October was a different month at the BLM in Arcata, CA. The first two weeks were blacked out by the government shutdown, but after that I was able to fall right back into work when everything resumed. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I undertook a new project for the last few weeks of my internship: the herbarium. I spent many office days reorganizing our office’s herbarium so we can join the UC Jepson Consortium of California Herbaria.

The consortium is run out of UC Berkeley’s Jepson Herbarium, and is a large database of California Herbaria that is searchable to the entire world. You can visit our herbarium and the database via this link: <http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/participants.html> Check it out! Some of our specimens are georeferenced and all are available to scientists who need to borrow the specimens for research. To participate in the consortium, I had to register with the Index Herbariorum at the NY Botanical Garden where we were assigned the herbarium code of BLMAR. From there I had to update all the taxonomic nomenclature of our specimens to the most current names and reformat our excel database to fit the requirements of the Consortium. Moreover, many specimens were mislabeled, misnumbered or misplaced, so I went through all the specimens one-by-one to assure that they were correct and in harmony with our database. While our herbarium is by far the smallest in the consortium, we have many specimens collected from areas that very few other people visit. Many of these could potentially be of interest to researchers due to their unlikely collection locations or phonological traits. This project was a productive learning experience for me. The newest taxonomic changes to plants in California were published in the latest Jepson Manual of Vascular Plants of California (2013). Since many of the new splits of families and genera were new this year and some very drastic, I learned the new families and genera as they are recognized in California.

While I was working on the herbarium project, I mixed my office time in with a variety of field work. I helped our fuels specialist clear some fire line around a restored prairie that he is hoping to burn in the coming weeks. I really enjoy physical labor, especially when it is a means to a foreseeable end, such as a prescribed burn. I helped our fisheries biologist by collecting temperature gauges from Lacks Creek before the high winter flows come. I worked with a group of our resource staff to conduct a wilderness assessment of the Elkhorn Ridge Wilderness in Mendocino County. That involved visiting six different sites within the wilderness and assess each for its ecological function, and where it might be lacking.

This will be my final blog entry for my CLM internship. It has been an amazing experience, I am lucky to have ended up in Arcata, as the only intern on the pacific coast (I think). But just like every intern, I got to work in some incredible places doing amazing work. I got to know the area better than most who live here and met many great friends. I gained a great variety of valuable skills that I will undoubtedly be able to apply to the workplace in the future. I can’t wait jump back into it! Thank you CBG.

I apologize for not posting photos this time… I am having trouble with the photo uploader. But trust me, the fall colors and the beaches of Humboldt county are beautiful right now!