Route 309/319

My final field experience to this point was with Jude Carino, an archaeologist for the BLM. Jude was the first director of the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center and had a direct hand in putting everything together to make the beautiful museum. We met later in the morning (he, like myself, is not much of a morning person) and drove out to Bessemer Bend. I had already been there once with Eve, but this time our conversation ventured in a different direction.

We spent several hours in the car talking about the overall history of the trail corridor, the history of this particular site as well as goals and thoughts on place based education. Our original plan was to sit outside and visit, but in true Casper form, the Wyoming wind made that choice quite difficult. Jude had more information and "factoids" to share than I could possibly record and I gave up trying to write everything down and just listened. 



It was after this experience when my final project began to formally take shape in my mind. I wanted students and visitors to be able to tell the story of the land, particularly the river. The majority of the information Jude shared with me, I used to create my site introduction assignment as his expertise gave the background for the site. 

We took the driving route along county road 319 from Bessemer Bend and ended our day at Devil's Gate. Throughout the day, we stopped to look at historically significant sites such as gravesite markers, names carved into the Avenue of Rocks, the Willow Spring, Prospect Hill and Independence Rock with a few other historically significant stops along the way. 

As we drove just past Martin's Cove to park near Devil's Gate, we saw a man walking quite slowly along the highway. As we parked, he told us his name, NimbleWill Nomad and he was walking the Oregon Trail all the way from Independence, Missouri. This particular day was brutally windy and we could see in his eyes the effect of his journey. I could see that he was probably experiencing the same emotions the pioneers were feeling as he was on the trail about the same time of the year the pioneers would have been. He recited a poem called "How the West Was Won" and gave us his card. I pulled up his website only to find that this was one of more than a dozen "Odysseys" he has made since 1998. He records a daily journal entry and sure enough, the wind had a definite effect on his spirits. Visit his website and read his journal. One important thing you should know, NimbleWill Nomad is 77 years old and he started this journey April 28. I found a video on YouTube, definitely worth watching. I've included the video below. I love the way he shares the poetry. 

An excerpt from NimbleWill Nomad's Journal describing the day we met
Read the entire journal here: Odyssey 2014 Oregon National Historic Trail

Wednesday—June 18, 2014
Trap Day—51
Trail Mile—00.0/900.6
Location—Martin’s Cove by Devil’s Gate (short of Turkey Track Ranch)

The cold wind started blowing, bringing rain late night—yet another cold front driving through. I manage to doze again, but awake at first light, very cold. No more sleep till the sun arrives—which lasts 20-minutes. Got my fly fully rigged, so the interior of my tent warmed some.

A real ordeal breaking camp, what with my bum shoulder, and now sticks-for-fingers. I’m not pack up and trekking till nearly nine.

Gonna be another head down and grind it out day—with hands in my pockets to try keeping them from complaining too much.

Three more miles of Trail-under-road, then back to the highway on west to Independence Rock, and Devil’s Gate at Martin’s Grove.

The wind is blowing hard, 25-35, out of the northwest. I lean into it while trying to think positive thoughts. But with each passing eighteen-wheeler (and there are many), that process gets harder and harder as I struggle to stay upright and on the road shoulder. By the time I reach Independence Rock I’m fighting back tears—from the brutally cold wind—and my emotional fight with this disheartening day. Arriving Independence Rock was to be a time of exhilaration and celebration, not this. I take a few pictures, get a video of the flag being near ripped from its halyard, and I turn and move on, best I can, toward Martin’s Cove.

By Devil’s Gate, on the old highway, a car stops. I meet Jude (another BLM fellow) and Amanda. They both wish me well as they see me struggling against the unyielding wind. Thanks, Jude and Amanda, for stopping and for your kind encouragement!

View his video journals here: NimbleWill Nomad

We ended our day with a hike to the top of Devil's Gate. It was truly an adventure as we took a different path to minimize the effects of the wind. At the top, we have a nearly unobstructed view of the Sweetwater River as it passes through the canyon, in addition to the beautiful landscape views of the area. Because of the significant precipitation, there is actually green in the landscape, rather than the usual shades of brown.

Rangeland Health Evaluations

Today I woke up ridiculously early (well, for me and for the summer) to venture out with a Rangeland Evaluation Team. The team consisted of several wildlife biologists, a hydrologist, range specialists and a few other people (there were about 10 total people so I didn't catch everyone's name and title). According to the blm.gov website, "the purpose of the standards and guidelines... is to proved a measure (standard) to determine land health, and methods (guidelines) to improve the health of the public rangelands... The objective of the Healthy Rangelands Initiative is to implement the intent of the legislative authorities to promote healthy, sustainable rangeland ecosystems; to accelerate restoration and improvement of public lands to properly functioning conditions; and to provide for the sustainability of the variety of uses and the communities that are dependent upon productive, healthy public lands." 

