Since the intern training in June/July, I’ve worked on updating the BLM’s Oregon  State Office public botany webpage, tested a survey protocol for Johnson’s hairstreak butterfly with fellow intern Candace Fallon, cleaned seeds at the Berry Botanic Garden, and completed many other not-so-interesting tasks.

The updated webpage isn’t ready yet, but when it is you’ll be able to find it at: http://www.blm.gov/or/programs/botany/index.php

The butterfly survey was a lot of fun, especially since I got to work on it with Candace :).  Callophrys johnsoni, or Johnson’s hairstreak, is a rare butterfly that lives in Oregon and Washington.  Its host is a Dwarf mistletoe that only grows on Western hemlock.  Armed with neon orange safety vests, orange and blue hard hats, heavy-duty boots, and a butterfly net, we walked ever-so-slowly along a seldom used dirt road.  Closely inspecting the Western hemlock foliage with net in hand I looked like a recent insane asylum escapee.  I received confirmation of the strangeness of my appearance not only from Candace, but also when I talked to a group of highschoolers and showed them photos: “Why are you wearing a hard hat when all you’re doing is looking for butterflies?”   The only reply I could think of: “It’s a dangerous job.”

Cleaning seeds at a Botanic Garden isn’t quite so dangerous.  Just slightly more glamorous, the job requires that you can remove extra plant debris from around seeds, count hundreds of them for many hours, and  package them in such a way that they have no chance of escaping.  Stored in a walk-in refrigerator, the Garden’s collection of rare seeds is quite impressive.

I hope that all of your summers are going well.  I am excited to be starting my Master’s program in Geography at Portland State University at the end of September- I hope to do my thesis on the impacts of climate change on Oregon endemic plant species.  If any of you have ideas or resources, let me know!!

Take care,

Camille Duncan, BLM Oregon State Office, Portland, OR