Hi friends,

We just finished our last Nested Frequency Trend plot last week completing a total of 22 plots. There was a 23rd plot for us to monitor but the plot ended up in the middle of the Preacher Fire, a wildfire to the east of Shoshone burning about 34,000 acres, which is considered large for this field office. A few days after the fire was contained Avery and I went out to see what it looked like. I could not believe my eyes, it looked like we were on a different planet. The fire burnt every living plant out there, not leaving a single stump behind. I guess the conditions were just right, low moisture content in the shrubs root system and a very hot burning fire. Due to the wildfire, this allotment cannot be grazed for another 3 years. A new seeding plan will be created for the burned area and hopefully some of the seed we collected this season will be used.

Fire season is in full swing in southern Idaho. The conditions are perfect; temperatures in the high 90s, heavy winds, lightning strikes, and dry climate. There have been 5 wildfires in the last month burning a total of 44,000 acres. The fire crews have been busy and doing a great job containing the fires and minimizing losses.

Preach Fire, right off the highway.
Photo taken from Google

What is left after Preacher Fire.
Photo taken from Google.

Aside from conducting vegetation surveys, our latest task has been conducting bat surveys! I had no experience caving or identifying bats so I was excited and ready for a new challenge. There are 100s of lava tubes in the field office…A little background on Idaho geology:

Southern Idaho has a unique landscape covered with lava flows, cinder cones, and lava tubes. Crater’s of the Moon National Monument was created from lava that erupted from the Great Rift, a series of deep, open cracks, eruptive fissures, shield volcanoes, and cinder cones. This area is still erupting, in 1983 a 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurred rising the highest point in Idaho (Borah peak 12,667 FT) a foot. This earthquake, instead of creating mountain ranges has triggered volcanic activity. Southern Idaho is full of hot springs because the earth’s crust is stretched and thinner than normal in the Snake River Plane and the Great Basin, allowing heat from the earth to be concentrated near the surface.

Craters of the Moon
Photo taken from Google

Lava flows!
Photo taken from Google

Back to bat surveys. I’ve only gone out once so far and went in around 10 caves. We saw Great Horned Owls, a rattle snake, and one maternity colony of Townsend’s Big Eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii). This colony was found and recorded last week but I wanted to see a bat SO bad that we went back so I could take a photo.

Corynorhinus townsendii

Cheers!
Alexi