These past couple of weeks have been an information overload. I have not been presented with this much new knowledge in a short period of time since college! The first week was the Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) training in Prineville, Oregon. It was a busy few days learning the core methods of AIM and practicing them in the field. One of the first things we did was get some practice at texturing soils. I have very little experience with soils in my background, so this was truly foreign to me. After calibrating ourselves in the classroom we went to the field to dig soil pits, which are used to confirm or determine the ecological site in order to get an ecological site description (ESD). Never has digging in the dirt been so fun or educational! I find myself wanting to dig holes all over the place to see how the soils compare and practice my ribbon making skills. The other components of AIM were also new methods to add to my monitoring repertoire.

There were probably 40 or so people at the AIM training, mostly GBI crews from around Oregon. It was really fun getting to know other crews and being around other people who all share the same love for the outdoors. The majority of them were camping south of town while our crew stayed in a hotel. But one of the nights we went out to the campground and ended up doing an evening hike, it was a blast. Leaving Prineville after the training was almost sad. We had been there for 2 separate training weeks and had come to know the small town pretty well. We had been to the town hot spot Ochoco Brewing CO. enough times to have the servers know us.

It wasn’t sad to leave the other crews when Prineville was over because almost all of them were headed to Reno Nevada the following week! A short weekend was followed by a looong 13 hour drive Monday. This training, Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health, was based out of a casino hotel, The Nugget. What a place. The huge lobby stretched around the building and was filled with gambling games, slot machines, card tables, and bar tops. The whole building was like a labyrinth that was designed to keep you from leaving. It was surprisingly difficult to find your way around at first or even get out, well played Nugget. This training focused on the 17 IRH. While the AIM training focused on more quantitative methods of collecting data this was more qualitative. Making a judgement from a mostly visual standpoint. Reading the landscape and understanding its natural processes. I found myself having difficulty grasping certain concepts and understanding some of the landscape terminology being used. Practicing in the field helped and I do feel more competent on the subject, but I think the key with this one is experience. Working in the field over a long period of time, understanding the landscape components, seeing it change, and knowing how each indicator fits within and with each other.

Over the course of those two weeks many new friendships were made and fun experiences shared. It was nice to finally head home, but sad to leave at the same time. While I knew that I would be leaving each training with new knowledge and understanding, I hadn’t expected to leave with so many new connections from around the region! 🙂

-Katherine

It’s been a crazy two weeks for the Wenatchee CLM interns! Today is our first day in the office since April 15–we spent last week in Reno, NV and the week before that in Prineville, OR. After a total of 38 hours in a car together, I’m glad to say we still like each other!

At the AIM training in Prineville, we learned multiple quantitative methods for monitoring our rangeland sites. Line-point intercept, gap-intercept, vegetation height, species inventory, and soil stability testing were the main protocols that were covered, as well as the digging of the all-important soil pit. Personally, my favorite part of the week was learning how to texture soil, because who doesn’t like getting their hands dirty? At the end of the week, we ran through all of the protocols individually in order to make sure that we were all somewhat calibrated to each other. I had a hard time getting a hang of some things, especially gap-intercept, but shockingly, I calibrated successfully!

Katherine and Gabe practice reading LPI in Prineville

Makeshift rain shelter at the campground, courtesy of the Robel pole! 🙂

We went for a moonlight hike with some of the other crews!

After a quick but relaxing weekend at home in Wenatchee, we were back on the road again the following Monday, this time going twice as far! Luckily we’d had the foresight to take some audiobooks out of the library; the 13 hour drive was made much more exciting thanks to the addition of Jurassic Park. When we arrived at our hotel, a casino resort called The Nugget, I was completely overwhelmed–the place was like a labyrinth of flashing lights and mirrored walls, filled with bars, restaurants, and hundreds of slot machines. Finding our way to the check-in desk was an adventure in itself!

At training the next morning, we were excited to see many of the people we’d befriended the week before in Prineville. IIRH turned out to be a lot more complicated than AIM, and we spent a full day watching presentations before even heading out into the field. The qualitative nature of the protocol made it more difficult for beginners like me, since accurately assessing the 17 indicators of rangeland health requires actual experience seeing these indicators in the field! However, I was feeling much more confident by the end of the week after running through some practice sites and discussing our assessments at length with the whole group.

Leaving Reno felt a little bittersweet: although the constant training and travel was exhausting, and I’ve gotten a bit sick of living in hotels, it was great being able to spend time with the other crews, and I’ll really miss some of the people we met. I feel so lucky to have an internship with so many travel opportunities, and to be in a field with so many like-minded people. And now that I’m all trained up, I’m looking forward to actually applying what I’ve learned back here in Washington!

A beautiful yellow Castilleja I found in Reno!

Hit up California for the first time on the drive back from Reno, and it didn’t disappoint!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee WA Field Office

In case you were wondering, this is what a lake looks like in the desert.

Mesquite Lake is actually a dry lake bed.

