{"id":87922,"date":"2024-08-05T14:37:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T21:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=87922"},"modified":"2024-08-05T14:37:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T21:37:14","slug":"first-month-at-malheur-nf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=87922","title":{"rendered":"First month at Malheur NF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a little over three weeks in the Malheur it both feels like I\u2019ve been working here for years, and like I have no idea what I\u2019m doing. We hit the ground running on our first day compiling data on our target species and have since been out in the field scouting nonstop. We\u2019re looking for a series of grasses and forbs in the forest with large enough populations to collect seeds from for future restoration projects. Our primary focus this season is riparian species, so we’ve been searching through wet meadows, streambanks, and springs. As you can imagine, the mosquitos have been insufferable and seem to have a special affinity for my blood. Yet, we persevere! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve never lived in a town as small as John Day, and within my first 4 hours in the area, a man who called himself \u2018the candyman\u2019 gave me free fudge (creepy? maybe! But it was good fudge), four deer ran past me and crossed the street at the crosswalk, and at least six deer were laying around in our front yard. This may seem commonplace to those of you who grew up in smaller towns, but as someone who has only lived in cities, I was pretty pumped. If I didn\u2019t know about the issues with habituation, they would be my buddies by now.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pictured: A doe taking in the shade of our bunkhouse on the day I arrived.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve had several run-ins with animals in the field. On our second day, we helped with a bumblebee survey and a bold little chipmunk posed for us for our entire lunch break. One week in, we accidentally herded a group of humongous cows for at least two miles because they couldn\u2019t figure out how to move to the side of the road. While scouting in the Murderer\u2019s Creek area, Ivy and I encountered wild horses. I knew they existed in the area from a little anecdote about them on one of our maps, but it was completely different seeing them in person. I\u2019d never seen a group of horses all the same color together, and it was hard to believe they were real.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pictured: Sleepy bumblebee waking up from the ice bath we put her in after collecting her in the field. No bumblebees were harmed in the implementation of this survey!<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pictured: One of many poses from aforementioned attention-seeking chipmunk.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pictured: Murderer\u2019s creek wild horses<\/em>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In real news, our first few weeks have been very productive. We\u2019ve identified over 75 populations of our target species, taken over 30 vouchers of suitable populations for collection, and started our first seed collection. An hour of collecting from a population of Ranunculus occidentalis<\/em> yesterday gave us about 10g of seed. While this is a long way away from the nursery\u2019s aim of 500g (a loooong way away), it\u2019s a start!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pictured: <\/em>Ranunculus occidentalis seeds collected on July 1st<\/sup>.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pictured: Ivy looking through our initial <\/em>Ranunculus collection.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pictured: Scouting points dropped as of 7\/1.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That’s all for now!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until next month,  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

June 2024 At a little over three weeks in the Malheur it both feels like I\u2019ve been working here for years, and like I have no idea what I\u2019m doing. We hit the ground running on our first day compiling … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7652,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[3634],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87922"}],"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\/7652"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89276,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87922\/revisions\/89276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}