It is HOT, it is SMOKY, it is NOT a delicious barbecue chicken sandwich, but it IS the weather of Montana in July! We are reaching the end of our survey season, because the heat is drying up the plants to the point of being unidentifiable (hence the title – our Castilleja is crunchy now).

It’s been amazing seeing an almost full life cycle for several of our species already during the season. Plants that weren’t anywhere near bloom when we arrived have now gone to seed. I feel quite lucky to be here long enough to see the forest change over time, and if fall is anything like our bosses/botanists Lea and Laura are hyping it up to be, I haven’t see the half of it yet. But that comes later; right now is fire season! This is important for the vegetation since many plants are pyrophytic (adapted to fire), such as lodgepole pine, whose seeds won’t germinate until the layer of resin coating them has been burned off. People tend to view fire as a destructive force – and it can be – but it often also creates, makes room for new and wonderful things to grow in its wake. In Hamilton, the smoke from the wildfires has caused a fair amount of haze, but has also given way to some pretty spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

As for the Botshots, we surveyed for pollinators with the Montana Bumble Bee Atlas! I highly suggest clicking the link because they have some neat citizen science opportunities that anybody can participate in. We trudged out into fields of beebalm and fireweed, prepared with bug-catching, bee-snatching goals. Sometimes of these arthropods are escape artists, trying to wriggle out of the bug nets and vials, but with the help of some folks from the Wildlife Department in Stevensville, Hannah and I still managed to catch 12 bees in one survey! There is a lack of data on pollinator populations, especially in the American West, so helping out in areas that had never been officially surveyed before felt really rewarding.

That’s mostly been July! I’m excited to move into monitoring and seed collection. This month has shown me so clearly how bees depend on plants which depend on seeds which depend on fire and, right now, depend on us for their collection and future propagation. It is a good reminder of the web we live in. And, speaking of the interconnection of all things…

Warmly (no really, it’s 97 degrees out),

E