Hello everyone,

Since my last CLM blog this past October, the site’s traffic has plummeted and the servers have been gathering dust. I have decided to take on the CLM Internship once again so that I may blog about my experiences and appease my horde of botanically-inclined fans. In short, I am back by popular demand.

This year, I have decided to take my talents to the Prineville BLM in Central Oregon. The drive out from Chicago was tiring, as usual. I brought my dad (who hasn’t been on vacation for nearly 10 years) with me to witness the beauty of the West again. During each tank-up, he windexed bug splatter off my windshield so that he could take clear pictures of the land along the way. Fortunately for us, we got to stop and explore too. After unpacking my belongings in Prineville, we visited Crater Lake National Park, drove down to California and saw the redwoods, then took the 101 all the way up the coast
to Cannon Beach before going to Portland. I explained to my dad, who is very much still a Polish immigrant, what a hipster is. It was such a culture shock for him to see skinny, bearded, flannel-shirted, beanie-donning guys riding around on unicycles, double-decker bikes, or using an antique typewriter at a cafe – although I’ll admit that last one was a shock for me too. He called them “hippos”.

The views were beautiful, the beer was good, and the Subarus were plenty, but now it was time to drop dad off at the airport and head back to Prineville to get some work done. I’ve been working for about two weeks now. There were a lot of formalities during the first few days: paperwork, necessary vehicle training, getting my workstation set up, and meeting many of the fine folks that I’ll share this space with. I am helping my mentor, Anna, prepare for our monitoring plan this season. To do this, I have been ordering equipment, testing sensors to make sure they are calibrated correctly, and using GIS to identify candidate sites for field visits and ultimately selection as part of a permanent monitoring program. The protocols we’ll be employing are called AIM (Assessment Inventory and Monitoring) and MIM (Multiple Indicator Monitoring) of streamside channels and streamside vegetation. They are used to collect data to determine ecosystem health. From there, the BLM adjusts its land management and resource allocation to make sure short- and long-term objectives are being met.

We’ll be in Utah for two weeks in mid-May for AIM training and then for one week in Prineville for MIM. That’s a lot of learning right there – but I’m excited for it. So far I haven’t had the chance to actually get out into the field. I’m at a standing desk in front of dual computer monitors in a cubicle right now 🙁 And I’m tall so I see a sea of cubicles just like it 🙁 🙁 🙁 but when Jessica (my fellow CLM-er and roomie) gets here next Monday, things will pick up and we’ll actually be outside so much that I hope we get sick of it. And I’ll be identifying everything as I usually do. And I’ll have beeee-autiful pictures to share with all of you, my devoted fans.

Thank you CLM for another awesome opportunity to learn and grow. I’m excited to work hard this summer and hopefully make some friends along the way!

Best identifications,

Michal

This past week I had the opportunity to attend a Recreation Management Conference for the state of Wyoming Outdoor Rec Planners. I attended this instead of the training at Chicago Botanic Garden, as I had previously attended it. Also, since my internship is not botany based, this gave me an opportunity to attend a related training.

The conference had speakers from within the BLM as well as outside speakers. The BLM speakers talked about a variety of subjects including cave management, wilderness study areas (WSAs), law enforcement, recreation management information system (RMIS), and other recreation practices. The outside speakers spoke about subjects such as the Tread Lightly program, off-highway vehicle use and trail design, as well as the socioeconomic effect recreation has on the surrounding community. It was great to see how people from within the government as well as outside sources come together to improve recreation for everyone.

Another part of the conference that was beneficial was when all of the field offices had a chance to share some of their accomplishments as well as some of their challenges. This gave me an opportunity to see some of the real-life things affecting rec planners. As a person not having a lot of recreation experience, this was a way for me to understand more of what a rec planner does. Many of the rec planners in the state of Wyoming are fairly new at their position, so many of their questions were the same questions that I had and it was a great way to learn from the rec planners who have been in their position a lot longer.

Overall, this was also a great way to get a crash-course education in many of the tools I will be working with this coming summer. It will help me be able to do my job more efficiently as I will not have to have so much time training. It also gave me a great way to network with other rec planners that I can connect with if I have questions or need help with anything. I also got to explore a part of the state that I had never been to before, which is a neat experience.

