The last three weeks I have been working on a project surveying vegetation recovery at oil well sites across the Colorado Plateau. Our sites have taken us to Bluff, UT, the Moab area, and Virgin, UT, near Zion National Park. Many of these wells are very old (some as old as the 1920s). This makes finding them quite difficult, as GPS was not around in the 20s… It has been fascinating, though, to find each of the wells and to assess the vegetation effects of disturbance!

At each site, we establish 30m transects and measure both cover as well as density. For the purposes of recovery, we are only measuring perennial plants (with annuals included, the task would be much greater!!). We then find a suitable reference site (an adjacent area with similar soils, topography, and ideally free of disturbance).

Along the way, we have identified and learned to recognize countless new species, including Lygodesmia grandiflora, Oenothera pallida, Muhlenbergia pungens, Dalea candida var. oligophylla, Machaeranthera tanacetifolia, Townsendia incana, and Chaetopappa ericoides. And of course some interesting Utah lizards…

I’m looking forward to looking at the data more closely to tease out the differences in vegetation recovery between sites, especially the older ones from the 1920s!

Til next time,

Daniel

Background-

Prometheus: 

The ancient Greek story of the Gift of Fire is often viewed as literature’s most archetypical double-edged sword. As the story goes, the Greek god Prometheus brought the fire of the gods down off of Mount Olympus and gave it to mankind. Prometheus was duly punished by the great god Zeus by being chained to a rock to have his liver eaten out by a large eagle. However, Zeus could not take the fire back from humans. While fire was a great and useful technology as Prometheus had hoped, it was also extremely dangerous to its human masters, since it could bring light and heat, but also death and destruction. 

I’ll never forget the sight of my first wildfire. It was July 4th, and I was at a party on a hill overlooking the small town of Burns, OR. We were eating delicious blueberry cobbler and watching the boys next door shoot off a regular arsenal of fireworks. It was getting late, and we were getting ready to leave when someone exclaimed that there was a fire. All at once, everyone was up and straining to see the orange glow and when I saw it, I thought the town was done for. It danced eerily all along the top of a long ridge just out of town, close to the BLM office where I work. It looked huge and out of control. Little did I know how tiny it was.

The fire was out by the next morning, and I was informed that it had only burned a couple hundred acres. By contrast, the Miller Homestead Fire, whose aftermath we have spent a lot of time monitoring, burned more than 160,000 acres before it was brought under control. In an area with such large fires, management necessarily occurs on a huge scale. Tens of thousands of acres are reseeded with various mixes of seed dominated by the non-native yet potentially useful crested wheatgrass. Despite the valiant Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (ES&R) efforts, thousands of acres are also home to vast swaths of invasive annual grasses, primarily cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and medusa head rye (Taeniatherum caput-medusae).

Before arriving in the west, I had learned something about fire ecology in the midwest, specifically fire dependent Ozark Glades. These patchy south facing slopes characterized by naturally thin soils are hosts to a wide variety of endemic plants and animals. Historically these areas were kept free of eastern red ceder (Juniperus virginiana) by regular fires. Fire suppression by white settlers eventually resulted in invasion of Ozark Glades by eastern red cedar which threatens to destroy almost all instances of this unique ecosystem.

Funnily enough, when I was talking to one of the range conservationists I learned that fire suppression in the US is best personified by a cartoon character. Smoky the Bear first appeared in 1944 in an advertising campaign to educate the public about the dangers of wildfire. His slogan, “Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires” urged people to avoid providing a source of ignition for wildfires, and ushered in an age of fire repression in America. The attitude that spawned these advertisements, the attitude that wildfire was undeniably bad, accompanied an unprecedented suppression of natural fires across the country. This policy resulted in the rapid accumulation of juniper trees (Juniperus occidentalis), brush, and other fuels, which eventually led to devastating fires far worse than those the policy had tried to prevent.

While returning fire to the ecosystem on a regular schedule would seem to be a logical solution, the results of fire suppression are playing out on a changed and modern stage, covered in invasive annual grasses. While the solution to the invading junipers is to burn, burning leaves open spaces for invasive annual grasses to recruit. Presence of these grasses increases fire intensity because they are completely dry during the summer fire season, unlike perennial grasses. The higher fire intensity results in more death of desirable perennials, increasing the population of invasive annual grasses. Controlled burns might help prevent larger fires, but such projects are prohibitively expensive for such a large amount of land. Increased cattle grazing decreases fuel loads which helps slow fires, but also provides disturbance that invasive annual grasses need to spread. Getting cows to graze on the invasive annual grasses is nearly impossible, as they are only palatable for a few weeks annually, and are low in nutrients. Juniper trees can be chopped down, but this too is prohibitively expensive.

