I rolled in to Rawlins a couple of days before my official start date just to get settled in. It was approximately an 18 hour drive from my sweet Wisconsin homeland to the steppe ecosystem of Rawlins, Wyoming. I was welcomed with a blizzard the Sunday before my first day of work and decided to explore the town in my boots and winter coat. The town folk are generally pretty friendly, the town itself pretty small and the area pretty treeless.  But it is from here that I will begin my adventures with the Bureau of Land Management.
Our main project is focused on collecting the voucher specimen and later the seeds of 22 species and 3 genuses of local native plants within the BLM-Rawlins District. The seed collections are for the Seeds of Success Program which has the goal of collecting, conserving, and developing native plant materials for stabilizing, rehabilitating and restoring lands in the United States. Some of these seeds will be used for research such as germination trials, common garden studies, and protocol establishment while additional seed from each collection will be held in long-term storage facilities for conservation.
So far my time has been spent learning to identify the species on our collection list and getting familiar with the areas where they are found. This of course has meant a lot of driving time and a significant amount of hours on the computer. Two species on our list which are in bloom right now are Lomatium foeniculaceum and Cymopterus bulbosus which are both in the family Apiaceae. We collected voucher specimen for three different populations of the Lomatium and one of the Cymopterus. The Lomatium is starting to go into seed and we will have to return soon to begin our seed collections. Many of the areas where we are doing our collections are in natural gas fields, so I have been learning my fair share about the dynamics of conservation in the land of oil, gas and coal. I have also been given a crash course in operating a trimble GPS and navigating ArcGIS, which I sincerely appreciate.

The best part of being out here so far has to be the amount of wildlife that range the area. We have seen pronghorn antelope, elk, mule deer, bald eagles, western grebes and pelicans. My favorite, however, are the prairie dogs since learning about their complex communities, language and role in maintaining the ecosystem. The wildflowers are beautiful as well with Indian Paintbrush, Shooting Star, Evening Primrose and Blue Bells in full bloom. I look forward to seeing some wolves, cougars and badgers yet and maybe some areas with a few more trees.

Used by Native Americans in ovulation inhibition