{"id":55289,"date":"2014-05-23T13:45:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T20:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=55289"},"modified":"2014-05-23T13:45:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T20:45:06","slug":"out-on-the-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=55289","title":{"rendered":"Out on the Range"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n<\/a>\"photo \"photo<\/a>Greetings from Southwest Montana!<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n

I recently moved to Montana from Las Vegas and began my internship at the Dillon Field Office. \u00a0Lots of land, cattle and ranches were some of the first things at task to deal with.\u00a0Working with Range Technicians, I have been driving two different expansive creeks to check on the status of cattle allotments, springs, fences, cattle troughs, cattle guards and survey the plants in the cattle ranges. \u00a0All of these factors can tell us things about the health of the range. \u00a0For example certain plants, like Broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae),\u00a0<\/i>can be indicators for over-grazing or disturbance. \u00a0All of this is new to me as I have never lived in “Cow Country”.<\/p>\n

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Typical example of a cattle-guard.<\/p><\/div>\n

Before arriving in Dillon, I worked with the BLM in the Mojave Desert – not the most ideal conditions for raising cattle. \u00a0Because of that, I had no idea just how invested the BLM is with cattle and range management. \u00a0It is sort of a whole new world I’m being exposed to here, and I am finding it very interesting. \u00a0I’m learning so much from the other range technicians as they are all very knowledgable. \u00a0From how to fix a fence, to the flora, to the fauna, they have taught me so much. Another plus are all the other animals we see while out on the range. Since being here I have seen several elk herds, antelope herds, moose, badger, and coyotes.<\/p>\n

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View from the range near Kidd, MT<\/p><\/div>\n

A very funny thing happened the first day in the field. \u00a0One of the range technicians was explaining how every year she goes out and shoots a cow, and how everyone in Montana can shoot one cow. \u00a0I was very confused and probably even said “You shoot a cow?!” After a couple of hours of bewilderment and confusion, I asked how ranchers feel about them shooting cows. She laughed and explained that a female elk is called a cow and that they call cattle ‘moo cows’.<\/p>\n

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View of the burned area we sprayed for weeds<\/p><\/div>\n

Besides assessing range health, we spent a day spraying noxious weeds in a designated wilderness area. \u00a0It was an inter-agency effort and we all wore backpacks of herbicide to hike to our target area along a beautiful river. The area we sprayed was burned over ten years ago and after the burn some nasty weeds took over. \u00a0The BLM has been very persistent about managing the weeds and their efforts here are a big success.<\/p>\n

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The crew hiking along the river with back-packs of herbicide.<\/p><\/div>\n

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School bus driving by while checking cattleguard<\/p><\/div>\n

Overall my experience here has been one to remember. \u00a0Once more plants start popping up and we are done checking on cattle allotments we will start our surveys of the flora along streams and creeks. \u00a0I will also start working with my mentor on\u00a0sensitive plant surveys and Seeds of Success collections. I am excited for all to come and feel very fortunate to be here representing the Chicago Botanical Gardens.<\/p>\n

Until next time,<\/p>\n

Leah<\/p>\n

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

Greetings from Southwest Montana! I recently moved to Montana from Las Vegas and began my internship at the Dillon Field Office. \u00a0Lots of land, cattle and ranches were some of the first things at task to deal with.\u00a0Working with Range … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55289"}],"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\/5999"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55289"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55338,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55289\/revisions\/55338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}