In plain English? The team goes to look at a piece of land to determine the health of the land area on six standards. Usually, the evaluations occur when the BLM is determining whether or not to renew a grazing lease. Often the BLM manages and has to review split ownership land which means the surface may be privately owned but the government owns the subsurface mineral rights. 

The six main standards that a land area is evaluated on are soil erosion, riparian zones, upland vegetation, wildlife habitat, water quality and air quality. These evaluations are much more qualitative than quantitative, but both types of data are included. The diagram to the right gives a basic description of the difference between qualitative and quantitative data. The increased amount of qualitative data is one of the reasons that a team of experts evaluates the land, rather than just one person. By doing so, a more unbiased evaluation is completed. 

The team looks at multiple sections, or transects, in order to collect more data, however, there is still a limitation in the data that they collect that is acknowledged by the team in the final report. 

Site information
The particular site we were evaluating had actually had a small fire on it a few weeks before we had arrived. The amount of precipitation we have had actually prevented this fire from becoming worse than it was. The combustion point for the fire was in a tree located at the bottom of a small canyon. Had the area been dryer, the fire could have easily rushed up the canyon causing more damage to the landscape. One of effects of a fire, natural or prescribed burn- is the soil becomes hydrophobic. Hydrophobic soil repels the water and causes it to sit on top of the surface rather than absorbing. This becomes an issue when precipitation occurs, the soil will rush off in sheets (the cause of the major landslides in California), carrying with it any natural vegetation or seed base that could restore the land cover after a fire. 

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) 

Before going to the field, the team reviews the Ecological Site Description (ESD) from the NRCS. These reports are housed and approved sites are available to view by the public on the NRCS's website. "Any land inventory, analysis and resulting management decisions require the knowledge of these individual sites and their interrelations to one another on the landscape." The four main sections of the report are site characteristics, plant communities, site interpretations and supporting information. There is so much information housed in just one report that I was a little overwhelmed. One interesting piece of information in the report is the section that shows plant preference by animal type. It lists all the plant types and the preference by animals such as antelope, cattle, deer, elk, horses and sheep and whether the plant type is preferred, desirable, undesirable, not consumed, emergency, toxic, or used, but degree of utilization unknown. Looking at the ESD gives the team an idea of what "should" be seen at the site in its natural state and significant variations in the area alert the team to a potential issue that needs to be investigated further. 

Download the full view of an ESD Report
Ecological Site Description: Shallow Loamy (SwLy) 10-14" P.Z., High Plains Southeast 

Evaluations

Upon arrival at the site, the team split into two main groups- one who conducted a belt transect of canopy cover and the other who conducted a land cover transect and soil surface factor. I spent that majority of my time observing the wildlife biologists examining the canopy cover and estimations of cover class with a belt transect. 

The purpose of the belt transect is to count how many shrubs (woody plants such as rabbit brush and sagebrush) are located along the 100 foot transect. They count the number of each species that are young (haven't reached seeding yet), mature (at the seeding stage), dead and decadent (declining life cycle). 

The next part of the evaluation is using the Daubenmire frame to also look at canopy cover, frequency and composition of the section by species type.  The Daubenmire frame is a 10 x 20 inch (internal dimensions) rectangle made of PVC with colored sections along the frame. The colored sections help the team to visually estimate the percentage of land cover (less than 5%, 5-25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and greater than 100%). This is a perfect example of where the qualitative and quantitative methods overlap and may cause experimental error. The team, however, works to give the overall best evaluation possible under the constraints of being human. Placing the frame along the transect every 10 feet, one specialist calls out species while another records the information on the data sheet. After looking at all ten sections, they take an average to give an estimate of land cover for the site. 

The other team looked more closely at the specific species contained in a 100 square foot transect.  They used a rake looking tool (I don't know the actual name of that tool) that also breaks up the section of land and they would record the exact names and number of each species in each section divided up by the rake spikes. The hydrologist also completes a soil surface factor to look at the patterns of erosion. Certain types of soil can cause more erosion than others and he looked at patterns of potential water flow. 

We did come across some wildlife besides cicadas and other insects, including an elk and a bull snake. Bull snakes are not poisonous but when they bite, their fangs can break off inside the skin and are full of bacteria. Lucky for me, I was venturing about with a couple a guys who were willing to grab the snake so I could see it closer. I love the detail that my new camera allows me to capture. 

