Work continues to go well for me here in Lander, Wyoming. In the recent weeks, my partner and I began familiarizing ourselves with the Seeds of Success protocol and have done some preliminary surveying for potential collections.

After the plentiful precipitation we have received this month, many plants are finally beginning to flower. One of the steps of the SOS protocol involves collecting voucher specimens of the species you will be collecting seed from. These vouchers specimens are usually collected before the plant goes to seed because the flowers are useful aids in the identification process.

My partner and I went out to a location called Red Canyon and located 6 potential collections there. These species include Aletes sessiliflorus, Pteryxia terebinthina, Lomatium triternatum, Dodecatheon conjugens, Balsamorhiza incana, and Oxytropis sericea.

Red Canyon

Balsamorhiza incana

Other species that we have collected vouchers for include Allium textile, Vicia americana, Erigeron sp., Lomatium foeniculaceum, Cerastium arvense, Astragalus oreganus, Townsendia incana, and Thermopsis rhombifolia.

We recently returned to all of the sites to check the progression of seed set.  Nothing is ready quite yet, but a few species are getting close.  We should be able to begin collecting next week.

Erigeron sp.

This past week marked the second week of my internship at the Bureau of Land Management’s Buffalo Field Office in the High Plains District. As I transitioned from formal training to field work, I got a chance to experience the landscape from which this district gets its name. Heading up Route 16 into the Bighorn Mountains, though private, state, and public land was truly a beautiful commute. Myself and our Rangeland Technician were headed to collect an old pile of barbed wire on BLM land. Perhaps this doesn’t sound like the most glamorous of tasks but this is just one piece of making our public lands beautiful, clean and accessible.

The Bighorn Mountains poking up behind the high plains.

Along the way to and from our site we were welcomed by one elk, five mule deer, and three moose, one male and two female. We saw this wildlife wading in wetlands and grazing in the same pastures as cattle, all taking their time grazing on the high plain grasses and shrubs. Traversing this landscape provided views of sprawling sage brush and grasslands on rolling hills with the impressive background of the snowy mountain tops. Looking into the distance at what I thought was more sage brush soon became clearer. A herd a sheep, hundreds, easily the largest I have ever seen.

Rolling the windows down to hear their greetings and say hello to the rancher herding them on an ATV, I felt shift in temperature at this altitude, noticeably cooler than in the valley. We spoke to this land owner about who we were, what we were doing here, as well as the BLM’s role and authorities on the land they manage, asking him about his own observations and suggestions.

While this half day in the field involved several hours of driving just to perform the simple task of picking up barbed wire, this experience gave me a much greater understanding of the land managed by the BLM in this area and the relationships present among humans and wildlife. Boundaries between land ownership seem clear on our maps and are important when it comes to the actions that the BLM takes. However, to the wildlife, good graze is good graze, and they’ll go wherever they can to find it.

– Buffalo Field Office, Bureau of Land Management

I took a hike after work to some beautiful waterfalls nearby and got to see so much Fallugia paradoxa!

My group and I during the CLM workshop scavenger hunt

My scavenger hunt team (myself, Lucas, and Claire) perusing our list for potential nearby plants

My first two weeks of work were mostly training, but it was valuable information sprinkled with some fun team building. At our BLM office in Carlsbad we worked together with the fire guys, the other interns, and some younger people in the office in a series of activities that required blindfolding and communication. At one point we had to send everyone through a type of “spider web” made of rope. That involved picking people up and sending them feet first to the other side, all without touching the rope! It was very difficult, but it definitely brought our office together. When I got to the CBG CLM training I immediately felt welcomed and appreciated by the awesome staff who perfectly organized the workshop for us with tons of useful information and even more amazing food during the week. I was taken aback by the kindness, sincerity, and authenticity of Krissa, Chris, Joanne, and the other members of the CLM team. Since these first weeks were full of job and safety training I had a lot of time and energy to explore both Carlsbad and Chicago after work. We have a few really nice parks in our area of New Mexico and I loved getting a relaxed introduction into the new landscape and flora. One of my favorite parts of the workshop in Chicago was Chris’ scavenger hunt around the Botanic Garden. We were all so jazzed for the opportunity to explore, and having a goal meant we were joyfully forced to become fast friends with our fellow interns. I feel so honored to be starting in this position and thankful in advance for all the things I’ve yet to learn!

