Finishing Up Monitoring: Trout Creek Mountains

The time was 4:00am and everything was quiet at the Fields, Oregon Research Station. I stared up at the ceiling, reminiscing on all the good and bad times this field season in the Trout Creek Mountains have brought our group. Dan and I, with the help of the living legend known as Randy, have encountered many obstacles and experienced many great adventures in the last leg of our journey.

Flat tires, rugged terrain, rain storms, rattlesnakes, and those pesky red and black ants were no match to our enthusiasm of working in the field. If we encountered a bad event such as a rain storm or a flat tire, we would laugh it off and work together to get everything done. Dan and I would always motivate ourselves thinking what would the BLM Legends do in this situation? Usually Randy’s response would be an “Oh God…” while rolling his eyes. Seriously, we all had a tough time out here and you would have to have a very good sense of humor to cope with the harsh conditions.

Everyday we would pack to deal with hot weather. We would always do a series of checks to make sure everything was sturdy and not forgotten. (It would be a pain in the butt to travel forty-five miles to a trend site and then find out you forgot the rulers…<_<) Dan and I would take turns driving the UTV over many types of rugged terrain. I prefer to drive through shallow rivers, while Dan likes to drive through basaltic rock fields.

Our final day would be in the Maggie Creek Pasture, which would be located on the Oregon and Nevada border. I got up after fifteen minutes of reminiscing and prepared for the field day. We would drive through the darkness in the morning and follow our JUNO GPS device to the potential random sampling sites we would have to monitor. Once we got to an individual site, we would set up a three by three foot plot and record all the species of plants located within the small site. I would photograph the cardinal directions to help the ES&R monitoring report show that we were there and this was what the site looks like. The random sampling plots were established by an algorithm in the ArcGIS to help find areas to monitor plant species. If we found at least two perennial grasses and a forb, the site would be considered in good condition and was recovering from the previous fire. (Usually these random sites would be on a smooth slope under a 35 degree angle and away from water sources. Unfortunately, these sites would be surrounded by sharp cliffs or near running water.) Sometimes we would work up to twelve hours a day or more. (I am sorry Krissa and Wes! I swear I will use those comp hours. ^_^;;) After a hard day in the field, we returned to a nice low pressure shower and a good helping of ramen noodles. That evening there was a fire in our area and our field station was filled to the brim with rangeland firefighters! O_o We even witnessed a helicopter land in our backyard! Overall, Dan, Randy, and I would pack and prepare for tomorrow despite all the very cool distractions that happened at our field station that evening.

By the end of the monitoring season in the Trout Creek Mountains, we must have traveled close to three to four hundred miles of land on our UTV. We monitored close to twenty five trend sites and over ninety random sampling sites. We were covered with dust, but we would be always ready for future data entry. This last day, Dan and I treated ourselves to a BRB milkshake near the Fields Station before heading back to our BLM office.

We sort of miss the adventure and the excitement of the Trout Creek Mountains, but it is time to move on and finish our job. We had Desert Meadows, Lamb Ranch and the Miller Homestead Fires that we would have to monitor. After monitoring and data entry, we would start writing our ES & R reports.

Lamb Ranch: The Brave and the Bold

Dan and I finished our last field monitoring experience at the Lamb Ranch site. Lamb Ranch was considered a small fire that occurred a couple of years ago. A lot of attention had been invested in this pasture due to one main reason…Medusahead (Bum BUM Baaaaaaaa). You thought cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) was bad, medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae) would be considered the kaiju of all invasive grasses in our area. This type of grass would spread rapidly and grow within a field. Overtime, this grass would form a dense mat of litter that would be considered fantastic fuel for fires. Other forbs and perennial grasses would have a difficult time growing with this sort of grass. In the past, land managers had to pull out the big guns by using Plateau, a form of herbicide that would be used to fight the medusahead. The treatment was considered successful in the past…but did it really eliminate the medusahead from the area??

We drove along the rough back country roads of the Stinkingwater Allotment. If you were to drive through this area, it would be considered a roller coaster ride…that goes five miles an hour. The severe bumps, sudden turns, and the occasional Great Pyrenees in the middle of the road made the ride seem very harsh. It is not for the faint of heart! You may be asking yourself, “Justin, why are you even going through this?” My answer would be, “Well…because it is my job!” 😉

We had two BLM Legends with us to help assess the landscape. Bill and Randy had previously been to this location and directed us to where we should establish the plot. I got out of the truck and landed on the ground with a crunch. I looked down to assess what I landed on and noticed the type of grass that was crushed….it was medusahead. I looked to my left and right to see any sort of forb, but all I saw was the invasive grass. I lifted my head and saw that a majority of the landscape was covered with a dense mat of medusahead. The areas that were heavily treated with Plateau had a large amount of crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) growing up. I sighed and looked to the other intern Dan, who was shaking his head with frustration. Bill told us the history of the pasture and how this area had many fires in the past. The medusahead quickly took over the majority of the crested wheatgrass seedings and created an upslope battle for the local land managers. We established our plot and began to monitor the area…

Dan and I never encountered so much medusahead and litter before, but we wanted accurate readings. We wanted to know if there were perennial forbs under the litter or if we got a direct hit on a special plant. We managed to find a few perennial forbs, but they were struggling. This trend site took me a very long time to monitor, because I would have to kneel on the ground and look past the medusahead for other forbs and grasses. This place could’ve had rattlesnakes as well buried within some of the rocky areas surrounded by medusahead, so we had to be on the lookout. Only the brave and the bold CLM interns were up to the challenge of monitoring this last trend site.

