Wow! It’s hard to believe that already a month has gone by since I embarked on this journey to begin work as a Seeds of Success (SOS) intern in Taos, New Mexico. It all started with a road trip from eastern Oregon to Taos, which my mom and I completed in 2 and a half days, leaving me just enough time to drop my stuff at my newly acquired apartment and drive to Albuquerque. There my mom and I snagged a couple hours of sleep before I hopped on a plane to Chicago, and she hopped on one back to Oregon.

One of the places my mom and I stopped on our trip down was Arches National Park. Here’s a view of Delicate Arch.

The training in Chicago took place at the Chicago Botanic Garden, and covered a myriad of topics including Seeds of Success (SOS) protocol, common plant families in the western United States, and field sampling techniques. The garden was honestly one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been, and I highly recommend it to anyone that happens to find themselves in the Chicago area. In addition, the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower is a pretty awesome sight if you enjoy heights and great views!

On the observation floor of Willis Tower, they had clear boxes sticking off the side of the building. They made for great pictures, and spectacular (if a touch unnerving) views from 103 stories up. I personally loved being in them!

A view of one of the islands in the Japanese Garden section of the Chicago Botanic Garden

I went to the butterfly garden and was able to get this picture of one of the beautiful butterflies!

A huge statue of Carl Linnaeus on one of his botanizing adventure at the Chicago Botanic Garden

I fell in love with the bonsai exhibit in the courtyard of the building where we had our training classes.

A tiny white house in the miniature train garden

After returning to Taos, I had the chance to get a little more settled in my apartment before heading off to another training in Santa Fe. We learned about safety in the field, and were introduced to key people in the New Mexico SOS program. We also were told about the origins of the SOS program, the formation of which was prompted by a particularly bad wildfire season around the year 2000 that placed attention on the lack of native adapted seeds for use in restoration work. I was able to meet my mentor and supervisor Lillis Urban, and learn how to use the office tablet to document our seed collections. After the classroom portion of the training, our group of interns, BLM, and Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) employees headed down to Red Canyon Preserve in southern New Mexico to do some camping. We made our first SOS seed collection there, and got some practice filling out the data sheet that we use for all our collections. We also practiced determining soil type and color, and pressing plant specimens for use in herbarium sheets.

During the Santa Fe portion of the training, we took a short hike to see some petroglyphs. I had never seen petroglyphs before, so it was a really nice treat!

It took me forever to find a place for my tent where I didn’t think the wind would blow it over, but when I did pick a spot, it ended up being on a bunch of rocks. Not my best thought out plan, but it sure was an ascetically pleasing spot!

A gorgeous sunrise that I saw while sleeping in the truck bed during our training at Red Canyon Preserve

Our tiny tent village before a brief downpour. The wind here meant business!

During training, we ventured into the mountains, where, much to my delight, we saw some trees!

On our way back to Taos, we stopped by the University of New Mexico herbarium, and were able to see beautiful herbarium sheets like this one.

After that training, my fellow SOS intern and I spent a week in the Taos BLM office orienting to the resources available to us, finishing the data sheet from our Red Canyon Preserve collection, taking a 5 hour long defensive driving course online, and learning how to change the tire on our work truck. It was a good thing we practiced, because it took us nearly an hour and a half, and now we know at exactly which point to place the jack.

This last week that I just finished up was the first one where me and my partner got a hands on taste for what our job will be like for the bulk of the season. Basically what we will do is go into areas managed by the BLM or Forest Service, scout out populations of native plants, and collect seeds from populations that meet certain requirements. The seeds then are sent to a special seed cleaning facility in Bend, Oregon so that they can be cleaned and stored. A portion of those seed can then be used in research and the development of growing protocols, so that one day farmers can grow these native plants, resulting in a greater number of native seeds being available for use in restoration work. For a population to qualify for an SOS collection, there must be more than 50 individuals and you must collect at least 10,000 seeds. However, you can’t collect more than 20% of the ripe seeds in the population within a single day.  To this end, my partner and I spent Monday scouting out a few populations to see if they were large enough for a collection, and Wednesday making our first official solo seed collection. The lucky plant was Elymus elmoides, a grass otherwise known as Bottlebrush Squirreltail. The collection was fairly simple, although it was made a bit harder by the heat and the sun. Being out in the field was exciting, but also a bit overwhelming. It made me realize all the things that I don’t know or am unsure of. It was hard not knowing the names of most of the plants that I was seeing and trying to estimate if a population would yield enough seeds for a collection. I have so much to learn, but I know that with practice and dedication, I will eventually hit my stride.

