Got started surveying the local airport for an endangered flower called Applegate’s Milk-vetch. The airport has the largest population of the flower so its vital to gather data on the population. The airport is proposing an expansion of their taxi way and to do so they must conduct a biological assessment. We worked together with private contractors hired on by the airport to conduct the survey. Surveys were done doing random transects in each area of the airport. With one person walking a transect with a 3 m pole while another walked behind to search and count plants.

Applegate’s Mik-vetch (Astragalus applegatei)

To add to the excitement of surveying, we got to experience F-15 jets take-off, train and land right next to us. The airport is the last base in the U.S. to train F-15 pilots.

F-15

There’s plenty of wildlife on the airport as well. Even found a horned larks nest that had survived the mowers.

Baby horned larks

At the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge in California, ponds were made to raise sucker fish for 2 years in another strategy to save the species. Before placing young fish into the ponds, traps have been placed to see if any other fish have made it into the ponds, which may be possible from the ponds’ water source. Predator surveys of mammals and piscivorous birds were conducted as well.

Nicki and Erica collecting traps at one of the ponds.

We began building our net pens to raise young sucker fish in for the summer. Construction of the dock took all day, but finally git it pieced together. The dock was then towed out into the bay.

Dock being towed

Then two nets were placed into the dock to hold the fish.

The fish will be raised till about September, then released back into the lake with the hopes of increasing recruitment into the adult population.

View from the dock

Hello everyone,

Another week is nearly over at the Cosumnes River Preserve and I am happy to say that things are progressing quite well on the Badger Creek Restoration Project. Though, everything is moving forward at a rate which still fits our timeline, I often have the feeling that I am sliding down the blade of an ever-sharpening knife. So far, I have managed to avoid any metaphorical life-threatening wounds.

Our team of biologists finished up their thirty days of trapping, and while they produced some interesting data, as expected, no giant garter snakes were trapped during this cycle. The yellow water primrose in Horseshoe Lake has continued to progress at an astonishing rate. As of my last visit on Tuesday, there were no areas of open water left within the lake. It is rather impressive, yet ultimately quite upsetting, that this lone weed has managed to consume nearly all available water in a 155 acre lake. The photo below was taken just a few weeks ago and in that time the primrose, has now covered the last visible areas of water on the surface.

I am currently working on the numbers to see if it is more advantageous/cost effective to have a helicopter spray the site instead of the highboy or tow behind tractor rig as originally planned. I have contacted local contractors and am waiting for the estimates to come in so we can reach a final decision.

On the positive side of the equation, the joint NEPA/CEQA document I wrote for the project is entering the last days of the public review period, and to this point we have received little to no resistance regarding the proposed restoration. However, I have been warned that comments often come towards the end of the review period, typically on the last day, so the minor celebration for reaching another completed stage will have to wait until next week. If anyone has interest in reading the document (and I say this with a certain level of sarcasm given your busy schedules/lack of desire to read a 70 page environmental document) it can be found using the link below. While much of the content (air quality, water quality, cultural resources, etc.) may seem dull/long-winded/unnecessary, it may be of benefit to those who will have to write documents like this in the future.

http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/folsom/cosumnes_river_preserve1.Par.80515.File.dat/BadgerCreekRestoreInitialStudyFonsiEA_Appendix_Reduced508c.pdf

Next week I will be meeting with potential contractors who will be bidding on the earthmoving/excavation work which will start (if all goes well) in early September. I hope everyone is having a great time out there in the field (wherever you may be). Since my photos of the project have been admittedly lackluster in this and previous posts, I thought I would leave you with a couple of photos of some of the splendid daily interactions/observations we have here at the Preserve.

Crayfish ready to throw down

Short-eared owl (Asio flammeus)

Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus)

This week I had the pleasure of traveling up and down the coast of Virginia and Maryland with the rest of the North Carolina Botanical Garden SOS East interns and our “fearless leader” Amanda. One spot in particular that caught my attention was Back Bay National Wildlife Reserve on the coast of Virginia just south of Virginia Beach. The land is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and encompasses 4,589 acres of protected area. Although birds are the main target as far as protection is concerned, there is a vast array of plant species, as well as some interesting animals. One such creature we encountered was this little guy:

Back Bay offers stunning views along the marsh lands as well as great spots for fishing along the Atlantic side.

Sound side

We picked an incredible day to visit Back Bay. We started out around 8 AM and got to feel the cool breeze coming off the Atlantic before the heat of the day took over.

