Montrose, Colorado is a perfectly sized town of about 20K people.  It sits as a central location to everything a lover of the West covets.  The San Juans tower in the south, the Cimmarons to the east, and Black Canyon to the northeast.  The northern horizon holds the Gunnison Gorge and the Grand Mesa.  To the west, Paradox Valley, Escalante/Dominguez Canyon, and the Manti La Sals just before you get to Moab.  I’m overwhelmed and overjoyed.

The high deserts and red rocks in Escalante/Dominquez canyon are reminiscent of the Grand Staircase in Utah, one of my favorite places back home.  We spend a lot of time here, returning to monitoring sites of the Hookless Cactus, Sclerocactus glaucus and hunting for new populations.  I have developed a keen eye for cacti, to say the least.

Escalante canyon is riddled with seeps of perennial water flows that feed through cracks in the sandstone, creating habitat for several rare, “hanging garden” species such as Eastwood’s Monkeyflower, Mimulus eastwoodiae and the Giant Hellborine orchid, Epipactus gigantea.  The misty seeps are protected from the sun year-round and will undoubtedly bring my dog and I relief in the foreboding hot months ahead.

I was lucky enough to be invited down the Dolores River for a 3-day trip with the Rangers here in Montrose as the team botanist.  I was equipped with a map through the application Avenza on my phone, by which I was able to find various populations of rare and narrowly endemic species that occur along this unique river.  Among the species included the Naturita Milkvetch, Astragalus naturitensis, and 3 hanging garden species (including the aforementioned) in addition to the one and only Kachina Daisy, Erigeron kachinensis.  It was kind of dreamy to see all three of these in the same square meter.

Most of my time has been spent in sage grouse country above Crawford, on the north rim of the Black Canyon.  The Gunnison Sage Grouse, Centrocercus minimus is a federally protected species.  I have camped out on two lek counts and have had the pleasure of observing the birds dancing and popping on the ridge at dawn.  Soon we will be running transects in this habitat to monitor the vegetation.  Most of our work has been done in saltbush/greasewood shrublands, so this will be a change of pace.

I’ve also spent a lot of time in Crawford on corvid surveys.  They consist of walking or mountain biking along the 7 mile stretch of road that overlooks the West Elk mountain range.  I stop every 400 meters for 10 minutes, walk around with binoculars, and try to flush some scrub or pinyon jays out of the canopies so I can count them.  Last week I counted over 100 ravens.  The biologists at the BLM suspect that these intelligent birds may have a detrimental effect on the sensitive sage grouse population.

There is some curiosity about the Peregrine Falcon in the Uncompahgre Field Office, and I’ve had the opportunity to take part in a one-night raptor survey in Paradox Valley.  I woke up at 5 am with a scope and walked around Pinyon/Juniper forests, scanning the massive cliff walls.  It’s a good thing that I marked my camp on the GPS because it is SO easy to get lost out there.

While in Paradox, we surveyed an extremely isolated population of the Sandstone Milkvetch, Astragalus sesquiflorus.  You’ve never seen something so cute in your life.  My partner and I were able to find the boundaries of the population after a long days work, and later mapped it out in ArcMap.  It is so rewarding and interesting to see exactly where it is on a map after being there all day.  I’m really excited to learn more about GIS.  Now that I’ve received my access card, here in my SIXTH week, I can start working with our wonderful GIS wizard at the BLM.

I spend my spare time reading about Colorado’s flora, learning about birds, keying out and drawing plants, learning to love grasses (begrudgingly), and hiking my dog to a new beautiful place every weekend.  I left my undergrad with a good base in botany, but with a thirst for field experience, mostly a wanting to see how plants interact with their environment.  Here I am! I have a lot to learn, but this is the kind of work that just keeps giving, and I remember why I chose a major in biology.

See you in Chicago!

M

 

It’s been three weeks since I left the coniferous embrace of my home in Olympia, Washington and made the trek to the sagebrush steppe desert of Twin Falls, Idaho. It’s basically exactly opposite of my home- it’s dry and dusty and the towering old-growth evergreens have been replaced by sagebrush (Artemesia spp., more on that later), Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), and rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus), the Puget Sound replaced by the Snake River. My first week was mostly spent out of the Shoshone BLM office, going on daily field trips to become acquainted with the area and learning the plants.

Starting on Monday of my second week, I began working with the Twin Falls BLM fuels crew as their “botanical specialist”- which is just a fancy way of saying I help them identify plants to include in the data of their monitoring plots, mostly areas that have been burned. Last week we went out to three different plots to collect sagebrush leaves, bring them back to the office, dry them for 24 hours and record the moisture content as a way of analyzing fire likelihood and behavior. I’m excited to learn more about fire behavior and ecology. Most of May and June are training for me, so I look forward to getting it all done so I can dive into the work.

