Greetings from the Taiga Biome! Here in the Central Tanana Valley, the snow is just beginning to melt, and under it, much of the soil will remain in permafrost. Aside from evergreen needles of the white spruce (Picea glauca), green flora of any kind has yet to make an appearance. Indeed, in contrast to the experience of many other CLM Interns, my field season has yet to begin at the Eastern Interior Field Office (EIFO) of The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Fairbanks, AK.
I have spent much of my first week here at the EIFO on orientation, training, and meeting all of my wonderful, colorful coworkers. I will be taking courses in aviation, bear, firearm, and ATV safety, as well as extensive online courses in various GIS applications. Beyond their obvious relevance to my work here with the BLM EIFO, these courses will no doubt prove invaluable in advancing my career in the natural sciences, and I am very grateful for these opportunities.
When the explosion of chlorophyll does finally arrive, ushered in by up to 24 hours of continuous sunlight, we will find ourselves incredibly busy; attempting to cram a year’s worth of field work into an approximately three month window. The focus of my work will be invasive plant management. I will monitor and inventory invasive plant populations, take voucher specimens, and coordinate removal efforts. White sweet clover (Melilotus alba), perennial sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis), and bird vetch (Vicia cracca) are some of our serious invasive concerns in the EIFO management area. Possibly the single aspect of this internship that I am most excited about is the opportunity to work with the fantastic herbarium collection at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in identifying and cataloguing specimens. The most exciting aspect, that is, besides getting to fly in helicopters and floatplanes 🙂
By most measures, Alaska lags behind the lower 48 in levels of non-native plant invasion. Therefore, invasive plant management is especially pertinent here and now in Central Alaska, as it is often significantly more feasible to prevent large scale infestation by exotics than it is to eradicate such populations once they are established. I can hardly wait to begin!