There were bodies everywhere as we walked out into the sun. My partner and I made eye contact and walked over to the nearest patient, ready to follow the procedures we had just learned. One… is the area safe for us to operate. Two… what appears to be the Mechanism of Injury. Three… put on proper protective gear… By the time we finished our initial assessment of the scene, we were ready to address the simulated situation with calm, confidence and a supportive attitude.

I was extremely fortunate to start my internship with an intensive Wilderness Medicine training conducted by NOLS. After a week’s road trip out to my new position, I started Monday in Buffalo, WY at the BLM Field Office. I had hardly finished the initial tour of the place when a supervisor came up and asked how I would like to take the last open slot for a wilderness first aid course being offered a few hours away that a number of the office staff would be attending. I of course agreed and so began my week of training. The first two days at the office were filled with the basic safety training necessary to work for the BLM, especially driving and field pitfalls. When I was not in training sessions, I was at my computer, finishing the required online trainings on government policy and UTV prep. On Wednesday, several of the office headed out to Casper to begin the real deal: wilderness medicine training.

The three day session, lead by two extremely competent and supportive instructors, covered a remarkable number of topics. We learned how to assess the scene when arriving as one of the first responders, followed by the essential aspects of a patient assessment to ensure that airways, breathing and circulation were unimpaired. We became CPR certified and learned how to conduct head-to-toe patient exams, monitor vital signs, and collect important patient information to radio back to medical emergency establishments. Then came the lessons on evacuations, spine injuries, shock, head trauma, wound management, infection prevention and treatment, burns, blisters, splinting, musculoskeletal injuries, heat and cold illnesses, altitude sickness, lightning strikes, and more. Three days into the internship and while I may not have had any furniture in my apartment, I at  least had the knowledge to deal with a plethora of wilderness accidents.

The most important part of the training was definitely when these lessons were put into practice through simulations. The participants were divided into three groups, with each group respectively acting as patients that the other two groups would have to assess and treat. Even when frustrating, these were invaluable learning tools that really sought to take best field medical practices and make them muscle memory. After many hours spent either lying (as the patient) or kneeling (as the responder) in the sun, I felt much more prepared, in the case of a real emergency, to do my best for the patient in a calm, composed and professional manner.

As my first week ends, my training does not. While I do have further scheduled trainings on computer programs and UTV operation in the coming week, I don’t believe I will ever stop learning something new in this position, and am excited to see what the coming months bring.

Rec Intern, BLM, Buffalo WY

Moving 1400 miles from Northern California to Carlsbad, NM has brought both expected and wildly unexpected changes. While I had mentally prepared for the change in plant life and nearly unbearable heat, I have been caught off guard by the frequent evening thunderstorms, buffeting winds, overabundance of enormous trucks, and the unanticipated beauty of southeastern New Mexico.

Let’s Talk Plants

The majority of my botanical experience had been in Northern California until three weeks ago. The Carlsbad landscape was entirely foreign to me as I drove into town. Strange cacti, thorny shrubs, and countless forbs greeted me as I ventured into the field with my mentor and fellow interns. Our first day in the field was spent scouting a population of the special status species Linum allredii. While we did see flowering individuals of this rare plant (see below), we were also met with plants that had been grazed. Soon enough, we found hungry, hungry caterpillars munching away at the young buds and immature fruits of about 60% of the plants.

Linum allredii

Caterpillar munching on L. allredii

Our next day out, we surveyed a proposed project site for another special status species, Coryphantha robustispina ssp. scheeri. Scheer’s beehive cactus is an unassuming little plant, lying low to the ground with spines appearing to be neighboring grasses upon first sight.

Scheer’s beehive cactus

As I’m learning the plants in my new desert home, I am struck by how variable different individuals of the same species can look based on the resources it is provided. Driving through the lands managed by the BLM’s Carlsbad Field Office it may seem as if diversity is lacking, but upon closer inspection, the desert is full of variety. I’m learning brand new species, genera, and even families every day. I already feel more comfortable with the plants here after three weeks, but still have so far to go (especially with grasses).

Every Day is a Blustery One

I knew the weather in New Mexico would be very different from my California mountain home, but I did not expect the intense winds and sudden thunderstorms that I have been greeted with. Apparently summer is monsoon season in the desert southwest? Every evening this week has brought violent thunderstorms that pour rain and sometimes hail, have strong gusts of wind, and all the lightning and thunder you could ask for – while maintaining an outside temperature of approximately 85 degrees. It is yet to be determined if I will get sick of the storms – I have sat on my front porch and admired each one so far.

