I suppose it won’t surprise you that there was no reprieve from the summer heat of August as opposed to the inferno that was July? Yeah, I wasn’t very surprised either… It’s OK, my body handled the intensity much better this go around.

This past month my tasks fell very heavily towards seed collection. We had a lot of our local flora ready to drop their seeds, and had to take the opportunity while it was there to collect as much as we could. I think we completed at least 6 seed collections during that month, on top of other wildlife duties all the interns and myself had. There are several species, such as an Andropogon spp. and other sand-dune country grasses, that have continually held onto their seeds despite how hot it’s been. Fortunately for the region, we’ve been receiving quite a bit of rain, but unfortunately that has delayed the maturing of some of the species that should have already been ready. We’ll continue checking up on them as the season winds down. Since this is the first year for SOS in the Carlsbad field office district, we don’t have reliable data to go on for when seed maturity is generally reached for most species here. We’re doing it as we go, which can be challenging but rewarding since we are the forerunners of the program for this office: writing protocols and recording collection schedules for future interns.

One of our collections sights while El Capitan in the Guadalupe Mountains looks down on us.

As September has come and Fall quickly approaching, I’ve written a surveying protocol for Scaled Quail (Callipepla squamata), which is a common game species in states such as Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and of course, New Mexico. We just want to get a good idea of how their populations are so we can make appropriate management decisions regarding quail harvesting. As I’ve said, it’s been a “wet-ish” year, so we suspect their populations to not be of concern as there should be more resources for the quails to take advantage of. I’ve also written the protocol setup in the form a pilot study for a potentially longer observational study. My mentor and I want to look at the effects of sprayed areas on quail populations. Will there be a significant difference in the number of quail observed along roads that have been sprayed with herbicide versus non-sprayed? Simple, but hasn’t been looked at too much. I should say–the herbicide is used to reduce the cover impact of shrubs such as mesquite (Prosopis spp.) and shinnery oak (Quercus havardii) as they compete with grasses and other forbs that cattle eat. We’ll see how it all goes. I run my first test run next week!

These next several weeks are also going to be focused on the goal of bat monitoring within our field office. We want to conduct a few bat counts of some local roosts we know of that contain colonies of Mexican free-tailed (Tadarida brasiliensis) and the cave myotis (Myotis velifer) bats. We also had the idea to take a video of the exodus of these bats for future reference and for the potential ability to get a more accurate estimate of their population’s numbers. I’ve read papers on the estimation of some bat colonies varying from millions of individuals to only a few hundred thousand. A big difference, and from what I’ve read, it’s mostly due to the complications of quantifying a (sometimes) blur of objects circling yet gradually leaving their caves in large numbers. If time allows and if we are able to capture a good video of an exodus, I may try looking up some strategies for estimating myself.

As for recreation, I’ve been busy (perhaps a bit lazy as well). The busiest was when I drove the 9 and half hours up to Leadville, CO to visit a couple friends. We camped out and successfully summited the second tallest peak in the contiguous, Mt. Elbert – a devious one. It had a deceptive peak that tricked pretty much all of the hikers we saw that day, though, we all endured. Very worthwhile and beautiful vistas! On another solo trip I went up to Ruidoso, NM to hike a trail in the Sacramento mountains – lots of burned trees, but, yet again, all so beautiful nonetheless…

Vista from “somewhere near the peak”

Mt. Elbert summit

Lincoln National Forest / Sacramento Mountains

Until next time!

Armand Cann
Carlsbad Field Office, Bureau of Land Management

Cenchrus tribuloides – Sanddune sandbur

Definitely one of the more interesting plants in our range here. If you’ve never had the misfortune of encountering these jerks of the grass family, let me paint the scene for you. Imagine you’re walking along, heading toward the beach with your family and friends, dragging a beach chair and complaining about how hot the sand is on your feet, despite the sandals you’re wearing. You’re just getting to the part of the conversation when start feeling hopeful about the cool water you’re about to step into, when – BAM! No, that wasn’t your beach chair unfolding on its own and bruising your ankle. That was a sanddune sandbur. 8 mm long spines have pierced your flesh, and its not just one, but 15 burs that are sticking out of you like you’re made of Velcro.

