{"id":463,"date":"2009-09-15T08:32:35","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T15:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=463"},"modified":"2009-09-15T08:32:35","modified_gmt":"2009-09-15T15:32:35","slug":"the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-out-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=463","title":{"rendered":"The good, the bad and the ugly out west"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, to be a native seed collector.\u00a0 Might sound like a soothing, peaceful and valuable job, one that allows you to wander beautiful landscapes, gaze at incredible flowers, ponder ecological\/historical questions about the land\u2026 and sometimes it is all that!\u00a0 Then there are the times when it is the diametric opposite, a frustrating exercise in patience and perseverance.\u00a0\u00a0 Patience is what I always find in short supply.\u00a0 The Worland field office primarily covers the Big Horn Basin of north central Wyoming where precipitation ranges from 5-14 inches\/year.\u00a0 Wyoming big sage, greasewood and rabbitbrush dominate a sandy, saline and dynamic topography.\u00a0 It is a harsh place to make a living, many of our forbs and more desirable reclamation species are simply hard to find in any great density but are scattered about in a dispersed continuum.\u00a0\u00a0 As Forest mentioned, these types of populations don\u2019t fit easily into the SOS protocols, nor do I feel that I can justifiably spend 2-3 days crawling around for a couple thousand seeds (alas these aren\u2019t T& E\u2019s).\u00a0\u00a0 I have those moments at the end of the day, filling up my truck with gas- are these handful of seeds worth the $50 dollars in gas, my days wages and the price to ship and clean them?\u00a0\u00a0 I tell myself yes (I might be out doing it again tomorrow and need the motivation) and remind myself of the larger cause, that those Plant Materials Centers will cherish these gems and within their confines they\u2019ll flourish.\u00a0 Obviously, yes I have doubts sometimes.\u00a0 In general I\u2019ve found it hard to break out beyond the grasses, I may not enjoy keying them but they\u2019re a boon to collect- typically more abundant, not too low to the ground and not as readily tasty for the native fauna.\u00a0 Thus far I\u2019ve made about 20 collections about 60% which are grasses.<\/p>\n

\"There<\/a>

There are other interesting things out there- one can't always look at plants!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ah,<\/a>

Ah, what I am looking at?<\/p><\/div>\n

Aside from seed collecting which comprises about 65% of my time, I help various folks out with their monitoring projects, PFC\u2019s, weed and fire treatments.\u00a0 This has been a great opportunity for me to observe the interface between management and science- a contentious exchange, but a necessary one.\u00a0 The utility of either one depends on the other. \u00a0And yes like everyone I drive, drive, drive.\u00a0 This seems to be the way of life out here, both for work and pleasure.\u00a0\u00a0 My highlights are always days when I get to work with others or a group\u2014ha ha!\u00a0 I live by myself in small town in Wyoming and many days I drive around and collect seeds alone, so company is always more than welcome!\u00a0 I\u2019m starting to realize how much I appreciate time to myself and have begun to savor the slow life, yet I\u2019ve also learned I definitely am a social creature.<\/p>\n

A specific highlight was collecting limber pine cones for a USFS genetic study on white pine blister rust.\u00a0 Reading Elizabeth\u2019s comments made me recall our ordeal.\u00a0 I just gave up on the tree pruner- found the limber pines too limber and my arm strength waning as I tried to maneuver this thing above my head for more than 10 minutes.\u00a0 So I just started to climb the trees and had a sticky blast chucking cones down to my mentor while she scurried to get them.\u00a0 Then I pretty much took a bath in rubbing alcohol to dissolve all the pitch.\u00a0 Fun, beautiful and productive- what I wish every day could be.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"up<\/a><\/dt>\n
up in a limber pine<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Betsy Verhoeven, Worland WY, BLM field office<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, to be a native seed collector.\u00a0 Might sound like a soothing, peaceful and valuable job, one that allows you to wander beautiful landscapes, gaze at incredible flowers, ponder ecological\/historical questions about the land\u2026 and sometimes it is all that!\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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\/463"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}