We have been busy busy interns at the BLM Eagle Lake office. We have been monitoring several species of special status plants in addition to our Seeds of Success collections.

Saving the world, one SOS collection at a time

Although  grass collections such as Squirrel Tail and Great Basin Wild Rye go much faster, I have a soft spot for berry picking.

My beloved Bitter Cherry

Although I do enjoy the work itself, my favorite part of this internship is spending everyday out in the beautiful field office. It is amazing how one day we can see for miles, and the next day be surrounded by thick smoke from the surrounding wildfires.

Cheers to lunch with a view!

Of course the job does have its down sides…

You think LA traffic is bad? Try the Eagle Lake field office! We have been caught in numerous traffic jams.

We certainly enjoy our weekend adventures, both local and afar.

I recently visited McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park for a full day of hiking. The Pacific Crest Trail passes through the park, and I was lucky to meet some thru-hikers who have been going strong for 1,418 miles so far. I’ve been inspired to attempt the trail myself someday!

The beautiful Burney Falls

Other adventures include Yosemite National Park, Lassen National Park, and Lake Tahoe. I certainly do not like wasting a single weekend in such an awesome part of the country!

Cheers,

Rachael

Hello everyone!

August was a pretty exciting month! I was able to pair up with the local DNR office and assist in some of their prairie dog projects. Part of the week, I participated in the capture and relocation program. Since the Utah prairie dog is federally listed as a threatened species, how “problem” populations are handled is a delicate process. The DNR has been trying to work with property owners who find the animals troublesome or undesirable and relocate them, so that more drastic measures by the land owners can be avoided.  This process allows the animals to form a new colony at the relocation site, where they can thrive, and relieves some of the tensions that human-prairie dog interactions can cause.

I was also able to participate in a slyvatic plague research study. This allowed me to get a little bit more hands on experience with the prairie dogs. Essentially, we set traps in a location where the SPV (sylvatic plague vaccine) was distributed a week earlier (using sugar cube baits) and collected data from the individuals that were captured. Once caught, there are several steps to processing them, a few examples are: checking for fleas (which can carry the plague), collecting a fur sample (which will contain a biomarker for the vaccine if it’s been ingested), and marking them with pit and ear tags (in order to identify them in future years). For a little bit of information about Sylvatic plague and the work being done to immunize populations of ferrets and prairie dogs, read this brief article by the USGS.

A colony of Utah prairie dogs near our SPV site.

Although the prairie dog work was the highlight of the month (maybe even the internship), I have been keeping busy helping the range technicians finish up some of their trends, check riparian fencing, fix said fencing if needed, visit future prairie dog relocation sites and collect vegetation data, and participate in PFC (proper functioning condition) assessments of a few riparian areas. Next week we’re going to start helping with the rangeland health assessments.

During one of our riparian PFC assessments we came upon a stand of ponderosa pines. This was my first up close encounter with this wonderful tree. If you sniff the bark it smells kind of like cream soda or caramel. It’s pretty wonderful, and I highly recommend it!

This is my co-intern Zach and I with Mike and Lindsey from the range crew.

In my free time, I’ve gotten to explore a bit and see more of Utah and the National Parks (NP). I think in this month alone, I’ve visited Kolob Canyon, Zion NP, Capitol Reef NP, Bryce Canyon NP, and the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Being a midwesterner, I’m really trying to make the most of my time in the southwest!

Looking out at Capitol Reef National Park from the trail. It was quite a view!

I’ll leave you with this gem. Burrowing owls are often found in close proximity to prairie dogs, because the owls will utilize old mammal burrows for nesting sites. I’ve been dying to see a burrowing owl all summer, and as a result of this behavior and my work with the DNR crew, I was able to visit a spot and see an entire family of owls. It was a pretty amazing sighting! I believe there were 5 present during my visit.

One of the burrowing owls.

This past month has seen a variety of efforts here at the office, field season is still in full swing and we have been busy! We have been trapping fish in Tule Lake just across the border from California. We have had a little bit of success, but we were largely catching small fish and have not found suckers in the lake. We moved our traps to the deepest part of the lake, which was more successful. We managed to catch larger fish, mostly chub species. We also caught the largest sucker we have caught all season, most likely a short nosed sucker. Unfortunately we are having problems with our boat, so we may be unable to set traps for the rest of the season.

