Well the day has finally come! All my duties are complete: the last data points for my LPC (lesser prairie chicken) and DSL (dunes sagebrush lizard) surveys have been entered into GIS; the last wildlife camera has been collected and viewed; and all the field data sheets have been scanned and filed accordingly. My last week at the Carlsbad Field Office has been actually really amazing. I expected myself and the other interns to be stressed with all these last minute responsibilities, but perhaps we overestimated how much we had to do, or maybe we are just that efficient! Also, it helps that we all had a bit of last minute fun.

On Thursday, two of the office’s cave specialists took the last of the interns caving in Dry cave, a BLM managed site. Actually, probably the two most distinguished cavers in the region. They took us on a 5 hour journey about 100 (plus) ft subsurface, through a maze of low lying tunnels, passing by mounds of century old bat guano, down 40 ft deeps cracks in the earth, and through the teeniest hole I’ve ever squeezed myself through in my life.

Dry Cave

We went into the cave with a grin on our faces, and we came out, albeit a bit more bruised, grinning even more and laughing on the windy slopes where the cave is nested into the mountain.

Dirty crew

Prior to the caving extravaganza, I was coming off an epic backpacking trip in the country’s world’s first designated wilderness area, the Gila Wilderness, Northwest of Silver City, NM. I transversed the Gila river a few times and up several canyons, exploring yet another one of New Mexico’s beautiful scenery.

Gila Wilderness

Throughout the last 5 months, I was fortunate enough to have an internship with a diverse spread of experiences. From wildlife to botanical work, my internship has been riddled with long hours in the summer heat of the Chihuahuan desert, to the chill, informational environment provided in the office. So many experts to learn from and talk with about their job priorities and life experiences. The advice they’ve shared with me will travel with me to my next endeavor, whatever that is. Being near all these hard working persons has given me a deep sense of what the passion of others entails, and it has strengthened my own.

I wanted to give a big thank you to the CFO wildlife staff that have been a constant source of information in regards to the management and conservation of resources in a highly controversial environment, as well as a stable and unique source of entertainment. I have never worked with such a friendly group of professionals that have made me laugh as much as I have this field season. Of course, I also want to thank my dedicated mentor for being the most helpful resource of them all. He has been the keystone to all the interns’ success. He helped us get started, provided the right tools, and let us do our own thing whilst in conjunction providing the best experiences as possible, all while working his own difficult job on top of that. He has been an inspiration, and I would be extremely happy to reach his level of work ethic in the future!

I’m not sure of my future plans as of the moment, but I’m looking at graduate programs very intensely, and I hope to be able to start school again next fall. However, whether I go back to school again or not, I have the CLM internship to thank for all the experiences and opportunities that have been provided and presented to me.

Krissa, thank you for organizing this amazing internship, I hope that the next generation of interns have just as an amazing time as I know I did and several members of my cohorts. Conservation Land Management rules!!

Good luck to all those finishing up!

Thanks again,

Armand Cann

When I first started this internship, I was doing more Seeds of Success Collections than anything else. We were completing 1-3 collections every day and monitoring nearby special status plant populations. Now it’s that time of year where most species in our field office are well beyond the point of collecting.

I really enjoyed the collections, but I am grateful for the opportunity to learn new things. One new field experience is vegetation mapping sagebrush populations. Another fun new experience is raptor surveying. My fellow interns and I are also in the process of designing a monitoring program and potential expansion of a Buffaloberry exclosure. We were certainly surprised when close to thirty long-eared owls emerged from the shrubs! It was very exciting to see so many at once.

I have also had the opportunity to refresh my environmental education skills. I developed a botany lesson plan and taught a home school group of roughly 20 5th graders. We hiked on the Bizz Johnson Trail for 2 hours as I taught them about the native plants.

Teaching on the Bizz. Photo Credit to Jeff Fontana of the BLM Eagle Lake Office.

Luckily for the drought, not every day has been sunny and beautiful (although most are!). We have been getting some rain in the Eagle Lake field office. This has given us time to catch up on office work. We have been finishing up our SOS forms and preparing the herbarium specimens to send out soon. We have also been helping with an ongoing project of digitalizing the ELFO’s herbarium.

As usual, my weekends have been full of new adventures. A few new places I’ve explored are Humboldt Redwoods State Park, a black sand beach, and Whiskeytown’s numerous waterfall trails.

