Field work is a doorway to unique experiences you’ll never be able to recreate.

May through October in Northern Rockiest all four seasons present themselves. It snows in the mountains in May, the flowers bloom in June and July, the fires burn hot in August, the colors change in September, then the snow returns in October. Working in the Flathead National Forest for the last six months I got to witness all these seasonal transition and an incredible variety of experiences throughout them.

I’ll never forget

wondering the forest in search of rare orchids

seeing whole wet meadows full carnivorous sundew plants

trudging through the the brush in search of creeks that harbor endangered species

holding bumble bees in my bare hands

identifying tiny moonworts hidden under ferns

scouring the road sides for our rare native flowering plants

and the pure beauty of Montana’s northern forest the will inspire me for years to come

Before this internship, I spent the last three years working as an artist and scientific illustrator. Working outside almost everyday and seeing so many different ecosystems and rare plants I’ve never seen before has really inspired me.

Not only will I be using the photos I took as inspiration this winter, I was able to use my skills as an artist to enhance some herbarium vouchers for the Flathead National Forest Herbarium through painting the flower heads and bracts of certain species that wilted a lot after being collected.

Creating herbarium vouchers felt like an art project in itself, it was a very relaxing and fun aspect of botany that I enjoyed doing at the end of the season.

Among many things, field work is a doorway to unique experiences you’ll never be able to recreate. The snow in the mountains on a sunny day. The moose splashing through the creek that makes your heart stop. Hiking a dozen miles gaining 2000ft of elevation just to find that plant you were looking eaten by herbivores at the top. Every summer, every mountain, every valley, every crew is a completely different.

I am extremely grateful for Chicago Botanic Garden and the crew that I had the opportunity to be a part. This was my first season back in the field since 2020 and it was so amazing to have the skills and knowledge I learned so many years ago be brought back to the surface. The encouragement from for the team at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the Flathead National Forest Botany crew has given me the confidence, motivation and connections I needed to pursue the next steps in my education and go to graduate school. I will be taking the knowledge I learned from this internship with me into my graduate project. Including but not limited to specimen collection, herbarium voucher creation, site data collection, data management and reporting.

The ending of a field season is always bittersweet. I am grateful that I live in Montana and don’t have to leave these Mountains behind, but I will miss this internship and will carry it with me into my next adventures as I hope to many more seasons of rare experiences.

Erynn – Flathead Nation Forest, MT