{"id":54632,"date":"2014-04-25T14:23:24","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T21:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=54632"},"modified":"2014-04-25T14:23:24","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T21:23:24","slug":"spring-botany-in-the-san-juan-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=54632","title":{"rendered":"Spring Botany in the San Juan Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\"Two_tree\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hiya,<\/p>\n

My name is Jen. \u00a0I am writing and working\u00a0from the San Juan Islands National Monument this summer, \u00a0where I will be helping to create a baseline biological database for monument lands. \u00a0If you aren\u2019t familiar with the area, the San Juans lie in Washington\u2019s Puget Sound, roughly halfway between Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA. \u00a0From quaint village scenery to\u00a0rugged grasslands, these islands hold some of Washington State\u2019s most beautiful landscapes. \u00a0In the span of a 30 minute car ride (hour bike ride), you might pass protected harbors with anchored sailboats, picturesque churches surrounded by sheep pasture, and mixed forest ending with gnarled krummholz battered by ocean wind, usually ending with coastal bluffs looking out to crashing waves. \u00a0Not too shabby. \u00a0I have been living here for the past six months and am thrilled that I am getting to live in this beautiful spot doing the type of work I feel passionate about. \u00a0I\u2019m equally stoked to be living somewhere long enough to get down to some gardening.<\/p>\n

The monument land presents an interesting challenge in terms of monitoring. \u00a0Unlike the expansive rangeland usually owned by the BLM, the monument consists of just over 900 acres, most of that on small islands and disjunct parcels of land. \u00a0This land is generally heavily vegetated, comparatively lush. \u00a0A lot of these areas are heavily visited, with three lighthouses on BLM land and a number of destination locations.<\/p>\n

\"Patos_lunch_break\"

Lunch break at Patos Island Lighthouse, one of the heavily used tourist destinations in the San Juan Islands<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Cattle_pt_03_14\"<\/a>

Cattle Point Lighthouse, San Juan Island.<\/p><\/div>\n

Considering these and a few other factors, I\u2019ve been trying to wrap my head around what i want to be recording in this areas. \u00a0One of my main focuses in this early stage is to understand the environmental indicators and to figure out how to best use standard baseline monitoring protocol in this non-standard area. \u00a0My other focus in this planning stage of the project is to do some vegetation mapping based on previously created databases.<\/p>\n

Though I\u2019ve been in the office most of April, I\u00a0have managed to spend some sunny afternoons outside. \u00a0There is a huge local enthusiasm for plants so I\u2019ve enjoyed opportunities to botanize with a number of people and learn really cool stuff about the local flora. \u00a0There are a few federally or state endangered species and there are lots of unique plant communities. \u00a0I thought I\u2019d share a few of these pretty plants I happened upon during some of these walks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"0214_ice_suc_01\"

Sedum lanceolatum<\/em> on Iceberg Point, Lopez Island. In terms of stonecrops, the islands also have Sedum spathulifolium<\/em> (broadleaf stonecrop) and Opuntia fragilis<\/em> (brittle prickly pear cactus).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ranun_cali_iceberg_0414\"

The 10+ petals of Ranunculus californicus<\/em> (california buttercup), Iceberg Pt. This is considered nationally stable but critically endangered in Washington state.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"lupine_cotyledons_iceberg_pt_14\"

Cotyledons of Lupinus littoralis<\/em> (seashore lupine), Iceberg Pt. I couldn’t identify this for weeks. I was a little shocked when I saw lupine leavings sprouting up. Mystery solved.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"viola_iceberg_14\"

Viola adunca<\/em>, Iceberg Pt<\/p><\/div>\n

\"0214_icebergpt_barnacles\"

Gooseneck barnacles Iceberg Pt. Did you know you can eat them? They have really nice scallop\/abolone-like flesh.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to a fun plant-based summer\u00a0and I hope you are too!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 Hiya, My name is Jen. \u00a0I am writing and working\u00a0from the San Juan Islands National Monument this summer, \u00a0where I will be helping to create a baseline biological database for monument lands. \u00a0If you aren\u2019t familiar with the area, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5936,"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\/54632"}],"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\/5936"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54632"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54707,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54632\/revisions\/54707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}