Hello again!
In case you were wondering, our SOS team here in Lakeview, Oregon has had much more success since my previous post. So far we have about twelve seed collections either completed or in progress and we haven’t had any more cows eating our plant populations. The first part of my internship has been focused on collecting forbs, but now we finally get to start collecting grasses! This past Thursday we made a collection of Achnatherum thurburianum (Thurber’s needlegrass) and next week we plan on collecting Festuca idahoensis (Idaho Fescue). No need to crawl from plant to plant when you can walk by and easily grab a spikelet; it’s the seed collector’s version of a cakewalk.

As for the weekends, I have traveled quite a bit! I got to check Crater Lake National Park off the bucket list along with going to the redwood forest in Crescent City, California and bopping around towns like Cave Junction and Bend, Oregon. I’m so thankful that I work in a place where I’m only a few hours from such great stuff! I’m getting much better at camping and I am continually amazed at how gorgeous this part of the country really is. That’s all I have to say for now and I’ll let you all know how I handle temperatures as they finally approach 100 degrees.