Short nose Sucker caught in Tule Lake

We have also been trapping at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. We have caught three suckers so far in the largest pond, the only pond where we are supposed to have fish. We were able to get a pit tag ID on the last two suckers. They were placed in the pond last year and have doubled in size over the winter. This is really good data to have because it suggests that we can take salvage fish to be reared to a more hearty size in a relatively quick manner.

Sucker of unknown species caught at Lower Klamath National Wildlife National Refuge

This past week the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) needed help conducting sampling at the Fish Evaluation Station (FES). FES is a way of estimating how many fish, with an emphasis on suckers, get entrained in irrigation canals throughout the season. In the past the BOR has sampled for 24 hours, they found that fish rates were higher at night, so they began sampling from 8pm to 2am for intervals in 30 minutes, pulling the trap net every half hour on the hour. Suckers are measured and weighed and evaluated for physical abnormalities. The number of other species caught is also estimated.

This year we wanted to figure out if 1) the fish we are catching are all unique individuals or if the same individuals are getting recycled 2) if we can keep suckers and rear them to a more hearty size and then rerelease them. To figure out if the same fish were getting captured in the trap net we VIE tagged sculpin and chub. These species were chosen because they are showing up in a manageable number; the sculpin was also chosen because its life history is similar to the suckers. We conducted the experiment through August, when we stopped because of low fish numbers. We are still analyzing the data from this experiment, but we think it will give us really valuable data that will help us better determine the number of fish that are being entrained in the irrigation canals each year.

We also held half the suckers from each pull to help determine if we can rear suckers caught in the FES trapping effort. We held suckers in tanks for the week and took the survivors to net pens in Upper Klamath Lake. We were unsure how well this experiment would work because the suckers coming through were believed to already be in bad health. While the data is still being analyzed from observation, it appears that as the sampling went on we were able to hold less suckers because less were coming through the traps. However, it looks like a greater percentage survived. It will be interesting to see if this holds to be true after the data is analyzed statistically. We conducted this experiment through August as well and stopped because of low sucker capture.

This past week I helped BOR conduct the sampling because they were short staffed. While we did not continue the recirculation study, we did try and hold suckers. However there was a low fish catch which included suckers. We caught just seven suckers all week and were only able to hold one. We are unsure why the fish capture is so low this year, though there are several theories including bad water quality and that it was a low spawning year.

Trap net at the Fish Evaluation Station

Sucker holding tanks at Fish Evaluation Station

My internship is wrapping up, as I have about a month left. That means that it is final report time! I am analyzing the data for the monitoring at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. I am really excited to see what the data can tell me. I am especially excited to do some analysis with Geographic Information Systems. I have a lot of GPS points for predator evidence and I am interested to see if it there is a pattern to where predator activity is occurring. I am also getting to write a field note for the project, which will be a great chance to work on public outreach. The last month should be busy but rewarding.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Olga Kildisheva ─the grad student who collected with me on two separate trips for seed dormancy trials she is working on, recommended I do a food blog. I think she really enjoyed eating the smoked salmon I brought from Portland. Field work can be very demanding physically and involve long hours, often in rather harsh conditions such as high winds and hot temperatures. I find having good food that I enjoy eating more satisfying and it can inspire happy snack songs, smiles, positive thinking, and a good mood no matter how exhausted I may be.

Smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber. Yum!

When I head to the field I bring one cooler and one other bin for food. There’s never as much room in the cooler as I wish there was, limiting perishable food selections to the most cherished. I compensate by bringing along plenty of fresh fruits.

Cold melon after a long, hot day in the field is one of my most cherished perishable foods. If I could only fit two things in my cooler they would be melon and smoked salmon.

Instant oatmeal. Pictured is my favorite combo: peaches, chopped almonds, and ghee. I also like to add jam, sliced banana, or trail mix.

