Hello, my name is Charity Deatherage and I’m in southern Oregon working on the Seeds of Success program at the Medford BLM.  I’ve actually only worked two days so far, but the days have been filled with educational botanical experiences!  I’m from the Willamette Valley (a few hours north), so many of the plants are familiar, but I’m enjoying the diversity here and I’m learning to recognize the many plants that are native to southern Oregon.  It’s also great that this region still has a lot of its native landscape relatively intact, compared to Willamette Valley prairies, which occupy less than 1% of their historic area.

I’m including a sample of the journal I intend to keep while I’m working at this internship.  Edward Abbey kept a journal when he worked as a park ranger which eventually became Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness.  I’m going to follow in his venerable footsteps and keep a journal during my four-month season in southern Oregon.

Wednesday, June 16

We had a day of orientation.  Doug, our mentor, showed us around the office and introduced us to BLM employees for the first half of the day, and after lunch we went out into the field.  We went to a few sites near Table Rock, and Doug pointed out plants from which he’d like us to collect seed.  These included Madia, Clarkia, Agoseris grandiflora, Eriophyllum lanatum, Ceanothus, Danthonia californica, Festuca californicum, and Elymus glaucus.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Amy, my partner, and I went out on our own today.  Doug sent us to Antelope Road, where we were supposed to find BLM land to explore.  Although we drove to the end of Antelope Road, we were not able to discern any public lands or any of the natural surface roads that should have branched off of the main road, according to the map.  There were many “No trespassing” signs, fenced lands, and gates on any roads we could see.  We did brush up on our taxonomic skills and were proud when we could key plants out to species, even if they were non-natives or weeds.  I couldn’t remember even the common name of Centaurea cyanus, and hadn’t tried to key out anything from Asteraceae in quite a while, so that was a good refresher.  We also did our best to identify a few grasses; Amy recognized California fescue and I tried to key an Elymus species which we brought back to look at under the microscope tomorrow.  We did note the location of a large population of Clarkia, as well as Castilleja (hispida?), Eriophyllum lanatum, and what we believe is Cryptantha intermedia.  From now on, I will be bringing my camera!