In Salmon Idaho, one endemic plant species is the Salmon twin bladderpod (Physaria didymocarpa). This unique plant is in the Brassicaceae family, and there are only 8 known populations of the species. Many of these populations have not been assessed since the early 2000s, as the office hasn’t had an official botanist since 2010. So it the job of me as a CLM intern to perform population monitoring and Seeds of Success collections for the field office. The first populations monitored have been the Salmon twin bladderpod because it is so identifiable. All of the populations are in small geographic areas, as the plant requires specific environmental conditions and minor disturbances. Some of the populations are in a very robust shape, containing many hundreds of individuals. However, unfortunately, two of the eight known populations contained zero observed individuals during the field assessment. One of those populations may have been taken out in a large rock slide on a steep mountain face. As genetic diversity is so important for conservation, it was disappointing to see that some of these populations no longer exist, as it greatly increases the chance of species extinction.

It has been incredibly fun to do population monitoring and SOS collecting, but I am still only really now beginning the adventure. I love hiking up mountain faces, jumping over creek beds, finding caves, stumbling across antlers, and gazing out at the mountains and valleys that surround my “office.” The internship so far has been amazing because I love spending time outside and exploring new areas, and many of the places I am going to have seen very little human activity. I can’t wait to see what the next four months have in store for me!

Signing off,

Austen, BLM, Salmon Field Office, Idaho

I’ve just wrapped up my first month working for the BLM at the Casper field office.  It’s been an excellent experience learning a variety of land and wildlife management techniques!  We were thrown straight into field work on our first day, where we learned the new AIM (Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring) protocols alongside the permanent staff members.  The aim (ha ha) of implementing these new protocols is to standardize procedures across departments, so that data from different projects can be consolidated and used to inform future operations.  It was a very unique experience because the permanent field staff were also learning the protocols for the first time, which allowed us all to get to know each other while we worked through each activity.  The techniques learned included characterizing soil horizons, evaluating soil stability, determining vegetation cover and density, and estimating plant diversity.

A snapshot of typical sagebrush steppe ecosystem.

One of the primary management objectives of wildlife biologists in Wyoming is the preservation of the Greater Sage Grouse.  The Sage Grouse is an indicator species for the deceptively diverse sagebrush steppe ecosystem, meaning that a regular abundance of Greater Sage Grouse indicates that the surrounding ecosystem is stable and healthy.  Part of the work of the BLM is to monitor cattle grazing on public areas of sagebrush steppe.  The wildlife biologists can then make recommendations on whether those areas are available for additional grazing, or if the cattle should be diverted elsewhere to allow the environment to recuperate.  I was able to assist in completing these range-land health assessments.

The Casper Field Office manages over a million acres of public land.

Additionally, I have been aiding wildlife biologists in monitoring a number of nearby raptor nests.  These include both natural nests as well as artificial nesting structures.  Any active nests are protected by a buffer zone that prevent any kind of oil and gas development within those areas.  We were able to observe a variety of different species including golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, and burrowing owls.

Finally, I was able to participate in Environmental Education day, a public outreach event with a local boys and girls club.  We spent some time planting trees and discussing ecosystem health before I gave a brief presentation on the wildlife of the sagebrush steppe.  I exhibited a stuffed sage grouse and a number of different game animal horns/antlers, which the kids were very excited to interact with.

Bighorn National Forest is only a couple of hours away, perfect for a weekend trip!

The city of Casper is located in central Wyoming, very close to a number of amazing natural places.  On the weekends I’ve enjoyed hiking and exploring these areas, which include Medicine Bow National Forest, Bighorn National Forest, and Grand Teton National Park.  Overall, the first month of the internship has been a very positive experience and I look forward to learning a great deal more!

I’m getting over the “what should I be doing” phase.  For the benefit of future interns or those that are still figuring it out, this how I got organized.

Like many others, my internship is focused on the Seeds of Success program; collecting “workhorse” species for research and restoration. Like many others I relocated for my internship and was/am unfamiliar with the native flora.  Before deciding what to collect there are a few necessary resources:

1. Previous SOS collection records in your area (you can’t repeat collections from last three years, older collection sites might be helpful)
2. A map showing land management (you can only collect from BLM land)
3. ID books/keys/online resources (to learn and ID plants)

I am organizing our previous SOS records and herbarium vouchers at our office for next year’s intern.  Maps and books should be relatively available at the office but if interns wanted to get one ahead of time as an intro, I’d recommend Sagebrush Country, by Ronald Taylor as a great introduction to and resource for common plants and communities.

