Idaho is very dry. By now, you’ve probably heard that a couple of Idaho cities, including Featherville, are being evacuated. The fire is so large and its so dry that the fire may continue to burn until a large rainfall or snowfall. It seems all of Idaho is dealing with the lack of precipitation, and the plants are no exception. They produce flowers, and then decide that it would take too much energy to produce seeds. Plants are smarter than people realize. Unfortunately, there is a paltry amount of seeding plants this year, so I have been working in the office.

I spent most of the last month working on a article of new and interesting lichens to Florida. Roger Rosentreter, my supervisor and coauthor, has been working with me through numerous drafts to perfect the paper. This paper will hopefully help in my applications to graduate school later this fall.

The digitization of the lichen collection has continued. The three students are making good progress and are about 1/4th of the way through. Its incredible how many mixed collections there. I have been separating many collections into “A” and “B” catergories. This will help generate more knowledge of lichen ecology and historical records.

Last week, I attended the ESA conference in Portland, Oregon. It was incredible how many scientists were there and how much knowledge was being disseminated and networking was going on. It was a bit overwhelming as my first ESA meeting, but I met many interested researchers and made new friends. It was especially nice to meet graduate students in lichenology.

Barry Kaminsky

BLM, Idaho State Office