Well, I suppose I’m a little late on the blog for July but I got priorities and let’s be real, is anyone reading this? For those of you still feigning interest I will now list off the collections we have done since my last blog: Hesperostipa comata, Elymus elymoides, Artemisia arbuscula, Poa secunda, Atriplex gardneri, 2 Purshia tridentata, Oenothera pallida var. Trichocalyx, Achnatherum hymenoides, Eriogonum ovalifolium, Eriogonum umbellatum, Pseudoroegneria spicata, Psoralidium lanceolatum, Sporobolis airoides and we have started a Geranium richardsonii collection. So, needless to say we have been super-duper busy especially when some species’ seeds need to be counted one-by-one such as our antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) and the lemon scurfpea (Psoralidium lanceolatum). I hope you enjoyed my list. We are up to 18 collections now and are getting close to our goal of 25.
We did find time for one other project helping our fisheries biologist break up some beaver dams on one of the tributaries to the famed Muddy Creek, an area of conservation importance in part due to the concurrence of 4 native fish species endemic to the Colorado river basin: Colorado River cutthroat, bluehead sucker, flannelmouth sucker, and roundtail chub. This area is highly affected by coal bed and natural gas development both of which use large amounts of water which then becomes polluted and must be disposed of. Second to the threat of energy development is the threat of invasive species which prey upon and hybridize with our native species. It was a welcome break from seed collecting to grab a Pulaski and slap on some waders and just raise some hell for the beavers.
In other news: I went to Colorado to visit a friend and do some hiking and camping. The wildflowers were going crazy in the mountains and when we reached our destination we came upon a community of marmots and pikas. The marmots were quite friendly while the pikas were a little shy. On one of our collections I found a giant ram skull with the horns completely in tact. I nabbed that baby up, as you can see, and am thinking of ways to strap it onto my head for a Halloween costume. Ooh yeah, and some great news for the environment, Germany put a 7-year ban on fracking! 
That’s all for now folks, running on comp time.