Chiroptophilia - A Post-CNHP Adventure

By Savanna Smith
(former CNHP work study)

As a Chicago Botanic Garden Conservation and Land Management botany intern at the Shoshone Field Office of the BLM, my love for plants has grown exponentially this summer. I’ve gotten to know the best method for beating the seeds off a Purshia tridentata bush, smelled many a sagebrush, and puzzled over whether or not a Penstemon’s anthers dehisced from the center or the sides. However, I can’t deny my roots in the field of wildlife biology, which is what I studied as an undergraduate. As a climber, it seemed natural to be interested in bats since they often roost in the cracks and crevices only accessible to rock climbers. (For any other wildlife-enthusiast climbers out there, you should check out Climbers for Bat Conservation on Facebook, a cool citizen science project!) My undergraduate thesis research dealt with the acoustic side of bat science, but I didn’t participate in any of the field work for the data. So, you can imagine my excitement when I learned that I would get to assist in several bat-related projects this summer.

The first project involved setting up stationary acoustic bat detectors with Ross from Idaho Fish & Game - this work was conducted for the North American Bat Monitoring Program, a continent-wide protocol aimed at gathering data on the status and trends of bat populations across North America. After securing these detectors during the daylight, we waited until nightfall to conduct mobile acoustic surveys. This involves attaching a bat detector on top of the truck and driving at a constant speed for at least 25 km, all while recording the bats flying overhead. This was fun because I got to watch the calls coming in on a spectrogram in real time.

Last week, myself and other interns had the opportunity to attend a bat bioblitz - an event where scientists attempt to capture all the biodiversity in an area. We set up triple-high mist nets over the river and patiently waited for bats to fly in. We saw and recorded many bats, but only managed to trap two in the nets. Regardless, it was really cool seeing them up-close and learning how to take measurements. At our station, we captured an adult female silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) and a juvenile male Yuma myotis (Myotis yumanensis).

We camped out after the bioblitz and got a quick night of sleep before returning to the office for a day of caving in Gypsum lava tube, the second largest lava tube in the continental US! This was a new experience for me, and I enjoyed the pressing silence and impenetrable darkness that each bend in the passage concealed. In the tube, we found pack rats, a jackrabbit carcass, and even a few bat friends hanging out almost two miles into the tube! It was a great experience to put myself in such a different environment.

I’m thankful that this internship has allowed me to gain experience in a variety of areas, especially since bats are creatures I’ve been interested in for a long time. I only have six more weeks left here in Idaho, and I’m excited to see what’s next.

Sunset view before the mobile acoustic transect.

Adult female silver-haired bat. 

Juvenile male Yuma myotis. 

The entrance to Gypsum lava tube.

Jackrabbit carcass.

Kind of low quality photo of the inside of the tube - check out the multiple levels!

Neal Swayze's Crazy Daisy Adventure!

By Neal Swayze 

This past summer I was chosen as a Siegele Intern to work with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. The internship lasted a total of ten weeks, with eight individual trips to different locations all around Colorado. I asked for the total CNHP experience, and did I get one! Working with a total of ten CNHP mentors, I learned botany, biology, field protocols, flexibility, teamwork, adaptability, and much more. It was a challenge to constantly be traveling and learning new tasks each week, but it was wonderful and exciting. Fieldwork was described to me as exhausting but ultimately rewarding, and I wholeheartedly agree! Nothing can compare to camping, working and living outdoors all summer. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to meaningful conservation while having lots of fun.

Over the course of the summer, I traveled to Norwood, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado Springs, Steamboat Springs, Leadville, Gunnison, Pinyon Canyon Maneuver site, and Saguache County. I contributed to a wide variety of conservation work, including rare plant monitoring/surveys, wetland/ungulate use research, wildlife surveys, small mammal trapping, bat monitoring, sagebrush sampling, a bio-blitz, and finally pitfall trap setup/lizard surveys. It was an eventful summer, and I got a true taste of conservation research while learning the skills necessary to be a member of a conservation field crew. I learned how to be ready and flexible for anything nature could throw my way, while still enjoying the outdoors.

