Well, folks, this is it– my last week working with the BLM here in the Needles Field Office. I’ve been holed up in the office for the past few days, making maps and writing our final grant report (39 pages and counting!). In the midst of tying up all of the project’s loose ends, I have been reflecting on my wonderful experiences and lessons from the past months:
- Visiting many of the wonders of the desert! My trips included Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam, Joshua Tree National Park, the Las Vegas Strip, Valley of Fire State Park, !!Death Valley during the SUPERBLOOM!!, the Mojave National Preserve, the Colorado River, and more.
- Further developing my botany field skills. Prior to this experience, my field botany background was largely Midwestern. I have learned so much about desert ecology and gotten much better with a dichotomous key.
- Learning what it’s like to work with a federal agency.
- Collecting seeds in Amboy Crater with the other interns, our mentor, and Sarah De Groot– botanist extraordinaire from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. It was the first collection I had helped with, and that combined with the thrill of collecting seeds inside a volcanic crater made for a pretty memorable day.
- Tagging along with Sierra Club volunteers who were repairing Mexican Hat Trail in the Turtle Mountains. It was inspiring to hear all they have done and continue to do for desert conservation.
- Driving off pavement. There are some pretty dicey roads out here, and there was always a certain amount of thrill in that. Plus, we didn’t even get a single flat tire!
- Attending the celebration of the new California National Monuments– Mojave Trails (part of which is in our field office), Sand to Snow, and Castle Mountains. We even got to meet Sally Jewell, the Secretary of the Interior!
- Jess and I getting surprised by a thunderstorm in Picture Canyon. At the time I was admittedly a little nervous, but looking back now it was certainly one of the more memorable field days!
- Traveling to Chicago for the CLM Intern Workshop! I loved getting to know the other interns, botanizing in the Midwest (felt like home), walking the trails of the gardens, and gaining more skills to apply to my internship.
- Experiencing smell of the desert after rain. Incredible.
- Improving my ArcGIS skills and exploring the spatial data for our field office. It was a great way to continue familiarizing myself with our field office while continuing to develop my own technical skills. If you’ve ever used ArcGIS, you know that sometime it just doesn’t cooperate, but that was part of the fun, too!
- Ice Cream Fridays with my fellow interns! Although it sometimes turned into french fry Friday or ice cream Thursday, it was still a fun tradition to try to stick to.
- Eating lunch in a different beautiful spot everyday.
- Reading desert literature in my down time.
- Listening to podcasts in the truck on the way to the field. Jess and I listened to every single episode of Dear Sugar, which made the miles fly by.
- Helping with projects around the office. I created a trail map and brochure for the Mexican Hat Trail in the Turtle Mountains, which will soon be published and distributed!
- Thinking deeply about public land.
- Participating in a bighorn sheep survey with members of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Clambering over the Marble Mountains at daybreak, scanning the mountainsides for glimpses of the sheep– I learned about the desert in a whole new way.
- Getting to know such a completely beautiful and unique part of this country that few people ever get to see. I feel so fortunate for this.
I’m glad I became a CLM Intern, and I am very proud to have worked with the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Bureau of Land Management. To be honest, I had dangerously high expectations for this experience– I was just so floored that I received an offer for this position. I wasn’t surprised by the heat, or the hours of driving, or the isolation of rural living– it was certainly challenging at times, but I was more or less prepared to deal with and learn from those challenges. What surprised me was the amount of grace this experience would require, and the nearly unlimited amount of independence I was granted. I think I would have gained more from an internship with a little more structure– so if you are applying for a CLM internship, this is something you should think about!
As for the future, I definitely now have a better idea of the path I want to follow. I’m moving back east to work in floriculture for a while, but I am aiming for a career in restoration ecology/environmental horticulture. It has been quite the process for me to figure this out, but now I am feeling very sure and passionate and thrilled to continue moving onward.
Thank you to everyone who played a part in my internship (shoutout to the CBG team, my fellow interns, and everyone at the NFO), and thank you to this beautiful, awe-inspiring desert. I am incredibly grateful.
I will leave you with this beauty:
Happy trails,
Kate Sinnott
Needles Field Office
Bureau of Land Management