Thus we come to an impasse. Sagebrush steppe covers a huge area of the US, and much of this area is threatened by fire and by lack of fire. People have their favorite solutions to the predicament, and each solution has its problems. But as the storms blow over the steppe, billowing clouds punctuated with bolts of fire-starting lightning, the fires rage on and the sage grouse populations fall steadily. Maybe research will come up with a solution. Maybe management will be enough to minimize presence of invasive annual grasses. Maybe someday we humans will learn to better control the gift of fire, but until then, it will remain one of nature’s greatest double edged swords.

                   Crater Lake

This past month has been a busy one. We have been focusing on setting trap nets in Upper Klamath and Tule Lake to see if we can recapture any tagged sucker fish. A couple of weeks ago Alia and I went to Tule Lake to set four trap nets. Tule Lake is located in the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern California. It is a great spot for birding.

Tule Lake

The water is very shallow, so we had to use the mud boat. Setting the traps was a little difficult since the mud boat does not have reverse. We were about to head back and that is when the engine would not start. After a dozen unsuccessful attempts to start the engine, we decided to row to shore and try again every twenty minutes. After an hour of rowing, we were getting fairly close to the boat ramp. Then the wind picked up and blew us back to where we started. :S We had to just go with the flow (literally) and have the wind blow us to shore. It was quite the experience. We attempted to take the mud boat out the next day, but the engine was not starting.  We retrieved our nets with the Almar instead.

Net Pens

Setting the trap nets in Upper Klamath is a much smoother process. We have been setting nets there for the past two weeks. Perch is the most abundant fish we catch. We also caught Tui Chubs, Bluehead Chubs, Sculpins, Bullhead Catfish, Rainbow Trout, Fathead Minnows, AND… a few Sucker larvae! It was so exciting to catch some suckers. We transported them to our net pens. We have also been monitoring the water quality in the pens. The dissolved oxygen levels are very high due to the AFA. The AFA also makes the water very green. Minnow traps were set to remove other species of fish from our nets. We removed over 700 minnow and chub larvae!

Juvenile Sucker

Saving the Fish

Gerber Reservoir had to shut off the dam, so we helped the Bureau of Reclamation salvage fish. They set trap nets and electrofished to save as many fish as possible. Five juvenile Suckers were caught after the shut off. We collected fin clips for genetic data, inserted PIT tags and released them on the other side of the dam. We also caught Perch, Catfish and a couple Sculpins from the pools.

Crater Lake

Camping along the coast

Along the Coast

My Fourth of July was amazing!!! We drove to the coast and camped in Cape Blanco. The weather was perfect! The upper 60s was a nice get away from the upper 90s. My dog, Finn, loved the beaches. We drove past Redwoods on our way home. They are incredible! Last weekend we went to Crater Lake. It was breathtaking. I could not believe how incredibly clear the water was. I highly suggest going to see it in person. This week we are heading off to Canada for the Compassionate Conservation Conference. I am excited to learn more about various conservation efforts.

Till next time,

Erica

July went by very quickly. I am working for Janelle Gonzales, the Powder River Basin Restoration Initiative coordinator, as a field technician.  She had me visit 22 fires to inventory cheatgrass. Most of the fires are dominated by cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and have a bulldozer line around the fire perimeter filled with the stuff. Apparently, the responsible party does not seed the bulldozer line. I’ve brought this to the attention of Janelle and other professionals. The hope is to spray Plateau herbicide on dense pockets of cheatgrass.

Bulldozer line around historic fire perimeter.
Filled with cheatgrass.

I tend to work out in the field by myself. My fellow interns are busy with their own individual projects. The dynamic is much different then last year, but just as productive. I don’t mind working alone, it’ll be a good resume builder, but I have come across abandoned structures that inspire my mind to wander towards horror movies that involve killers in the middle of nowhere. As I’m out and about, the occasional rabbit or bird will hang nearby to stir as I approach, I jump out of my skin every time as if I’m meeting my doom!  I have to admit it is a good wake up call.

Abandoned structure out in the range. Happened upon during solo field work.