Sand dune communities

We saw many species of plants that are on our list for seed collection, including, but certainly not limited to: Juncus effusus, Cakile edentula, Smilax rotundifolia, Typha angustifolia and Typha latifolia. Each of those listed will provide plenty of seed for us to collect in the coming months when they mature, especially the two Typha’s!

Sound

I cannot blame the many families we saw out there for visiting the site. It is a gorgeous place for biking, hiking, picnicking, birding, you name it! I can’t wait to visit time and time again for both seed collection and leisure!

Well, it’s been awhile since my last post. But indeed our schedules are pretty tight, almost without office work – all in the field. Based on what I hear around, it’s been a very long and cool spring for the Mojave, which of course favored us in a couple ways – nice and pleasant field work, and more time to get some of our projects done before the coming high temperatures. As a matter of fact we have had a few weeks already which were above a hundred degrees. I must say that without an acclimation time, it is pretty hard to stay active as usual, especially in town where all the concrete and roads contribute to a temperature rise. With that said, last week I was lucky to attend my training up north and reveal for myself at least a tiny bit of Bryophytes’ diversity. The workshop focused on identification of different non-vascular plants – Liverworts, Hornworts, and Mosses, which was very exciting for me. It was very new to me, because even having a general idea about mosses and its main taxonomical groups I never had a chance to get deeper into the subject. Discovering characteristic features of different groups of mosses and liverworts, seeing them under the microscope was very interesting, exciting, and certainly rewarding. I would highly recommend to all botanists who are not particularly familiar with non-vascular plants, of course given some extra time and a good opportunity, to pay a little more attention to this subject. In the meantime I will definitely keep exploring them myself wherever I am. Until next time,

Andrii

WERC, Henderson, NV

My internship at the BLM Buffalo Field Office certainly started off in a rush, as I arrived in Buffalo, Wyoming the day before my first day of work. It was quite the whirlwind to get my apartment settled and myself prepared for work the next day, but Tuesday came and I hit the ground running! The first two weeks of my internship were quite the blur to be honest- on the first day alone, myself and the other new intern Jade, met 80+ employees at the Buffalo Field Office- I wish I could remember everyone’s name! The rest of that week was then spent getting trained in First Aid, Defensive Driving, GPS and GIS. My favorite day was the First Aid training because I had never been CPR certified before and now I can safely say that I am! woo 😀

The next week involved more fun training in activities like driving ATVs and UTVs. I personally loved the ATV training; I have never driven these vehicles before and it was a blast learning how to maneuver these guys over hills and different obstacles. At the end of that week, we were supposed to finally get out into the field and start learning how to monitor range land and identify the many plant species found within the BFO’s territory. Unfortunately however, on Wednesday night a huge storm came through town from the Bighorn Mountains, and the office was completely flooded. So, obviously that put a bit of a damper in our original plans…Instead, Thursday and Friday were spent helping the office to get sorted and moved as certain areas require new carpet and even drywall in result of the water damage!! Honestly though, it ended up being kind of fun! I got in a good workout lugging all those heavy desks out (lol) and good bonding time with the other interns and the BFO employees 🙂

Returning from the workshop back home in Chicago this past week, we have been very busy getting started on monitoring range sites for this season, as well as determining good populations for plants to collect on the SOS list (that’s my job). Almost every day has been 10 or 11 hour days, and I’ve been coming home completely exhausted!! I’m definitely looking forward to resting up this weekend, but it also feels great to be getting out in the field every day. All in all, I’m loving my time here in Buffalo, and I can’t wait to see what the next few months have in store!

Testing soil stability at one of our sites- talk about an office with a view!

Views of the Bighorn Mountains while getting trained to drive ATVs (plus a very observant cow watching our training from a safe distance! :P)

Buffalo’s Clear Creek flowing mightily after all the rain we’ve been getting!

-Katie

My internship situation is quite different than many in the CLM program.  Having been born and raised in the country about 10 miles outside of the ‘city’ of Grants Pass, Oregon and then going to school at Oregon Tech (about 4000 students) in the ‘city’ of Klamath Falls, Oregon (twenty-something thousand people), I have little-to-no big city experience. Getting stationed in Boise, Idaho meant that for my internship I was going to be living in a city far more populated than anywhere I had lived before.  Boise has a population of more than 200,000 with a metropolitan area population of close to 700,000.  I feel lucky to have found a relatively inexpensive apartment ideally located between, and easily within biking distance of the BLM office and downtown.  I moved in about a week before my start date of May 18.

