Hey folks,
It always blows my mind how quickly spring hits. We did a week of training in Prineville, Oregon last week to learn the ways of GeoBOB mobile. When we left, the local flora wasn’t in bloom and didn’t seem to have a mind to for at least a few weeks but when we returned, BAM, flowers everywhere! Everywhere you look it is green and colorful. We were told that the warm weather we have been having recently is unusual for this time of year and has induced an earlier flowering period for many species. Which isn’t necessarily a great thing since temperatures could easily still drop to below freezing at night, dooming young plants and some seeds.
We did IRH assessment at this plot, it was covered in balsamroot as shown above. Lomatium was also present along with buckwheat, prairie-star, lupine, sagebrush, blue-eyed Mary, and more.
As mentioned previously, we did a week of training in Prineville, Oregon last week. The class was an introductory training to using GeoBOB (Geographic Biotic Observations) in the field. Basically, we import desired information on flora/fauna from a giant geo-database into Arc map, and then export it into a Trimble unit. We can then have data when we go into the field that can be edited or added to. Data collecting has never been so easy! On the first day after the class was over, my co-workers and I got to go on a hike with some other classmates from different field offices. Two were botanists, so the hike turned into a plant walk, which was extremely helpful. Trying to learn the local plants is much easier in person than reading about them in a book.
Anyways, this week we were mostly in the field helping out with some line transects and getting our first taste of the 17 Indicators of Rangeland Health. My favorite day of the week by far was Root Day, an annual event that involves digging up roots with a Native American tribe. About 4 or 5 hundred people show up (mostly youths) to partake in this tradition. The root is from Lomatium canbyi and is used for many different food purposes. A curved metal rod with a handle is used to stick in the ground under the plant and lift it up. It’s tradition for the first few roots each person digs up to be offered to the tribe elders. The roots aren’t particularly big but with 400 people, each offering 3 or 4 roots, it adds up quickly.
A good sized root. Fun fact, they smell like diesel. I ate one at the site, not terrible, not much flavor. We took a few home and are going to roast them, I’ll let you know how that goes.
Me trying to dig up a root. Half the time the root is broken off accidently while digging and trying to find it in the ground is darn near impossible.
The next few weeks are going to be trainings out of town so we got in the field as much as possible while we were here this week!
A beautiful drive through some sagebrush habitat to reach a plot. Not much of a view as you can see…
View into the Wenatchee valley from a plot we did an IRH assessment at. The slope was steep and we hiked a ways down to get to it. Hiking back up was a work out that almost ended with me throwing up.
After a little bit of discussion, we determined this to be oval-leaf desert buckwheat.
Until next time,
Katherine