One of my favorite experiences was working on the wetlands at Great Sand Dunes National Park. I worked with other field techs to collect extensive quantitative measurements of wetland quality. We looked for traces of ungulate use including poop, grazing, and tracks. We also collected extensive botany data and water quality measurements. We had to dig small monitoring wells, as well as fix and repair broken ones. I learned how to thoroughly use a GPS, how to drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle, how to set up wetland monitoring plots, how to measure well depth, and how to use, clean, and maintain a water quality probe. I really enjoyed working with the park rangers and field techs, and I learned more than I could have ever expected.

It was a powerful experience to get out in the field, which was something I felt I was missing in my undergraduate education. I learned the value of raw experience, and how nothing else can replace walking around and observing the natural world. Learning from lectures and books is valuable and helpful, but nothing compares to learning out in the field. I highly recommend the CNHP Siegele internship, as I feel it helped catalyze my understanding of ecosystem ecology as well as link together previous knowledge from school with the real world. Plus, if you get the internship you get to see stunning, mild blowing sunsets, and many other beautiful natural vistas! It was a blast of a summer, and it was over before I knew it. I cannot wait to get back into the field, and back to conservation science. I look forwards to more adventures with the CNHP!

Sunset at Lake Catamount, Steamboat Springs.

Physaria pulvinata at Norwood.

Dee and Sarah conducting monitoring plots for Physaria pulvinata. 

Tyson looking out over the river that runs through Great Sand Dunes. 

Bobby, Neal and John after completing lizard pitfall traps in Pinyon Canyon. 

CNHP Paid Internships for Summer 2017!

CNHP is looking for up to six Colorado State University undergraduate students interested in expanding their knowledge and experience in conservation science. Interns will build skills in plant identification, vegetation sampling, animal monitoring and surveys, monitoring protocols, data collection, and describing conservation values. Interns will be paid $12/hr, with per diem provided for overnight field trips. Program begins June 12, 2017 and ends August 18, 2017. Applications are due by March 1, 2017.

For more information read the full announcement on our website here:
http://www.cnhp.colostate.edu/download/documents/jobs/CNHP%20Internship%202017.pdf

The 2016 Siegele Conservation Science interns. 

An Intern's Adventures (and Ant Bites)

By Alyssa Meier, CNHP Siegele Intern

I spent this past summer with CNHP as an Siegele intern. I worked on various projects all over the state and even got to travel to Yellowstone. It was a wonderful experience full of some great adventures, amazing views, occasional sunburns, and plenty of bug bites (a few too many of those, if you ask me).

I began the summer at two separate BioBlitzes, one at Brown’s Canyon near Buena Vista and the second at Spring Valley near Rifle.

Spring Valley Ranch.

The next few weeks I spent completing surveys for Arapahoe County, weed monitoring at the United States Air Force Academy, and wetland surveys in Huerfano County. I even spent some time in Montrose surveying the rare plant Eriogonum pelinophilum.

Perhaps most exciting of all was my trip to Yellowstone National Park for the GLORIA project. We spent a week in the back country of the Shoshone Wilderness just outside of the park for vegetation monitoring on several of the peaks.

Overall, this summer was very exciting for me. I learned so much about nearly everything, ranging from plants to birds to surveying techniques. It was educational and fulfilling. I wouldn’t have traded this opportunity for anything.

Northern Bobwhite at North Kiowa Arapahoe County property. 

Columbine in Huerfano County. 

Basecamp beneath the peaks – Shoshone Wilderness.

Siegele Summer Internship Launched With Bioblitzes

By Lydia Fahrenkrug

In the past two weeks, CNHP launched its Siegele internship program by attending three Bioblitzes. The first of these was in the recently designated Browns Canyon National Monument in Chaffee County. The following week, we co-hosted Bioblitzes at the Spring Valley and Rifle Ranches in Garfield County. A BioBlitz is an intensive period of biological surveying to find, identify, and record all the species within a designated area.