There is far more information that I observed and learned than I can possibly impart and explain in a single blog post. It is certainly interesting to me how my perspective of landscape and land cover has changed. I have some great tools and concepts that will work great in my curriculum designing for the Hands on the Land program as well as my personal classroom. My ideas on what to make of this project is starting to formulate in my mind. 

BLM Outdoor Recreation Planner

I just completed my first successful field experience with a BLM expert. I spent the day with Eve Skillman who serves as the Outdoor Recreation Planner for the Casper Field Office. Basically, after the BLM purchases or is trusted a piece of land, Eve is given a basic idea of the the objective and the resources connected to the area and she designs a conceptual plan for the area. With a background in graphic design and an interest in the outdoors, she said her job is always changing and keeps her on her toes. Eve works with specialists, like an engineer, hydrologists, wildlife biologists and rangeland specialists to design a plan that meets requirements for accessibility and drainage. Once the plan is developed, the funding for the project is determined through general project funds and/or additional grants, if needed. Long-term maintenance is calculated and then the project goes to contract.

On our adventure, we started at Gray Reef Access and visited most of the recreation sites along the North Platte River up to Bessemer Bend Public Fishing Area. Throughout the day, we talked about the challenge BLM faces with making the land accessible to the public and recreationists, but how to also preserve the landscape and wildlife. Eve explained how she tries to design the facilities to match the landscape, in both color and the construction. For example, by making the main support beams follow the lines of the land, the shelter blends into the landscape and makes the man-made amenity less intrusive. There are over 100 million visitors to this section of the river every year, so it is critical that each site is designed to balance recreation and conservation in the natural habitat. 

Our adventure took the entire day and I learned that this section was only a small portion of the land the Casper Field Office manages. The BLM on a national level manages 264 million acres of public lands found primarily in the Western portion of the US. There is also 700 million acres of subsurface mineral resources located throughout the country. While the state of Wyoming has over 17.5 million acres of public land and 40.7 million acres of subsurface mining estate, the Casper Field Office alone manages nearly 20 million acres!! That is a lot of land!! 

BLM has field rangers who patrol the public lands similar to park rangers and game and fish wardens to monitor the land area and I found it surprising that the Casper Field Office has only one ranger. That means one person to patrol of 30,000 square miles of land! We ran into the Casper ranger and I hope to be able to ride along with him at some point during my internship. So I'll save my description of his role for later.

Below are some images and facts about a few of the sites I visited today. If you haven't had a chance to visit any, I would recommend taking some time this summer to explore the beautiful public lands we have available to us in Wyoming. 

You could, at one time, view and download the North Platte River Float and Access Guide, however, it appears that with their website redesign it is no longer accessible online. This showed the locations and amenities for the sites as well as which sections along the river are public and private land.

Gray Reef Access Area, Blue Gulch Trailhead, The Redds, Pete's Draw

• The Bureau of Reclamation manages the Gray Reef Access Area while Natrona County Parks maintains the facilities
• This site is a spawning habitat for trout so fishing is prohibited during the month of April
• One challenge at this site was to design a pathway that allowed pedestrian accessibility, but didn't drain and cause the run-off to flow into the river damaging the trout spawning habitat
• Just off the bank at Blue Gulch Trailhead, there are bat boxes. These help to reduce mosquitos without having to use pesticide sprays.
• At the Redd's, the BLM is working on reducing invasive species. Because of the heavy clay soil in the area, reseeding is difficult which is a major challenge to reintroduce native species. They are also looking to increase the number of woody trees while they attempt to reduce the amount of cheat grass and Russian Olives.
• The unique design of the drying soil was interesting to me. You can, however, see in the texture of the soil that it has a high clay content.

Lusby Public Fishing Area

• This is an important area for fishing both recreationally and commercially. In order to reduce the impact on the habitat, only a certain number of permits are allocated each year for commercial guiding companies. There are many guiding companies that continue to operate without a permit or with an expired permit hoping no one will notice. It was interesting to hear Eve talk about the talking points from each side of the debate. 
• Russian Olives are another invasive species. In the image to the right, you can see the different colors of the cut branches indicating how recent they were cut. The more color, the more recent the cut.

Trapper's Route Special Recreation Management Area

• Trapper's Route is continually being monitored to balance recreation, habitat preservation and wildlife along the North Platte River. I knew about a few of these sites but have come to discover that there are some very beautiful campsites.
• Golden Currant is tucked back along the river and I love the fact that it is walk in only (meaning there won't be any RV generators hindering my camping experience). There is easy access to the river which makes it a great place to stop on a long kayaking adventure.