Entering my last month of work in Roseburg, Oregon, I feel like I finally have a moment to breathe!  The last few months have been hectic with population monitoring and seed collection, with my fellow intern and I attempting to maintain the balance of collecting seeds too early and risking that they’re not viable, and waiting too long and missing them completely.  It’s a much more complicated task than we ever imagined!  Now, however, with nearly three months of sunny skies and no rain, many of our targeted species populations have finished seeding, and we’re left with a lot of brown grass!  Amazingly, however, we’ve managed to identify a few lone native species hanging on throughout the hot summer, waiting until now to bloom.  Neither of us can believe that we can still go anywhere in the Roseburg district and still manage to find something worthy of collecting -I feel very thankful to be here!

Liz Thompson

Roseburg, OR BLM