Even on the sunny days, with blue sky and intense heat, you can count on the wind to nearly blow your hat off at least once. It can make the heat more bearable, but also makes it very hard to collect plant specimens. However, my fellow Seeds of Success crew members and I have come up with a nearly perfect method for data recording and specimen collecting in our new desert environment and we continue to perfect it every day.

Final Thoughts

Although the transition to desert plants and desert heat has been a challenge so far, I’m beyond excited to explore New Mexico and all it has to offer. I can’t wait to meet more new, weird plants and animals and start collecting some seeds! I feel so grateful to have an enthusiastic mentor behind me and fellow plant nerds beside me. And hopefully the heat won’t kill me.

Brilliantly camouflaged horned toad

Beautiful views in the Guadalupe Mountains

Cheers,

Aly

SOS crew member, BLM Carlsbad Field Office

When I left Cleveland, I did not know what to expect. The only certainty was that I was about to drive over 1500 miles west to work as a range land monitoring intern at The Bureau of Land Management in Lander, Wyoming. Two weeks in, I can say that I still have a lot to learn but I am excited about the road ahead.

After five days of driving, and doing some exploring on the way, I reached my destination. Despite the weather, (it snowed most of my first week in town) this small mountain town in central Wyoming was very welcoming. The people are very friendly, the landscape is awe-inspiring, and there always seems to be this aura of tranquility all around.

Although I was not able to get out into the field much my first week, the wintry weather allowed me to settle in at the office. I became acquainted with many affable coworkers, and began to gain appreciation for the wide variety of intriguing work done in the BLM office. Wild land firefighting, work with wild horses, archaeology. It was eye-opening to see how all these different facets of conservation converge.

Most importantly, the scope of my range monitoring duties began to come into focus.  After two weeks on the job I still feel like I’m just getting my feet wet, but I have a firm grasp on what my duties will be as I ease into independence in the field. If I had to sum up my responsibilities in one word I guess it would be…cows? Counting the numbers of cows in a grazing allotment, looking at brands on cattle to derive their ownership, and making sure cows aren’t in areas they shouldn’t be. There’s also a fair amount of botany and other skills involved, but even then, these skills are used to monitor the grazing habits of cattle.

From a recent tour of the field, you can see the Sweetwater rocks off in the distance beneath the vast blue sky

The Lander field office is responsible for more land than I imagined. I, together with another intern, will be largely responsible for monitoring a sizable chunk of that. It’s intimidating, but after a couple tours of the vast countryside, I think I’m beginning to get a grip on how to navigate it. Other than off-road driving skills, and a few short lessons in monitoring techniques and plant ID, I have a lot to learn. I’m eager to progress and I look forward to reporting back when I’m fully immersed in my work!

I rode along to a meeting with a rancher to view the progress of a prescribed burn site and met the rancher’s 4 dogs

After a little over a month here, I’m slowly getting acclimated to the town and the expectations of the internship. Since last time, my co-intern and I have been scouting for seed collection areas, which have included different areas in Red Canyon and various trips outside of Lander, such as Tough Creek (north of Shoshoni) and along the Gas Hills Highway. So far, we have vouchers for roughly 15 collections that we hope will be ready soon. We welcome the outdoor time after a very precipitous beginning of the month!

We also had the opportunity to work with a botanist from the Nature Conservancy in the Red Canyon area, which included identifying plants and monitoring different types of seeding methods. Broad spread seeding applications and the presence or absence of furrowing were two of these methods. The two main species we worked with were Indian Rice Grass and a sage (Artemesia) species. It was incredible to be able to learn how to identify each of these plants from such a young age! They were roughly a centimeter or so tall (if we were lucky!) as we had our faces to the ground, scouring the plot to count each plant 🙂

Another exciting opportunity we had this past month was to be on an SOS (Seeds of Success) conference call that discussed the BLM Native Grass and Forb Seed Increase IDIQ Contract. Having only worked with seeds from the Midwest, I at first did not understand why this new “seed grow-out” idea was so exciting for Wyoming and those nearby. The seed grow-out involves BLM offices collecting a certain amount of seeds of a certain species and sending it out to a third party. This third party will then grow these seeds (and multiply them), and then field offices can buy these seeds back in bulk. From my limited experience, I couldn’t understand why the field offices would not just purchase seeds from a local/Wyoming native plant nursery. The fact is, there are no native plant nurseries that the field offices can buy in bulk from! So whenever these field offices must purchase seeds for seeding projects (such as for rehabilitation, reclamation, and restoration), the seeds are not able to come from the same ecoregion that they are being planted in, and therefore not truly native to the region and are not as successful as they could be. So this is really exciting! I’m hoping to be able to be on similar calls in the future and find out how this progresses!