The other main challenge that I’ve come across is deciding what to spend my time trying to collect.  Initially my “plan” was to collect anything native and abundant, assuming that it was a workhorse species that would potentially be useful.  The problem with this is that without prioritization and past records for reference, the same few dominant species risk being collected each year.  I suggest that early in the season interns talk to both their local mentor as well as their state botanist.  By doing this I came up with the following set of priorities for my office:

1. Whatever my office wants to collect for local purposes (fire restoration, sage grouse feed, etc).

2. POSE for USFWS project. This is a great basin wide effort where we will be collecting POSE across ecoregions and seed zones. Goal is 5-10 population collections per ecoregion and per seed zone. Each of these will get processed as SOS and the extra will be available for this project.

3. Statewide priorities species for restoration. Again the goal is 5-10 per ecoregion per seed zone. Process for SOS and collect extra seed:  POSE, bluebunch wheatgrass, great basin wildrye, idaho fescue, indian rice grass.

and

-Pollinator forbs: Three nesting and three nectar plants per season (spring, summer, fall). Some plants will be nesting and nectar plants.

4. Finally, target species that are on the long “target” list that have never been collected in our area before.

Obviously priorities will change from office to office, and may change by next year, but in each specific context, priorities allow the collector to focus their efforts on what will be most productive.  Instead of choosing native plants randomly or even randomly off the “target” list of 150 species I now know to focus on certain species that will go towards existing projects.  I am also organizing maps of seed zones and ecoregions for the following intern, as well as putting together a list of pollinator species to use alongside the more comprehensive target list.

I hope this, in conjunction with the indispensable SOS training in Chicago, will serve to cut down on the confusion/learning curve before getting out to start collecting next time around.  There’s a lot to catch up on for a new person and because of the time sensitivity of seed collection this can mean missing out on some species or wasting resources more generally.  There’s only so much time in the season so I’m hoping to use it well.

Good luck,

-Alejandro Brambila

• Visiting many of the wonders of the desert! My trips included Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam, Joshua Tree National Park, the Las Vegas Strip, Valley of Fire State Park, !!Death Valley during the SUPERBLOOM!!, the Mojave National Preserve, the Colorado River, and more.
• Further developing my botany field skills. Prior to this experience, my field botany background was largely Midwestern. I have learned so much about desert ecology and gotten much better with a dichotomous key.
• Learning what it’s like to work with a federal agency.
• Collecting seeds in Amboy Crater with the other interns, our mentor, and Sarah De Groot– botanist extraordinaire from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. It was the first collection I had helped with, and that combined with the thrill of collecting seeds inside a volcanic crater made for a pretty memorable day.
• Tagging along with Sierra Club volunteers who were repairing Mexican Hat Trail in the Turtle Mountains. It was inspiring to hear all they have done and continue to do for desert conservation.
• Driving off pavement. There are some pretty dicey roads out here, and there was always a certain amount of thrill in that. Plus, we didn’t even get a single flat tire!
• Attending the celebration of the new California National Monuments– Mojave Trails (part of which is in our field office), Sand to Snow, and Castle Mountains. We even got to meet Sally Jewell, the Secretary of the Interior!
• Jess and I getting surprised by a thunderstorm in Picture Canyon. At the time I was admittedly a little nervous, but looking back now it was certainly one of the more memorable field days!
• Traveling to Chicago for the CLM Intern Workshop! I loved getting to know the other interns, botanizing in the Midwest (felt like home), walking the trails of the gardens, and gaining more skills to apply to my internship.
• Experiencing smell of the desert after rain. Incredible.
• Improving my ArcGIS skills and exploring the spatial data for our field office. It was a great way to continue familiarizing myself with our field office while continuing to develop my own technical skills. If you’ve ever used ArcGIS, you know that sometime it just doesn’t cooperate, but that was part of the fun, too!
• Ice Cream Fridays with my fellow interns! Although it sometimes turned into french fry Friday or ice cream Thursday, it was still a fun tradition to try to stick to.
• Eating lunch in a different beautiful spot everyday.
• Reading desert literature in my down time.
• Listening to podcasts in the truck on the way to the field. Jess and I listened to every single episode of Dear Sugar, which made the miles fly by.
• Helping with projects around the office. I created a trail map and brochure for the Mexican Hat Trail in the Turtle Mountains, which will soon be published and distributed!
• Thinking deeply about public land.
• Participating in a bighorn sheep survey with members of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Clambering over the Marble Mountains at daybreak, scanning the mountainsides for glimpses of the sheep– I learned about the desert in a whole new way.
• Getting to know such a completely beautiful and unique part of this country that few people ever get to see. I feel so fortunate for this.