That’s all for now, hoping to get out and do some field work soon, but that might be difficult as they are forecasting 7 inches of snow for today!

AZ

BLM Rawlins Field Office

I had the opportunity to visit a new part of Wyoming last week. It is with great honor to present to you one the most cherished recreational spots in Lander.

Johnny Behind the Rocks (area view)

Johnny Behind the Rocks (trail view)

Johnny Behind the Rocks is a mountain bike trail system on BLM land that finally got well established about 3 years ago. Last week I had the pleasure of running on this trail with recreation planners around the state. This was after a full day of learning the hardships and struggles that come with being a recreation planner at the Recreation/NLCS workshop.

Recreation planners have several different jobs to take on including outreach, inventories, permits, as well as maintaining recreational sites just to name a few. It can be a heavy load for one person. That’s were my co-intern and I come in. We are supposed to help relieve some of the work load by doing some WSA (wilderness study area) assessments. Only thing holding us back is the weather.

Since I’ve been here (Rawlins, WY) it has snowed more than it has been sunny. Every weekend has not had even the slightest amount of sun. I dream of sun when I go to bed. I long for the days in the office to grow smaller just to be able to go into the field and learn new areas, wildlife, plants, and hike on some trails. The season is a slow start, but my hopes run high that the weather will give us a break and we can go out, show our potential and make an impression on the BLM we work for.

Hoping for sunny days

RR
BLM (Rawlins Field Office)

A month gone — and I am gratefully sunburned and flower saturated, as any naturalist living another unfolding California Spring hopes to be! My internship, at the BLM Field Office in Arcata, CA is off to a diverse and rolling start! The rain fell strong and the sun shone bright during these past weeks, taking me from the coast to the upland oak woodlands — from North Spit to South Spit, around Humboldt Bay and back again!

As I outlined in my last blog post, a recurrent and rather large project we have going here is vegetation monitoring, at five different sites across BLM properties on dune habitats in Humboldt County. I have completed 12/14 30.5-meter transects, each with approximately 200 individual quadrats aligned along 20 benchmarks. Within each quadrat, I quantify the amount of vegetation, identify and record the occurrence of every species, and count the number of Layia carnosa, a federally endangered annual dune plant. This week I will finish dune monitoring!

This all said, one of the most exciting logistical things about my position (many reading this know how and what truly excites me — those living/flying/blooming multitudes!) has been the diversity of my work. A whirling selection to prove it:

I have visited many of the prominent Arcata BLM lands. This is a remarkable task because one unique aspect of the BLM in Humboldt County as compared to other BLM offices in the nation is that our office has very few large tracts of land, and hundreds of smaller parcels. In these visits I am swept by the magic of blooming coastal dunes, struck by sun shining on wide rivers, listening for sparrow songs or watching the Norther Harrier glide low, pulling non-native pines high above the roiling northern oceans on coastal prairie, or lost in a wind-waving sea of European beach grass!

I am working on a project to teach 7th graders from Freshwater Charter School about the epic adaptations of the dune-forest plants, while they film me and create public service announcements on Ipads! I had my first scoping meeting at the site with local filmmaker Barbara Domanchuk and in the next month will lead the field trip and make a classroom visit! Gulp!

I also had the opportunity to attend the National Association of Interpretation Regional Conference! This weekend I will help lead two field trips for the Arcata’s Godwit Days Birding Festival!

The next large project at the office is our contribution to Seeds of Success, a national native wild seed collection program. Our office intends to contribute collections from 7-9 species, which is quite involved! First, we scout out locations and possible target species and in my office, where the program has been running for several years, it takes some creativity and work to keep it fresh! For each species, we collect, press, mount and accession 2-3 voucher specimens in Spring. In summer, we generally begin collecting seed, making sure to collect AT LEAST 10,000-20,000 seeds from 50 or more individuals. In Fall, we groom the data collection and send our seed collections to be processed and cleaned in Bend, Oregon. For now, I am happily emulating Willis Lynn Jepson and easily fantasizing that I am an important rare plant explorer! Too much fun!

