{"id":18728,"date":"2012-08-14T07:20:30","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T14:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=18728"},"modified":"2012-08-14T07:20:30","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T14:20:30","slug":"desert-mirage-reflections-on-five-months-in-the-mojave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=18728","title":{"rendered":"Desert Mirage – Reflections on Five Months in the Mojave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s about that time.\u00a0 Five months has come and gone, and my internship with the BLM Needles Field Office is coming to a close next\u00a0 week.\u00a0 You know how they say “time flies when you’re having fun,” right?\u00a0 It’s true, I’ve had a blast, made some great friendships (especially with my fellow CLM Interns), and learned an incredible amount.\u00a0 I\u00a0cannot believe that it is already over.<\/p>\n

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Co-CLM Intern Nate with a Desert Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma platyrhinos<\/em>)<\/p><\/div>\n

Before coming to Needles, I was told that it was going to get hot, very hot . . .\u00a0like 120\u00b0 F hot<\/em>!\u00a0 In fact, Needles, CA often trades places with Badwater in Death Valley NP as the hottest place in the US! \u00a0I had never lived somewhere in the summer\u00a0with that type of heat, so did not know what to expect.\u00a0 As with anything you adapt, and all of the interns here are still riding our bikes to and from work, just like in the cooler months.\u00a0\u00a0The saving grace from the heat\u00a0is the Colorado River running right through town; you can go down\u00a0there and cool off any\u00a0time of day.\u00a0\u00a0If you are\u00a0willing to drive,\u00a0you can always\u00a0get away from the heat and see some really cool stuff\u00a0on the weekends!\u00a0 Needles is centrally located between many really interesting natural landmarks,\u00a0with the\u00a0best visitation times split throughout the year:<\/p>\n

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Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve<\/p><\/div>\n

In the cooler months, visit Joshua Tree National Park (SW, 2.5hr), Mojave National Preserve (W, 1hr), Death Valley National Park (NW, 4hr), Las Vegas with\u00a0the Red Rock National Conservati0n Area, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and\u00a0Valley of Fire State Park\u00a0(N, 2-3hr), Zion National Park (NE, 4.5hr), Southern Arizona with the Oregon Pipe National Monument, Sonoran Desert National Monument, and Saguaro National Park (SE, 4-6hr), and Lake Havasu City with the Havasu and Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuges (S, <1hr).\u00a0 When the Mojave Desert really starts to heat up, head up in elevation to Big Bear, Idyllwild, Mt. San\u00a0Gorgonio, and\u00a0Mt. San\u00a0Jacinto\u00a0in the San Bernadino National Forest (SW, 3-4hr), the California Coast (SW, 4-5hr), the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains\u00a0(NW, 4-5hr), Mt. Charleston in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (N, 3hrs), the Hualapai Mountain Park near Kingman, AZ (NE, 1hr), and Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon (E, 3-3.5hr).<\/p>\n

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The Cabin at Horsethief Spring<\/p><\/div>\n

There aren’t just cool things around Needles, but the Needle Field Office holds some pretty unique biology and geology.\u00a0 From\u00a0the Kingston Range in the North, with the\u00a0abundant cottonwoods, bobcats, and coyotes at Horsethief Spring, to the Cadiz and Sheephole Valleys\u00a0in the South, with extensive sand dunes and rugged mountain ranges, the landscape in the Eastern Mojave is incredibly diverse.\u00a0 When you are seeing something new and exciting,\u00a0every day in the field an awesome experience.<\/p>\n

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Cadiz Valley<\/p><\/div>\n

My internship project\u00a0was split into two parts: 1) A\u00a0Species Inventory for the Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard (Uma scoparia<\/em>) within the Needles Field Office, and 2) Density Sampling for MFTLs at two\u00a0individual dune locations.\u00a0 This project required a large level of self reliance and motivation for research.\u00a0 However, now that I am finishing up I realize that\u00a0all of the hard work\u00a0 was worth it.\u00a0 I was somewhat worried when my original mentor\u00a0(our only Wildlife Biologist) left\u00a0to take another position half-way through the internship.\u00a0 However,\u00a0the rest of the staff and\u00a0the other interns\u00a0stepped in to help whenever necessary.\u00a0 Committing myself to one project for this five-month period has been similar to completing\u00a0a “mini-thesis,” and has given me a good taste of what working on and publishing a graduate thesis will feel like.\u00a0 I am happy with the work that I have completed, which is thorough enough to have been incorporated with the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s MFTL occupancy records.\u00a0 My inventory should help any future researchers working with MFTLs to help determine whether federal or state protection for the species is warranted.<\/p>\n

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Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard (Uma scoparia<\/em>)<\/p><\/div>\n

I was able to help with other projects as well, ranging from bat surveys with the Bureau of Reclamation, to Abandoned Mine Lands surveys and Seeds of Success work, which only further helped my development as a biologist.\u00a0 The Intern Workshop was an especially\u00a0valuable networking tool and provided a sense of community with other CLM interns across the west. \u00a0I have really enjoyed my time working for the BLM\u00a0in Needles and\u00a0as a\u00a0CLM Intern.\u00a0 I have learned what working in a Bureau of Land Management office is really like, which has given me valuable insight into whether or not\u00a0I want to continue working for the federal government.\u00a0 Unfortunate the five months has flown by, but\u00a0with\u00a0many good times\u00a0and valuable experiences.\u00a0\u00a0Now it’s time to move on to the next adventure . . .<\/p>\n

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Searching for the next adventure . . .<\/p><\/div>\n

So until the next time,<\/p>\n

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you – beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Benedicto <\/em>– Edward Abbey<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeff Gicklhorn<\/p>\n

BLM Needles Field Office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it’s about that time.\u00a0 Five months has come and gone, and my internship with the BLM Needles Field Office is coming to a close next\u00a0 week.\u00a0 You know how they say “time flies when you’re having fun,” right?\u00a0 It’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1685,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18728"}],"version-history":[{"count":57,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18797,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18728\/revisions\/18797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}