Early morning birding by Delia Malone, Mary Harris, Maddie, Alyssa Meier, Lydia Fahrenkrug, and John Sovell (left to right) at Rifle Ranch Bioblitz, in Rifle, CO

At Browns Canyon, the six interns, Lydia Fahrenkrug, Alyssa Meier, Blaise Newman, Gary Olds, Tyler Stratman, and Brandi Thomas, along with Director Dave Anderson, Pam Smith, and Scott Kellman, had an amazing time surveying the diverse landscapes and using the opportunity to work together with many different organizations and professionals. Students gained hands-on experience in a variety of disciplines, such as small mammal trapping, plant identifying and collecting, birding, insect collecting, and bat surveying. It was exciting to collaborate with different professionals while students were introduced and helped to achieve the goals of a Bioblitz.

Entering Browns Canyon National Monument for a full day of surveying, Chaffee Co.

Pam Smith, CNHP Botanist (left), works with CNHP intern, Brandi Thomas, (right) to identify plant in Browns Canyon National Monument, Chaffee Co.

For the Spring Valley Bioblitz near Carbondale, students were introduced and assisted in data collection for a Modified Whittaker Plot and helped to implement a Picture Post, which allows citizen scientists to take pictures at 9 permanent orientations over time to support environmental monitoring. We learned about the climate monitoring site being installed by the Aspen Global Change Institute by Elise Osenga and Adam Korenblat. At the Rifle Ranch Bioblitz in Rifle, students explored a riparian area and they were surprised by the amount of species they found on this ranch property. Additionally, it was exciting to have interns from the Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN) join CNHP and focus on pollinators at both of these ranches, and also to meet students and faculty from Colorado Mountain College who helped out at Spring Valley. At both ranches, we documented birds with the Roaring Fork Audubon Society, and learn about the ranches from the owners, John Powers and Jana Six. From the Bioblitzes, students learned valuable skills and gained important experience that will help leverage their field projects through the summer.

Implementation of Picture Post at Spring Valley Bioblitz, in Carbondale, CO by Adam Korenblat, Tyler Stratman, Blaize Newman, and David Anderson (left to right).

CNHP Staff Mentor Future Conservation Biologists

CNHP continues to take a lead role in developing the future conservation biologists in Colorado. Annually, CNHP mentors honors undergraduate students as they tackle research on rare species of Colorado. The most-recent graduate is Rachel Maison. Rachel is an honors student in the Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology Department. She conducted independent research on the occupancy and habitat associations of the hops blue butterfly (Celastrina humulus). She continued the research begun by Callie Puntenney in 2014, which was recently accepted as a publication in the Journal of Insect Conservation. Rachel’s research discovered that hops blue butterflies are prevalent on the U.S. Air Force Academy where there are large expanses of wild hops (Humulus lupulus). Wild hops is the host plant of the hops blue butterfly. Additionally, she found that hops blue butterflies are prevalent in areas where ant nests are abundant. Because many of the members of the blue butterfly family (Family: Lycaenidae) have larva that are tended by ants, Rachel incorporated ant-nest searches into her research project.

CNHP zoologist Rob Schorr (left) served as a mentor to CSU student Rachel Maison (right), helping her design and complete an independent research project on occupancy and habitat associations of hops blue butterfly (Celastrina humulus).

 

Let's Hear it For the Interns, Student Employees, and Volunteers!

CNHP gives a shout out to all of the students, volunteers, and interns that helped us make our 2015 field season a success! Thanks so much to the following individuals who supported our projects with their energy, enthusiasm, and hard work: Devanshi Kukadia, Abigail Bradley, Joe Tort, Caleb Freeman, Alison Hall, James Hunt, Dominik McLaren, and Maddie Micallef. Good luck on your future endeavors!

CNHP interns (from left) Caleb Freeman and Joe Tort, along with Alison Hall (student employee at Resources for Disabled Students) and David Anderson (CNHP director).

Interesting International Interdisciplinary Internship

For the last three years, CSU's Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department (HDNR) has been developing and implementing a program of collaborative capacity building efforts with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). A formal partnership was established between CSU and WII through the signing of an International Memorandum of Understanding in 2008 to carry out research and training initiatives focused on enhancing protected area management, mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts, and the incorporation of social sciences in conservation planning and decision making.