After spending 60 days in a tent this field season I have decided ghee and avocado are two versatile foods I will forever take with me when camping. Ghee is a most delicious clarified butter which originated in ancient India. Because it’s clarified, there are no milk solids to go rancid in the heat, it comes in a jar, and it doesn’t leak or spill like olive oil does. Plus it even tastes good in oatmeal. Avocados: put ’em on everything! They are good for breakfast (scrambled eggs), lunch (sandwiches), and dinner (chili and soup). Plus, when you buy them by the bag they tend to be cheaper so you kind of have to put them on everything.

Avocado on everything! Cream cheese is also a staple in my cooler. It is good on chili (pictured above), in scrambled eggs, essential for smoked salmon crackers, and it makes mac n cheese tastier when using water instead of milk.

PB&J, the old time favorite. I switch it up by bringing sunflower seed butter (cheaper than other nut butters and so delicious) instead of peanut butter once in a while.

I leave for the field on Monday for what may be my last trip. While I am looking forward to spending more time sleeping in a warm and comfortable bed, I will miss all the time I’ve spent outside becoming a better field botanist. Beyond learning how to pack efficiently and deliciously, I have gained plant identification skills, learned the names of quite a few birds, networked with professional botanists, overcome fears associated with camping (alone), and realized wind is my least favorite weather.

So long for now. And don’t worry, my next blog post will have plenty of plant and landscape pictures, but first it’s time for a snack!

-Lindsey in Portland & Harney County, Oregon

This week, the range techs and I worked with Jeff Mosley at MSU Extension conducting Daubenmire surveys in greater sage-grouse habitat. The study focused on plant species composition and insect populations (via pitfall traps and vacuuming) around pellet sites in a known summer ground. Over the course of three years, the project will compare grouse frequencies and food sources available at ungrazed and grazed sites. Jeff thinks that grazing and sage-grouse conservation are compatible, but wants to support this with further data. The team was great to work with and we quickly completed the transects with time to spare.

Horse Prairie. Can you spot the sage-grouse?

Prior to helping Dr. Mosely, I did a little research on grouse. I’ve spent the summer working at the BLM, who prioritizes the protection of grouse and its habitat over, well, most things. Many times I heard the phrase “sage-grouse preferred” used as justification for management decisions, including which species I chose to focus on for seed collections. Still, it was not clear to me why this species in particular warranted such attention.

The internet is a vast place. A quick google search of “greater sage-grouse” will yield a slew of articles and agency pages. Recently, the USDA released a plan to invest $211 million in sage grouse conservation over the next three years. With the goal of habitat conservation, a large portion of the money will go towards conservation easements, conifer removal, reducing wildfire and invasive grass threat, and protecting habitat from human disturbance and development, according to the USDA website.

Responses to this plan have been mixed, as one would expect. I am especially fond of reading the comments on articles and those on the Fox write-up delivered. Most commenters were outraged that such an enormous sum would be spent on birds, while others shared their land-grab theories, connected it to abortion legislation, and even left a recipe using sage-grouse. Emotions ran high due to the large amount of money involved.

The Pew Charitable Trust has an informative article that summarizes the decline of sage-grouse and its importance as an indicator species. There are ample articles circulating the web weighing in on the validity of listing grouse under the Endangered Species Act. The upcoming decision will have huge implications for the BLM because it manages about half of grouse habitat. Even if they are listed, however, they may still go extinct, as restoration attempts thus far have been mostly unsuccessful.

Dr. Mosely’s work is important to support evidence-based management decisions concerning greater sage grouse outside of special interest groups. Hopefully this type of information can be applied to policy in the context of what the overall end goal is: are we trying to bolster these populations back into the millions or merely delay their extinction? Is the first option even feasible?

Some relevant articles:

The USDA press release on the conservation strategy (Aug. 27, 2015) http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2015/08/0238.xml&contentidonly=true

“Feds plan to spend more than $200M to help protect sage grouse” FoxNews.com (Aug. 28,2015) *check out the comments section*  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/28/feds-plan-to-spend-more-than-200m-to-help-protect-sage-grouse/

“Press Release: Sage-Grouse report Points to Need for Balanced Land Management”  The Pew Charitable Trusts (April 24, 2015) http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases/2015/04/24/pew-sage-grouse-report-points-to-need-for-balanced-land-management

“Can Sage-Grouse Be Saved Without Shutting Down the West?”  Isabelle Groc, National Geographic (May 19, 2015) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150519-sage-grouse-endangered-species-west-washington-environment/

Late summer is a great time to find oneself collecting along a pond edge.