Now you can stop imagining – because you have to collect the seeds of this gem.

But seriously, how do you collect something like this? My partner Maggie and I had planned on buying a raggedy old bed sheet from a consignment store, and dragging it across the landscape to collect our burs, however, we forgot to get the bed sheet. Luckily though, Maggie had two old towels in her car, so we decided to try our luck with them. Towels are more like Vecro than human skin, right? And more so than a bed sheet.

Anyway, we tried that, and as it turns out, there is a critical mass of burs that will stick to any given towel. I’m going to approximate that the number is around 200 burs per side. Seeing as how we had two towels, two sides per towel, that only gives us about 800 burs. I was finding there to be 1 seed per bur, so in the grand scheme of things, 800 seeds will do us no good when our goal is 20,000.

We then tried a different method – walk through this big patch of Cenchrus tribuloides wearing our rubber boots, and clip the mature inflorescences with our pruners into a paper bag. That worked for a while, but after noticing how many burs were sticking to our gloves and pants, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Quite literally. I threw my pruners to the ground, readied myself, and grasped an inflorescence with my (gloved) hands. Applying only the slightest amount of pressure, I attempted to strip the stalk of its burs – and voila! The mature burs stuck to my glove, and the immature burs remained on the stalk.

After that we were able to collect our goal – and then some – in record time. The sheet was an inventive idea, as were the towels, but lo and behold, our hands were the best tool we had.

Never again will I underestimate what my hands can do – and neither should you.

Till next time.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here in Ridgecrest over 6 weeks now! It has been quite busy. On the seed collection front, we have managed to make a few seed collections and are monitoring a few other sites for harvest-ability. Last Thursday we were picking Cleome sparsifolia, and let me tell you–it took quite a while to get rid of the pungent odor on my hands. Yuck.

In the office I have been helping put together a grant proposal which I’m enjoying doing research for, but my main side project has been digitizing the RIFO herbarium. Entering all the data has been a bit tedious, but having a digital copy of the herbarium contents will be a valuable resource to the field office, and I’m a little surprised no one had done it yet! Going through all the vouchers has also helped me familiarize with more of the species we encounter and get a better idea of what can be found in the area.

I’m enjoying the field office here so far. I’ve finally made some friends which has helped, and my mentor is an outstanding guy with lots of great advice for my career. Outside of work, I’ve been enjoying having access to the mountains, and my favorite weekend trip so far has been the visit to Mammoth Lakes!

Mojave Tarweed: We encountered a rare plant, Deinandra mohavensis, during our most recent visit to Short Canyon.

California Loosestrife: Got a collection of Lythrum californicum in some damp areas of Short Canyon.

California Kingsnake: I was very excited to see my first snake since being out here! A friendly Lampropeltis californiae. Still keeping my eyes peeled for rattlers.

Olancha Dunes: Collection site for the Cleome sparsifolia. Quite a pretty area, though be ready for eyes and airways full of sand if it’s windy.

Amphibians! Found some unk tadpoles in Surprise Canyon. In my opinion, the surprise was that there was running water somewhere out here!

Surprisingly colorful: I’m taking a lichen to California! Eh? Eh?

California rocks! The noun, or the verb.

Paintbrush: We collected seed for Castilleja linariifolia at Short Canyon recently.

Mammoth: A beautiful place that realize how much I missed trees and water.

As my internship begins to wind down here at the Eugene BLM office I find myself basking in the anticipation of my first term as a masters student at Oregon State University.

Two summers ago I took an intensive 2-week course in ecological restoration and knew from that moment onward that I wanted to one day become a restoration practitioner. I still had over a year of course work ahead of me to finish my B.S. and had not given serious thought to graduate school. When the professor of my summer restoration course recruited me to be in his new lab at Oregon State University it felt like one of those moments when you just have to say yes without a second thought. I did say yes, and I’m truly glad I did, but I never would have expected how things would actually play out.