An internship opportunity was developed this past summer for Vinamra Mathur, a student from India who is currently an honors undergraduate in the Environmental Science Program at University of Manchester, UK. The goal of the internship was to provide opportunities for Vinamra to develop skills and experience in several aspects of environmental science as a volunteer intern working on projects for both HDNR and CNHP during the summer of 2011.

Vinamra with his improvised raingear and ready for anything. Photo by David G. Anderson.

Vinamra spent several weeks assisting CNHP Ecologist Joe Stevens and Botanist Bernadette Kuhn and their field crews with vegetation sampling and mapping in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Yellowstone National Park and Bighorn Canyon Recreation Area in Wyoming as a part of our GLORIA project. He then spent some time at the US Air Force Academy with CNHP Director Dave Anderson, where he saw some of the rarest plants in the area. Another day was spent with CNHP Botanist Pam Smith on surveys of rare plants and plant communities within Jefferson County.

Vinamra then spent a week with CNHP's wetland field sampling crew, led by Laurie Gilligan and Erick Carlson, sampling wetlands all across the state. On this trip Vinamra learned wetland sampling methods that are being used by CNHP as partners in EPA's National Wetland Condition Assessment. Another three days were spent in the field with John Sovell, CNHP Zoologist monitoring the Pawnee Montane Skipper. The Pawnee Montane Skipper is a federally threatened species of butterfly that occurs only in the South Platte River drainage of Colorado. In partnership with the USDA Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, CNHP has been monitoring this species since 2004.

Measuring weeds at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Photo by David G. Anderson.

After nearly 2 months in the field with CNHP, Vinamra spent some time in and around Fort Collins working with HDNR faculty and staff, learning about basic concepts and methodologies for examining the social aspects of natural resource management.

For all the details of Vinamra's summer internship at CSU, check out the full article in the Warner College of Natural Resources fall newsletter.

A Special Guest at CNHP

Dr. Vinod Mathur, Dean of the Wildlife Institute of India, visited CNHP last week. 

Dr. Mathur and CNHP Director Dave Anderson.

Dr. Mathur stopped at CSU to visit partners in the Warner College of Natural Resources on his way back to India from a conference in Pueblo, Mexico.  While he was here, many of us got a chance to meet Dr. Mathur.  It was interesting to learn that, despite the geographic distance between us, there are so many similarities between the conservation challenges and priorities in India and Colorado.  Noxious weeds, population growth, and limited natural resources are key concerns for both of our institutions, and the solutions often cross borders and continents!  

Dr. Mathur’s son, Vinamra, will be doing an internship with us this summer for about 2 months.  For his first month he will be a crew member on our GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments) project which will establish plots in alpine areas of Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone National Parks.  Vinamra will then help with other projects including wetland assessments, Jefferson County biological inventory, and our work at the U.S. Air Force Academy.  We are excited to work with Vinamra this summer!

CSU student involvement in CNHP

One of our work-study students, Katie Dykgreve, recently presented a poster at the 17^th annual Front Range Student Ecology Symposium about our newly improved Online Rare Plant Field Guide.  Katie and our website development intern Ryan Nelson, worked with CNHP Systems Administrator Garrett Pichler, Botany Team Leader Jill Handwerk, and Director Dave Anderson on the overhaul of the guide.  Her poster included a mock-up of what the concept for a page in the new online guide will look like when implemented.

 Katie discusses her poster.

Katie reported:

“Observers and presenters crowded the North Ballroom of the Lory Student Center where I eagerly waited to tell all who would listen about the Colorado Rare Plant Guide. Most of the posters represented research conducted by graduate students at CSU as well as a presentation of sea turtles by a local elementary school. I enjoyed talking to a graduate student from Mongolia whose father is a botanist and conducts rare plant surveys in protected areas in her home country. Overall, FRSES is an amazing experience and I look forward to participating in it again next year not only to represent CNHP but also to show off the great projects we are working on here.”