The fruit of Swida amomum develop a lovely blue color when ripe.

In the past couple of years I have undergone a major migration, moving from Hawaii to the eastern seaboard and then up to New England. There are the obvious differences between the two places, such as weather and the amount of palms. One of the largest contrasts that I’ve felt is in the pace of every day life. Hawaii is known for its laid back and welcoming attitudes, while New England has a reputation for being focused and productive to the point of being a bit frenzied.

These traits persist in other aspects of life such as the rapid change of seasons found in the North East. As our team works closely with the plants in this area, it is easy to imagine how the swift passage of time (in this case the fruiting times of plants) motivates people to act with alacrity, knowing that it common to have things come and go very quickly.

In Hawaii the seasons (yes, there are seasons) are gentle and seem to linger a lot longer, whereas any missed opportunities in collecting plants north east means it will be another year before you can get another chance. As we move into crunch time with many different types of plants producing seeds we are feeling the pressure, trying to not to let any species slip past our notice.

One of the species that made this very clear was the Silky Dogwood (Swida amomum), this shrub is very common along wet edges and we have seen it frequently. It is a robust plant that has been requested for several dam removal projects. In the past three trips, the fruit ripened into a beautiful blue color and we started to collect gallon bags full of seeds. With the passing of each week the seeds seemed harder to find in large quantities, and I’m expecting that last week was our final collection of this species for the season.

It is possible we will find other populations that are fruiting a bit later than others and perhaps we will see more as we travel to states further south, but it is likely this species is done fruiting in our area.

Swida amomum, it was a pleasure working with you this year and I look forward to doing it again in 2016!

Although Eastern Oregon is beautiful, there are 3 things I desperately miss about the Midwest: 1) water, 2) trees, and 3) smoke-free air. These are things I took for granted until I moved here – to a place where I have to drive an hour to get to a lake, where there are no trees to provide shade or a private place to pee while doing fieldwork, and where the air can be so thick with smoke it looks like fog.

One of Eastern Oregon’s treasures: the Steens.

Luckily, we’ve gotten to do quite a bit of riparian work over the past month – which means we got to be around water! Mostly just sad, tiny streams, but water nonetheless. Our first foray into the riparian world was the stream restoration I alluded to at the end of my last blog post. We built stone walls and pools to help prevent further erosion of the head cuts and to preserve the wide, moist riparian areas along the stream bank. It was exhausting and dirty work, but it was rewarding to see all of the reinforced head cuts and eroded banks.

Rock pools built to slow flow & prevent erosion.

In the middle of August, I drove to Bend for the weekend to take the GRE (not a fun time). Afterwards, I met up with a friend at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, so I got to enjoy two lakes and plenty of shady trees for the weekend.

Paulina Lake, East Lake & the big obsidian flow.

Next, we got to learn how to do Multiple Indicator Monitoring (MIM) of stream channels and streamside vegetation. This involves looking at the size of the substrate, the width of the stream, the height and age classes of trees, the alteration of the stream banks, and the composition of the greenline. It’s a tedious process, but I’m very interested in wetlands/riparian zones, so I loved getting experience in that area. The only bad part was that it was incredibly smoky due to the hundreds of thousands of acres of surrounding wildfires – it was like being caught in the smoke at a bonfire but not being able to escape. At the end of each day my throat and eyes burned (no pun intended).

Smoke, smoke everywhere.

Thankfully, I was able to get some relief from the oppressive smoke with a few more weekend trips – I flew back to Iowa to visit my boyfriend, and I drove to Seattle with my co-interns, stopping along the way to camp in the Mt. Hood National Forest.

Mt. Hood National Forest (this is fog, not smoke).

A sunny day in the amazing city of Seattle.