It’s two years later and I just now feel like I’m starting to understand how all the pieces fit together. I had so many misconceptions going into this whole process that it’s kind of amazing it worked out at all. One of the hardest lessons I had to learn was how to tell the difference between things I had control over and those I didn’t… to put my future in the hands of my advisor and a host of strangers… and to just hope everything would work out. I also had to learn to be my own advocate.

After several years of constantly feeling like everything was either just about to work out or blow up in my face I often look back and think of many things I wish I had known or done differently. Other times I look back and am glad that the road was rough because it forced me to navigate a very confusing and nebulous bureaucratic system, gave me an appreciation for how difficult it is to find funding for research, and to accept that there are many many things that are just simply out of my hands. Maybe the emotional roller-coaster I’ve been on the last two years was a product of my stubbornness to learn these lessons.

For anyone thinking about graduate school, (and more specifically a research-oriented M.S.) I cannot stress enough how important it is to lean heavily on at least one faculty member who has lots of experience advising graduate students and who has consistently found grant money for said students. At face value it seems like you can do most of the heavy lifting to get a research project up and running by yourself so long as you get accepted into a graduate program, but in reality for things to go smoothly one (or several faculty members) have to essentially pave the way for you (and they have to pave it well).

I’m just about to start school in 2 weeks and have a grant with enough funding to get me most of the way through my degree. Since I first embarked on this journey I’m just now about to start working towards my degree for real, all after hopping between half a dozen research ideas, three different departments at OSU, authoring several grant applications, and arriving at many many dead ends along the way. Despite the rough road I still feel very fortunate to be where I am now. I also can’t shake the feeling that I’ve already made it though the hardest part. At least now I can mostly see the path forward and have gained the confidence to know that with the help of my committee and and others I will be able to see this through.

Devils’s Tower. Huge, amazing, and people actually climb to the top!

One of those sub-par photos of a very gorgeous natural water feature in Yellowstone.

Oh you know, just a pic from my view driving home. #wyo

My family and friends worry sometimes…I wonder why!

At the moment, my fellow intern and I are getting ready to go the Bighorns for a week to help a forester in Casper with field work. Last night I went a little crazy making food and packing. I mean, I have enough food for two weeks. I’d say I won’t go hungry for these 4.5 days just a short drive from Buffalo. Oh well-never hurts to come prepared!

I recently took a bit of a vacation to Yellowstone and found that my iPhone is a pitiful camera for such occasions. It was amazing and beautiful, of course. But I came back telling everyone that I think the places I work everyday are better than Yellowstone. In fact, the drive back to Newcastle, via Cooke City and highway 296, had the most spectacular switchbacks and views. Even walking in the National Forest behind my cabin is gorgeous and I can go whenever I want. I hope everyone is finding beauty in all the mundane -yet fleeting things during their internships. I’ve been trying to remind myself to take the time to smell the roses, so to speak.

Our inventory projects are going very well. I think we finally have the hang of a proper field day. However, there was one time that neither of us brought the data sheets. Have you ever done that, where each of you thought the other person had grabbed something only to find that neither of you did. That would have been fine, as we could simply recreate the data sheet on normal paper right? Wrong. We had NO scrap paper. So what do enterprising young ladies do? We record all the data on the iPhone in the notes section and copy and paste it into an email at the end of the day and have it on our computers to use! There is something to be said for this technology stuff!

Also, we were assigned another project that included driving all over a huge piece of land and digitizing major vegetation types and later doing timber inventories for a fuels analysis. Except 85% of the roads on the map we had were ATV Trails! In short, we got a little stuck in certain places and had to hoof it in some STEEP areas. But when it’s steep, there are almost always good views. I hope we plan a little camping for work there, because there is this one camp site that has a 300 foot drop 20 feet away from it, overlooking a view to die for. A very desolate view, but hey, that’s Wyoming for you.

I hope everyone is doing once-in-a-lifetime type things!

Andee

Cheat Grass,

Downy Brome,

Bromus tectorum,

Wretched Fiend.

You have many names,

and have taken many lands.