Solo field work was draining me and just in the nick of time Wildlife Biologist, and NRS Supervisor, Bill Ostheimer asked me if I’d enjoy a day working with kids. “YES!” I met with the Sheridan Science School in collaboration with the Audubon of the Rockies for a day nature exploring at BLM’s Welch Recreation Area. We began the day at a decomposing tree with mushrooms growing, holes burrowed by insects, and a spiderweb nested in a dugout section. The kids were ecstatic!!! Their enthusiasm reminded me why I started in this field in the first place-NATURE IS EXCITING! Then, the kids wrapped around a large cottonwood tree hand to hand with arms spread wide.  It took 8 kids! I was impressed with the sheer size of the cottonwood and so were they.  We proceeded with other nature observations, identifying plants (Dryland Creeping Alfalfa, Medicago falcata), watching a bird nest (Osprey, Pandion haliaetus) and finding insects. After snack, we crossed the river to measure the children’s ‘wing span’ and categorize which bird they were. Those categories were grouped and told to create a nest. The one group built a fine looking nest. With sturdy limbs that created a wide enough space for all 6 participants to fit inside! Bedded with dried grass and sweaters. This group protected themselves from predators, had style and comfort. Seeing the camaraderie between these little girls and boys tie into having fun with nature reminded me that the outdoor classroom is where it should be. I will be looking at a masters program in Nature-based Early Childhood Education.

Science School Kids (ages 7-9) construct human size nest. Well constructed and earned award for BEST DESIGN!

Speaking of higher education opportunities, I said ‘adios’ to a dear friend and fellow CLMer whom is headed for graduate school to earn her PhD in Xalapa, Mexico. She’ll be focusing on the effects climate change has on butterfly metamorphosis stages.  There has not been much research in this field and she will be breaking new ground! Good luck out there Ms. Nayeli!

Goodbye Ms. Nayeli! Sara and I go out with Nayeli for one last night on the town-in Buffalo, Wyoming.

July only got busier.  I attended the Red Ants Pants music festival in White Sulphur Springs, Montana! What a fun experience and a great venue, the Sagebrush Steppe overlooking the Little Belt mountain range. There was a range of notable singer/songwriters from Ryan Bingham to The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Local vendors selling food and art. The weather held up, aside from one hail storm and a down pour, and provided bright blue skies!

Red Ants Pants Music Festival venue in White Sulphur Springs, Montana

Red Ants Pants Music Festival stage, Ryan Bingham headlining, with eager crowd

August has already been busy. I headed down to Laramie, Wyoming which houses the University of Wyoming, so it is a fun college town with many food options, art galleries, yoga studio’s, etc. I met with former CLM intern from the Lewistown, Montana field office, Erica Duda, we camped overnight at the Vedauwoo campground and explored the Medicine Bow Wilderness.

Erica Duda (stage left) and me at Overlook Lake in the Medicine Bow Wilderness outside of Laramie, Wyoming. A well-established and popular trail for tourists!

August will be my last month with the CLM internship. My last month living in the town of Buffalo, Wyoming. And my last month living in the West, as far as I know. I’d like to say I’ll be back out here for more adventures! The geology, recreational opportunities, and wildlife is so unique out here that saying goodbye just for now is all I can manage.

During the month of July, I participated in a graduate student organized isotope study, desert pupfish surveys in conjunction with US Fish and Wildlife Service, a Seeds of Success collection with a group from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, monument setting with the state of California cadastral team, seed collecting with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research and spent a weekend at Otay Mountain.

The isotope study is part of a master’s thesis for a CSUSB student. The aim of the study is to determine the source of the groundwater at Dos Palmas Preserve. Since the lining of the canal, the water table has decreased dramatically, assuming that canal seepage was feeding the surrounding oases. Samples were taken from 12 locations and water quality tests were conducted, then samples were sent off to the lab for further analysis.

Writing down water quality results as Kevin, the CSUSB grad student, is sealing samples for isotope analysis.

Surveys of the desert pupfish, Cyprinodon macularius, were conducted in two different locations, S-ponds and Upper Salt Creek. These surveys are part of the mitigation process for the Coachella Canal lining project at Dos Palmas Preserve. We set minnow traps filled with bags of cat food for a 2 hour time period and conducted water quality analyses. Then fish were counted, both native and non-native species, and returned to the habitat. Counts were high in the S-ponds but dismal in Salt Creek. There is a possibility of more surveys in the near future.

Releasing a minnow trap into the S-ponds.