Throughout all of this, the plants have led the way, and I have expanded my botanical knowledge widely — I won’t bore you with the big list of new plants I have seen recently, but see below for several lovely pictures of my favorite recent sightings. I am also adding several of my new sightings to: my inaturalist account!. This is the gracious and heartful ground of our naturalist path, the pure enchantment of coming to know parts of our world, beautiful parts, that we never knew were in existence prior to that moment of revelatory discovery.

Beyond the work frame, I have been spending every possible moment in the field, exploring and delighting on a fresh and personally unexplored region of California. I made a quick backpacking trip to the King Range, remembering the value of even the shortest backpacking trips and delighting in the thickest Iris douglasiana blooms I have ever seen. The most notable creature was a moth…a very, very notable moth, Saturnia mendocino, (get the close up) which I took a very sloppy and overly excited photo of:

Saturnia mendocino — note that it had landed (incredibly briefly, let me assure you) on a burned and recently re-sprouting Manzanita burl.

This moth, part of the impressive silk moth family, is an elusive creature, flies in the day on the edge of chaparral and madrone/mixed forests. Some professional lepidopterists in California have never even seen it! In addition this this little trek, I also made my way north to see the serpentine bogs home to the California Pitcherplant, Darlingtonia californica! What a world!

That’s all for now! Enjoy every second of Spring from where ever you are reading this from!

Dune monitoring, Mattole Beach, Humboldt County, CA.

My first Calochortus of Spring! Calochortus tolmiei.

Calypso bulbosa!

Freaking out about my flower find

Erythronium oregonum

One of our field sites in classic form — South Spit, Humboldt Bay.

A field site, Ma-le’l Dunes, another wonderful day at the office!

Kaleb A. Goff

Arcata, CA BLM Field Office

The last two days were a double-feature in the John Day Fossil Beds. First, it was finally time for our first SOS collection of the year! We set off to collect Lithophragma glabrum (bulbous woodland star), a little annual that had shot from flower to seed with the help of two hot weeks. Secondly, we were to pull 3-7 ft tall sweet clover carcasses (Melilotus I think officinalis) from a BLM enclosure surrounding a Prineville district sensitive species (Thelypodium eucosmum; not pictured here as they weren’t yet in flower, but imagine little basal leaves with a tint of red down their midribs in the Brassicaceae family).

The view from our L. glabrum site.

I knew coming in that our L. glabrum site was also populated by L. parviflora (smallflower woodland star), but I was pretty confident about telling them apart – the bulbous woodland star, after all, has bulbs stuffed into the nooks of its inflated petioles and just below the flowers (pictured to the left). I also remembered that our site, when we made our pre-collection visit two weeks ago, was by far more populated by L. glabrum. So come collection day, when I looked at little stems that had blown petioles that looked large enough to have once held little bulbets, I thought winner winner chicken dinner. They probably had just fallen off, my addled field-brain rationalized. But then I came across many, many fried plants that were all stalk and bulbs and realized that L. glabrum loses its flowers and fruit capsules before it loses its bulbs… which meant the first 300 capsules I collected were irrevocably contaminated with L. parviflora. L. parviflora‘s life cycle was apparently just a week behind L. glabrum‘s, meaning it was now the more populous and visible of the two.

Oh well, 300 down. Starting again.

Just around then the blue-gray skies cracked open and let down sparse but fat rain drops, a mollifying gesture of amnesty for my trespasses. My SOS partner and I sat in the rain for a while, enjoying the reprieve from the heat while looking to the skies to see if the rain would let up. When it did, we got back to work. (A nice thing about the high desert is that things dry up almost alarmingly fast.)

On the second day of collection, after I had squatted up and down our north-facing hills to tease off the little capsules off these 5 inch stalks, my partner reminded me (with a cocked brow, or so I imagine, though she was across a hill so I can’t be sure) that our mentor had told us that we could pull the entire plant since they were annuals and the Bend Seed Extractory would do the rest. I vaguely, vaguely remembered the part of that AM conversation the day before but it hadn’t stuck. Whoops.

3570 capsules later between the two of us and we called it a collection. It feels great to finally have one of 40 down. My glutes are going to be rock hard after this summer.