This area at the base of Ute Mountain is where I spent the bulk of my field time during this past week.

Off in the distance, you can see the light colored band of plants that made up our first collection.

Afternoon storms showing up over the not so distant mountain range have been the norm during our few days of field work there.

After spending a couple days in the field, we attended a training on how to tell the difference between wasps, bees and flies (harder than you might think!) on Thursday, as well as a training on soil sampling techniques on Friday. It was interesting to learn more about bees, since that has never been something that I’ve known much about. I learned that in the United States, there are about 4,000 species of bees! I had no idea that there were so many, or that a quarter of those species can be found in New Mexico.

The location of our bee training

Moving down to New Mexico was a big step for me. I’m one of 5 children, and am very close to my family. Additionally I just graduated with my undergraduate degree last year. So this is my first time truly living on my own, outside of the sheltered safety of my family’s house or a college campus. Missing my family makes it even more difficult. To distract myself, and because I love adventures, I’ve done some exploring in my downtime. I made a journey to the Gorge Bridge, with its beautiful high up views, and the local Earthship community. The Earthship community fascinated me, and I honestly think that I might consider living that way some day. Earthships are an amazing type of self sustaining housing. Their walls are made from dirt filled used tires rescued from landfills. They produce their own power from solar and wind energy, and get all their water from precipitation. The water goes on to be used 4 times with filtering in between, and the houses include greenhouse space for growing food, even in the dead of winter!

Here are some basic Earthship models.

The greenhouse portion of the visitor center Earthship

I’ve quickly discovered a natural health culture here in Taos, which I love. The farmer’s market is spectacular, and there is a grocery store within a mile of my apartment that sells all sorts of organic, non-GMO, and gluten free foods, as well as a whole array of vitamins and natural health and body care products. It is probably the most wonderful and fascinating store that I have ever been in.

Since I have been here in Taos, I have learned so much, both in my internship and in my extracurricular adventures. I am so excited to continue exploring and voraciously perusing new knowledge wherever I go!

Until next time!

Sierra                                                                                                                             Seeds of Success Intern                                                                                               BLM Taos, NM

I’m enjoying learning about the plants of the sagebrush steppe in Southern Idaho. Most of my botany training was along the Front Range of Colorado, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find many familiar plants hidden between the sagebrush. Before starting this internship I had very few expectations- I had never been to Idaho and didn’t know much about the state except for its famous potatoes (which is conveniently written on all the license plates). After just two short weeks, I’ve begun to appreciate all of the hidden beauty this state has to offer.

Idaho truly is a hidden gem (but don’t tell anyone). One of my biggest hobbies and passions is rock climbing. In Colorado, the climbing is world-class and people flock to the state to climb in Rifle, Eldorado Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park, etc. However, two weekends ago I got to climb the amazing formations in City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park. I was blown away by the beauty of the area, friendliness of the people, and quality of the climbing.

This is part of the view from the top of a multi-pitch climb called Sinocranium.

Myself and two other CLM interns 650 ft up!

After spending most of the time training during the first two weeks, I’m very excited to spend more time outdoors doing field work. We are conducting Modified AIM (Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring) surveys to assess the area’s suitability as sage grouse habitat. Right now, that means we have been getting to know the flora of Idaho better; I’ve enjoyed diving into the complicated world that is plant terminology and dichotomous keys. It’s been a little while since I’ve gotten this nerdy about botany but I’ve found the skills coming back. (Thank you to my plant ID professor at CSU!)

