The first time I met with my mentor and the ranger at my office was over zoom and I asked if there were many opportunities to camp. They mentioned that around the 4th of July a rare orchid blooms in the eastern district of the Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Before I left for training people were curious about my job and not having a super specific answer for what I was doing I’d answer with native seed collection and mention the surveying of this mysterious rare orchid.

The orchids bloomed a little late this year, so we went to survey them 2 weeks after the 4th of July. The week before our excursion I spent my free time researching and reading up on them so I would be prepared. The western fringed orchid (Platanthera praeclara) grows in the Sheyenne district (which is much wetter than our district) and is declining due to multiple threats. The documents I read discussed the conservation efforts and goals from the project. It took a bit before finding one of the orchids, but once we found the first one it was very easy to notice them. The areas that were most abundant with the western fringed orchids were the sides of the roads. It was really neat and special to see such a beautiful flower for the first (and possibly only) time.

On the same trip we brought along our gear and completed a few bumblebee surveys. We got to teach the public affairs specialist, who came to see the orchid as well, how we conduct our bumble bee surveys and he ended up writing an article about it!

July was a great month full of amazing experiences and I am excited to see what August brings!