Beautiful Lewisia

My SOS pard’na showing that clover the business.

– Vi Nguyen, Prineville BLM

Early morning sun illuminating the Eastern Sierra Nevadas

Nearly a month and a half into my internship at the Ridgecrest Field Office and I am beginning to settle in. I still marvel at the view of the Argus Range whenever I step out my front door and pause in admiration of the sun setting over eastern Sierra Nevada’s to the west. By no means has day to day life become ordinary – each day in the field has its own surprises. So far, we have suffered a flat tire at the hands of a rough route (nothing like that foreboding hissing sound of all the air leaving your tire at once) and made acquaintances on two occasions with desert tortoises bravely journeying across the perilous road. We also saw our first adorable wild burros and experienced a brief sprinkling of rain. I had previously written off rain as a myth belonging to distant, non-desert lands, but discovered that it does indeed rain here!

A desert tortoise poses with my “tortoise awareness” sticker.

Our seed collections are up and running, as we have completed two collections and are working on the third. Our first collection was of Plantago ovata. At first glance, desert indianwheat reminds me of its rather weedy plantain relatives abundant in un-mowed Midwestern lawns. Looking more closely reveals delicate and nearly translucent flowers set against deep purple seed cases, actually quite beautiful! This observation led me to wonder how often I have overlooked simple beauty, even in urban settings. The seeds themselves are tiny and the collection took several days to complete. Our second collection was of Descurainia pinnata, a tansy mustard with the habit of growing around the base of large shrubs, particularly Lycium cooperi, a very thorny fellow. Our latest collection endeavor has been Stipa hymenoides, an interesting plant historically because the Indian rice grass was a main food staple for indigenous tribes living in the area.

Plantago ovata, Desert Indianwheat

In addition to seed collections, we have also been conducting rare plant species monitoring. This involves visiting locations of known rare plant populations and recording damage or threats to its habitat. Our first plant safari, as we have deemed them, had us on the hunt for a tiny flower endemic to Kelso Valley in the Bright Star Wilderness of the Eastern Sierra Nevada’s. There are only nine known populations of the Kelso Valley Monkey Flower (Mimulus shevoccki), all in and around Kelso Valley. The flower itself is miniscule, often less than an inch tall, and proved challenging to find. Our first day, we spent several hours searching unsuccessfully. Just as we were about to try another site, we finally found the population. As I approached the population, at first I saw just one, then two, then they seemed to materialize out of nowhere in front of me. It was a fulfilling end to our day!

Mimulus shevocckii, the elusive Kelso Valley Monkey Flower

We also surveyed for Phacelia nashiana, a brilliant blue phacelia. Charlotte’s phacelia certainly has a knack for finding hard to reach places. Its preferred habit is impossibly course granite soil on rocky outcroppings, often near the top of steep slopes. Thus our search in each valley began with looking up and locating the nearest high rocky outcropping. Unfortunately, we were monitoring at the end of its bloom period. Summer is rushing in quickly here and the landscape has already begun to turn crispy and brown. After scaling several phacelia-less, dried-up slopes, we came upon a slope alive with flowers. The geography of the slope had kept it shaded from the relentless sun and it was as though we stepped back in time to the height of spring. Sure enough, over two hundred Charlotte’s phacelia were in full bloom at the top!

Phacelia nashiana, Charlotte’s Phacelia

Sometime finding these plant populations is a bit like going on a treasure hunt. We head off into an unfamiliar maze of roads and routes armed with a GPS “X” marking the spot where the population was previously recorded. A successful search yields a view of a rare species or a seed collection, treasures invaluable to plant conservation and research.

E. O’Connell

Ridgecrest BLM Office

I’ve almost completed the first week of my internship with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.  As a botany intern I am responsible for updating plant records for all the rare and threatened flora within the parks borders.  The park runs approximately 130 miles along a narrow corridor from the mountains of western Maryland to Washington, D.C.  I’ve spent most of my time here so far getting acquainted with the rich cultural history of the canal and the friendly staff at the park.  I’m immersing myself in the many publications on the natural resources of the area that sits on four massive shelves at the park headquarters.  In particular one publication has caught my fancy and I can’t put it down.  Some of the taxonomic names are out of date but the information it holds on the specialized habitats of the state and the plants within them is invaluable.  Shale barrens and limestone bluffs are especially interesting because this is where many of the plants I’m tasked with surveying for are located.