This past week we’ve been monitoring photo points along streams. These are sites that have been photographed somewhat regularly since the 1970’s to see how the stream/vegetation has evolved over time. It was interesting to see how much change can happen in just 5 years, whether it be due to drought, grazing, or fire. Moreover, I’m excited we’ve gotten to do so much riparian work because I think the techniques will be directly applicable to the research I hope to do in grad school.

I can’t believe there are only 6 weeks left of my internship – time flies in the high desert!

Until next time,

Austin Yantes

Burns District BLM

Time is flying by here in Vernal- it seems just yesterday that all the Astragalus species were in flower! These past few weeks have seen the Eriogonum, Chrysothamnus, and Artemisia genera begin bursting into bloom. It has been amazing witnessing all the different bits of color along the highway this summer, transitioning from the white Oenothera, to the orange Sphaeralcea, to the brown and yellow Helianthus, and finally to the yellow Chrysothamnus genera.

Cleome serrulata near Rangely, Colorado

Such a pretty plant!

This past week we finished collection of Cleome serrulata, or purple beeplant. When first scouting this plant, we saw that some pods on the plant were red, and others were green. Both the red and green pods contained immature green seeds. We found virtually no mature seeds that were still attached to the plant, suggesting that perhaps as soon as the seeds are ripe, the pods split open and the seeds drop to the ground. This was worrisome, because it would mean that we would have a very short window of time in which to collect mature seed before they split open and fell to the ground.

Cleome serrulata with reddish-green seed pods

We wondered if it would be feasible to collect the unripened pods, and see if the seeds would continue to mature off of the plant. We decided to take back the a small sample of Cleome seeds and see if they would continue to develop further and eventually darken and harden in the bag. We filled three paper bags with seeds, the first containing closed green seed pods, the second containing closed red seed pods, and the third containing immature green seeds without a seed pod. After several days, we opened the seed pods and examined the seeds in each of the bags.

Cleome serrulata with red seed pods

Surprisingly, the bag containing closed green seed pods was the only bag with seeds that ripened. It seemed as though the seed pods started out red, then as they began to ripen they turned green. In addition, since the seeds collected in the bag that were not enclosed in a pod did not ripen, we assumed that the presence of the pod was necessary for seed development.

Therefore, we concluded that we should only collect Cleome serrulata seeds that were enclosed in a completely green seed pod, and that these seeds should sit for several days in open paper bags (to prevent molding) while they developed.

By collecting green seed pods, we were able to successfully collect Cleome serrulata. The population we found was fairly large, so we did not have any problem meeting our goal of 20,000 seeds. In addition, we also noticed several albino Cleome serrulata plants, which was pretty cool to see.

White Cleome serrulata plants with green seed pods

All in all, this species was a lot of fun to collect and I am looking forward to wrapping up our last few collections of the year. Until next time!

Jinny (Genevieve) Alexander
Vernal, UT BLM

Woah! It’s September and my colleagues and I have done about thirty-five seed collections. Our squad has been pretty successful in scouting populations and collecting from them efficiently. Sometimes we do two or three collections in a day! I don’t actually know if this is impressive, though, I just feel like we’re doing alright.

We collected birdsfoot trefoil while a storm rolled in over the desert. We were completely safe, of course, and left the area before it got too serious!

When collecting in the rain it is important to wear the proper protective gear– in my case a dashingly fierce, hot pink rain coat.

We have three sites that we collect Eriogonum nudem, a pretty plant that is tall and easy to collect from. When put on as a headpiece, it makes an impressive nature crown. Try it out next time you see it!

This mint was a beautiful collection. Not only was it delightfully fragrant with maybe one hundred seeds per flower head, but this population was located in a pine forest overlooking Eagle Lake.

Sometimes collections are frightfully comfortable– Rachael was able to recline of the soft ground as we collected trefoil in a riparian area.

While collecting california prickly poppy– quite possibly one of the most prickly materials on this planet Earth– I stumbled upon the tiniest and most precious creature. A horny toad!

We’ve begun earnestly hunting for Mountain Mahogany, a fun collection if one can find trees producing enough seed to beat it off the branches. The experience is altogether unpleasant, however– the seeds are covered in tiny fibers which will work their way under one’s clothing and into one’s flesh. Very itchy.

