My internship\u00a0is\u00a0turning out to be a\u00a0great learning opportunity. I recently just finished a short course at University of Nevada-Reno on grasses taught by a brilliant botanist, Arnold (Jerry) Tiehm. The grass class really helped me learn generally characteristics about the grasses present in the Great Basin. It also doesn’t hurt to have the class taught by a regionally famous plant collector, Arnold Tiehm,\u00a0who has multiple plants named after him.<\/p>\n
Besides the grass class, the intern crew and myself have been knee-deep in data entry and analysis. We have been completing\u00a0some\u00a0data analysis on a threatened plant within our BLM district,\u00a0Eriogonum diatomaceum<\/em> or Churchill Narrows Buckwheat. It is interesting to see the process on\u00a0how to monitor rare\/threatened plant species and how the BLM handles such plants. My mentor and all the interns are meeting soon with the USFWS to\u00a0present our data to hopefully get the plant transferred to a threatened and endangered list,\u00a0so this\u00a0plant may be preserved for many years to come.\u00a0I know that data entry and analysis is boring and monotonious, but we are finding some interesting trends that could lead to great improvements in the future protection of this plant, so I feel my (what feels like)\u00a0endless hours hunched over a computer will be rewarded soon enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My internship\u00a0is\u00a0turning out to be a\u00a0great learning opportunity. I recently just finished a short course at University of Nevada-Reno on grasses taught by a brilliant botanist, Arnold (Jerry) Tiehm. The grass class really helped me learn generally characteristics about the … Continue reading