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<\/a><\/dt>\nThe following week, we went into the field with folks from the BLM in Meeker, Colorado and from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program to scout for White River penstemon (Penstemon scariosus albifluvis<\/i>). The first day was pretty uneventful, but on the second day we discovered a new population! We spent the day scrambling up and down steep shaley slopes, mapping the population. One of the women working with us later confided that she was 87 years old! She was trekking up mountains just as well as the young bloods. I\u2019m totally going to be that person when I get older – still working field days in the desert after retirement age.<\/p>\n Hector and I also revisited some plant populations that we had been monitoring. Our first collection was the Streptanthella longistrosis<\/i> at McCoy Flats. Collecting the long siliques\u00a0 spoiled me as the seed picking was relatively quick and easy between just the two of us. Later that day, our field office hosted a safety day for all its employees and I got to change a flat tire and use an extinguisher to douse a fake fire.<\/p>\n For the rest of the week, we teamed up with botanists from SWCA, an environmental consulting firm, to conduct yearly Sclerocactus<\/i> monitoring. We used quadrats to collect data on canopy cover, including that of Cyanobacteria<\/i> and lichen. One of the women from SWCA had done her thesis on biological soil crusts and told us that in some desert environments, Cyanobacteria<\/i> is the only nitrogen fixer present! Protocol also dictated that we collect 10% of the cactus seeds which was pretty cool since I\u2019ve never seen cactus seed before.<\/p>\n This past week was devoted to the CLM Workshop at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. The majority of this year’s interns were present and it was great to be around so many other young people with similar interests. Not only did I learn more about Seeds of Success, but I also got a crash course in Botany of the West, and a refresher on monitoring and management methods. All of the speakers who presented to us were fantastic and they definitely inspired me to continue on my path to be an ecologist!<\/p>\n \u201cThe world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.\u201d BLM Vernal Field Office<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s already been a month since my last blog post. We\u2019ve been crazy busy here in Vernal and time is flying by! Since my last post, we\u2019ve revisited the White River and set up our monitoring … Continue reading \n
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\nII John Muir II<\/p>\n