I’ve got about seven weeks left at this internship. It’s truly shocking how fast it’s gone! I’m sure the coming weeks will be just as full of adventure as the preceding ones.

Until next time!

Lillie P.

My time as a CLM intern has been nothing if not a learning experience. Some lessons are easy to learn and some are hard, but each one was valuable.

Lesson 1: Collaboration is an integral component to creating a well-oiled, functional machine. This is true in any job, but it may be particularly applicable when government agencies work with communities and non-profits to improve environments and save species. When individuals and groups work together, then the whole becomes greater than the sum of its independent collaborators. In the face of an uncertain future, collaboration between bodies interested in protecting the environment will be to conservation what biodiversity will be to ecosystem resilience – one cannot exist without the other.

This is Ronald. He is the love of my ornithological life.

Lesson 2: A coffee addiction is no joke and is really expensive. Starting in May, my co-intern and I spent three days every other week sampling hummingbirds with the BLM and USFS wildlife biologists, Terry Tolbert and Lisa Young, for the Hummingbird Monitoring Network. The Network’s protocol dictates that the sampling sessions begin within half an hour of sunrise and continue for five hours. The three study sites included the Escalante Visitor Center, Calf Creek Campground (half an hour from Escalante), and the Wildcat Visitor Center (an hour from Escalante). Getting to the latter two sites within 30 minutes of sunrise meant that we needed to be up and on the road at some unfortunate hour. Coffee, in those instances, became a sort of a lifeline.

Lesson 3: SOS is a multi-faceted, comprehensive program that is going to be invaluable should the worst of climate predictions come true. As the world journeys to the cross-roads of an uncertain future where the only sure things will be death, taxes, and stochasticity, advanced planning now will be one of the best self-preservation acts that humans can perform. Working within this program has been an immense honor for me because my work has encouraged me to embrace the long-term view of resilient conservation practices.

Terry took us to see a Moki storage building. Jessie Dodge for scale.

Lesson 4: A good mentor is worth their weight in gold. I cannot speak highly enough of Terry Tolbert as a mentor and it is difficult to construct a paragraph to his credit without resorting to superlatives. Terry is a Wildlife Biologist with the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, but boy howdy – that man knows his plants. His knowledge on the local floral diversity and location, in addition to his knowledge of previous SOS teams’ work and BLM land boundaries and treatments, have been invaluable. In addition to helping our team to make sense of the vast seed collection opportunities on the Monument, Terry also introduced my co-intern and me to wildlife biology and taught us how to conduct good surveys. On top of being a first-rate mentor in exposing us to the scientific aspects of the Monument and working within the BLM, Terry was never hesitant to give us history lessons, show us fossil dinosaur prints that only locals know about, teach us about the (confusing) sedimentary structures and layers, take us to see historic dwellings of ancient peoples, and show us pictographs and petroglyphs in order to help us gain a more complete understanding of where we were working. Working with Terry was, simply put, a joy.

Lesson 5: Wildlife biology is rad. Not only did I get to learn the practical skills of what it takes to study wild animals like hummingbirds, bats, and lizards, but I experienced a personal scientific reawakening. My affinity for animal biology in how it relates to conservation biology was raised from its slumber and I have a desire to pursue wildlife field work in the future in addition to building upon my hard earned plant knowledge.

A 30-foot tall mist net to catch bats.

Lesson 6: Escalante is one heck of a beautiful place and if you have never been there, then get thee there soon. Public lands are something that I took for granted until I moved to Escalante and discovered that there are new paths to be found every day and that I am free to wander when and where I please. It is an incomparable feeling to be amidst the desert scrub and know that I am alone. It’s choice.

Lesson 7: Monsoons can put a real damper on seed collecting and driving dirt roads for hours. My co-intern and I learned this the hard way after our seed bags threatened to tear because they were so wet, the lightning struck close to our populations one too many times for comfort, and we slipped and slid back home as we raced the rain.

There you have it. Six months in seven lessons. In the spirit of Bilbo Baggins,

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

 

Roads go ever ever on

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

Eyes that fire and sword have seen

And horror in the halls of stone

Look at last on meadows green

And trees and hills they long have known.

– The Hobbit

Cheers!

Elise, Escalante Field Office