The first few days here involved various orientation tasks and I’ve only been in the field for a couple hours.  However, in that short time I got to see an impressive display of spring ephemerals and two state listed plants.

Delphinium tricorne, Dwarf Larkspur

Dodecatheon meadia, Shooting Star

I look forward to getting into the field more and more in the coming weeks.  The towpath that runs alongside the entirety of the canal offers great access to the entire park.

Moving forward I plan to schedule my surveying with the goal of focusing on the plants that are flowering currently or will be soon.  I also am tasked with getting the parks “Weed Warrior” program up and running. While the canal has its share of rarities and beautiful habitat, it also faces challenges including a fairly healthy crop of invasive plant species.

“Death is one thing…  an end to birth is something else…”

-M.E. Soule and B.A. Wilcox

Protecting rare and threatened plants has been a passion of mine for a while but the quotation above made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  After reading it I felt a renewed sense of urgency for the protection of our nations endangered species. It feels good to be in a position to make a positive contribution towards that end.

Coleman Minney
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
Hagerstown, Maryland

In August of 2011 I moved to Eugene, Oregon. In August of 2012 I left Eugene on a bright orange 1977 Honda Hawk for the east coast with the unknown destination of upstate New York. My best friend, Luke, rode by my side on a Honda of his own.  I was not in search of a career or financial opportunity, but a livelihood (that would also- hopefully- involve some sort of income). When I left Oregon for my two month long motorcycle trip out east I was leaving behind a place I called home- a place I loved dearly and never thought I would leave. But adventure was seeking me out and I could hide no longer. Plus, it’s good to leave what you love- and to return to it later as a more directional and non-self centered being, with the ability to give back all that it has given you.

The experience was awesome and awful.  A lot of misfortune, but a lot of grand fortune, too- helpful people, kind souls, stunning land, horrific storms (yes, I count that as fortunate), the desert which brewed within myself a state of mindfulness and self awareness, the mountains and canyons that echoed my insignificance and initiated a connection between myself and the land that I traveled and the biotic inhabitants that  rested and quarreled among us, the trucker in Arizona who paid for our gas, and Sharon, an older stout woman from Northeast New Mexico that put us up for free and made us BLTs for dinner, eggs and bacon for breakfast, and sent us packing with hugs, apples and canned fruit.

When I arrived in the east it would be another 10 months until I found my way to New York. With an overwhelming feeling of idleness and misdirection living in Vermont and New Hampshire and in-between jobs, I decided to go back to school. So in August of 2013 I enrolled into Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks as a wildlife student. It was in that first week that I realized I really didn’t give much interest towards animal science and was instead intently focused on the plants, fungi, insects and the symbiotic relationships among the three. I then enrolled into the integrative studies program for a combination degree in biology and environmental science. I balanced my scientific education with courses in writing, the arts, and the humanities- as well as contributing to art shows and public speaking events. I believe that balance is what kept me sane throughout my very science-intensive curriculum.  I stayed at Paul Smith’s for 5 semesters and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in December 2015.

December is a horrible time to graduate if you are a plant person.  Absolutely no one is hiring.  (Hasn’t anyone ever heard of winter ecology!?). So I decided to look into internships that could get me back out in the Pacific Northwest.  I stumbled upon the CLM internship and figured I’d give it a shot.  I was shocked at the effort of perfect placement the CLM recruiters gave.  I mentioned four things that I wanted out of the internship- plants, insects, wetlands, and the Pacific Northwest- and I got all four!

Now here I am- back in Eugene after almost four years, back home in the PNW, studying and monitoring the creatures I care so deeply for.  It’s a complete time loop.  I left not knowing what I wanted or how to get what I needed.  I set out on an adventure with no expectations and in due time it prepared me for what I feel I was meant to do from the very beginning- I just didn’t know it yet.  Well, I kind of new but I think I needed the verification, education, and life experience I didn’t quite have then.  But now I do!  Not that the adventure has ended or that I’m finished learning, experiencing the unexpected.  What a sorry story that would be!   I am where I need to be right now just as I was four years ago- just as I was on my motorcycle, in Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York.  I’m here and I couldn’t be happier.