As expected, the first week was largely spent on training, introductory information/preparation, and getting acquainted with BLM processes and locations.  After the first 3 weeks, we had already collected vouchers for Eriogonum heracleoides (wyeth buckwheat), Eriogonum sphaerocephalum (rock buckwheat), Pseudoroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass), Elymus elymoides (squirreltail), Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue), and likely a few others whose names escape me at the present moment.  We have also made 3 seed collections: Balsamorhiza sagittata (arrowleaf balsamroot), Crepis occidentalis (western hawksbeard), and Lomatium triternatum (nineleaf biscuitroot). Enough plant names already!

Here’s me assessing the buggy-ness of some seeds

In addition to feeling lucky about my housing situation and location, I am also very thankful for the great people that I get to work with.  The three of us get along very well, and I think there is a pretty great group dynamic between all of us.

Emile (my internship partner) and Joe (our mentor)

Our mentor Joe is actually a wildlife biologist, so we aren’t solely focusing on plants and/or seeds.  We have also been doing some habitat assessments, some of which have been in extremely beautiful and remote areas a few hours outside Boise.

Approaching the top of the first ridge on one of our beautiful and steep hikes

Because many of our drives are 2 hours or more from the office, camping near sampling sites is a good way to maximize work hours spent on collecting data and minimize those spent in the truck.  We spent 2 nights and three days based at this inviting spot, central to a few habitat assessment sites.

My hammock tent in an Aspen grove  near a creek

After three weeks in the field, we headed off to Chicago for a week of training with about 62 other interns.  There was some great information at the workshop, and Chicago has many fun and interesting things to offer.  In an effort to keep this post concise and interesting, I will finish it off with a few of my favorite photos.

Picturesque Lewisia

Pollinators rock!

A species of Blues enjoying some Eriogonum umbellatum

Some fritillaries enjoying more sulphur buckwheat

Lark sparrow nest hidden under an Eriogonum elatum plant

A super-sweet caterpillar

Nature’s neat!

Thanks for reading/looking!  To all of you who I met, I say hello again, and I look forward to reading your posts.  To anyone stationed near Boise or planning a trip near here in the next 5 months, don’t hesitate to look me up if you want to do something or need a place to stay for a few nights.

Cheers,

Dan King

CLM Intern – BLM Boise, ID

My time at the BLM field office in Alturas, CA, totaling about 2.5 weeks, has been great. Alturas is a very small and quiet town, with a population just under 3,000, and, oddly enough, it is the most populated city in the county. Since westerners came to the area in the late 1800’s and began suppressing the natural fire regime, juniper trees (although native) have gradually gained status as an invasive plant, thus a lot of the work done here at the field office is focused on juniper eradication and sagebrush steppe restoration. We will do some sagebrush restoration fieldwork during the internship – presumably, this will mostly be planting propagated sagebrush in areas that have recently experienced wildfire or large-scale juniper eradication. We will also assist other staff members on various projects including archeological surveys and raptor surveys.

Thus far, the work rate has not been terribly high, largely due to the bloom period for many of the SOS target species, and a lot of my time has been spent in the office doing training and reading field guides and dichotomous keys to familiarize myself with the local flora and the SOS target species. We are beginning to spend a lot more time in the field as of late, which is pleasing. Some of the more exciting days have been spent in the southern allotments, scouting the area for blue oaks to determine where the northernmost individuals of the population/subpopulation are. We’ve also spent some time scouting a grazing allotment to monitor several rare and threatened plant species that grow there. We recently visited a large riparian area to which we will return and collect an inventory of the plant species growing in the area. Much of the work done during the duration of my internship will be collecting seeds for the SOS program, monitoring rare/threatened plant species, and conducting plant inventories.

broadstemmed onion

red larkspur

deer brush

narrow leaf phacelia

Mahala mat

western columbine

Indian paintbrush

American vetch

larkspur sp. unknown

Cedar creek trail

I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill on May 10. Our ceremony was at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Just three weeks later I found myself back at the North Carolina Botanical Garden for training as a seed collector for the Seeds of Success program. I missed out on traveling to Chicago, but I was glad to spend a week with familiar faces around the NCBG.

I moved to Brooklyn at the end of the week, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I have adapted to big city living more easily than I expected.

Nobody told me Brooklyn would be beautiful.

They did mention that it would be crowded, however.

During our first week, we took a tour of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center on Staten Island, our home base for the internship. We planned out scouting excursions to Long Island, New Jersey, and Delaware, and we took short trips to city parks in The Bronx and Brooklyn to start getting familiar with the local habitats.

