I have been pleasantly busy these last few weeks traveling for work and leisure. In late June, one of my roommate and I went to Bend, OR to attend a Grass ID workshop hosted by the Carex Working Group. During this two day workshop, I learned about grass morphology in order to better identify grasses! In addition, we were supplied with a comprehensive grass key of Oregon and Washington, which has been much desired by my fellow interns and me during our vegetation surveys.

Identifying grasses on a rocky hill as part of our Grass ID workshop.

Moreover, I have made several trips for work to a ranger cabin that is located two hours away in Fields, Oregon- a town that has a population of 8 people. However, Fields has world-famous milkshake, so, naturally, I love going there. We have continued our ES&R (emergency stabilization and rehabilitation) vegetation monitoring on fire rehab sites in Fields. A lot of the trend sites are inaccessible via a rig, necessitating the use of a UTV, which is a blast to ride on. Even though I have been here for over two months, I am still astonished by the vastness of open land.

Unloading the UTV at the allotment where we will have to do trend.

The Fourth of July weekend I went backpacking for my first time! A group of friends and I went to the Strawberry Mountains and did a two day, 18 mile loop up and down the mountain. It was the most beautiful hike I had ever been on! The landscape alternated between conifer forests and rocky alpine hillsides covered with wildflowers, many of which I could identify! We even hiked past snow! I’m not really used to camping yet, but I’m getting the hang of it.

Backpacking in the Strawberries!

The weekend after we made a trip to the Oregon Country Fair in Eugene, OR- a town that is known for its wackiness. Never before had I seen so many different flavors of people and forms of expression. The fair was nestled in a forest on a winding path, and it was set up almost like a craft fair, with rows upon rows of booths of handmade, sustainable items. Afterwards, we traveled to the coast of Oregon. The beaches there are unlike any that I had ever been to; cold, windy, cloudy, sea-salt mist choking the air, conifer forests running adjacent to the white sand beaches, and dark, cold water. It was hauntingly beautiful! We went at high tide to see the famous landmark: Thor’s Well. At low tide we went back to check out all of the tide pools. I felt like a child as I ran from pool to pool, squealing at all of the sea organisms. I feverously tickled every lime green sea anemone I could find, watching them curl up in anticipation of food. In addition, there were royal purple sea urchins, hermit crabs, regular crabs, chitins, barnacles, mussels, limpets, and snails. My favorite was all of the starfish, which ranged in colors (from deep pink to pale yellow to orange) and sizes.

Thor’s Well!

I’m excited for what is in store for the rest of my stay in Burns! We anticipate starting our riparian monitoring within the next month, which I am entirely enthused about!

Until next time,

Megan Hoff

Burns, OR BLM

Escalante, Utah is a unique place containing many hoodoos, natural bridges, and immense canyons created by uplifting faults thousands of years ago and shaped

A natural bridge in Bryce Canyon

through years of erosion.  My time here has shown me Escalante’s rich natural history, beautiful landscapes and habitats, challenging trails, and the beauty of nature in general.  So far, I have learned many new plant species, learned what plants Native Americans and early settlers used for multiple purposes, caught hummingbirds for banding, and collected pollen. I have only been here for a month, but already I have had many opportunities to expand my knowledge as a biologist.

Ephedra viridis (Mormon tea) in front of Dance Hall Rock, a natural formation that Mormon’s used as an amphitheater

A few of the important species in the area for wildlife, natives, and early settlers that my partner and I have encountered  include Artemisia tridentata (Big Sagebrush), Purshia tridentata (Antelope Bitterbrush), Ephedra viridis (Mormon tea), and Psoralidium tenuiflorum (Scurf Pea). A. tridentata is considered a keystone species providing food for sage grouse and small mammals (Elmore, 71) and, even though it is rather unpalatable (Buren et al., 171), is still browsed by pronghorn, deer, cattle, and sheep (Elmore, 71). Native Americans and early settlers brewed A. tridentata leaves in tea to ease stomach pains and burned the leaves, creating fumes, which were inhaled to cure colds (Foster & Hobbs, 320). An important winter browsing plant for deer and other wildlife is P. tridentata (Buren et al., 400). Native Americans used the leaves of P. tridentata as a poultice to cure rashes and itching, made tea from the leaves and roots to ease colds, and used the twigs, leaves, and berries as a laxative (Foster & Hobbs, 297).  E. viridis acquired its namesake from early Mormon settlers who would steep the twig-like leaves in hot water, making a tea that is still a common practice today to jump start the day or to cure the common cold (Buren et al., 112).  One plant that my partner and I have had to collect, P. tenuiflorum, was used by natives to cure headaches, constipation, tuberculosis, and to repel mosquitoes (Foster & Hobbs, 212).

