I have lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania my entire life and have only been to western America a handful of times. I knew moving to a small town in northern South Dakota would be different, but I was not expecting such a big change. As I neared Lemmon, SD on my 26-hour road trip from PA there were rolling hills as far as the eye could see on the 80 mph highways. I have never driven on a highway with that high of a speed limit!!
I got to town on a Wednesday and had a few days to adjust before starting work on the following Monday. I went out early the next morning to the Blacktail trail, which is the main trail in the Grand River district of the Dakota Prairie Grasslands NF, to explore! I have not spent much time in grasslands before so many of the plants were new to me. The first thing I noticed was the silver sagebrush (Artemisia cana) which adds a beautiful blue to the scenery and made the trail smell amazing. I was then very excited to see prickly pear cactus (Opuntia fragilis) which I had not seen growing wild before. Along the trail there are also many gorgeous badlands’ formations.
The first week of work was a lot of onboarding and training, but we did get to explore the grasslands. We went out into the field and got familiar with some of the very common plants and used our books to ID them. We were also introduced to the bumblebee atlas which we will be participating in throughout the season. This is a very enjoyable field activity and a great way to learn more about bees. I thought I was a pro after my first time because I didn’t let any of the bees escape when I was transferring them into the tubes, but my second time I lost 3!
The second week of work We did a Juniper tour in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This was my first time visiting this NP and it was so amazing to see the wild horses and the badlands formations. The tour was very informative and hearing from Carissa Wonkka about her research on juniper control was fascinating. I also enjoyed hearing the opinions and feedback from the landowners that were on this tour. At the end of the second week, we went to the North Dakota State University extension center to learn about the project that we will be collecting native seed for.
Our third week we have gotten to go out to the badlands to finally start collecting seed. We have been collecting a lot of needle and thread grass seed which is super sharp if it gets you (hence the name…). We also got to collect some green needle seed one afternoon, but it is not all ready yet. On the 4th of July, our office will participate in a local parade, and Smokey Bear will be making a guest appearance. It is an amazing opportunity to be working in such a beautiful area and I am looking forward to the rest of the season!!