Since my last post we have still been very busy. We were required to attend the MOCC (Motorboat Operator Certification Course) in Stockton, CA for a week. Having never driven a boat before, I was not surprised that I did not pass.  I for sure need a good amount of practice before I feel confident being responsible for everyone on a boat I would be driving. They will be coming back later in the summer so I will get another chance.

Myth Dispelled! You will not sink when wearing waiters. During PFD section of class and water retrieval of people in trouble

Prior to this training week, we had been going out at night to catch larval suckers using a drift net over a private bridge in Chiloquin, OR. We did this for multiple nights and before leaving for the trip we had a total of 2,427 larvae. The net pens/ dock were also brought out into the bay and anchored down. When we returned from the training there had been a mass die off of the larvae most likely due to very high nitrogen levels and the fact they hadn’t been brought out to the net pens the previous week because our boat had been broken. With the help of the BOR our remaining fish were brought to the net pens. More night collection of larvae was done for a couple more nights and those were added as well.

Net Pens in Upper Klamath Lake. Fish were put into two of the pens.

Using a drift net off a bridge to catch larval suckers

We have started working on a few more projects in these last few weeks of June: Night collection of larvae was done one final time after memorial day to begin my co-intern’s larvae raising project in Lower Klamath Ponds; We began performing surveys of an endangered plant in the Pea family (Fabaceae), the species name is Astragalus Applegatei, or Applegates Milkvetch as it is commonly called. We have done surveys for this plant in 3 different locations, one of which is a newly reported population and has required more time to complete than expected (already 4 days and still not completed), but this abundance in the thousands is great news; We have been helping another fish biologist in our office with habitat surveying for good potential pools in streams in Modoc County, CA for the Modoc Sucker to be found in the next coming field season; We have also been assisting in electrofishing surveys and in pit tagging the fish in streams on Gearhart Mountain to determine the presence of and monitor native species such as Bull Trout and Red Band Trout as well as those that are non native like Brown Trout.

Modoc Sucker potential habitat beneath this large undercut. Marked tree above to survey in next year

Applegate’s Milkvetch, Astragalus applegatei

Myself and one volunteer still surveying newly found site, in this section alone there were 1,638 plants

In the most recent week we have been able to further progress in getting data on our larvae. We have figured out how to work our data sondes and calibrate them correctly to capture water quality data. As of yesterday we put the data sondes in both the ponds and in the net pens in Upper Klamath Lake. We installed a solar powered aerator in the net pens as well. We both were able to capture fish with minnow traps to asses the growth of the larvae, my larvae in the net pens are now at sizes 15- 28 mm which is a good sign of growth. The ones caught in her ponds were quite a bit bigger (multiple inches) than they should be, which leads us to believe they are not the ones that were put in, but from a different project that somehow got into the ponds unknowingly.

The babies are growing! size of larval suckers from net pens as of 7/05

There have been other days when we have been able to be a part of some other fun activities as well. We went nest searching to check on bald eagle chicks with the Wildlife Biologist in our office one day and found 7 chicks during our search of 10 nests, and a few adults. We were able to be a part of a Canada Goose banding session with USFWS out at the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge which was fun and very interesting in learning how to sex the birds. There was also one day where I was able to go with my supervisor to RAP Camp (Resources and People). This was a camp where high school students were able to learn about a lot about different biological and ecological processes, and also gave them an opportunity to be out in the wilderness and enjoy fun outdoor activities like kayaking and bird watching. We were running the fish dissection station where the kids worked in teams to dissect Steelhead Trout. There was a interesting activity they do every year with this which is to match up the internal organs to the face template of Mr. Fish E. Guts. To some this may seem a bit morbid but it was actually a good tool in getting the kids to be able to identify each organ and seemed to gauge some of their interest more when they were making his face. My supervisor and I were available if any of the kids needed help with identification.

This was a female Canada Goose who I banded and am about to release

This was captured through the spotting scope. There is the adult on top and actually two chicks in the nest but you can only see one

This is my update!

Shilah Allen, intern with USFWS in Klamath Falls, OR

Hi all,

I have a tiny bit of bad news. My laptop deleted the whole album of pictures from my phone that I’ve taken since I moved here for my internship (“catastrophic failure”)! Unfortunately, that means not many pictures in this post – but we went on a collection trip last week, so I have some pictures from that one!

The past weeks have flown by. I’ve been here over a month already! It’s so crazy to me! But we’ve been putting in the hours for sure. Although our first collecting trip was more scouting than collecting, we managed to make collections of Vaccinium fuscatum in a few different locations, Bolboschoenus robustus from Buxton Woods Coastal Reserve, and a collection of roadside Gaillardia pulchella.