If anyone ever asks if you want to go hang out with entomologists and botanists-don’t think twice, just answer “YES!!”.

That is exactly what myself and my CLM partner, Claire Parsons, did when our mentor proposed learning and working with USDA entomologists and Idaho renowned botanists for a week on a Research Natural Area (RNA). RNAs are preserved areas that represent a habitat and can be used for education, research, and monitoring purposes. The one we happily raced to was a low shrub upland salt desert shrub habitat within the Salmon-Challis National Forest and BLM land in Idaho.

At the heart of the RNA: Middle Canyon!

Our goal was to verify the RNA’s integrity, plant diversity, document baseline pollinator presence, and search for some lovely rare plant species. Claire and I, besides having the opportunity to botanize and learn from the coolest and most knowledgeable people, received direction on the Seeds of Success (SOS) process-one of our primary projects this summer. We found two populations, one of Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagitatta) and Shaggy Fleabane (Erigeron pumilus) that we can come back to during seed-set!

Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagitatta).

Within the first two days on the RNA we found three rare species: Spreading Gilia (Ipomopsis polycladon), Lost River Milkvetch (Astragalus amnis-amissi), and the super dainty Alkali Primrose (Primula alcalina). All signs that the RNA is a diverse and special place that should continue to be preserved. Finding the plants meant that official documentation was needed; Claire and I were able to exercise our GPS know-how and complete the official field-paperwork.

Alkali Primrose (Primula alcalina), how sweet!

Such an awesome group of scientists-watching the entomologists at work was super cool.

We also observed pollinator catching, drafted comprehensive species lists, and asked as many questions as we had all while hiking through canyons, along rivers and alluvial fans, and crunching across the desert shrub steppe.

The river (you can kind of see it going around a bend here) gave us a chance to cool our feet down mid-day!

Going up Middle Canyon, we choose to walk off the trail a bit and search out as many plants as possible.

The fun didn’t end either, after field work we would all head back to the field station nestled below the Lemhi mountain range. Claire and I pressed our plant specimens, ogled and peppered the entomologist as they ordered their tiny, winged specimens, keyed out plants we had collected in the field, then enjoyed dinner while laughing and conversing below the mountain peaks.

A sneak peak of all the pollinators doing good work out on the RNA.

Keying out some paintbrush (Castilleja angustifolia) with M.M.-the coolest botanists in Idaho.

It was so refreshing to be surrounded by professionals who loved botany and ‘talked’ botany; I couldn’t get enough of it. I made connections, became so much more familiar with the plants of the region, and feel super prepared to execute SOS work, bring it on!

Caribou-Targhee National Forest, ID

RFO off Bridger Pass Road

I have had the opportunity to work on a multitude of different projects over the past month and gain many new experiences. We continued to monitor Greater Sage-grouse leks into mid-may and I enjoyed getting to observe these birds unique behaviors. The week after leks we started on night call surveys for the Great Basin Spadefoot (Spea intermontanus) and the Plains Spadefoot (Spea bombifrons).  It was a bit of a challenge switching from waking up at 3:30 in the morning to monitor leks to staying up until 3:30 in the morning monitoring for toads but I am definitely glad for the experience.

Spadefoot toads prefer friable soils where they can easily burrow down using their cutting metatarsals or tubercles on their hind feet. They breed quickly after heavy rains and prefer ephemeral streams which can make them difficult to locate.The procedure for night call surveys starts just after dark. You begin on a predetermined route and stop every half mile to listen for calling amphibians. After three minutes of listening you record everything that you heard and take a bearing on the direction you heard the call. Later if you want to search for the source of the call you can follow the bearing and set out a recorder or do dip-net surveys. The first two nights that we went out we heard nothing calling at all. I believe this is because it was to cold outside for the amphibians to be breeding. The third time that we went out we heard a ton of Boreal Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris maculata) but unfortunately no spadefoots. It’s interesting being out in the field so late into the night as you notice things you would normally miss like the international space station, distant thunderstorms, or packs of calling coyotes.