A tunnel trap used to catch hummingbirds so the BLM’s wildlife biologist can band them.

Besides learning about the native flora, my partner and I have also had the opportunity to band hummingbirds.  We started the day half an hour before sunrise (6:00 AM) and caught hummingbirds in a net that fit over their feeders.  Once captured and transferred into a small bag, our mentor and another wildlife biologist from the BLM were able to record various measurements on the hummingbirds and we were able feed them and release them.

This internship has allowed me to experience many exciting biological procedures, learn new plant species, and meet biologists who share similar interests with me.  I have made a hiking buddy out of my fellow intern, and together, we have explored many of the trails Escalante has to offer.  Even though we have yet to collect our seed collections, we are broadening our horizons through the BLM and are gaining multiple skills that will send us on way to become future biologists.

Buren, Renee Van et al. (2011). Woody Plants of Utah. Logan, Utah. Utah State University Press.

Elmore, Francis H.. (1976).Shrubs and Trees of the Southwest Uplands. Tuscan, Arizona. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association.

Foster, Steven & Hobbs, Christopher. 2002. Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs. New York, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company.

“I like my job. The pay is generous… The fringe benefits are priceless: clean air to breathe; stillness, solitude, and space; an unobstructed view every day and every night of sun, sky, stars, clouds, mountains, moon…; a sense of time enough to let thought and feeling range from here to the end of the world and back; the discovery of something intimate – though impossible to name – in the remote.”

– Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

I have been experiencing the Great Basin desert for five and a half months now and I never thought I would find myself so appreciative of such a harsh environment. In his book, Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey has put into words the feelings of awe and respect I have gained for this truly breathtaking area.

I started my internship at the tail end of winter, so for the majority of my time here, I have been spoiled by the colors of spring. It is incredible the variety of plants able to thrive (even for a short while) in this climate, but a wet spring has brought such beauties out of the seed bank as Leucocrinum montanum (common star lily), Calochortus nuttallii (sego lily), Grayia spinosa (spiny hop sage), and my thus-far-favorite-shrub, Psorothamnus polydenius (Nevada dalea). Each of these plants has caught my eye and my appreciation as they find ways to defy the heat and aridity to splash their colors all over the brown canvas that is Nevada.

Along with my love affair with the desert flora, I have fallen in love with the expansiveness of the mountains and valleys, the brilliant clarity of the night sky, and the stillness in the air during the long hours of seed collecting. In these moments, I find my thoughts escaping me and myself fully embraced by the presence of the stillness. Who knew the methodic pace of seed collecting could open the doorway to wakefulness? Even the scurrying of a jackrabbit or a lizard allows me a moment’s relief from my own swirl of thoughts. While I never pictured myself doing more than visiting the desert, I am so thankful to be living here for the majority of a year (I will be here until November) and to experience the wonders of this place.

While my thoughts have been idyllic in nature, I have made plenty of time to be silly and practical while at work. To beat the heat, my coworkers and I have started bringing a cooler full of ice with us for the long field days. The simple relief of some cold water or a cool forehead makes all the difference when there is no place to hide from the sun. I also jumped at the opportunity to take a fun photo a few weeks ago when we drove through Sheridan, Nevada while I was wearing a t-shirt from my hometown of Sheridan, Indiana. I even sent my mom an email with the tagline “I’m home…sort of!”

Taking time out of from seed collection scouting for a priceless photo opp. Photo credit: Olivia Schilling

Life in the Great Basin has been great so far and I look forward to enjoying the rest of my time here before I move on to the next step in life. Until next time, this is Maggie signing out from Carson City, Nevada!

Sooooooo…………..

I’ve been really busy. Interns have come on, scheduling them, Youth Corps, seed collection, site visits, training, rare plant surveys and range monitoring. And meetings. There’s always meetings…….. 

This was the first week for us North Carolina interns to venture out into the field on our own, without our lovely supervisor, Amanda. We traveled through many National Wildlife Reserves and NC Coastal and Estuarine Reserves in search of seeds for our SOS East collections. Around this time of year, many of the seeds of sedges, grasses, and rushes are ripening, so we particularly had our eyes pealed for those.