When a band of horses turns the earth,

when a herd of cattle lingers at water,

when a fire sweeps through the sagebrush,

in the bare earth

you spring up

first and foremost,

claiming every inch of space,

cutting in line,

and unwilling to share.

You are the earliest bird

who gets the worm,

steals the land.

Establishing a blockade,

the natives can not grow,

and you are free to thrive.

You weave yourself

into my socks,

and poke my ankles

when I’m trying to work.

Fire monitoring drags on

when I cannot see

stunted perennials

through your shadow.

Sometimes,

in the evening light,

you glow

and sway in the breeze,

and I forget

you are so terrible,

so pervasive,

and for this short moment

I enjoy your presence.

What a treacherous cheat!

You are a formidable foe.

-O

Carson City BLM

This swallowtail was pollinating cardinal lobelia (Lobelia cardinalis pseudospectabalis) in a wetland along the Whitewater River, August 28 2015

Monkshood (Aconitum columbianum), photographed during a personal trip to the Golden Trout Wilderness in late August 2015

I will be transitioning to a Forest Service employee next week, and will continue the rewarding experience I’ve had as a CLM intern on the San Bernardino National Forest (SBNF) in southern California.  The SBNF is one of the nation’s “urban forests”, and is also incredibly diverse floristically.  I began my appointment as in intern working for our district botanist.  In January 2015, I was extended with funding from our Forest-wide restoration program, which is currently focused on restoring Forest lands damaged by Off-Highway Vehicles.

As a botanist, I’ve been excited about the opportunity to work in a region with such a unique and interesting flora.  Almost 2,000 plant taxa have been documented in the San Bernardino Mountains, which means that about 25% of the California flora occurs in this 1,061 square mile range.  Finding new occurrences of rare plants is always a bit of a rush, especially when those plants are federally threatened or endangered.  I’m especially proud of new finds of white bog adder’s mouth orchid (Malaxis monophyllos brachypoda), San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod (Physaria kingii bernardina), and Parish’s checkerbloom (Sidalcea hickmanii parishii).

The experience as an intern with our Forest-wide restoration program widened my focus immensely.  I realized that I had essentially no experience with plant propagation, and had fun learning my way around the greenhouse, researching propagation techniques, and keeping most things alive.  I began considering soils, hydrology, pollinators, plant physiology, and even sociology in ways that I hadn’t really thought about as a rare plant surveyor.  Restoration work involves more than the observation of plants and their habitats:  What soil treatments should we perform to repair compaction and control erosion?  How do we control OHV use in this area?  What native species are best suited to the site?  I also had the chance to help write grants, work with our Urban Conservation Corps, and manage our GIS database.

Many thanks to both my mentors for their guidance throughout my internship, and to CLM staff for their support.