This week we traveled Long Island, exploring the walking dunes in Montauk, pine barrens in the David E. Sarnoff Preserve, beach fronts, swamps, and ponds besides. We have seen and discussed over 60 species in just the last week! Since I have spent most of my life in the mountains and Piedmont of North Carolina, most of these plants are new to me, especially the beach grasses, and the plants that tolerate salt or brackish waters. Six of these new(ish) species have been varieties of blueberry, huckleberry, and serviceberry. These are pretty easy to pick out, but will probably be hard to resist snacking on.

Tick habitat.

A Long Island pond.

Some species are getting very easy to identify, and some are still tricky, which is to be expected when looking at so many species in so little time. 60 species in a week sounds pretty good, but we will hopefully be collecting seed from around 180 species, so we’re only 1/3 of the way there. That sounds overwhelming, but not impossible.

Prior to this week, all grasses looked the same to me.

With another week of travel and a lot more practice, I am sure we will be ready when the seeds are ripe and it’s time to collect.

Katie Russell
Seeds of Success
Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank

As a sophomore in college I met with a professor to discuss what it means to be a biology major. I expressed concern over what my job prospects would be with a bio degree. I know, “do what you love and the money will follow,” but you need to be realistic sometimes. So I asked my professor what my choices were and she laid out 3 options:

1. Pre-Med- I knew from the start that this is not the place for me. I wanted to work with the environment.

2. Education- This option leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I respect teachers, but it seems like a vicious cycle to just major in Bio to continue trying to inspire other kids to become Bio majors.

3. Academia- I’m only 22 now, it still seems absurd to have aspirations of a PhD, and as my mom can testify: just because you have a PhD doesn’t mean you’ll get a job.

And that was it. So I left the meeting still scared of the future but reassured to try it out. I’m a Bio major and I couldn’t be happier for that decision, regardless of the risky job market. But, I’m ashamed my professor never discussed any other options. Because I’m finding now that there’s a lot more out there, you just have to know where to look.

I love it with the BLM. There are things to do, I do not feel idle, supervisors treat you well and everyone in the office is friendly. My theory with this friendliness comes from the fact that everyone has field work, so most people are not stuck in the office 100% of the time. And those that are stuck in the office feed off of the energy from the field. It is neat to witness a system like this take place before your eyes.

I worked previous summers in ecology labs, helping graduate students and professors in the field. I enjoyed those internships as well, but I always felt like I had to know my place. Here, I feel like I am a part of the bigger picture and that is a valuable feeling.

Another attribute of the BLM that I have come to enjoy is people are working these jobs because they love it. It is easy to find people to look up to when you work in an atmosphere where everyone love what they are doing, despite some frustrations at the end of the day. Certainly I have worked with professors who loved their work and what they were working for, however to some degree there was always a hint of personal advancement as well. Ego for lack of a better word: the need to get your paper published, or get your name known by others. And I understand why this is needed by professors, but it is nice in the BLM where that ego is put aside relative to academia. Even the “higher-ups” do what they are doing because they enjoy it. Likewise they value the mission that their department stands by, whether it be BLM, Forest Service or FWS. It is awesome to be a part of this.

When people ask me about my internship, I tell them the worst part of the job is that it is only for 5 months. Certainly no job is perfect, and every place has its cons, but as far as I see it, working with the BLM is as good as I could have asked for. I need to write a letter to my old professor to tell her that if you know where to look, there is a lot out there for the weirdos like me who want to work outdoors. And for a mission they care about.

Year two at the Kremmling field office has been good. I started this year a bit earlier (March 31st) due to the dry winter and early spring. A warm winter and hot April lead to a wet and cold May – June. It has been a weird season here in Colorado so far. In Steamboat Springs it rained every single day of May and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area received nearly 60 inches of snow in May. This dry winter leading to a wet and prolonged spring has created some weird work conditions for Colorado. The vegetation has really greened up and the wet roads have made scheduling work interesting. The Dry winter and lesser melt-off have allowed us to float the river throughout May and June, whereas last year we were limited to late July and August to float the river. This allowed us to get some good spraying in on the river, which really needed it. However, now that July is upon us we will be switching over to vegetation monitoring and put the spray rigs away.

Other than that, I am in the process of developing a Master’s thesis out here in conjunction with the BLM on assisted succession of slash pile burn scars. I am putting in 100 or so plots using some of the 1,000 freshly burned piles up on Independence Mountain. I will be using Quadrats to monitor several different treatment methods and to get species richness using percent cover of each plot. The Fuels/Foresters are very interested in this project to see what management strategies will work best to restore burned piles to a native stand and limit noxious weed invasions.

I have two months left in this internship and it feels like summer has just begun. The snow is just starting to melt off in the backcountry, so I have some backpacking to catch up on in these coming months.