The last month (or two…) kept me very busy. I met new people, gained new skills, witnessed world cup soccer, and the seeds just keep coming!
Hope Solo defending the US goal against Japan in the World Cup Final. Yep, I took that photo from my seat at the game in Vancouver, BC!
While I usually spend most of my time in the field alone, my last two trips brought fresh faces to the campground. Olga Kildisheva, a grad student at the University of Western Australia, spent a few days in the field collecting for seed dormancy studies she’s working on. She has collected in the Vale district as well, but I’m hoping she spends a couple more days on Steens Mountain with me in the future. A long day of seed collecting through bugs and heat isn’t so bad when you have a buddy to joke about your shared PTSD from the buzzing of flies and mosquitoes. She urged me to write a food blog with photographs of what I’m eating in the field (look for it on the CLM blog next month!). Apparently she was impressed with my camping snacks.
Olga investigating… something…
Polygonum bistortoides with pollinator in the foreground
Despite working alone most of the time, this internship has been a great opportunity to network with a diverse array of like-minded folks. I helped lead a Native Plant Society of Oregon hike on Steens Mountain with a retired BLM botanist from the area. Walking around my field site with someone who spent 30+ years identifying its flora was a real treat. It also gave me a boost of confidence; working alone, I have no one to tell me if I’ve identified the plants correctly but, now I know I’m doing it right! Most of the hikers drove in from Portland or Bend and camped on the mountain. I was lucky enough to share my campfire and my inner tube for floating on the campground lake with the NPSO Portland chapter’s president. She told me of federal botanists working in Oregon and how best to go about working for them in the future. Meeting other plant enthusiasts and networking with professionals while looking at flowers has been the highlight of my field season so far.
White-crowned sparrow nest spotted on the NPSO plant hike
Getting to know the grasses (all by myself!)
Flowers are a mere highlight, seeds are the real deal. Collecting seeds, missing seeds, finding new seeds ─ sharp seeds, itchy hair seeds, buggy seeds, jumping seeds. I am learning how seed collecting can be an exciting adventure. The toughest lesson so far, is learning how to slow down even though the seeds aren’t going to wait for me. I take 10 day trips to the field with 10 days in Portland in between, so if I don’t make time to collect a population that is ripe on one trip it will likely disperse before I return. This fact sent me into a dizzying whirlwind of 12 hour days the beginning of July. The flowers are easy to collect, seeds can take all day. Although this sense of urgency continues to haunt me, I realize I will never be able to collect ALL the seeds (no matter how badly I’d like to). So, I now make it a rule that I return to camp in time for a swim before dinner and begin where I left off the next morning.
Where I work is beautiful.
Little Blitzen Gorge, Steens Mountain.
The best advice I’ve received: “Don’t forget to have fun” -Retired BLM botanist, Rick Hall