Thanks for showing off the new guide Katie!

Supporting Students

CNHP is affiliated with the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University and, as such, we routinely engage CSU students and collaborate with faculty in our work. Not only do we employ many current and former CSU students in both permanent and temporary positions, we also engage students through lectures, internships, work-study opportunities, field trips, and assistance with thesis and research projects. CNHP is proud of the growing role we play in the excellent education CSU students receive. Students that have worked with us in various capacities have gone on to become leaders in the conservation and natural resources fields.

Here are some statistics for 2010:

Lectures given by CNHP employees as guests in WCNR classes:	18
CNHP staff with instructor roles:	3
Students employed at CNHP:	12
Credits earned by CSU students for internships at CNHP:	4
Work-study hours completed at CNHP:	458

CNHP Outreach Intern Kevin Adams got to meet U.S. Senator Mark Udall while at the 2010 Colorado Stewardship Forum this past November.

Two new internships with CNHP

We have two new internship opportunities available for students enrolled at Colorado State University. The Colorado Natural Heritage Program is housed within the Warner College of Natural Resource's Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology and as such, we are usually able to host a number of internships every year.

Conservation Outreach Internship - The needs for raising awareness of conserving Colorado's biodiversity resources have never been greater. This internship, made possible by the Warner Minigrant from the Warner College of Natural Resources, represents a rare and important opportunity for CNHP to move forward in promoting its mission and resources while providing an opportunity for an intern to assist with this effort.

The goal of this internship is to raise awareness of CNHP's role in Colorado and promote CNHP's mission to connect science and conservation. This will include proactive steps towards making key people more aware of Colorado's biodiversity conservation challenges, and raising awareness of the resources CNHP can offer to address these challenges. Forming additional ties within CSU to promote collaboration between students, faculty, researchers, and institutional leadership is another goal that CNHP hopes to advance through this internship.

This internship is intended to provide a unique opportunity to one or more students that can help enhance their skills in program development and outreach. The intern(s) will work independently much of the time and will be given freedom to develop an outreach program based on their particular interests and strengths as they relate to CNHP's mission and needs.

Website Development Internship - The continuing development of CNHP's website is critical to our ability to continue to meet the needs of Colorado's conservation community. This internship, made possible by funds through the Warner Minigrant, represents a unique opportunity to make continued improvements to our site.

This internship is intended to provide a unique opportunity to one or more students that can help enhance their skills in website development. The intern(s) will work independently much of the time. The internship will begin with identifying a discrete website upgrade that the intern will implement from start to finish between August and December, 2010.

More information about both internship opportunities and how to apply can be found here. Closing date to apply is August 20, 2010.

News from afar - former CNHP intern checks-in from Indonesia

Note - Jessica Parker, CSU Human Dimensions of Natural Resources graduate and former intern for CNHP, has moved on to her dream job helping with orangutan rehabilitation efforts in Indonesia. Here is an update from her regarding all the great work she has been doing. If you would like to read more, be sure to check out Jessica's blog. Thanks for the update, Jessica, and keep up the good work!

Hello! Since leaving CNHP in May, I have had many new adventures while working for Orangutan Foundation International in Kalimantan, Indonesia. During the month of June, I was part of a dynamic volunteer team from around the globe that built a new bridge between one of the pondoks, housing young rehabilitant orangutans, and the surrounding peat swamp tropical rainforest. In just three weeks, our team of inexperienced workers built over 250 meters of bridge out of locally grown ironwood! You may ask how a bridge is contributing the conservation of orangutans. Well, indirectly, the bridge is a critical part of the rehabilitation process that will help to return over 300 young orangutans to the wild and contribute to the long term survival of the orangutan species. How? The bridge extends the amount of forest that the rehabilitants have access to during "jungle school," where they learn critical survival skills including the identification and processing of food, arboreal locomotion, and social interaction. After we finished our work, our group had tears in our eyes as we watched the first group of orangutans tumble down the bridge, racing towards the forest and a future in the wild.

Jessica at the new bridge she and other volunteers built.