Linum lewisii– Wild blue flax

Ok, I realize this isn’t a plant. But he’s so cute!

This past weekend I got a chance to explore Craters of the Moon National Monument, which is within the boundaries of our field office in Shoshone. This landscape was truly unique- giant underground caves formed by lava tubes, spatter cones, and best of all…wildflowers! The tiny dwarf monkeyflowers were in bloom everywhere! We picked an ideal time to visit.

Mimulus nanus– Dwarf monkeyflower

Lewisia rediviva– Bitterroot

So, with my first few weeks under my belt, I can say that I think I’m going to like this place. My internship is equipping me with valuable skills and re-igniting my passion for botany; my weekend explorations are allowing me to explore all this state has to offer. I can’t wait to see what else is in store.

Savanna

Shoshone Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

Here are some things that are completely new to me:

1. The desert. I am originally from Ohio and the move to Nevada has been a tough one. I have always loved the woods and being surrounded by trees. Definitely strange to be able to look out onto miles and miles of sage brush landscape. Luckily, we are really close to Lake Tahoe (which has trees!!!!)
2. Dirt. Everything is covered in dirt. My car. The inside and outside of the work truck. My boots. Our tubs. Our equipment. Me, most of the time.
3. The absence of rain. It has rained ONE time since I have been in NV, which has been around two months. What is this nonsense?! Where are my beloved thunderstorms?!
4. Casinos. Casinos everywhere. I don’t understand Nevada and their obsession with casinos. Doing laundry? There are slot machines there. Shopping for groceries? They have you covered, gambler’s delight. What about getting gas? No worries, the whole other side of the gas station is a casino.
5. Fire. I just read that there are currently 15 active wildfires in NV. A fairly large one, that is called Earthstone burned 41,000 acres and started pretty much in my backyard. We had to evacuate our house because of it and now everything smells like smoke and is charred black.
   

   Earthstone fire, taken from my house as it burned down the canyon.

6. Elevation. I am a runner (let’s be honest, not a good one, but I try) but the change from basically sea level in Ohio to 6,000 feet+ here in Nevada has been a really strange transition. For a couple of weeks, I got winded from just climbing a flight of stairs.
7. Cows. I don’t think I have ever been close to a cow in my entire life. Now, I chase cows with my work truck on a weekly basis. They are the bane of my existence and will remain my enemy for the rest of time.
   

   Santa Rosa District in northern NV near Winnemucca.

I feel as though Alyssa (my fellow intern) and I are not your average SOS team. Our species list consists of only (semi-rare) flowering plants which has required a lot of research and so far, a lot of hit-and-miss scouting. We have limited information on sites to explore, so we have to scout the entire district. Our most important species, Erigeron speciosus has been illusive so far. We work all over the state and recently spent a lot of time in the Santa Rosa district. There, we thought we found Erigeron speciosus but didn’t, buried our truck in mud and ripped off our passenger side mirror. This week, we have a short break and will begin our exploration and scouting on Monday! Hopefully we have better luck!

What we thought was Erigeron speciosus but is actually Erigeron pumilus.

Cheers to all the other interns working their butts off and good luck with collections!

May the odds be ever in your favor!

-Payton Kraus
USFS Sparks, NV

This is Eli Grinberg reporting live from Chuchupate Ranger Station of Los Padres National Forest in Frazier Park, California! I am a recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a bachelor of sciences in forestry and wildlife biology. I have been here in Los Padres National Forest for two weeks and I am loving the work so far. My primary responsibilities are collecting seeds to be used in the envisioned drought-tolerant pollinator “Foster Garden,” (named after the late Mike Foster, a pervious employee of the forest service here and prominent community member of the area), catching insects to be featured in a collection of pollinators found in this region of the forest, and reporting to my supervisor and Resource Officer, Ivana Noell. A typical day involves a hike with my fellow interns to the various springs and water rights that belong to the Forest Service; the Forest Service “Pathways” interns are responsible documenting and updating water data, while I collect goodies to be processed later in the office.