I feel in love with Sagebrush the moment I met her years ago, so I’m excited to get to know the subtle difference between subspecies (sometimes only possible with a UV light!). Sagebrush is really important habitat to the threatened Sage Grouse.

This year seems like an interesting year for the area. As I was driving across the massive canyon into the city, peering downwards at the meandering Snake River, I thought, even without anything to compare it to, that the water seemed high. I learned that this was absolutely true- this area had an especially snowy winter and as the snow has melted, the rivers and reservoirs rose to a high that hasn’t been seen in this area in at least 20 years. Because of all the water and the extra cold winter and spring, the flower blooms are about 2 weeks behind which was good timing for us! Usually by the time CBG interns get here, many plants are past their prime.

Until next time!

Sofia

Starting as the only Seeds of Success intern at the BLM office was a bit of a rocky start. This particular program has not been run in at least 2 years and the staff that were familiar with it are long gone. However, this does leave a fresh start for me! Scrounging through old archives, I was able to find previous plants collected for seeds and where they might be. Calflora has become my best friend, as it is a necessary source on plant identification and conveniently has locations on where particular plants of interest may be. After making a tentative list of what plants I might collect, I was out in the field.

California has some beautiful landscapes. The photo below was taken near the Oregon border. Our mission that day was to find a rare lily, Fritillaria gentneri. We found two small different populations of this lily growing next to its look a likes, Fritillaria recurva and Fritillaria affinis

After being at this job for about two weeks, I am able to get a better grasp on what is feasible and what I need to do. Right now I go out in the field on various pieces of land owned by Redding BLM to survey what is in mass. Collecting 10,000+ seeds per species is not an easy feat, so I need to find large populations of plants that will produce a lot of seed. So far so good, I have found about three species of plants that have a sufficient amount of plants to give me enough seed. These plants will be great for restoration and are pollinator friendly!

Not a collection plant, but one of California’s native succulent type plants! It grows on a rock face; this seeming difficult to achieve. However, the Lewisia thrive in this environment and I am thankful because this species makes for a beautiful picture.

 

Redding Field Office – Bureau of Land Management

I think my favorite thing about this internship so far has been coming to love the Great Basin desert! Growing up, when ever we had to drive through Nevada and Utah along I-80, I thought it was so ugly. Now, as we go out exploring every day, I fall more and more in love with everything out here! So much is alive!

I love getting to explore all over Utah and our district, and it is always so satisfying when we find a nice solid population of one of our target species!

Life is good!

Salt Lake Field Office, BLM

I have been working in the desert for the last 3 months, making me more than half way through my internship with the CLM. Since being here in California I have gotten to go to a plant conservation conference in San Diego, visit Death Valley National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Mt. Zion National Park, Los Angles and Las Vegas. This list fails to include all of the stunning places I have seen in the Ridgecrest Field office. I feel very grateful to have worked here the last 3 months. Many plants are seeding right now in the Ridgecrest Field office.

In this blog I wanted to talk about the seed collection process. The most interesting and beautiful part of the seed collection process is scouting. Having the opportunity to drive/hike around searching for plants is an absolute blast. Over the last few weeks we have transitioned from focusing on annuals to perennial shrubs. This makes it a lot easier for us to make a seed collection. Over the last week we have made at least half a dozen seed collections. Last week we made an Encelia farinosa seed collection in Pleasant Canyon. Pleasant Canyon is in Panamint Valley, one of the most beautiful parts of our field office. There are quite a few riparian areas there and amazing biodiversity of plants/animals. Also, the Navy base has a flight path right through there, meaning you almost always get an amazing airshow while collecting seeds.

On this particular day myself and the other SOS intern were scouting around for Chylismia brevipes and happened upon a few other populations, including the Encelia. We found a population of about 100 plants that were all in seed in this canyon.  We quickly got out and vouchered some of the still flower plants. We then took some photos of the population and filled out the SOS data sheet. It does not take long to make a seed collection, especially with 2 people. We probably finished our collection in under an hour. We collected over 15,000 seeds from over 60 plants. Since this took so little time, we were able to go take some other vouchers and also check out a lake bed. Just another great day in the Ridgecrest field office! 

These recent weeks have been a whirlwind of activity.  After returning from a long vacation I got back into the office and strait to work.  I had to catch up on my ongoing eagle monitoring whilst juggling various other projects with seemingly ever shortening due dates.  We headed up to the Columbia River to check on Washington Ground Squirrels while they are still active.  They are only active from March till early June and then they spend the summer and winter underground.  That is the life!  Those surveys proved to be long days, but we did locate some new colonies and confirm previously mapped colonies.