Since the completion of the bridge, I have been working as the Environment Enrichment Fellow at the Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine (OCCQ) in Pasir Panjang. What does this work entail? In short, the goal of enrichment is improving the quality of life for captive animals through the provision of novel objects and manipulation of their environment. For primates, enrichment can be summed up as trying to be smarter than they are; we often wonder if we are enriching the orangutans or they are enriching us! I am providing enrichment for 75 orangutans, a playful Malaysian sun bear, and a beautiful cassowary, and they are providing me with an unforgettable glimpse into the lives of some of Indonesia's most charismatic and endangered species.

Jessica of the Jungle!

There are more than 320 orangutans at the rehabilitation center and enrichment is a vitally important tool in the survival toolbox, stimulating the complex learning process that can take more than seven years in the wild. For most of the orangutans, enrichment consists of daily trips to the 80 hectare forest surrounding the facility. The orangutans at the veterinary pondok where I work often cannot participate in these trips to the forest due to a variety of reasons, such as physical disabilities, so they are given special enrichment within their enclosures. Every day, we hand out truckloads of acacia branches to stimulate foraging, nest building, and play. Well, those are the activities we hope to encourage but the orangutans have some of their own ideas. The acacia fruit makes the orangutans foam at the mouth and they spend several enjoyable minutes rubbing the soapy fluid up and down their arms before they gleefully slurp it off. Others use the branches as very stylish headwear and walk around like Roman gods with wreaths of acacia rather than olive leaves. The most mischievous use the branches as whips as they hang from the top of their enclosures and assail their comrades with occasional whacks across the back.

We also make swings and hammocks from recycled tires and plastic barrels, which keep the hairy orange residents physically and mentally active as they romp and learn how to dismantle our work. Locally produced rattan balls are filled with peanuts and raisins, creating a puzzle for the young orangutans to solve. Tool production and use are encouraged by smearing the inside of PVC pipes with peanut butter. Branches must be carefully selected, stripped of leaves, and then used to scrap off the sticky treat. Miniature scavenger hunts are created by hiding popcorn and raisins under the orangutan night nests. The older ones merely raise their eyebrows at this game as if asking if we really thought they did not know where we hid the goodies.

A friend catches a ride on Jessica's back.

The younger orangs and those that are convalescing from illness, malnutrition, or surgery are given thick towels for comfort and warmth, towels that can be used as cloaks, nest liners, food holders, seat cushions, and tents. It is always enjoyable to walk through the special care section and see a whole host of dark eyes gazing at you from under different colored security blankets. In addition to the emotional and cognitive enrichment that we are providing, nutritional enrichment has also become a focus of my work for the special care orangutans that have suffered from malnutrition, anemia, depression, etc. Their daily fruit diet is supplemented by fortified milk, eggs, peanuts, and raisins to provide additional vitamins, minerals, calories, protein, and fat. The results are already evident: there has been an increase in activity, appetite, and overall health in many of these orangutans. For example, Ulin, a small twelve year old female who had suffered from severe malnutrition in captivity, would not eat and spent most of her time curled up in a ball in a lethargic stupor. She has become a new orangutan, eating a wide variety of foods, interacting with other orangutans during her outings, and building nests each night inside her tire swing. She recently became a Colorado Rockies Fan after we found an official Rockies towel in town for her! Now that she has been elevated to royal status, she arranges her branches and towel into a towering nest that she lazily lays on, feeding herself with her feet; Queen Ulin at your service!

I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment when I look at Ulin and see how my enrichment work has vastly improved her quality of life. Today, we took her for a walk and she spent the majority of her time at the top of a tall tree, foraging on fruit and leaves and gazing into the distance. Is she thinking what we are thinking about the future of her species in the wild? We will never know but what we do know is that Ulin is an ambassador for her species, an ambassador that reminds us of the importance of our work: to orangutans, to biodiversity, and to the entire planet.

A Summer At Home

by Dawson White

During the summer of 2009 I had the privilege of being a botany intern of the Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP), and I do mean privilege. Over the course of 10 weeks, western-slope field botanist Peggy Lyon was my personal mentor in all things Plantae. As a born naturalist and emerging botanist, this was the best job I have ever had.