(Xylacopa sp. visiting Argemone munita, the prickly poppy.)

I have spent plenty of time in Los Padres National Forest, though I had only been to this area of California once in my life prior to my internship. I was on the desert trip headed to Joshua Tree for my field botany class in the spring, and we made a brief stop on Lockwood Valley Road to learn the dominant plants above the Sespe Wilderness. I did feel familiar with the plants of this area when I arrived, but I feel that I have learned so many new flowers and shrubs and insects in the last two weeks! Ivana and friends have provided me with some great resources for identifying pollinators, mainly distinguishing characteristics among bumble bees and butterflies. I am still in search of beetle, fly, wasp and hummingbird resources to help with identification, feel free to pass them my way if you have any. Pam DeVries also has supplied our the station with some copies of her book titled, “A Field Guide to the Plants of the San Emigdio Region of California,” which has been invaluable for identifying and learning new plants!

(Penstemon labrosus, San Gabriel Beardtongue. I snapped this shot on the Mt. Pinos Summit trail!)

I am most excited to learn more about the different flowering and seeding times of the plants of this region. Based on what seeds are mature in the field right now, I can make an educated guess that some of the first blooming plants in this area were the cobwebby thistle (Cirsium occidentale), the array of Ericameria species represented here, the deltoid balsam root (Balsamorhiza deltoidea) and the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica)…this obviously changes with elevation so I will specify within the ranges of 5000-6500′. I am also extremely excited to continue documenting our hikes throughout the summer, huge thanks to Liz Buchroeder for letting me use her amazing camera and lenses!

(Ladybird Beetle hanging out on some Urtica dioica, or stinging nettle flowers)
Eli Grinberg

Chuchupate Ranger Station

Mt. Pinos Ranger District

Los Padres National Forest

US Forest Service

The past four weeks went by crazy fast! Most of the time comprised of training and getting my bearings in my new job. I am an SOS intern placed in New Mexico along the edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Being from the upper mid-west, the region I am interning in is both very different and yet somewhat similar to where I lived. I’ve noticed that Northern New Mexico shares quite a few plant species as the upper Mid-West, with lots of new ones to learn.

New Mexico is beautiful with its mountains, dry shrubland, and desert grasslands. I love the diversity of species here. My favorite plant in this area so far is a Cholla (Cylindropuntia sp.). From the road, it looks like an unearthly spiny shrub, but up close it is a jointed, tallish cactus with pink flowers and yellow, semi-star shaped looking fruits.

Cylindropuntia sp.

After a week of orientation, lectures, and hands-on training at the Chicago Botanic Garden – we spent a week attending an SOS training geared toward all the New Mexico SOS interns. During the first few days of the Santa Fe training, the instructors covered what a day in the field would look like, data management, field safety, and the target species on our list. We ended the week by camping at a ranch about 3.5 hrs away from Santa Fe where we made a supervised SOS collection of wooly plantain, (Plantago patagonica).The last day at the ranch, we drove into the nearby mountains. At each spot we stopped, we keyed plants using New Mexico keys and field guides.The gravel roads we drove on in this area were rugged with sharp edged rocks which probably caused the flats a couple of vehicles experienced during the trip.

I think my favorite parts of the training in Santa Fe was the section on pressing plants in the field and the University of New Mexico (UNM) Herbarium tour. I have done a fair amount of pressing, but not in the field. Pressing attractively arranged plants that display the necessary features for identifying the plant is not easy in the wind. The instructor for this section did a great job giving us some tips and tricks for pressing our vouchers effectively in the field. The UNM Herbarium is amazing! Phil Tonne (the Senior Collection Manager) set out examples of well-pressed specimens for us to admire.

Echinocereus coccineus – Photo credit: Sierra Carey

They were all lovely! One of my favorites is above. Preparing and pressing cacti is no cakewalk, and this specimen was beautifully done. Almost nothing warms my heart more than attractively pressed specimens with all the identifying characters. During the tour, he told us that once the FBI came to the UNM Herbarium with a bloody plant fragment for them to identify. The FBI wanted to know the species because they could use the habitat to narrow their search area. How cool is that!

