The past few weeks here in Carlsbad have been ultra busy getting in as many collections as we can! After getting a late start on collections with the late rainy season here, we ended up doing 46 collections this season! We were especially lucky to get permission to collect at Guadalupe Mountain National Park in collaboration with the National Park Service.

Ipomoea lindheimeri nestled in Sotol at the GMNP

Spaeralcea angustifolia by the Black River in Carlsbad

This month, I also got to participate in Wildlife Water inspections with a couple of my coworkers. This involved cleaning out the waters, inspecting and repairing any broken fences, and sometimes repairing water tanks! We did six sites in a day, finding lots of interesting wildlife along the way.

One of several black widow spiders found at several of the sites we inspected

A juvenile black widow spider-may had built webs in the corners of the Wildlife Waters.

An oil well against the sunrise on the way to inspect Wildlife Waters\

We found a huge field of milkweed at the first site! Brooke and I are going back to the site to do a collection this week.

Only two weeks are left for me and Brooke here in Carlsbad, with only two more collections remaining this week! We’ll be doing a lot of office work after that, mounting vouchers and wrapping up paper work here at the field office. I will definitely miss this wonderful place and the people I’ve met here!

-Meridith, Carlsbad, NM BLM