Reporting water quality of the pupfish habitats with Sharon, from US Fish and Wildlife Service.

I was invited to help Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in SOS collecting of Eriodictyon trichocalyx var. trichocalyx and Eriastrum sapphirinum subsp. dasyanthum in Whitewater Canyon and Senegalia greggii (Acacia greggi) in Bear Creek. We were successful in finding a big enough population and enough number of seeds per plant to make a complete collection.

Cheryl from RSABG collecting Eriodictyon trichocalyx seeds in Whitewater Canyon.

On a Friday, I was planning on working in the office all day but was convinced to help out the state cadastral surveyors that are located at our field office. The surveyors work as part of the Public Land Survey System, which has been around since the beginning of the United States. We drove out to Johnson Valley to set monuments for the upcoming change-over in land ownership from BLM to US Military. I got to pound the specific marks into the brass monument, thus leaving my mark in history.

Setting a monument in Johnson Valley with the cadastral crew.

I took a day trip to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park to assist the Institute of Conservation Research in seed collecting at Lake Hodges and the safari park for an upcoming restoration project. We were successful in collecting Encelia californica but there were not enough seeds for complete collections of Sambucus nigra, Brickellia californica nor Saliva apiana. While these collections were not specifically for Seeds of Success, there were similar protocols and standards used.

Examining Salvia apiana to see if the seeds are viable for collection.

I spent a weekend at the US Fish and Wildlife ranch house in the Otay Mountains. My realty specialist co-worker has some compliance inspections to complete in the area and I tagged along with a local BLM wildlife biologist as we searched for populations of Baccharis varnesse, which we were unsuccessful in finding. San Diego county has a large amount of unique endemic species. Otay Mountain has the Tecate Cypress, Hesperocyparis forbesii; Del Mar is home to the Torrey Pine, Pinus torreyana; and countless others examples. I was also fortunate to visit the botany department at the San Diego Natural History Museum, which is responsible for the Plant Atlas project. The Plant Atlas consists of dividing the county of San Diego into grid squares, then volunteers were assigned a square and collected specimens of the local plants they encountered. These specimens were logged in the herbarium at the SDNHM and are now part of an extensive online database for species found all around San Diego county. I also learned about the local species present at Mt. Gower Open Space Preserve, El Capitan Open Space Preserve, Torrey Pines State Preserve, San Diego Botanic Garden and San Diego Zoo Safari Park. There is opportunity for me to return to Otay Mountain and assist in monitoring another rare species in the upcoming weeks.

View of Mexico from Otay Mountain.

View of the Pacific Ocean from Torrey Pines State Preserve, with the namesake pine in the foreground.

During the month of June, I was fortunate to experience a diverse set of opportunities within the Palm Springs – South Coast field office.

One week of the month was spent at the Chicago Botanic Gardens for CLM training, which was fantastic. We had sessions on Botany of the West, Protocols for Monitoring and Measuring, and Seeds of Success training. The last day of the week all interns attended a symposium. I also had some free time to explore the Chicago area.

The Bean in Downtown Chicago

When I returned to the desert, my co-worker and I started on our biggest task for the season, vegetation monitoring of 118 permanently marked transects and quadrats throughout the ACEC (Area of Critical of Environmental Concern). This project lasted into July and we both learned a lot about monitoring protocols and the local fauna. Some plots were in the dry upland habitat and others were located in the middle of a marsh. During this project, I collected GPS points to compare to the random points of our GIS-generated map. Data entry and analysis followed the completion of the outdoor work and we are working on presenting our findings at the quarterly Biological Working Group Meeting in September. I have updated the GIS map, created GPS coordinate logs and compared different habitat types of riparian species found along the transects. Also, we discovered a species that was not previously recorded in the quadrats and spent a day in the field with the Jepsen manual and a Trimble attempting to identify and log the species of rush.

Reference photo of transect 11 USA 01 from the 30m marker to the 4m marker, with my coworker Joel and I recording species percent cover along the transect.

Typical upland habitat: most common plants seen were 4 different species of Atriplex and Allenrolfea occidentalis, Pickleweed.

Joel fighting through the Phragmites to get to the next plots, typical marsh habitat.

I also got a chance to help out a team from the USGS Las Vegas office look for Hiliria ridgia at Big Morongo Preserve. USGS is working on a seed transfer zone project for new native plant nurseries. The GPS coordinate for Big Morongo Preserve was based on a herbarium voucher and thus we were not successful in finding a viable population.

