The past few weeks have flown by here at the Lewistown BLM office. I am starting to get to know the Big Sky country out here in the center of Montana with its flat rangeland flanked by the welcoming contrast of island mountain ranges. The forever-stretching grasslands are a new concept to me coming from the east where everything is close together or at least densely forested. Distance is measured in relation to large landmarks (mountains) and time is mostly forgotten as I cruise along the gently rolling plains. Often I will be driving for miles before I pass another vehicle and we exchange a wave in remembrance of civilization.

The past few weeks have flown by here at the Lewistown BLM office. I am starting to get to know the Big Sky country out here in the center of Montana with its flat rangeland flanked by the welcoming contrast of island mountain ranges. The forever-stretching grasslands are a new concept to me coming from the east where everything is close together or at least densely forested. Distance is measured in relation to large landmarks (mountains) and time is mostly forgotten as I cruise along the gently rolling plains. Often I will be driving for miles before I pass another vehicle and we exchange a wave in remembrance of civilization.

So far I have done a little bit of everything. Not having an actual botanist in the office has put a little pressure on me to use what resources I can to get to know the plants here. I still am an amateur in the field of botany, but I hope to become a little less so after the 6 months of this internship. With the help from the range specialists who understand the grasses and forbs in relation to grazing, including invasives and noxious weeds that are the on the list to be controlled/eliminated, I am gaining an understanding of the vegetation here. I am using my excursions into the field to not only assist and learn from the wildlife biologists, but to become acquainted with as many plants as I can fit in my mind.

Working with the wildlife biologists has been wonderful. I am not only learning the names of the animals out here, but I have had a chance to learn some animal behavior and monitoring techniques. One of the wildlife biologists and I monitored known raptor nests to look for signs of activity. A dead raptor had been observed at one of the nests the previous year and looking through our binoculars, we thought we may have seen her, or what remained of her. We questioned whether the body would have been preserved for so long and as we got closer it appeared as though her eye was dipping lower into the nest. We realized she was alive, lying as flat as possible on her eggs so as not to be noticed. She was a ferruginous hawk, the largest of the hawks and I was overjoyed at witnessing my first raptor nest especially one of which we were not expecting to be active.

I am learning the importance of sagebrush here on the range. I have heard a lot of talk about it and now I get to see what the big deal is all about. The most common here, Wyoming Big Sagebrush, Artemisia tridentate ssp. wyomingensis, is scattered throughout the grassland; its sweet and spicy fragrance get stirred up lingers on my clothes whenever I walk through it. Several species of wildlife are sagebrush obligates, which means their survival depends on an abundance of sagebrush. These include greater sage-grouse, Gunnison sage-grouse, sage sparrow, Brewer’s sparrow, sage thrasher, pygmy rabbit, sagebrush vole, sagebrush lizard, and pronghorn. Knowing so many species depend on this one plant is a scary thought, but it also makes me feel good about the seed collecting that I’ll be doing.

Some silver sagebrush, Artemisia cana

I’ve also learned from a couple ranchers that sagebrush is not one of their favorites. Some talk about burning their fields (sagebrush) to make room for more palatable grasses for their cattle, which is understandable from their point of view, but not good in the long run. Silver sagebrush, Artemisia cana, luckily is a species that is capable of resprouting after a fire, which is great because fire, whether man made or not, is common around here. Speaking of which, another one of my projects is surveying Goshawks in an area that is prescribed to be burned next year.

Wildfire in the distance

I am realizing now that I have been learning a lot and one blog post is not enough to share it all; I will save some for later and besides I still have so much more to learn. So far I love that I am getting to know plants, not only to identify them, but their importance in relation to wildlife, ranchers, and fire, all of which are key components in making central Montana what it is.

Some pictures for your enjoyment:

Horned lizard!

Sparrow nest

Wild rose

The rugged landscape of the Musselshell river breaks