

We spent the day hiking the mountains looking for signs of wildlife and recording all of the birds, reptiles, and mammals that we found. I’m still getting used to the high altitude, but other than constantly being out of breath, it was pretty fantastic! Hopefully by my next update I’ll have exciting work stories and more pictures from the field!

Hello from the Jarbidge Field Office in Twin Falls Idaho! Springtime has arrived and so have the young plants and animals. Because of this, the monitoring season is starting up again and the race is on to monitor all the forbs and grasses possible before the hot summer sun dries them all up. Unfortunately, southern Idaho is experiencing very dry conditions already this year, making our job as a monitoring crew much more difficult. However, we have excellent mentors and leaders who will help us to efficiently completely all the required sites for this season.

Along with monitoring plant populations we have learned important skills such as using Trimble units and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. We have also experienced some adventures already including muddy two-tracks and sudden snow storms. I even managed to find an elk shed while walking a transect! As mentioned before, it is always enjoyable to see the young calves and other baby critters running around the desert. It’s pretty hard to beat the weather in southern Idaho right now, the mixture of cool nights and warm afternoons make for an awesome work day in the field. Being a local in this part of Idaho, I am fairly accustomed to the hot summer sun that burns through most of July and August and I can see why the forbs choose not to be out during this time! Like most deserts however, the Jarbidge Field Office is full of diversity and its own set of unique plant species that thrive all year long. I truly believe that this landscape is one of the most beautiful and underrated places on earth.

I can already tell that this summer will be full of great experiences and invaluable knowledge I will need for a career in natural resource management. Like my crew lead always says, “Every day in the field is an adventure!”

So long from Twin Falls! Good luck on all your internships!

Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris)

Greetings from the sunny desert of the Mojave! Our juvenile desert tortoise forage characterization project is going well!

The temperature has been steadily increasing over the last few weeks. The tortoises have been spending less time outside (more time in their burrows), which is well-timed, as the forage is beginning to senesce. As a result, I have greatly improved in my ability to identify senesced plants (and tiny desert annuals at that!), a practice also known here as “forensic botany.”  One USGS researcher observing juvenile tortoise forage behavior noted that the tortoises select certain senesced plants to eat. The forage available for the juveniles this time of year is critical information to obtain as the wind begins blowing away the senesced forage material. Even after a short desert rain we noticed many small annuals had washed away.

Allium nevadense (prior to senescing!)

We have begun weighing forage biomass samples, and as you know when working with tortoises – slow and steady wins the race!

I have also met a number of hares running around, but perhaps the tortoises accomplish more in the end?

Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) on the go!

Another neat component of the project has been collecting samples of known juvenile tortoise forage species for genotyping. We will then be able to analyze scat samples for the plants they eat. This of course means collecting scat samples! It is always exciting to encounter scat in the field, especially if it is directly related to one’s project!

A couple weeks ago we had the great opportunity to help out on another researcher’s Joshua Tree pollination project! Searching Joshua Tree flowers for their obligate pollinators, the moth species Tegeticula synthetica and T. antithetica, was a fascinating experience!

Notes about our upcoming project next time!

Amanda

Henderson, NV

Hello from the Mojave Desert! For the last month, we have been busy trying to quantify the forage available for juvenile Desert Tortoises! Each day brings us to a new field site, where we collect as much data on diversity and available biomass as possible. We have come across some fantastic species, and my knowledge of Boraginaceae species (especially those in the Cryptantha genus) has grown by leaps and bounds! Here’s a photo of Eschscholzia glyptosperma (when it was still flowering).

Most species are either seeding or senesced at this point, so our field campaign is beginning to wind down. The next few weeks will be spent weighing biomass samples and preparing for our next project (TBA). We will, however, return to our surveys later this summer when late summer annuals begin to emerge!
We continue to come across the occasional tort in the field, but they are beginning to spend less time out of their burrows as it gets warmer.

However, with increasing temperatures, snakes appear to be more frequent, especially gopher snakes…

They can be a bit of a surprise when you’re looking down at a GPS suddenly find yourself standing only feet away!
I’ve learned so much already, and am looking forward to learning a lot more as we start our new project in early June!

Til next time,
Daniel

Henderson, NV

Although the West Eugene Wetlands are only ten minutes from where I lived for many years, there is always more to learn and experience in this captivating landscape. As a new CLM intern for the BLM, I have gained a renewed appreciation for these precious places and the rare plants and animals that live here.

When I’m on all fours pawing through blades of grass in search of the tiny seedlings of Lomatium Bradshawii (a listed wetland prairie species) I feel like I’m part of a private universe.

Few people take the time to look closely… really closely at their landbase.

To most, the minute details in that particular place are completely invisible. Although plot work can at times be tedious, I try to remember how special it is to be able to interact daily with plants and animals most people will never even see.

Only when I’m walking through the hummocky patches of prairie here in the Willamette Valley does it hit home what this ecosystem once was. Even though these wetland prairies now only occupy 1% of their pre-colonial extent, the intact remnants that do remain are truly amazing.

From the low vernal pools filled with popcorn flowers to the oak and ash groves teeming with camas I’m in a botanist’s paradise.

It’s strange to think that in my not-so-distant past there was a time when these places and the species that inhabit them were invisible to me too.

Although I still get odd looks when I explain to my friends and family that I plan to spend all summer counting butterflies and daisies I secretly pity them for missing out on knowing these creatures so well.

2015 has brought me back to the Bishop Field Office, and I am grateful for the opportunity to return. The start of last season brought excitement with everything, as all was new. This season my pleasure has come with the chance to return to familiar places, notice changes, evaluate projects, and explore further. Unfortunately, when it comes to noticing changes, all the focus revolves around drought, but I don’t want to get hung up on what I can’t control.
Last year my techniques for seed scouting and collection progressed as the season went along. I began to cover more ground, spend more time out of the car and out of the office; often doing multiple collections at once. After two weeks of work it is clear that collecting will be much more difficult in the Mojave and Great Basin this season, and thus I am even more thankful to have a framework of skills and local knowledge. Locations that I listed last year as potential collection sites are now barren. For me this is motivation to get out there and work harder.
To return to my desk and pick up where I left off, is a positive feeling that is difficult to describe. Let’s just say it feels a lot better to walk in on day one and know exactly what I need to be doing, and who everyone is; as opposed to clicking through those not so invigorating DOI Learn courses with a new and busy environment bustling behind me and my headphones. At the beginning of last season I had an accomplished sense of progression from my previous job, and at the end of that season I was proud of what I learned and had experienced through the CLM program. Can’t wait to see how far I go this time around.
-Tyler