The butterfly survey was a lot of fun, especially since I got to work on it with Candace :).\u00a0 Callophrys johnsoni, <\/em>or Johnson’s hairstreak, is a rare butterfly that lives in Oregon and Washington.\u00a0 Its host is a Dwarf mistletoe that only grows on Western hemlock.\u00a0 Armed with\u00a0neon\u00a0orange safety vests, orange and blue hard hats,\u00a0heavy-duty boots, and a butterfly net, we walked\u00a0ever-so-slowly along a seldom used dirt road.\u00a0\u00a0Closely inspecting the\u00a0Western hemlock foliage with net in hand I looked like a recent insane asylum escapee.\u00a0 I received confirmation of the strangeness of my appearance not only from Candace, but also\u00a0when I talked to a group of\u00a0highschoolers and showed them photos: “Why are you wearing a hard hat when all you’re doing is looking for butterflies?”\u00a0\u00a0 The only reply I could think of: “It’s a dangerous job.” Cleaning seeds at a Botanic Garden isn’t quite so dangerous.\u00a0 Just slightly more glamorous, the job requires that you can remove extra plant debris from around seeds, count hundreds of them for many hours, and \u00a0package them in such a way that they have no chance of escaping.\u00a0 Stored in a walk-in refrigerator, the Garden’s collection of rare seeds is quite impressive.<\/p>\n I hope that all of your summers are going well.\u00a0 I am excited to be starting my Master’s program in Geography at Portland State University at the end of September- I hope to do my thesis on the impacts of climate change on Oregon endemic plant species.\u00a0 If any of you have ideas or resources, let me know!!<\/p>\n Take care,<\/p>\n Camille Duncan, BLM Oregon State Office, Portland, OR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the intern training in June\/July, I’ve worked on updating the BLM’s Oregon \u00a0State Office public botany webpage, tested a survey protocol for Johnson’s hairstreak butterfly with fellow intern Candace Fallon, cleaned seeds at the Berry Botanic Garden, and completed … Continue reading ![\"butterfly](\"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/butterfly-survey-camille1-224x300.jpg\")
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