A familiar site here in the Chihuahuan Desert of Carlsbad, NM. Photo taken by B. Palmer

I have just over five more weeks to go until I complete my CLM experience in Carlsbad, New Mexico. What a wild crazy ride it has been. I can officially say that I have put sweat, blood, and tears into my work, and have experienced every possible emotion imaginable. Enjoyment, ecstatic, sadness, homesick, disgust, anger, pain, fear, you name it. It has been one busy month, both mentally and physically.

When I last left you in my previous blog post, I mentioned that the rain was a large determining factor in my work here in the Chihuahuan Desert and southeastern New Mexico. When there was no rain to be seen in the usual monsoon season of July, there was not a seed to be found. We down here in Carlsbad were getting worried that our collection season may have been cut short due to the lack of rain. In early August, some rain was showing up, but we were still having a difficult time finding plants for collections. Sure we had gotten eight collections in the first two and a half months here, but that was nothing compared to the other SOS crews we had heard from. We were practically waiting for the weather in order to be doing our work.

Eight different collections that took place during the first half of the internship. And ONLY eight because we were waiting for the rain to bring more. We waited long enough to be able to fit all these into a box and save on shipping to the Bend seed extractory. Photo taken by B. Palmer

Since then, I have found that, when it rains in the desert, it pours. IT LITERALLY POURS. Storms roll in around here in a blink of an eye, and these are not the types of storms that one wants to be in while in the field. Thanks to the many tropical storms that blew in from the Gulf, flash floods have been a regular thing around here the last month; I suppose this is what the normal monsoon season is typically like. However, one of the wildlife biologists here mentioned that if not for the tropical storms that occurred in the last few weeks, there would have been a good chance that Carlsbad would have missed out on rain this year. But also thanks to those tropical storms, Carlsbad has gotten more rain than anticipated. The plentiful desert rains even kept us in the office for a while; this was not in fear of getting a little wet, but rather in fear of the fierce flash floods that appear to be common during the monsoons. In the end, the rain has been a blessing, and now everything is “Coming Up Roses.” I guess I can thank the tropical storms for the plentiful collections that are currently going on, as well as a busy and very neat job.

It is amazing to see how rain can transform a landscape so drastically. Not even a month ago, this landscape for merely sand, some patches of Shinnery Oak, and a few small Sand Sage bushes. Now, sand dunes and hills for as far as you can see are completely covered in yellow asters! My, how the flowers brought in the busy bustle of happy pollinators! Photo taken by B. Palmer

Oh my, how the desert evolves as soon as water is introduced into the system. The landscape completely changes here! Where there was once sand is now engulfed by a sea of Artemisia filifolia, Heterotheca subaxillaris, and Helianthus petiolaris. In places that I saw just dry gypsum soils, hard biocrust, and Mesquite skeletons are now covered in yellow snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae), Bouteloua of various species, and quivering bunchgrasses blowing in the warm desert wind. The desert transforms quickly in ideal times, and I am grateful to have been here to see it.

Similar transformations are occurring all over Carlsbad. This particular gypsum soil area that was particularly dreary and dry is now a sea of Oenothera rhombipetala. Photo taken by B. Palmer

One of the many breathtaking views of another collection site, thank you rain. The little bush on the right is Sophia (currently known in the genera Dermatophyllum) secundiflora, Texas Mountain Laurel and one tedious collection. Photo taken by B. Palmer

In just the last few weeks, collections have been plentiful. Among the plentiful aster collections, I did my first grass collection. I even identified it in the field all on my own, and collected it all on my own! For someone who does not know grasses well, it has been invigorating to learn about them, and the satisfaction from figuring some of them out all by myself has been a substantial feat.

Nassella tenuissima, the first grass collection of the season here in Carlsbad. The fluffy bunchgrass has mostly been seen growing in the shade of the Pinion pines and Junipers. Photo taken by B. Palmer

We were also fortunate enough to do a collection of Texas Mountain Laurel, otherwise known as Sophora secundiflora. It is a beautiful little evergreen pea-family tree, producing glossy, obovate leaflets and woody legumes with red, poisonous seeds. These seem to be one of the few plants here in the Chihuahuan Desert that lack any form of pokey, hurtful modified leaf or epidermis (as many of you may better know as spines and prickles). However, these plants seem to be opportunistic, as we only found them growing in the presence and protection of those nasty, mean, pokey plants that you typically find in the desert. Not only that, they were found on steep mountainsides and deep, rocky drainages of the Dark Canyon, part of the Guadalupes Mountain range that the famous Carlsbad Caverns are a part of. It was not an easy collection; however, it did not stop us ambitious interns to crawl through thick shrubbery of unpleasant plants and up rocky hills to complete this collection. Maybe it was the hot muggy days, scratched up arms, rolled ankles, bug bites, or maybe even just the sunburn talking, but this particular collection will always remain one of my stronger memories of this internship, although in the end for the better.

Collection bags are full of Sophora secuniflora legumes…and this was just half of the collection! Photo taken by B. Palmer

Other memorable collections to have taken part of were two separate cacti collections. This was the kind of collection I thought I would be a part of when I first got to Carlsbad, and at first sounded like it would not be something our mentor wanted to collect…I could not imagine why. But due to the circumstances of having no direct mentor in the office, we made the authoritative decision to collect whatever we saw could be fruitful, as long as it was native. This included the cacti we collected: Opuntia engelmannii and Cylindropuntia incarnata. The cacti proved to be fruitful! We collected buckets-full of cacti fruits and sent them off to the seed extractory right away due to the fruits being fleshy. What an experience!

