The End

Well, it was a good run. I absolutely loved my time in Bishop and learned a ton! But for personal reasons I returned to Sacramento. I'm still with BLM, working in the California State Office, doing biology from a desk. Although it may not be as fun as the field, I'm still able to advocate for wildlife on projects throughout the state.

So this chapter of my blog is closed. I'm leaving it up, but I'll no longer be updating it with cool field visits and pictures. Darn.

hugs,
Lily

Sorting out Sagebrush

There are numerous species of sagebrush (Artemesia sp.). They're not always easily identifiable in the field, but communities of different sagebrush species have different levels of productivity, may support different wildlife species, and respond to fire differently. So it's important for us to know which is which. A number of keys exist to assist us.


our botanist, Martin, settles down with a sagebrush and a selection of keys
Interestingly, when the leaves of different species are put into water and viewed with a UV light, they fluoresce differently. Not practical in the field, but it allows us to test our field IDs back in the office. Although sitting in a dark office lighting up tubes of sagebrush leaves does make other coworkers wonder...

The photo didn't come out as well as I hoped, but you can see that the left two tubes are fluorescing, and the rightmost isn't. Second from the right did fluoresce slightly.

from left to right: Artemesia tridentata vaseyana (mountain big sagebrush), Artemesia arbuscula (low sagebrush), Artemesia tridentata wyomingensis (Wyoming big sagebrush), Artemesia tridentata tridentata (basin big sagebrush)
Rosentreter, R. 2005. Sagebrush Identification, Ecology, and Palatability Relative to Sage-grouse. USDA Forest Service Preceedings RMRS-P-38. (pdf, external link)

Owls and Toads

Just sharing a couple fun wildlife sightings during a busy field day!


juvenile (left) and adult (right) burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia)


a Great Basin spadefoot toad (Spea intermontana) metamorph poses on my SAVE THE FROGS! bracelet

Devil's Postpile and Manzanar

My parents came for a visit, giving me an excuse to check out two National Park sites I'd yet to see.

First, we took the shuttle down to the Devil's Postpile National Monument, a small park established around its namesake. The postpile is a formation of columnar basalt, appearing so unnatural that according to legend Basque settlers in the area believed it could only have been created by the Devil.

The following day, we visited the Manzanar National Historic Site, the location of an internment camp for Japanese-Americans in the 1940s. The site is beautifully interpreted, with highly informative displays in the visitor center preparing you for an auto tour through the grounds. Definitely worth a visit; we thought we'd be there an hour at most, but didn't leave until three hours later. The park is a moving tribute to that dark time in our history.

Potato Fire Revisited

Remember the Potato Fire? Our botanist and I headed out on a stormy day to see how the vegetation is recovering. We'll be setting up some formal trend plots later, but we wanted to get out there to see what's coming back and get a good plant list going. We surveyed through rain, hail, snow, and grauple, but had a successful day!

	mists over the Bodie Hills
	sagebrush skeletons in the mists
	how many wildflower species can you find?

Saline Valley Salt Tram

The Saline Valley Salt Tram is buried deep in the Inyo Mountains Wilderness, accessible by one of two rather frightening 4WD roads. A group of us took a trip up to evaluate a fuel treatment project in the area.

The Salt Tram was constructed between 1910 and 1913 to transport salt being mined in Saline Valley across the Inyo Mountains and into Owens Valley where it could be processed and shipped. Specially-designed gondolas each moved 800 pounds of salt along the 13.5 mile tram through a series of towers. The control station at the summit allowed the gondolas to move from one side to the other without stopping.

More information than you could ever want is available at The Waag Brothers' Saline Valley Salt Tram Blog.

looking down on the control tower and caretaker's cabin

within the control tower

view out into Saline Valley

view out into Owens Valley

Back down in Owens Valley, we stopped by a neat petroglyphs site near Swansea.

believed to represent an atlatl

bighorn sheep!

Color on the Tablelands

Wildflower season may have gotten off to a bit of a slow start, but the Volcanic Tablelands just north of Bishop are currently covered in color!

	Malacothrix glabrata desert dandelion
	Mentzelia nitens Venus blazing star
	Sphaeralcea ambigua apricot mallow and Chaenactis fremontii desert pincushion
	Lupinus sp. and Malacothrix glabrata