More recently I have been working on Special Recreation Permits (SRP’s) as the wildlife point of contact.  I have really enjoyed the SRP’s as it brings together field work and decision making together to determine the effects of a proposal and whether or not it should go forward.  Hopefully I will be able to work on more projects like these including some NEPA work, possibly CX’s or other smaller projects.

Currently temperatures have spiked into the 90’s, making hiking up and down hills slightly less exciting and surely more exhausting.  The silver lining is that roads are no longer muddy messes and instead are a wonderful dusty beige just waiting to be explored.  It looks like it is going to cool down for the next couple of days, so that will be a welcome respite.

In my spare time I have been working on a owl survey with a local birder and I am having a great time.  Surveys can run a little late (1am) and waking up the next morning to work isn’t always the most fun.  However, it is a wonderful opportunity and we have already heard great-horned owl, northern-pygmy owl (We saw it fly over and it was calling non-stop from within 15ft) and even Flammulated Owl, the bird for which we were surveying.  I have continued to go birding and have had a great time watching the great horned owl chicks around town goofily walk and fly around.

The next weeks and months are sure to be busy, so I will try to enjoy a relaxing Memorial weekend and keep everybody updated to my goings on as they go on.

Our mission began in the icy 2:47am darkness. A brisk Monday morning, if one can rightfully call that hour morning. It was too early to hear the calls of birds welcoming a new day. The only sound was from a stiff breeze rustling the pines. Occasionally a car’s headlights sliced through the night on the nearby highway. Joel emerged from his truck, and we greeted each other quietly. Noise seems inappropriate at such an hour. Joel slipped a key into the door and turned. The deadbolt retracted out of its nighttime abode with a loud clack. As we entered the office, we moved with calculated haste. We had 60 seconds to disarm the alarm. With precision that can only be described as akin to a neurosurgeon, Joel swiftly entered a four-digit code into the keypad. Beep beep, bop! We were in. I maneuvered the light switch to the “on” position as I rounded the corner. Down the hall I went, finally arriving at my productivity and action facilitation station. Here I began to prepare for the morning’s arduous tasks. Bag? Hat? Gloves? Check. I got up and moved with an excited urgency down the now-lit hallway and met up with Joel by the office kitchen. We loaded our chosen vessels with an energy vector formed by sending highly active water molecules through a barrier of ground African beans. And so, with coffee in hand, we left the office, now only a memory in the taillights of the truck. Admittedly, on any normal work day one must go through the same process we had just gone through. But at 2:47am, every action is magnitudes more exciting. Positively invigorating!

As much as I’d like to say that Joel and I arrived at work while most are innocently asleep because we relish the splendors of an early start to the day, that is not why we were there. Instead, we had arrived at such an ungodly hour because just a 30 minute drive away, something peculiar was happening in the Williamson River. Thousands of minute endangered larval suckers were going on a journey. As the earth goes about its daily plunge into transient darkness, the larvae drift. These minuscule newly hatched fish, a scant one centimeter of translucent flesh, rise up from the river’s rocky bottom and migrate to the top of the water column. To a scientist trying to capture larval suckers, this is a thrilling behavioral pattern! A simple zooplankton net can be deployed from a bridge for 20 minutes and left to “fish” in the coursing currents of the Williamson River. Several sets of these nets can yield anywhere from a handful to several hundred to several thousand of the wondrous drifting larvae. Joel and I plied the waters for several hours that morning, managing to secure just 150 larvae as the earth emerged from its daily dose of darkness. As we pulled in our last net, a robin chimed in to welcome the sun. In no time light was erasing the long shadows of our early dawn.

What does one do with 150 endangered sucker larvae, or ideally, several thousand? Nurture, love, and care for them, that’s what. Coddle the precious lives of these young beings and prepare them for the arduous journey of life. Joel and I transported the larvae south to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s controlled propagation facility. At this rearing location, we meticulously counted each future adult fish and gently placed them in a tank swirling with waters tuned to the biochemistry of the larvae. A little salt bath and rinse in some medicine, and the fledgling fish are good to go. With any luck, in a year or so these larvae will have grown into mighty sub-adult suckers, ready to be released into the sometimes perilous but often bountiful waters of Upper Klamath Lake. Early mornings collecting larval fish may be challenging, but they are necessary to help endangered species avoid extinction. Personally, I find days go by quicker when onerous tasks are turned into exhilarating life or death, covert missions to push the bounds of science. Now time for my nap.

Jeff Mogavero
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Klamath Falls, OR Field Office