Danica Maloney

BLM West Eugene Wetlands

Eugene, OR

Hello from Grants Pass, Oregon!

I started a rare plants internship here late in March, almost April. I’ve been here just over three weeks, now. This is my second time participating in the CLM program– last year I was stationed in Susanville, CA focusing on seeds of success. Now I spend my days hunting a federally listed plant, Fritillaria gentneri.

Fritillaria gentneri

My partner, Kiki, and I have been tasked with revisiting 150 gentneri sites during the blooming season which is April through June. I’d say we’ve done forty or so sites. That may not seem like a lot, but some of these sites are hard to get to! Spring has sprung before my very eyes since I’ve been here, which means we stumble across blankets of wildflowers during every hike, but it also means we have to quickly check our remaining sites before they dry up!

There are also plenty of Madrone trees to climb on. Kiki swears up and down that climbing a tree increases the accuracy of the GPS. I’m dubious.

Grants Pass is nestled in the valleys of the Cascades and it really shows in the work. Kiki and I can be found crawling along slopes all over the area, hunting our precious lilies. I affectionately call it ‘billy-goating’, because goats are so good at climbing up scary steep rock walls. Likewise, Kiki and I have to be good at climbing up scary steep grassy or forested hillsides! Thankfully, there’s usually a manzanita or oak to grab on to for stability.

I’m not sure if this picture adequately captures how steep and terrible this hillside is.

The plants themselves can be quite conspicuous, or they can be shy. Sometimes a bright flash of red stands out from the landscape, sometimes it just blends in with the poison oak. It just depends! A lot of the sites are lily-free, which at first was discouraging, but it just makes the victory so much sweeter when a lily pops up! (even though it is totally out of our hands, finding a gentneri feels like a huge victory!)

Can you see the lilies~?

Kiki and I take time to explore the area on the weekends– last week we went to the redwoods at Stout Grove! They’re quite a sight. We had a great time climbing around on the trees that had fallen, and the river that runs next to the grove is so blue!

Kiki and a redwood.

Since most of our days are filled with intense hiking, sometimes we just want to relax by the river and exercise our minds with a rousing game of scrabble!

I lost..

Until next time~!

Lillie P

Hello from Needles! This month it’s finally reached into the 90s! Aside from the sweat that is now mingling with the dust and sand we find on ourselves every day, things are getting exciting! Many desert creatures are starting to make an appearance now, including desert tortoises and snakes.

This month has been full of interesting occurrences including unusual amounts of rain for this time of year, encounters with random desert dwellers (don’t worry, we kept our distance and were safe), and a hike with the Sierra Club!

Amboy Crater after the rains

Earlier this month we met with the Sierra Club at the Turtle Mountains. There is a campground here with a hiking trail through the stunning slopes, however the trail has become less distinguishable with time and even we got lost! The goal of that weekend was to mark out the trail and make it more visible for visitors. It was a great time learning hiking tips and tricks, survival skills in the desert, and lessons learned over the years by the Sierra Club members.  Due to the unusual amount of rain and heavy winds we have been getting around here, we have had to re-assess our seed collecting calendar.

Planning out where to go to find each species!

Many species are setting seed later or earlier than expected! At this point, we are having to constantly check on specific populations because we are not sure when they will be ready. This means a lot of scouting and driving around to various sites in the field office. During this time we practice our botanizing skills and key out plants along the way that we haven’t seen yet! We have made some seed and tissue collections,including Plantago ovata tissue, Ambrosia dumosa tissue, and seeds of Ambrosia salsola and Chaenactis fremontii, but the majority of this month has been scouting. We are excited that next week we will most likely have a lot of collecting to do! We are looking to collect Salvia columbariae seed, Chylismia brevipes seed, and tissue samples of Larrea tridentata and Ambrosia dumosa among others!

Plantago ovata seed!

The next time you hear from me I will most likely have camped by then, because there are so many collections that need to be done in so little time, why waste time driving! 🙂

Until next time!

Wild burros!