One of Whiskeytown’s beautiful waterfalls

I really recommend taking a road trip on the scenic highway 395. Yosemite National Park and Lassen National Park are definately main attractions, but the route has many other gems. The route itself offers breath-taking views of the Sierra Nevadas and even the trailhead for Mt. Whitney. I explored the mammoth lakes area, including the columnar basalt formation, Devil’s Postpile. I also checked out some geothermal areas, including a hike along Hot Creek and a soak in Wild Willy’s hot springs. Convict Lake has absolutely stunning views, making for an enjoyable hike. One of my favorite stops was the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. There is something magical about being surrounded by trees which have lived for thousands of years.

Convict Lake

The Ancient Bristlecone Pines

Only one more week to go!

Cheers,

Rachael

Sadly, this will be my last blog entry. My time with the CLM is coming to an end. This has been such a rewarding experience. I’m glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone and took a chance with a position across the country. It’s been challenging, since my husband had to stay in Ohio. But with support back home and the amazing community of friends that I made in Utah, it has been one of the best summers of my life. I believe I have grown so much, both personally and professionally through my time here.

While I’ve had previous experience with fieldwork, this position has been far more autonomous in nature. I’ve been able to plan and execute projects both with my team and on my own. We’ve ran into many unexpected issues and worked through them. This has helped me to further develop my problem solving, leadership, and organizational capabilities. You never know when you’ll pop a tire or equipment will malfunction, but as long as you can keep calm and improvise, things usually end up working out.

We got a flat while we were out inspecting troughs and installing bird ladders. Luckily, we were on flat ground so it was an easy fix.

I’m grateful for all the skills and experience I have been able to hone out here. A few of the projects I have worked on while in Cedar City are:

Raptor nest surveys
Intensive wildlife monitoring
Avian point counts
Bat mist netting and assessment
Utah prairie dog capture and relocation
Utah prairie dog sylvatic plague research
Electrofishing
Seining and invasive fish removal
Riparian Proper Functioning Condition assessments
Riparian Multiple Indicator Monitoring
Rangeland Health assessments
Rangeland Trend monitoring
Trough evaluation and bird ladder installation
Seeds of Success

Okay, that’s more than a few, but upon reflecting, I was impressed by how many projects I got to contribute towards. I’ve learned so many new monitoring techniques and got the trapping and animal handling experience that I was very much looking forward to. Aside from the protocols and monitoring methods I have learned, I’ve also gotten to develop skills with many of the tools used in the field. Something I was really hoping to get better with was GIS and GPS usage. GIS is such an important tool in fieldwork, and I was finally able to get some hands on experience with it, both out in the field and in the office. I was even able to complete a couple GIS certificates through the esri website.

My mentor has been pretty amazing this summer by arranging for us to experience many different aspects of field biology. Since the BLM is in charge of managing land, most of our wildlife work for the BLM involved monitoring and surveying the land for animal usage. We completed raptor nest and wildlife surveys for a bike trail they were putting in and assessed the data in order to mitigate any negative impacts the trail would have on the surrounding ecosystem. We also performed avian point counts, raptor nest surveys, and intensive wildlife monitoring in Hamlin Valley. This allowed the BLM to move forward with some of their land treatment plans to improve habitat for the greater sage grouse, while balancing the needs of the other wildlife. This work has been of great importance to protecting the greater sage grouse and helping keep it from becoming classified as an endangered species.

Since all of this work was hands off, my mentor arranged for us to pair with the Cedar City DNR and obtain trapping and handling experience. Not only did working with bats, fish, and prairie dogs allow me to develop many new skills, it also gave me the opportunity to get a feel for the DNR and what it is like to work for another government agency.

These wonderful ladies are some of the DNR crew we worked with for the prairie dog sylvatic plague study.

One of my biggest worries about coming out here was that I would be moving to a completely new place and not know anyone. I didn’t know if I would fit in or if I would make friends easily. I am astounded by how many new relationships I’ve made through this internship and how amazing the seasonal biologist community is. I’ve met people from all across the country and gained many new personal and professional connections. My coworkers quickly became friends and we have explored a good chunk of Utah. I think I have hiked and seen more sights this summer than all of my previous summers combined. I will be leaving here with great memories and cherished friendships. Below are photos from a few of my favorite trips.

Hiking my first slot canyon!

Backpacking in the Uinta Mountains with my co-intern and wonderful friend, Zach.

Meeting up in Escalante and going on an adventure with fellow CLM interns Jessie and Jinny. After meeting in Chicago, we really hit it off and were lucky enough to be in the same state!

Finding petroglyphs in Zion national park. As avid hikers ourselves, Nathan and I were excited to find ancient backpackers!

Overall, this entire summer has been one grand adventure. Though it was challenging at times, it was an amazing experience and I’m grateful to have been able to participate in the Conservation and Land Management program.

-Amber Barnes