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

Hello World,

I have been woefully derelict in my blog-writing duties but have a little free time today, so here it goes. My interns have been here since the beginning of June (yes, I’m an intern with interns) and this is my first time collecting seeds. So here’s the gist of my experience so far: the natural world is uncooperative. In southern New Mexico, our usual rainfall pattern is that it is very dry (average monthly rainfall 0.25″ to 0.7″ in Las Cruces; driest month: March) February through June, wet during the monsoon season, July through September (1.4″ to 2.2″ per month; wettest month: August), and pretty dry October through January (0.5″ to 0.9″ per month). This year, here’s what we’ve got in Las Cruces: January 1.13″; February 0.04″; March 0.34″; April 0.44″; May 0.8″; June 0.71″; July 2.41″; August 0.96″. There’s been a lot of variation within the Las Cruces District, but most places have shown a similar pattern: wetter than average in June and/or July, drier and hotter than average in August. What this means for me is that the early summer rainfall got lots of plants going and then August, which is supposed to be wetter and a bit cooler, was instead abnormally hot and dry. So most of those plants that were happy in July are either maturing earlier than you’d expect or going crispy. Those that are maturing early and look like they have good mature infructescences that ought to have lots of seed are often proving to have just empty husks when you start cutting things open. Setaria leucopila, for instance, hasn’t had a single well-developed seed in any of the fertile florets I have checked from several populations. Pleuraphis jamesii and Panicum obtusum likewise haven’t yielded any seed, and seed set rates for Bouteloua eriopoda, Bouteloua curtipendula, and Bouteloua gracilis are, thus far, so low that they may not be collectable even in large, dense populations. The odd rainfall also changes plant community composition. A site dominated by Enneapogon desvauxii last year, for instance, is dominated by Gutierrezia sphaerocephala this year and there is hardly an Enneapogon there to be found. Machaeranthera tanacetifolia, which I didn’t include in our target list because I have never seen it in sufficient abundance for a seed collection, is the dominant plant over a few patches of several square miles each. We’ve also been having some problems with herbivores, both domesticated and wild. A lovely population of Ipomopsis longiflora from which we had hoped to collect was decimated by, I think, rabbits. Sporobolus flexuosus that looked great in late June was mowed down by cattle in July, although the 5% or so of plants that escaped grazing to produce seed were, hopefully at least, enough for a decent collection. Although some of this is rather obnoxious, there’s a good side, too. Due to early maturation, we’ve made more seed collections than I would have expected by now and are at something like 23 of our intended 36 collections. And, although the target species list I made back in March or so has suffered and is by now wildly inaccurate, other species that are desireable for restoration or reclamation seeding have stepped in to fill the gap. I didn’t think we would be able to collect Bahia pedata, Baileya multiradiata, or Machaeranthera tanacetifolia, but we’ve made two collections of each. Enough of that, here are some pictures:

Interns, Jeanne Tenorio:

And David Morin:

Bahia pedata:

Baileya multiradiata:

Machaeranthera tanacetifolia:

And some insect friends encountered in the field; first, Odontoloxozus longicornis (a fly):

Murgantia histrionica (a bug):

Diabrotica undecimpunctata (a beetle):

Greetings from Lakeview! I write today in the midst of a town festival. Although Lakeview is small in size, it’s large in celebration. Today’s festival is called Occupy E Street. The entertainment list boasts a car show, BBQ, and several local vendor booths. The streets are buzzing with people and the music choices are an auditory delight. Today is a lovely day off, yet I find myself continuing to think about plants.

So far we have made 26 SOS collections. It has been a successful few months of SOS work as well as other tasks performed for the BLM office. Another one of my favorite collections has been of Eriogonum heracleoides (parsnipflower buckwheat).

A mix of Eriogonum species at Sagehen Butte. Heracleoides has an orange top in this photo at its current stage in the life cycle.

What makes this species differ from its counterparts is the whorle of oblanceolate leaves surrounding the middle part of the stem.

View from Sagehen

This is a photograph of another expanded view from Sagehen Butte. In the distance Camas Creek runs through the valley and Fish Creek rim is off in the far left center.

Next I would like to take you to one of my (and Kayla’s) favorite places in Lake County. Introducing:

The Devil’s Garden

The Devil’s Garden is an ominous basalt bed north of Lakeview. Here we collected Chamaebatiaria millefolium (desert sweet) aka fern bush.

We also spent two days here caving for signs of bats and potential bat habitat. An issue for bats in the northeast to central United States is called white-nose syndrome. This is a fungus responsible for impacting the lives of millions of hibernating bats in this country. Healthy potential bat habitats are pertinent to the livelihood of this species.

Here Kayla and another tech climb out of a cave that was surveyed on our first outing.

In other news, Crater Lake National Park is only 113 miles from Lakeview, so we took an impromptu trip a few weeks ago to visit beautiful Crater Lake.

A view of the lake and Wizard Island from the rim of Crater Lake.

Crater Lake formed from the eruption of Mount Mazama around 7,700 years ago and created this amazing caldera. Today it is filled with fresh rainwater and has no entry from any other water sources like creeks or streams. It is one of the freshest bodies of water in the world.

The excursion was an experience of a lifetime. I recommend this site to anyone who has the chance to visit.

This time, I leave you all with a cute photo of a horny toad that Kayla and I found in the field.

Until next time,

Erin