Wyoming Traffic Jam

I have also had the opportunity to assist with monitoring Mountain Bluebirds (Sialia currucoides). The BLM maintains and monitors nest boxes for the bluebirds mostly around the Sinclair area. Most of the boxes were originally placed by a worker at the Sinclair oil refinery but when he could no longer take care of them he asked the BLM to step in and we did. Since then we have added more boxes throughout the field office and there are plans for additional ones to be added. Mountain bluebirds naturally nest in tree cavities created by woodpeckers so in areas such as the RFO where trees are scarce the nest boxes help to maintain their populations. When we go out to check the boxes we look for male and female birds hanging around the nest, check to see if the nest inside is actually bluebird or a different species, and count the number of eggs or hatchlings inside. Bluebird eggs are usually a light blue but we have one nest where the bluebirds eggs were white which is a relatively rare phenomenon and fun to see.

Female Mountain Bluebird Sitting on Her Nest

I have spent a few days out in the field helping survey raptor nests. When you find the raptor nest the goal is to determine first if it is still active and the species that is using it, then to monitor for chicks. We have some artificial structure that we have placed to keep raptors from nesting on power lines or on the tanks at well sites, but we monitor natural nests sites as well. One thing that we are hoping to learn more about is if the placement of artificial structures is deterring raptors from building natural nests and how big of an impact these have on their behavior.

Greater Short-horned Lizard

I also had the opportunity to go on an onsite a couple weeks ago for some proposed gas wells down in the chain lakes region of our field office. It was definitely an informative experience and I am glad I got to learn more about how the BLM works with oil and gas companies to maintain both their and our goals. While there are definitely difference on both side of the issues everyone was willing to work towards a satisfying compromise. I also caught my first herp of the season, a Greater Short-horned Lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi), while walking one of the proposed roads. The only other herp we’ve caught so far was a bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) that was sunning himself on the road. These are interesting snakes that will mimic rattlesnakes in an attempt to frighten off predators. One way they do this is by vibrating their tail back and forth and making a hissing noise meant to sound like that of a rattle. Hopefully we will start hearing and catching more amphibians and reptiles in the coming weeks as it starts to get warmer. We placed some cover board up near Ferris Mountain and I am looking forward to see if we will find anything there. Until nest time.

Bullsnake

-Keri – BLM – RFO

This was my first week as a seeds of success intern at the BLM office in Rawlins Wyoming. It was a rainy week, but a good one none the less. I’ve learned a lot about what I’ll be doing this summer and did a lot of preparation for a busy field season.

I do not have a strong background in botany, so when I came out here I didn’t know any of the native plants in the area. Therefore, learning the local plants has been both a challenge and an incredible opportunity for learning and personal growth. One of the most helpful tools for learning about the local plants has been the office herbarium.

For those of you who don’t know an herbarium is a carefully organized and verified collection of pressed plants. Unlike dichotomous keys or guidebooks an herbarium allows one to learn about plants simply by looking at real pressed plant specimens collected from a variety of different locations over many different years. It is the simplest way to learn plants and, in my opinion, the next best thing to seeing plants in the field.

In combination with personal instruction, guidebooks and online resources the herbarium has helped me to learn more about the native plants in the area; a process that I believe will be one of the most rewarding parts of my internship experience. Furthermore, adding voucher specimens to both the local herbarium as well as the rocky mountain herbarium, and the Smithsonian herbarium is exciting. I not only have the opportunity to utilize this powerful resource I will also add to it and help future researchers to learn about and identify plants. I believe that using and adding to the herbarium will be an incredibly meaningful experiences of this internship.

Don’t worry I didn’t spend my whole first couple of weeks here in Rawlins sitting inside in the herbarium. I also had the opportunity to go to the field and see some of the beautiful landscapes, plants and animals in the area. Here are some pictures from this past week:

Above is a picture of a Lomatium sp. Likely L. foeniculaceum, that I saw an an overlook of the Seminoe reservoir in Sinclair, WY.

An orange Indian paintbrush (the Wyoming state flower), also at an overlook of the Seminoe reservoir in Sinclair, WY.

A view in the Medicine bow park near Arlington, WY.

Thanks reading! Until next time!