We visited a total of four parks in search of seeds: Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Alligator River NWR, Currituck Banks Coastal Reserve, and Kitty Hawk Woods Coastal Reserve. They were all extremely beautiful, and we ended up making a total of six seed collections over the course of the week!

Collecting Juncus effusus (Common Rush) while at Pocosin Lakes.

Lauren collecting drupes from Prunus serotina (Black Cherry).

We also found some Monarda punctata (Spotted Beebalm) which we are excited to collect from in the future!

Though our trip was filled with many seeds, wildlife encounters (we came across a total of six black bears while at Pocosin Lakes, as well as dolphins at Currituck Banks), and beautiful landscapes, we also had our fair share of wandering through thick forests! We found ourselves cutting through brambles of Smilax (like Common Greenbrier…their thorns will get you!), Quercus virginiana (Live Oak), and sadly, our least favorite Toxicodendron radicans (Poison Ivy) several times. Luckily, after unsuccessfully walking for an hour and a half through some thickets at Currituck Banks in search of some Typha (Cattail) species, we exited the brambles right next to our car! We felt this was a major victory and celebrated our chance to take a break in some air conditioning.

This is what we had just hiked through…

And this is what we felt like…

…But Emily, Jake, and Lauren were also pretty pumped that we came out of the woods right next to our car!

All in all, it was a great trip. The Outer Banks are beautiful, and we felt lucky to take a dip in the ocean after one of our long days out in the field. We’ll definitely be back here come August and September, so until next time!

-Maggie

CLM Intern at the North Carolina Botanical Garden

Frasera speciosa (Elkweed)

Hello To All,

I’ve enjoyed a busy month out here on Colorado’s western slope.

We just wrapped up our field data collection for HAF / Gunnison Sage-grouse; now it’s time for analysis!

HAF Green Mountain, Crawford, CO

We also had the opportunity to work with BLM State Botanist, Carol Dawson, and CLM veterans Nathan and Colleen, collecting data on the threatened Sclerocactus glaucus  and BLM ‘sensitive species’ Astragalus naturitensis.

Sclerocactus glaucus (Colorado Hookless Cactus)

Establishing long term monitoring plot for Astragalus naturitensis

Astragalus naturitensis

A. naturitensis fruit

In addition to all our floral adventures, the past month has been fantastic for wildlife viewing – Big horn sheep, elk, antelope, bull snake, scorpion, and many a raptor !

Hope you all are enjoying your CLM adventures !!!

The past month has been busy in Klamath Falls. Last week one of the damns from the Klamath Irrigation Project was shut down, so we went out with the Bureau of Reclamation to try and salvage some fish! To do this, we set tramp nets in the pool beneath the damn and we also electroshocked for fish in some of the smaller rocky pools beneath the damn. This was necessary because as the summer continues, the pools will either dry up or the oxygen levels will plummet, causing fish die off events. Both species of endangered suckers are found in the reservoir, so US Fish and Wildlife wanted to make sure as many individuals as possible were saved. We only found five suckers in the pools, but a lot of other fish including catfish and perch. The suckers that were caught were pit tagged to determine how well the fish are surviving in the reservoir after they are moved and how well they are moving through the river system. We also took general condition data on the suckers and took genetic samples.

Pit tagging fish!

Juvenile sucker

I’ve also been working down at Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. I’ve been taking water quality measurements as well as trapping the ponds to see if fish are able to move through the water supply channels. I still haven’t caught any fish in the smaller ponds, which is good. The largest pond should have fish in it, but I hadn’t caught any until last Friday. I caught four small Sacramento Perch.   This is a little concerning because Perch eat suckers. They also grow much faster than suckers, making them easy prey. We still have not caught any suckers in the large pond, but we are getting larger traps, so hopefully we will be able to find them.

Sacramento Perch

Earlier in the month we worked more with Applegate’s Milk-vetch. As part of the mitigation plan for reducing the impact of runway construction on the endangered Milk-vetch, seeds were to be collected from the plants along the runway. The seeds would then be taken to a nursery to be planted and grown to a certain size and then planted out at a Nature Conservancy preserve. This method was chosen because typically transplanting Milk-vetch has been unsuccessful, due to both a deep tap root and a close symbiotic relationship with mycorrhiza.  There has been some success taking seeds and planting then with soil taken from sites where Applegate’s Milk-vetch already occurs.