Welcome to Mesquite Lake, which is actually a dry lake bed and therefore not (in my humble, Northern Wisconsin opinion) a lake. It does, however, provide a different environment for desert plant life than what I’ve seen thus far.

Not all of the Needles Field Office is all dried up, though! The very next morning after surveying Mesquite Lake, I was able to tag along on a secretive marsh bird survey in the backwaters of the Colorado River.

I didn’t want to wake up at 3 A.M., but I did it for the birds!

Our main goal was to determine if there were any rails present–particularly the ridgway rail, which is considered a threatened species. We were able to hear a couple ridgway rails as well as several other marsh bird species. We even noticed a nesting pair of western grebes.

Trying to see the nesting pair of Western Grebes.

I know it’s a little hard to see in the picture, but there’s a white spot in the reeds behind the blue kayak–that’s the female grebe on the nest. There’s also a white spot a little in front of the blue kayak–that’s the male grebe trying to distract us from the nest.

In other water-related news, it rained a lot in April– at least 5 days (4 of which were consecutive) which I’ve been told is really weird! We’ll have to see if all this unseasonable rain affects bloom times or not.

It rained a lot (for the desert) this April.

Happy Trails

Jessica Samuelson

Needles Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

I left Southern California in March, passing snow laden Joshua Trees in the high desert, heading north to Gold Country to work at the BLM Mother Lode Field Office. I camped along the American River for a couple of days before meeting some nice folks from whom I am now renting a lovely trailer.

The south fork of the American River and Salmon Falls Rd.

Before my internship began, I was exploring many nearby woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands. As I encountered unfamiliar plants, I wondered about their names, occurrences, and origins. I have since enjoyed learning about and re-encountering these species, though some of the beautiful flowers I had photographed I later discovered to be invasive. After three weeks of working here, I continue exploring locations which are new to me. Working as a field botanist is a sure way to get to know a new region to which you’ve just moved. Most of the fieldwork has involved scouting for Seeds of Success collection targets. Some of the work is nearly in my backyard, and almost always near others’ yards, while other work can take place three hours away as far south as Yosemite. We are scouting targets along the Merced River, where the wildflower bloom could convert many wildlife folks to botanists.

Delphinium along the Merced River near Briceburg, CA

There are also plans to collect seeds at the northern burn area of the Butte Fire that occurred last fall.

Butte Fire burn area around Jesus Maria – the Calochortus monophyllus is numerous

Calochortus monophyllus

Butte Fire burn area near Jesus Maria – Toxicoscordion exaltatum is in the distance

Toxicoscordion exaltatum

A bird’s eye – Gilia tricolor

Many collections will take place close to home on the Pine Hill Preserve lands. I have already made collections of two species. One of which was the common and abundant Claytonia perfoliata. The other was the much less common California endemic Wyethia bolanderi. No offense miner’s lettuce.

A bird’s eye view of the American River – collecting Gilia tricolor

Calochortus albus a stone’s throw from highway 50 on Pine Hill Preserve lands

Work has also involved meetings and tours of preserve lands, which are learning opportunities as well as opportunities to meet a wide range of professionals within the agency, from other agencies, in the private and non-profit sectors, along with students and fellow interns. A few days recently I have set up plots at locations in which vegetation was cleared, piled, and burned, where future monitoring will occur, which I am excited about.

Until next time,

John Woodruff

BLM Mother Lode Field Office

Since my last blog, I’ve been trying to keep busy. My main task around this time of the year at the Cosumnes River Preserve is to manage the weeds that we have around the wetlands and the visitor center. However, there’s always something else new to work on. That’s what I like about this job, it can be unpredictable sometimes. Just today, we had someone from Wilderness Inquiry spot a possible mountain lion. The preserve manager, Harry, and I followed up on the lead and attempted to track the lion through dense oak woodland full of mosquitoes. When we were back from our search we started working on our plant identification. We saw Orgegon ash, box elder, curly dock, valley oaks, and blackberry bushes for sure. Afterwards, we set up a camera trap so see if we could get pictures of the cougar later on.

Also during this week, I assisted with showing 6th graders about the macroinvertebrates that are in the wetland ponds. It was nice to see the kids having fun at the canoemobile event. A part of their activities is the paddle down the Cosumnes River, an experience that many kids get to have for the first time.

I was able to help out with the specimen collection a couple of weeks ago down at the Merced River, the wildflower displays were gorgeous. We had Dave, a BLM employee who showed us where all the plant species were. It was a good experience get to know more about the SOS program and too bad we we’re only at the river for roughly two hours.

Funeral Mountains

Hello Blog readers!

I hope to once again effectively highlight my journey here in the sunny place that is Ridgecrest, California. A nearby sign reads ‘100 miles to anywhere’ that seems aptly placed. This past weekend (4/22-4/24) we (My fellow intern, Erin, and I) attended the Owens Lake Bird festival in the wonderful little town of Lone Pine, CA.
This little town was once famous for its role in cinema production. Many of the old west hit movies were shot here. As well as “Tremors”!!! This little town should deserve more recognition for its natural beauty than those films indicated. In fact, many of those old west movies were set in other states entirely, yet all share the same backdrop that is the beautiful Eastern Sierra and adjacent Owens valley.