It never fails – every time I am making a collection, left with my thoughts and my counting, I think, “I’m getting paid to pick blueberries” or “Never in my life did I think that I would be doing this one day” or “I’ve never thought about this being a job” – (I hate using the word job for this internship… because it is such an amazing experience and a huge learning opportunity. I feel simply calling it a “job” comes with the negative connotations of a drudging 8-5, 40-hour work week, which although is true, it’s different).  And it blows my mind every single time. I love it! I recently visited my family over the weekend, and everyone asks me, “How’s the flower pickin’?” Honestly, it’s FANTASTIC! Everyone should want this position!

We went to a few other places during our first week, including Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve, Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve, Pea Island, and Pine Island. We went to some really beautiful places, and it is a shame that I don’t have any photographs to show it!

Our second collecting trip was north to Virginia and Maryland. We started in the Delmarva Peninsula – I don’t know if any of you have been here, but taking the bridge/tunnel to get there is insane! It looks like you’re going to drive right off of the bridge into the water, but the road dips down under the water into a tunnel (TWICE)! Our group had so many engineering questions that we had to google later on. Did you know that there are such things as engineers that dive? Obviously, there are… but it didn’t even occur to me until we started asking these questions! We visited about 12 places on our collecting trip last week, including:

First Landing State Park, Chincoteague and Assateague National Wildlife Refuges, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Robinson Neck Preserve, Horn Point Laboratory – University of MD, Tuckahoe State Park, Calvert Cliffs State Park, Point Lookout State Park, Smallwood State Park, Mason Neck State Park, and Belle Isle State Park. We made collections of Juncus roemerianus (thanks for the splinters) and Glyceria striata. We had to take canoes and kayaks out for some of our collections, of which I promptly thought, “I’m getting paid to kayak right now.” It was first thing in the morning, we were at our first sight for the day – it was beautiful, and I was kayaking out to a population of Juncus roemerianus. If you think that isn’t awesome, you’re wrong.

Big news for me, I finally saw Monotropa uniflora in the wild! I remember learning it in class, and I would always admire it in field guides, but now I’ve finally seen it with my own eyes! I got so excited. It’s the little things.

From our kayak out to some Juncus roemerianus.

Some more personal side notes:

I had a dream about Bolboschoenus and Spartina the other night. I’m still undecided on if that’s a good or a bad thing.

What I dream about

I’m finding myself doing a lot more roadside botanizing than I used to do.

I’m talking about plants a lot more, from which I’ve found the general public is not very interested. WHATEVER.

My farmer’s tan is off the chain.

Thanks for reading!

Melanie

I am close to two-thirds through my internship. I feel like getting to know the area and scouting populations was a distinct part of my internship. Making seed collections was a sudden chaotic second part of my internship. Since my last post to the blog, we at the Mother Lode Field Office have doubled our SOS collections, from 9 to 18. As I have revisited sites to increase the size and diversity of collections, I have been able to start collections of other species. Targeting multiple populations in one area has been an efficient way of making collections. Since arriving back from the training at the Chicago Botanic Garden, a Youth Conservation Corps team has been working at our office. The training helped prepare me for speaking with this crew about Seeds of Success as they have joined me in the field for collections. I have also spent considerable time processing the collections, i.e. organizing photos, scanning data forms, shipping seeds, and confirming species identifications at the UC Davis Herbarium. As for the remaining two months of my internship, I hope to make a few more SOS collections and then wrap up the post-collection tasks. Beyond that is a bit of a mystery. I will likely be working at a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Plant Materials Center. I am keen to learn more about where and how some of the working collections from this year could be utilized for restoration. Some collections were too small to incorporate into SOS, so finding a use for those is important to us. Thistle eradication, in part through rotational grazing, has been ongoing on some grass lands at our field office. The needle grass that I collected may be utilized there. As we have collected multiple species from particular locations, it would be great to see those species utilized together for restoration. For instance, larkspur, checkerbloom, and iris collected from one oak woodland could be established at an adjacent woodland. The chaparral near Mokelumne Hill that burned last year has been a prolific collection site, including Zigadenus exaltatus, Calochortus monophyllus, Camissonia hirtella, Scrophularia californica, and hopefully a couple more species soon. Maybe that suite of plants will be critical to future fire restoration in the Sierra Nevada foothills someday. Then again, maybe they will be incorporated into someone’s research of fire ecology. Either way, I hope to hear about it. Check out some of my favorite seeds of the season below, and enjoy your internships!