We used leather gloves for our cactus collections. This was not enough to save our sweet soft hands from the terrors of spines and glochids, as you can see from the gloves. Photo taken by B. Palmer

Despite their ways of protection against us fruit thieves, you must admit the cactus are beautiful plants. At least from a distance. Photo taken by B. Palmer

Here, other Carlsbad CLM intern, Meridith McClure, is packaging the fleshy fruits of the Opuntia into plastic bags to be sent off within the hour.  Photo taken by B. Palmer

Of course, collecting cacti seeds also meant collecting herbarium vouchers. Pressing cacti can be a dreadful task, and if not done correctly, the cactus can continue to grow in the plant press as you are attempting to dry it out. I was forced to cut the cactus in half, scoop out the fleshy inside, and essentially only press the “skin” of the cacti in order to prevent any future growth of the plant. One foul sailor’s mouth and two big, swollen handfuls of glochids later, I managed to get some cactus squashed down in the plant press! This will forever go down in history as “the day Brooke pressed her first spiny succulents…successfully!”

We are no experts, but got help from experts afar in order to get these in a plant press! I suppose now that we have gotten through our first cactus pressing, we can now be called experts too! Photo taken by B. Palmer

Six herbarium vouchers later, we are blessed with a very full plant press! Photo taken by B. Palmer

Collecting for Seeds of Success has been the priority throughout my duration of the internship, but I have also gotten to participate in other cool things going on around the office (After all, in my employee description, I am considered a “Wildlife Biological Technician”). One thing I did earlier in the month was help out in a little soil erosion control project. With the crazy heavy rains here, there are certain areas that are subject to easily erode away more so than other places. One of the rangeland folk in the office is in charge of maintaining areas that are subject to damage, and he needed the interns help to control a specific area. He used our man power to fill burlap bags with mulch, and created small barricades to prevent any more soil loss in specific areas when it rains. He mentioned that ten years from now, you wouldn’t even be able to see the burlap sacks and little fences, that nature would take its course from there and cover our work with grasses and other flowers that will help root down the soil.

This was one of the two barricades we put together that day. It will help the land behind the sacks stay in its place, and over time will become overtaken by natural plants to do the rest of the work, and slow the soil erosion there. Photo taken by B. Palmer

I was also able to participate in a non-motorized boat training class that was offered a few weeks ago! If I ever work with aquatic plants or river studies in the future, this will have been a useful training. We learned how to get around in canoes and kayaks, and what to do when you tip your canoe over and such. It was an absolute blast to learn, and I hope I can use my training in the future! It was a nice way to spend a hot, Friday afternoon in the Desert.

Oh, and remember that milkweed planting I took part of earlier on in the internship? I am happy to report that although many did not take root, there are still a few surviving transplants out there! We had high hopes in creating Monarch Waystations throughout Carlsbad (see my previous posts to learn more about the monarch waystations). We had a lot of plants that didn’t survive the transplants. But I am hopeful that others can learn from our mistakes and experience of this year. My biggest hope is that next year’s group of CLM interns will be able to take on another milkweed planting task, and that it will go better than this year did!

One survivor of many Asclepias latifolia that was planted about a month ago. This year’s plantings may not make it into Monarch Waystation status, but I hope more projects like this in the future of Carlsbad will! Photo taken by B. Palmer

All in the end, I am still very privileged to be here, here in this forgotten desert that not a lot of people have heard of. Yes, I am ready to go back home, but I only have a month and a half left…a miniscule amount compared to the looming of five months away from home that seemed like so long ago. I am still entranced by the clouds painted on the sky over flat plains of desert. Every time I go out into the field, my breath is taken away by the beauty of the desert that so many have not seen and probably will never see. When it rains here, it POURS. I have found this to be true for life as well. This has been one whirlwind of a year. It has been one crazy event after the other. But all we can really do is take what we can from our crazy experiences, and leave the rest behind. Make a bouquet to use now, and sow seeds that need to be planted for a later date. Despite being homesick, I am still enjoying myself here in the unconventional city of Carlsbad, New Mexico. I am excited for what curious adventures the next month and a half will bring me.

The flat landscape here often brings out the beautiful depth of the clouds, and I cannot seem to get enough of this site out here. If I can’t be near my Colorado mountains I so dearly miss, at least I am pampered with beautiful sites such as this. Photo taken by B. Palmer

Although the pedestals here are an indication of an unhealthy ecosystem, I could not get over how treelike Sand sage could be in a barren land known for its oil and gas. Photo taken by B. Palmer

We cannot forget the beauty of the desert lies solely on those plants meant to be seen from a distance. Photo taken by B. Palmer

And of course, through thick and thin, and through blood, sweat, and tears, a botanist’s attire is not complete without her sunhat and a smile. If you don’t love what you do, you are not in the right place. Photo taken by B. Palmer

Wishing you all safe travels and exciting adventures as summer has officially turned into fall. This is Brooke Palmer from the Carlsbad, New Mexico, BLM field office. Until next time!