Owens Lake is important to note on an ecological scale, as it has recently been reformed into a lake. In the 90+ years previous it was more of a playa. However, it has recent history as a lake. All the way up until when the aqueduct was constructed. This is the lake from which Los Angeles receives the majority of its water. In the early 1900’s some clever engineers developed and implemented a water diversion scheme known as the LA aqueduct.  The aqueduct runs over 300 miles from Owens lake near the town of Lone Pine to LA. So crazy!!

This was a lucky week of work for us as we got to work with a real botanist doing seed collecting. The wonderful Sarah De Groot took us out to the Funeral mountains to help show us some proper protocol for seed collection. It was so educational to be out with a field botanist. Everywhere we turned we uncovered a new little plant hiding from view. From some plants that have no leafs, or at least ones appearing as they don’t, to some very strange shrubs, to a skin irritating phacelias several new plant friends were made and several seed collections as well. The most challenging aspect of it for me was realizing how allergic I was to the Phacelia (Boragaceae) genus. Almost every one I’ve touched leaves me with some minor dermatitis. I wonder if this is an issue for any other interns out there?

Today we helped teach an outdoor environmental education class to some 4th graders at the lovely sand canyon.

By far, another exciting couple of weeks here in California. Hoping to make more collections while they are still viable. Finding proper timing can be the most difficult part of collections I’m learning. Aside from identifying a population, one has to then figure out when the best time to collect seeds will be and hopefully the weather cooperates!! One day we had 40 mile gusts come down on us while in the middle of collecting. Anywho..
Best Wishes,
Robbie Wood

Alabama hills with MT. Muir? The mountains aren’t labeled in real life

Alabama hills- Mobius Arch

Cholla in the Turtle Mountains

Beautiful plant with an unfortunate common name… “Bladderpod” (Peritoma arborea)

Botanists botanizing Penstemon in the Kingstons.

Cadiz Dunes Wilderness

Psorothamnus fremontii var. attenuatus

Happy trails,

Kate Sinnott

Needles Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

April 27, 2016

Hello to all my loyal readers!

I am writing my final CLM blogpost now with two weeks still to go in my internship here at the San Bernardino National Forest. The next two weeks will be very busy, so as I have a moment now I will finish up my blog, paperwork, etc.

Next week I will be in the Mountaintop greenhouse and heading down to Lytle Creek. One of the Restoration Program’s new hires starts on Monday and as she will be working in the greenhouse, I will be showing her around. On Wednesday we have a pesticide use training and on Thursday I will be in the greenhouse planting pollinator species and transplanting buckwheat with a volunteer and probably my sisters, who are coming to visit for a little while.

Corethrogyne filaginifolia (common sandaster) coming up in the greenhouse. It was planted a week ago. So cute!

During my final week as a CLM intern here, I will be traveling to the Los Padres National Forest to work with them on setting up their greenhouse, which has been out of use for a few years. I will also get to help teach high schoolers how to plant milkweed. I am sure it will be interesting to experience work on another forest, and I hope I can be of use. They plan to plant the same species of milkweed we have in our greenhouse, Asclepias eriocarpa and Asclepias fasiculatum for monarch habitat enhancement.

CLM Intern, Brandon, planting milkweed in our Mountaintop greenhouse last week.

I have really enjoyed my work here because I have learned a lot of new skills and the staff are great. I have gotten to do a variety of work and projects including restoration monitoring, HMP monitoring, field plantings, fence construction, managing the greenhouse, working with AmeriCorps crew and volunteers, and being able to attend the Colorado Plateau Native Plant Conference using the CLM alternative training funds. The staff have been so helpful, especially Mary (current Biotech and former CLM intern), and who are always looking out for another training or skill to teach me.

Hannah attaching wire to a fence during a recent training.

I am ending my internship two weeks early from my original end date because during the third week of May I will start in a Forest Service Botany position. I am very excited to be staying on here for longer! I have loved the work so far here, and I am looking forward to spending more time examining plants in the field (I have a lot to learn) and surveying for rare species. This is such a cool area to explore! After moving around constantly for a year and a half, it will also be nice to stay in one place for longer than 5 months.

An introduction to rare plant surveying this week: Oopuntia basilaris (intermediate characteristics). Thanks, Mary!

Thanks to everyone at the San Bernardino National Forest who has been involved in procuring funds, training me, and answering all my questions. Thanks also to Krissa, Rebecca, and everyone else at the Chicago Botanic Garden who makes these internships possible. I have had two great experiences with CLM and hopefully I am on my way now!

Erigeron parishii (Parish’s fleabane): a California endemic. Many more interesting plants to come!

Cheers!
Marta
San Bernardino National Forest Restoration Program
Fawnskin, CA