Unfortunately this was not a good year for Milk-vetch. A lot of the plants at the airport had aborted the seeds in their fruits. In addition, Milk-vetch is a plant that annually dries out and goes underground. A lot of the largest plants, and the easiest ones to collect seeds from, had already begun to dry out. This meant that we will not be able to collect many seeds from the airport. Luckily some of the other populations were in better condition so we were able to bag plants at other locations. It was surprising to see how different the condition was of Milk-vetch in different populations.

I also helped a professor from the Oregon Institute of Technology. As part of the recovery effort for Milk-vetch, plants were grown up from seed and then planted at a preserve managed by The Nature Conservancy. This preserve was bought and is managed specifically for Milk-vetch. There is currently a demographic study on the out-planted Milk-vetch plants that is looking at survival and reproduction, a project looking at the wild plants just received funding from USFW. In addition, there is a study looking at the plants that grow around Milk-vetch to see if there is a correlation between survival and the plant community around Milk-vetch. This was a super fun survey to do because it meant that I got to learn a lot of new plants, including some common grasses. Can’t wait to see what the next month brings!

The Buffalo BLM range staff, Dusty Kavitz (standing center) and me (standing right), teaching body parts of an insect to first graders.

May 27, 2015 Buffalo, Wyoming-Dusty Kavitz, Rangeland Conservationist, and myself, Range Intern, headed down to the Clear Creek Trail System to teach about insects, particularly grasshoppers and crickets. Upon arrival we visited with Nicole Schmidt, an elementary school teacher at Buffalo’s Meadowlark Elementary School. There were other professionals teaching too; Wyoming Game and Fish Department teaching about Aquatic Invertebrates, Johnson County Weed & Pest teaching about Mosquitoes, US Forest Service teaching Bugs & Trees, and Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality teaching Food for Fish. The roughly 70 first graders piled in with their respective teachers.

Our first group of first graders ready and willing to learn about INSECTS! Dusty started out explaining insects are made up of head, thorax, and abdomen.  One volunteer was chosen to stand in front of the rest and get dressed with head (helmet), antennae (costume antlers), wings (costume wings), exoskeleton (garbage bucket cover), and an egg (plastic Easter egg) for the abdomen. After the dress-up was finished we sang “head, thorax, abdomen and three legs” to the tune of “head, shoulders, knees and toes”. First we would sing at normal speed and then faster, telling the group they were the fastest yet.  Next, Dusty quizzed them on what is an insect? A spider? No. A roly-poly? No. A lobster? No. A cricket? Yes. A grasshopper? Yes.

To make the lesson a bit more specific we focused on grasshoppers and crickets. These insects live in grasslands of wide open spaces in Wyoming. They are an important food source for birds and help break down plants to turn into soil. The difference between grasshoppers and crickets; crickets are nocturnal and grasshoppers are diurnal. Grasshoppers have vivid colors and crickets are more neutral colors to blend in with the landscape. We ended each session with a poem Walking on Ears from the Center for Insect Science Education Outreach at the University of Arizona. The poem relates how a cricket chirps, hears, sees, and smells to how humans see, feel, smell, hear, and sing.

After 5 different sessions and 3 hours of sunshine in a grassy field, our work was done. The kids were heading back to school and the professionals heading back to their respective offices.  What a terrific way to start the day!

Over the past several weeks the New England CLM interns have been focusing on salt marshes and the species that grow there, especially the ubiquitous Spartina alterniflora, S. patens, J. gerardii, and Distichlis spicata.  However, at our latitude the phenology schedule lags a bit behind those of our colleagues further south, so it wasn’t until July 14th that we made our first collection; at Scarborough Marsh in southern Maine, we collected some seeds and vouchers of saltmarsh arrowgrass, Triglochin maritima, family Juncaginaceae, which bears six seeds per pod along a stalk bearing 35-80 pods.

Saltmarsh arrowgrass (Triglochin maritima), Scarborough Marsh, ME

We are planning to continue our reconnaissance and collection over the coming weeks and months as more species start bearing ripe fruits; the Juncus is nearly ripe and we hope to start collecting that within the next few weeks!

CLM has been so rewarding in offering an opportunity to identify and learn about not only plants, but also insects and birds as well, which frequently accompany us on our excursions.  Here are a few snapshots:

Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Great Marsh NWR, NH

Hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus), Scarborough Marsh, ME