Due to the government shutdown our team here in Colorado was unable to get to some of our final seed collection sites.  Depending on how the remainder of October progresses we might get back out to collect one more time, but it seem unlikely.  With plenty of work in the office I will stay busy for the rest of the time I have as a CLM intern.

October is quickly flying by as the seasons change as well as the priorities from seed collecting and rare plant monitoring outside to preparing vouchers and reviewing data from the monitoring season that just finished up.  As well as the normal seeds of success projects and the monitoring data I have been given the opportunity to pursue a project pertaining to some of the mysteries that surround Phacelia formosula.  The mystery I am trying to demystify is the presence of a seed bank and its size.  All of the study locations around the monitoring plots that we monitored this past summer to hopefully somehow link our monitoring data to the population size data.

Our Seeds of Success team went to the local chapter of the Native Plants Society back at the end of September where we had the opportunity to hear Dr. Weber give a short speech.  The rest of the event was very interesting also as the organizer gradually progress through all of the current state level rare/endangered species and updates were given on sightings for the year and any other pertinent data for a certain species.

With winter coming, snow will soon be here. That is something I am very excited about. Not just the mere presence of snow, but the amount that falls here in Colorado is one of the most exciting parts of the season for me and I am looking forward to it.

Nathan Redecker

Lakewood, CO

BLM Colorado State Office