We have started scouting potential collection sites within this last week. “We,” being another CLM intern and myself. The rough, rocky roads made me appreciate the large 4×4 truck we use for work. Thanks to a heads up from a botanist in our office, we found a population of Bottlebrush Squirreltail (Elymus elymoidies) that was more than large enough for us to make our first collection without supervision. We also a found large population of Scarlet Globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea) that will make an excellent collection once the seeds ripen. Although, we didn’t know whether it would make a good collection at first. While walking around, I saw that there was a group of Sphaeralcea plants that looked the same, but with larger flowers. One of the challenges of collecting seeds in nature is making sure you are collecting all the same species. Sounds easy, unless there happen to be two species that look almost the same within the same area. With this in mind, we brought both plant types to the office for our supervisor to examine. It turned out that the plants were the same species.

The morphological difference in flower size was probably the result of genetic variation in the population. However, if the two plants were different species – we would not have been able to consider the Sphaeralcea for collection. Telling the plants apart once they had gone to seed would have been impossible.

– Bureau of Land Management (Taos Field Office)

Just another intern making the jump from the East to the West – from Virginia to Wyoming to be exact. I am a part of a smaller group of interns that were lucky enough to land wildlife positions.

When offered the position in Lander I was beyond excited! I have always wanted to live near Yellowstone National Park and study the wildlife in the area. Nothing like checking two things off your bucket list at once! I can say with confidence that this position is helping me to build a strong foundation for my future career. Working with CBG and the BLM has really helped me figure out my path and I am starting to think I am right where I need to be.

Not only do I hike every day for work but I do it on the weekends as well! Lander is a beautiful town with so many things to do I could easily do something different every weekend. My favorite place to adventure near town is Sinks Canyon. You can hike to the waterfall at the top and see a lot of really cool birds on the way. Rock climbing is popular here as well. Recently they opened the Loop Road allowing access to lakes at the top of the mountains.

The falls at Sinks Canyon

The “sink’ at Sinks Canyon

Another place near town is Johnny Behind the Rocks (JBR for short). There are a plethora of hiking and biking trails at JBR. I think I have been to JBR more for work than I have on my own time. But I can’t complain when I work in a place like this.

Johnny Behind the Rocks

Part of my training included a nature walk with the botanist to help me learn the common plants. Many people have this misconception that wildlife people only need to know the wild creatures in an area; this is not the case we also have to know what they like to eat. That meant I had to familiarize myself with all of the grasses, forbs, and woody plants that are commonly eaten by wildlife. JBR is great for wildlife viewing, the trails take you far enough out that you are guaranteed to encounter some wild things.

I am so thankful to be living and working in such a beautiful area of the country. There’s nothing better than being in a field where every day seems less like work and more like a grand adventure.

Hey Y’all!

I suppose since this is my first blog post I should do a quick Bio on myself and my newly appointed position with the BLM. My name is Hank Carlson and I hail from Minneapolis Minnesota where I have lived, recreated and schooled for my entire life. After graduation in the spring of 2016 I worked as a community outreach coordinator with the YMCA helping to bridge sustainable connections between under served youth and nearby nature. While this was satisfying work I heard the mountains calling and eventually ended up with a placement in Cody, Wyoming as a Recreation Manager.

My first week of work actually happened to take place in Chicago at the workshop where I met many of you devoted, intelligent kinsmen. Many of you had already begun your internships and hearing your stories got me pumped up!

After arriving in Cody nearly a week later I was ready to start and despite all of the arduous and non-too speedy training I settled in real nice. One of my biggest worries in moving out here was actually getting along with the people that live here. With my perceived conflict in political and idealistic views about the world, I expected it would be hard to co-exist with locals (ranchers, rec planners, business owners etc.), but I found this to be completely false. As I began to meet those in the office as well as my neighbors and people around town, I was approached with kindness and genuine interest. I’d like to say I’m starting to feel right at home!