Picture taken from Big Morongo Preserve of the smoke from the Lake Fire that burned 31,359 acres of the San Bernandino National Forest.

July in the Lander Field Office has been the busiest month so far, but also the most fun. Our time has been split between two very time consuming projects, production clipping and seed collection. Production clipping involves us going out to an ex-closure (a fenced off area that cows can’t get into) in the field and clipping plants from both inside and outside the ex-closure to compare them. This helps us see the effect that grazing has on the production levels of different plants. At each site we set up two transects, one inside and one outside the ex-closure. We then throw hoops to randomly select 20 plots along the transect. Whatever is inside the hoop becomes our sampling plot, we cut down everything inside the plot and bag them by species. We weigh each bag at the site to get a green weight, then at the office we put the bags in plant dryers and get a dry weight in 24 hours. This process takes a couple days for each ex-closure and we have 10 sites to visit.

One of the production ex-closures we did production clipping at. This ex-closure was covered in tumbleweeds!

Here is an example of the hoops we use. Whatever is inside the hoop after we throw it gets clipped and weighed.

While not doing production clipping, we have been working on seed collections. We have four collections that we’ve done in July. We have collected Antelope Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), Basin Daisy (Platyschkurhia integrifolia), Desert Yellow Fleabane (Erigeron linearis), and Tansyleaf Tansyaster (Macaeranthera tanacetifolia). The seed collection has been a little challenging, sometimes seeds that we’ve scouted have disappeared before we could get to them. It seems like many of the seeds were ready at the same time and we couldn’t get to all of them at once.

Two days this month we had a Montana Conservation Corps crew come out and help us with seed collection. There were 12 kids (ages 14-22) on the crew and it was very helpful to have all of the extra hands. It was a little difficult to keep their attention at times, but they helped us collect 14,000 seeds of antelope bitterbrush and 15,000 seeds of desert yellow fleabane.  It was also nice to be able to teach others about seed collection and why it is important. I liked being able to be in charge and have my own crew.

Some of the antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) seed that the Montana Conservation Corps crew helped us collect.

Antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) seeds

One of the most tedious things about seed collecting is doing the seed count. We have a formula we use that uses the weight of the collection to figure out how many seeds we have. However, it requires us to take a handful of seeds as a sample and sort through and count how many viable seeds there are. This process can take about an hour. Although seed collecting can sometimes be monotonous, it is also very rewarding and is definitely my favorite part of my job.

In my free time I have been exploring the history of this area more in depth. One weekend I drove out to visit independence rock, which was much more interesting than I expected it to be! I learned that independence rock was considered the halfway point on the Oregon trail. Travelers were supposed to reach the rock by July 4th in order to ensure safe passage over the mountains before winter. Many people who stopped here carved their names into the rock, creating a sort of registry of travelers on the Oregon trail.

Signatures on top of Independence Rock

The view from standing on top of Independence Rock

The month of July started out very hot, we have been going up the road into the mountains more often to jump in the cold mountain lakes. There also has been no rain! Everyday is hot and sunny, which has caused many wildfires in the last couple of weeks. I’m starting to hope for a few rainy days.

I have also been out hiking in Sinks Canyon State Park a few times this month. Sinks Canyon is by far my favorite place in Wyoming.

A suspension bridge on one of the hikes in Sinks Canyon State Park.

Month three working with the BLM has gone well, I have really been enjoying my time here. However, I have to say that I am looking forward to the fall and cooler temperatures. Until next time!

Erin, Lander Field Office, BLM- Wyoming

I am over half way through my time here at the BLM in Baker City. There is rhythm to our team as field sites and protocols become familiar. Stream channel assessments have changed up the routine a bit though with new techniques like plant identification!

We started off by attending training on multiple indicator monitoring (known hereafter as MIM) for riparian systems. The focus of MIM is quantifying the impacts of grazing on streams from bank stability to plant composition. The training brought people from a variety of backgrounds from range management to geo engineering. MIM has a holistic approach, attempting to account for all forms alterations. While alterations are examined individually, their potential relationships are examined in the final analysis. In the field, we discussed these connections as we practiced the methods of MIM. I found it intriguing to examine the morphology of streams as well as riparian vegetation.