Dawson hanging over Unaweep Canyon, where he updated an occurrence of Heuchera rubescens (pink alumroot), a critically imperiled (S1) species in Colorado.

The western slope, specifically the San Juans, had been home all my life prior to coming to Colorado State University. For three years, I was lucky enough to study as a botany field intern for the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Project in southeastern Peru, and so was not able to see much of my treasured western Colorado. This past summer (2009) I was longing for a good dose of Colorado bluebird-days. After meeting with CNHP Director Dave Anderson and Botany Team Leader Jill Handwerk, I knew I was going to be exposed to some of the most magnificent terrain western Colorado has to offer; and even more exciting, I would be working under one of the top field botanists of the region, Peggy Lyon.

Rare Plant Surveys and monitoring projects were our focus, contracted through various organizations, including the BLM, Forest Service, The Mountain Studies Institute, and The Nature Conservancy. These contracts took Peggy and me to some of the most beautiful places in the West, ranging from the top of spectacular peaks near Telluride, to the Colorado River at the Utah border, the lowest point in western Colorado. I spent every week in a tent in the sticks, right at home, and would return to Telluride on the weekends to get cultured alongside the old friends.

Dawson setting up a monitoring plot for Physaria pulvinata in Lone Mesa State Park.

Needless to say, I saw several bluebird-days, each better than the previous. But my biggest feeling of accomplishment came from the wealth of knowledge I gained about our native flora and the conservation initiatives that are being realized because of our efforts. In addition to the rare plants we were tracking, we would make a complete species list of every site we visited, just for fun. At this point my Weber (Colorado Flora) is tattered and brown, a great sight. I learned a large portion of our native plants and can quickly identify any plant to family, and usually genus and species too.

Our surveys and monitoring projects were essential in the progression of conservation and stewardship of our western Colorado lands. The Dominguez Wilderness, for example, was recently granted wilderness status and it was the job of CNHP to produce the regional rare plant report so that the BLM could establish a reasonable buffer zone. Not many individuals can say he or she has successfully helped to conserve a speck of our diminishing wild lands, but thanks to the chance to work with dedicated and talented scientists and professionals at Colorado Natural Heritage Program, I can say that my work helped enact historical conservation legislation! This is an organization that deserves all of our support; for the success of this institution means the success of environmental consciousness and stewardship.

CNHP intern reports on her summer in the field

By Jessica Parker, CNHP intern

Jessica modeling the best in wetland ecologist wear

As the first intern that CNHP has officially hosted from the department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at CSU, I would like to share the incredible experience that I have had this summer. The thrill of documenting the presence of a rare plant species, the satisfaction of crawling into a sleeping bag after a long but successful day in the field, and the pleasure of feeling like a valued and respected member of such a well-recognized organization, means my time spent at CNHP has truly been time well spent. From the amazingly beautiful canyonlands and shortgrass prairie of southeast Colorado to the diverse wetlands of Gilpin and Jackson Counties…from catching butterflies and toads with Zoologist John Sovell to analyzing the spread and control of invasive weed species with Ecologist Renée Rondeau and Director Dave Anderson, this field season has been extremely diverse, incredibly enriching, and downright exciting at times.

Photographing a Texas Horned Lizard

(barely visible in the photo, but it's there!)

I will always remember dangling Ecologist Joe Stevens off the side of a cliff by his ankles so he could collect a rare plant, jumping in the Purgatoire River after a long hot morning in the field, and swabbing a boreal toad between his toes to check for chytrid fungus. Most importantly however, I will never forget the knowledge that was passed on to me from CNHP concerning zoology, botany, ecology, and conservation biology; knowledge that I plan to apply in the future as a graduate student and biologist. So which project was my favorite to work on? The truthful answer is: …all of them! From taking soil samples in wetlands with Ecologist Dee Malone to identifying willow species with Botanist Janis Huggins; I have seen, experienced, and learned about the some of the best that Colorado has to offer!

Jessica and John Sovell reflecting on a long day’s work