After settling in the first few days I began to pick out what exactly I’ll be doing here for the next few months. Fortunately my supervisors seem to be very flexible and are willing to support any personal projects I would like to pursue in the future. For now, Melissa (the other rec intern) and myself are going through a massive sign inventory and replacement of signs in our district. This entails marking way points of all our signs (hundreds) and recording information about them. While it can get tedious, I’m really starting to get to know the area very well! I’m also learning how much people like to shoot things owned by the government out here. To supplement this inventory we are going to further replace and update any outdated signs and make note of any undesignated trails that seem to be used anyway. We have been briefed on other projects we will be working on but for now this is the priority.

Mine?

As for free time I’ve been lucky enough to hike and explore a lot of the surrounding area. My first Saturday here was spent in Yellowstone checking off many of the main sights. I expect I’ll be revisiting several more times.  I brought a fishing pole as well and have met some locals who want to show me some of their favorite spots out here and I’m jacked to catch some trout.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

All in all it’s been a fantastic time and as usual not in any way what I was expecting in the first place. Hope y’all are diggin your placements as well and if you plan on visiting Yellowstone at all in the near future holla at ya boy.

Heart Mountain Peak

My fellow interns and I have been living and working in Carson City for four months now — and though that may mean we are halfway through our internship, we are definitely not halfway through our seed collections! We started off the season with trainings, noxious weed mapping, rare plant surveying, and some outreach activities, but now it’s time to buckle down to reach the almost inconceivable goal of 100 SOS collections. So far, we’re only at fifteen!

Though we attempt to harvest at least 20,000 viable seeds from each population, that can equate to very different amounts of effort based on which species we’re collecting. It almost feels like cheating to collect grasses like Elymus elymoides or Poa secunda, for which we spend a mere hour or two pulling entire stalks and stuffing them in our paper bags. Even easier is Grayia spinosa, a shrub whose papery seeds fall off the plant and into the bag by the hundreds with the slightest nudge. Other species, like Pushia tridentata, test our patience, heat tolerance, and ability to keep track of our pencils as we tally up groups of 50 seeds that we pick one by one for hours on end. Yesterday, I made the mistake of trying to peel an orange after picking Purshia for several hours, and was compelled to spit out my first bite — it’s called bitterbrush for a reason.

So far, my favorite collection has been Cercocarpus ledifolius, a mountain mahogany. I’m familiar with other species of this genus, from college classes on the Mogollon Rim of Arizona, but I never anticipated finding a species that was so tall and treelike. They grow on steep slopes and hilltops in harsh soils, and as someone who grew up in the desert, I can’t help but favor the hardiest plants that grow in the most inhospitable places. I’ve always been fascinated by Cercocarpus fruits; their long, plumose awns make the entire plant look almost fuzzy from a distance. Little did I know those awns inflict an incredibly annoying itching sensation on exposed skin. You would never guess after picking just a few fruits, but the tickle of several thousand left us all squirming awkwardly in our seats on the car ride back to the office. This species also takes awhile to collect, but it is such an awesome plant that I don’t mind that or the itching. I think it is a great candidate for a restoration species and I hope our collections can be put to good use in the future!

We have been able to start collecting in new areas as the snow has melted, including the foothills of the Sierras. I love the open landscapes of the great basin, but there’s nothing like the rocky peaks and glassy hidden lakes of the Sierra Nevada. A six hour seed collection is nothing to complain about when it’s on the edge of a lake with bald eagles circling overhead, or halfway up a craggy mountain pass. Of course, every weekend entails more trips to Lake Tahoe (only 20 minutes away!), which is rimmed by those magical mountains. Weekly activities include mountain biking, birding, hiking, and swimming — hopefully soon to be accompanied by outdoor bouldering, backpacking, and maybe even some paddleboarding!

After long uphill bike ride from Carson City up to the Tahoe Rim, I was rewarded with snowy peaks and lake views.

Frenchman Lake, nestled into the lower Sierras just an hour away from our house.

Britney, Carson City BLM