Phacelia cicutaria

Delphinium hansenii

Sidalcea hartwegii

John Woodruff

BLM Mother Lode Field Office, CA

The weeks since Chicago have been so busy and exciting! I was thrilled to get back to Washington–that brief time spent in the the dense, muggy Midwest renewed my appreciation for my new home and was enough to remind me why I am never, ever moving back to that climate! I’m forever grateful that I was placed in Washington–it’s funny how sometimes you don’t even realize a place is wrong for you until you move somewhere else.

Now that the constant stream of traveling and training that defined our spring is over, we’ve been getting down to business with our ESR work and making plans for the rest of the field season. With this planning comes the realization that the task ahead of us is nothing short of monumental. On a map, the many parcels that we need to survey for weeds look small and manageable. But after being out to some of the smallest, and still spending hours and hours combing these areas for noxious weed populations, I admitted to myself that it’s going to be a lot slower going that I’d imagined. I’m not complaining–the work is tough, but enjoyable–but I’m definitely overwhelmed. Managing land, even the relatively small amount of land that the BLM owns in WA, is a HUGE job! There’s just so much area to cover, and so little time. Luckily, the fact that we are only surveying areas that burned recently narrows our focus a bit. Not much though–last summer was one of the worst wildfire years in Washington’s history.

Last week Katherine, Gabe, and I camped out for work for the first time. I wasn’t sure how well I’d handle it, since I REALLY hate going to bed dirty, and trekking through the burns somehow coats even the clothed parts of me with a layer of dirt and ash. I toughed it out though, and it wasn’t as bad as I expected (at least, not once I’d used half our water supply to scrub my legs clean! I’m only exaggerating a little here.) We’re camping again tomorrow night, so this time I’ll be sure to bring my own, personal water supply!

Lilium columbianum. Exciting!

I had been waiting to see Clarkia pulchella for ages, and my patience was finally rewarded!

Since we had both Friday and Monday off this past weekend courtesy of our 4-10 schedule and 4th of July, Katherine and I took advantage of our four days off by heading up to Vancouver and taking a mini-vacation! Highlights of the trip included a hike in the breathtakingly beautiful temperate rain forest, a trip to the aquarium, a brewery tour, dinner at Dark Table (a restaurant where you eat in the pitch black!) and making fun of the way Canadians say “out” and “about”. Though we were sad to leave, the bacon cheeseburgers we had upon our return made me glad to be back in the good ol’ USA.

Vancouver!

Pictures couldn’t fully capture the beauty of the forest

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee, WA Field Office

Hello!

I’m Laura, one of those rare East Coast CLM interns. I’m working for the Greenbelt Native Plant Center in Staten Island and living in Brooklyn. Being placed in New York City was not what I expected, though it was definitely a blessing in disguise, even though living in a big city with all its crowds and traffic can sometimes be a lot.

Anyways – onto the plants! I’m working for Seeds of Success – a program through the Bureau of Land Management that aims to collect wild native seed for research, conservation, and restoration. As interns, our goal is to make 100 seed collections per team, each of 15,000-30,000 seeds. Since most seed is ripe in the fall, the first few months of our internship mostly consist of getting to know our target collection species and scouting out different parks and preserves to see what’s growing, if there’s enough to collect, and monitoring its phenology (when it blooms and when the seed is ripe).

Getting to know 200+ species is definitely a challenge, but I’m getting better at it the more I slow down, make careful observations, and consider the habitat that the plant is growing in. Some plants are easier to remember than others because, well, they’re really cool – something all plant lovers will understand. Here are a few of my favorites:

Salicornia depressa:

This little squirt, the common glasswort, grows as the edges of salt marshes and turns bright red in the fall. Its small, squishy, and adorable.

Opuntia humifusa:

Did you know that the east coast has a native cactus? The eastern prickly pear grows in sandy areas along the coast and has showy yellow flowers that pollinators (and botanists) love. Each flower lasts a single day, but each cactus pad produces many flowers that bloom throughout late spring and early summer.

Kalmia latifolia:

I’m used to seeing the flowers of the great laruel (Rhododendron maximum), but I was instantly drawn to the flowers of its relative, the mountain laurel. They’re unique and delicate, and they go quite well with its elegant evergreen leaves.

Lathyrus japonicus:

The beach pea! All Fabaceae (the pea/bean/legume family) are adorable, but the beach pea really takes the cake. I actually took this picture on a beach in the south shore of Massachusetts – it would have made a great collection if it was in New York!

Until next time,

Laura Shriver

Seeds of Success Intern

Greenbelt Native Plant Center, Staten Island, NYC