Overall, the site had a ridiculous amount of litter formed by medusahead from this year and previous years. There was Wyoming sagebrush (A. tridentata subsp. Wyomingensis), Lomatium spp., Sandberg bluegrass (Poa secunda), crested bluebunch grass (Pseudoroegneria spicata), and Long Leaf Phlox (Phlox longifolia) present, but they were struggling. I saw a group of wild horses looking through the area for potential meals, but they did not look too happy… (Probably due to the fact that we were monitoring near their favorite juniper tree) I do have hope for this site. Even with the large amounts of medusahead, there were still good perennial plants trying to grow. If the land managers were to work together with the private land owners to get rid of the medusahead, the future would look bright. For now…the medusahead was here to stay…

Burns, Oregon is Burning!?
After a long day of traveling to John Day Fossil Beds, I fell over on my bed and prepared to look over some of the reports Dan and I were supposed to do next week. We finished all of the data entry, developed our ES & R folders, and completed all of our field work, which was an amazing feat to do. We had to incorporate all of our data into seven main reports. I fell asleep during my assessment of the reports and slept for two hours…^///^

When I woke up to continue to look at the report structure, I noticed something was very off about my room… I looked at the sunlight and it was a faded gold color. Usually around 5:00pm the sunlight was still bright. I walked into the kitchen to make an early dinner and I saw what was partially blocking the sunlight. On the hillside of Burns/Hines, Oregon, a large column of smoke was rising. A wildfire broke out!

I saw many airplanes and helicopters assessing the area as the hillside was burning. I quickly traveled to Dan’s house to see if he knew what was going on. He contacted Randy and found out that someone accidently started the fire at the shooting range. The rumors were that the object that caused the fire could’ve been a small explosive ordinance or a magnesium tracer bullet (Well…you know the nature of rumors) . I traveled up the hillside far away from the fire to get a better vantage point. I zoomed onto the site with my camera and got some good pictures of the helicopters and aircraft above the area.

Since Burns, Oregon is considered a major dispatch for firefighters in our district, the fire did not last a chance. Many firefighters were on the scene and extinguished the fire. The fire burned for a couple of hours before it was smothered by water from the helicopters. Thankfully the fire did not spread down the slope to our town. The experience of seeing firefighters take care of this fire was something I will never forget. Even though this was a smaller wildfire, having one so close to town was crazy. At least we don’t have to worry about cheatgrass in the area for a while! ^_^;;

Misadventures

Bromus tectorum All Out Attacks: The Return of the Revenge

You probably heard of the annual plant known as Bromus tectorum: Cheatgrass. (Dramatic organ music momentarily playing in the background.) This grass has been a large problem for many interns and natural area managers. During a fire, this grass was a good source of fuel. This grass ignites when exposed to an extremely hot source such as a vehicle or a lightening bolt. If a fire was too severe, this grass would totally dominant the landscape the following year creating a monoculture of cheatgrass prone to more fires. The most irritating part about this grass were the seeds. Many times I would have to go through a field of cheatgrass. Eventually, my socks and shoes would be covered with seeds. These seeds could stick into your feet and ruin your socks.  The major issue was the transfer of seeds. I always had to clean the seeds off my shoes and socks, so they would not be transferred to a higher diversity site that did not have cheatgrass to begin with.

Thunderstorms All Over the Freakin’ Place!
Recently, there had been a large number of thunderstorms that entered the Burns, Oregon. These storms were very severe and caused numerous fires in our area. I noticed that there were two types of thunderstorms.

The first type of thunderstorm would be the slowly paced storm. Sometimes I would see a very menacing storm out in the field or at home, so I would quickly get all of my work done before the storm would hit. These storms would take forever to come. Instead of the five minute wait like in Chicago, the storm would take two hours to get to my present location. One time I was walking home and it started to rain out from the approaching thunderstorm. I walked quickly and found out the rain suddenly stopped. I turned around and saw the edge of the rainstorm slowly creep at me from down the street. I could actually out walk the storm and rain!

The other kind of storm would be the windstorm. This type of thunderstorm would produce very high winds and lightening. A couple of them rolled into town this year. They would produce duststorms with hail! So if you were caught in this storm…well run to a store or your car because getting dust in your eyes and getting hailed on would not be cool.

John Day Fossil Beds and Blue Basin

I was about to go rock hounding in the Lakeview District, but after my previous flat tire incident while looking for sunstones made me nervous about the idea. While thinking the situation through, I decided to head northwards into the ponderosa pine forests of Oregon. When I was a kid, my parents took me to a place called John Day Fossil Beds, which was located an hour and a half away from Burns, Oregon. This place was amazing and helped me learn more about the Cenozoic Era when I was younger. I packed my lunch and left very early to go bird watching on my way to John Day Fossil Beds. Unfortunately, the white headed woodpecker still eludes me…

I finally got to John Day Fossil Beds. The topography and the rock formations were outstanding!!! After seeing almost four months of basalt, the sedimentary layers were welcoming to the eyes. There was a place near the visitor’s center called Blue Basin, where I took a small hike. This place looked very similar to Badlands National Park, but everything was a bluish-green color. Overtime, the deposited volcanic ash slowly turned into claystone. The blue color comes from the minerals that were leached into the claystone. With extensive erosion of the soft rock over a long period of time, the Blue Basin was formed. Blue Basin was an amazing site to see in terms of flora and rocks. There were many other locations in the national monument, but I had to return home. If you were into geologic time and enjoy taking pictures, John Day Fossil Beds and Blue Basin would be the place to go for an afternoon of adventure.

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