Conducting MIMs on our own sites has been a real eye opener. Our first stream was in poor condition with highly eroding banks and little plant biomass left after cattle are taken off. It is shocking and disheartening to hear from my mentor how difficult it can be to have the grazing reduced on such allotments. It is a consequence of a working landscape. Ranchers often depend on free range grazing in the summer and cannot feed the cattle sufficiently otherwise. However, the impairment of these valuable ecosystems is gaining notice as evident by the growing importance of MIM in BLM.

I often find myself struggling with the complex and seemingly conflictingly commitments of the BLM. The reconciliation of conservation and resource utilization has been a subject of many a class or book of mine, yet the challenges are something I feel I am only beginning to grasp. It is easy to ignore when sites are part of large swaths of conserved land like some of our streams (see below), but it is evident in these highly degraded streams that there is still much to be done.

Hi,

It’s Michal at the Lockeford PMC, NRCS. Just a quick update this time. July has been a very busy month — I’ve been trying to get everything locked down for this restoration project I’m carrying out. After we finally got our brushcutter, Jeff and I set off to start clearing the blackberry thicket (Rubus armeniacus) that I wrote about last time. And boy oh boy, let me tell you that it’s not very fun, but very satisfying when you see progress being made.

Levee before cutting

Levee after cutting

It may not look like it, but much of the thicket is over 5ft tall so it took quite a bit of effort and patience to get through it all. To complicate things, there are a lot of heavy branches hidden between the canes to avoid.

How I feel before cutting blackberries

How I feel 2 hours into cutting blackberries

We also spent a week clearing willows, which we will mulch back into the clearing as fertilizer and to retain soil moisture. We were careful to pile any walnuts into a non-mulch pile, as walnuts (Juglans sp) contain juglone, an allelopathic compound. The next step is to spray a pre-emergent herbicide to prepare the site, all the meanwhile allowing the blackberries to foliate again so we can herbicide them in the fall when they are translocating nutrients to the roots and are most vulnerable.

I have also been writing the USDA Plant Guide for California mugwort (Artemisia douglasiana). Because it is such an important plant to Native Californians, not only medicinally but also spiritually, I put a lot of effort into my research to make sure I do it justice. When it gets published, I’ll update everyone and post the link so you guys can check it out.

I hope everyone is learning a lot and doing well!

Michal

USDA-NRCS, Lockeford, California.

Orange mound formations Badlands

The second month in the Black Hills has been very eventful. After one of the wettest early summers on record the Hills are still lush and green, very different than normal. In the office I hear people commenting on how streams are still running as well as the lack of fire ban. The lack of fire ban is one thing that has been great.  Where I am staying there is a fire pit, so my roommates and I have been grilling and roasting marshmallows often.

The projects that my coworker and I have been working on are finally progressing. The fuels-wildlife project is done save a final walk-through, and let me say I am happy it is over. The work has yet to be scheduled, but will probably be completed next spring. What we are trying to do is improve mule deer winter forage range by removing ponderosa pine to release mountain mahogany. At the same time we are creating a meadow area on the flatter areas. When we were lying out and designing the different areas we ran into problems that I had never thought about much before. While some areas are better off on paper as mountain mahogany, the logistics of getting men and machine in to do the work prohibits its inclusion into the project. There are some areas that are over 120˚ slopes with loose shale “soil”, these areas while in need of management will not be included.

The other project for this summer is a timber sale.  One nice thing about the BLM is that the timber sales are mainly about improving the health of the forest. The timber sale is on approximately 250 acres, however there are some areas that are canyons and will not be touched. It is these areas that some massive old ponderosa pine coexists next to an aspen stand, chokecherry, and the only oak in the Hills, bur oak. Being able to explore and see things that most people won’t is one of the hidden gems of this type of internship.
But it has not been all work and no play in the Black Hills, I am constantly amazed at what there is to do here. Some of them are amazing, others are pure tourist’s traps. One of the surprising finds is Custer State Park, this place has it all. They have one of the largest bison herds, elk, pronghorn, deer and a prairie dog town. There are also two very scary roads with amazing views of unique geologic landforms. What makes these roads scary are that they are so narrow there is not even a center line, along with almost constant blind turns and four single car tunnels. But it was worth it. The other CLM intern and I also went for a weekend trip to Badlands National Park, all I can say is that it is a great place to visit if you have the chance, just don’t feed the prairie dogs, they have plague! Our first night we were treated to an amazing lightning show, until it started pouring on us. It rained off and on all night, but my tent kept me dry. Looking forward to what the rest of the summer holds.

Trees in the Badlands!

Badlands Vista

Badlands Pinnacles

Badlands Drive