Playing in the Dirt Again: Colorado

This is my second field season here working for the State Botanist at the Colorado State Office. Having the opportunity to continue working for the BLM has been fantastic. I was able to behold the beauty of spring and truly appreciate this ephemeral month. It’s just the beginning of July and its starting to feel like summer is here to stay. The poppies (Argemone sp.), columbines (Aquilegia sp.), and cacti are flowering. The bees and butterflies have dutifully taken on the task of flying to as many faraway places that their little wings can take them to pollinate whatever is in sight.

The past couple of months have been quite busy with monitoring Astragalus debequaeus, scouting new public parks and BLM lands, making collections, and planning future trips to monitor other rare, threatened, endangered, sensitive, or species of concern flora populations.

Finally, the new CLM interns in our office have started, Nathan and Katherine, which is very exciting. We have the great opportunity to check out a few of the many beautiful BLM sites here in Colorado and capture some scenic views that are true to the state welcoming sign “Colorful Colorado.” We have already started making some great collections and there are many others to be found. In the upcoming weeks, we will begin helping with environmental education trips with the State Office’s Fisheries Biologist, Jay Thompson.

Like all great CLM interns would say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” (So, here are 6,000 words)