March is Women’s History Month, and throughout the month, we'll be highlighting some notable women in BLM. Every day, the women of the Bureau of Land Management help the agency make history and fulfill our multiple-use mission.
In November 2018, the BLM honored Corrine (Cory) Coffman, the Environmental Education Specialist at the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Idaho, with the INSPirational Interpretation and Resource Education (INSPIRE) Award.The INSPIRE award recognizes employees involved with interpretation and/or education who have made significant contributions to BLM programs, initiatives, projects and/or events.
Janet Ady, Washington Office Division Chief of Education, Interpretation, and Partnerships, presented the award at the 2018 National Association for Interpretation's conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Cory was instrumental in the planning and execution of the many events that marked the 25th anniversary of the designation of the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. She was on the coordinating committee for the 25th Anniversary Kick-Off Party. The purpose of the anniversary celebration was to raise awareness of the NCA and its resources by recognizing those who worked for the NCA designation. The anniversary celebration also introduced the NCA to members of the public who did not know about it.
The NCA has a rich history of environmental education, including the use of educational raptors. Cory facilitated the acquisition of a Great-Horned Owl, Prairie Falcon, and Red-Tailed Hawk in order to increase the NCA's capacity to provide live raptor presentations. She also added to the NCA's robust school outreach program by providing a Raptor Quest program for all 3rd graders in the NCA's gateway community of Kuna, Idaho.
In addition, Cory organized the NCA's annual raptor banding trips which allow the public to help band raptors to further U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's research studies, and she was on the coordinating committee for the Snake River RaptorFest. She arranged for educational tours and lectures during the RaptorFest, including the addition of a Bikes and Birds event, a guided bicycle birding tour. More than 1,500 people attended each event.
Cory offered opportunities for the public to experience the great outdoors of the NCA by expanding the NCA's hiking series.
She also led the NCA's first Artist-in-Residence program to celebrate the 25th anniversary, which resulted in the selection of three artists-in-residence: a sketch artist, a photographer, and a musical group. She arranged for each artist-in-residence to have personal experiences in the NCA to inspire their work. Cory also coordinated their artist reception, final presentations, and a three-month art exhibit featuring their work at Canyon County's Crossroads Museum.
Cory was instrumental in organizing volunteers for Idaho's largest clean-up event, which resulted in approximately 600 volunteers removing more than 210 cubic yards of trash from the NCA.
Cory's work on her own and with partners has spread the message of shared conservation stewardship of public lands to thousands of people, school groups, and civic organizations in the Treasure Valley of Idaho. Her inclusion of the full NCA staff as well as other BLM technical specialists and academic scientists in her outreach plans has had a synergistic effect on the education and science missions of the NCA and created a whole new pool of partners and volunteers that continue to work on NCA projects after being inspired by Cory's presentations.
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Did you know: Whitebark pine trees can attain over 1,000 years in age? This keystone species provides food and shelter for over 100 species of birds and animals. Their regeneration depends on the Clark’s nutcracker; a vocal grey bird that harvests seeds and caches them. The Clark’s nutcracker leaves behind cached seeds which germinate and become a mature tree. Without the Clark’s nutcracker, there's no mechanism for seed dispersal because whitebark pine cones scales don’t open.
In Idaho, BLM is working on tools to ensure the survival of this important tree. One of these tools includes manually removing encroaching conifers on Poverty Flats in Eastern Idaho. Within the last decade, major surges of pine beetle and increasing damage and mortality from blister rust have caused whitebark pine loss and altered high-elevation community composition and ecosystem processes.
BLM picks chokecherries with the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe
The Tribal elders arrived in a big white van, loaded with buckets and coolers ready to be filled with small, dark cherries. A bumper chokecherry crop usually grows following a wet year, and 2017 was one for the record books.
Recently, the elders of the Shoshone-Paiute tribes from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, which lies on the state line between Idaho and Nevada, called BLM Idaho. They were seeking a guide into the South Hills near Twin Falls where they knew chokecherries would be abundant. As part of a tradition that has been passed down through the generations, the elders pick chokecherries each fall in the higher elevation ranges around the Duck Valley Indian Reservation. The fruit has traditionally been an important component of their diet.
“I learned the tradition from my parents and grandparents – today we use a modern blender to grind the berries, although some still use a grinding stone,” said Lynneil Brady. By grinding the berries, pits and all, they are able to shape the fruit into patties to dry or freeze. This way, the patties will keep throughout the seasons until they are needed to make syrup, pudding or jelly.
In their earlier years, they would ride horseback to ascend to the areas where the cherries grew larger and more abundantly. Many of these ladies hadn’t seen a good chokecherry crop in many years, limiting their cache of the patties. Growing in clumps on trees that can reach 20 – 30 feet high can create a frustrating scenario – leaving the best of the dark fruit in unreachable places. “It’s always this way,” said Ilaine Premo. Brady chimed in, “Some of these are too tough to get to. I found out I’m not a mountain goat!”
Thankfully, Twin Falls District Manager Mike Courtney thought to bring his long-handled pruning shears which aided the picking efforts immensely. “Kobe Bryant is getting good,” teased Premo as Courtney brought down cluster after cluster to fill their buckets.
BLM firefighter Kyle Andree from Burley, Idaho, has a knack for being in the right place at the right time for capturing intriguing moments like these -- a star trail over a BLM fire engine and a pesky raven picking on a great horned owl.
Did you know almost 190 million acres of federal forest and rangeland in the lower forty-eight States face high risk of large-scale insect or disease epidemics and catastrophic fire due to deteriorating ecosystem health and drought.?
In efforts to keep forests and rangeland viable components of our natural resources, the BLM’s Idaho Falls District conducts numerous fuels and timber projects every year and this year were able to highlight some of their success!
Recently, the BLM’s Upper Snake Field Office hosted a tour in Idaho’s popular Island Park area to show community members how fuels work and timber sales can have amazing effects on the landscape without impacting the views.
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On Aug, 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse crossed over BLM-managed public lands in Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. Thousands of people flocked to the path of totality to view the eclipse.
Public lands outside of Idaho Falls, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming; and across Oregon were the perfect place to watch the the moon’s shadow sweep over the horizon before crossing in front of the sun, creating a 360-degree sunset.
Did you get to watch the Great American Eclipse? We want to see your photos! Share your photos with us by using these Flickr groups:
Story by Michael Williamson, BLM. Photos by BLM Idaho.
Standing on a hillside of foot-high grass, it is hard to believe you are inside a massive wildland fire burn less than two years old. It looks like a sea of native regrowth, but what's really lurking here are the bright green shoots of invasive annual grasses. Their appearance is the unfortunate hallmark of a fire-altered landscape.
The August 2015 Soda Fire impacted 443 square-miles of prime sage-steppe habitat with high ecological and economic value. As the landscape recovers, scientists and land managers are combating the risk that the landscape could convert to an invasive annual grass monoculture. Sadly, that's been an all-too-frequent story throughout the Great Basin.
At the base of the hillside, a contract fire rehabilitation crew armed with heavy hoedad tools and packs of sagebrush seedlings begins a long day of planting. Using a hoedad is hard physical work, but the rehab crews quickly become experts. Each day they are in the field, the workers plant an average of several hundred seedlings each.
Eventually the contract workers planted 468,000 seedlings over the spring planting season. Since the Soda rehab effort began in the Fall of 2015, crews have planted over 960,000 seedlings, meaning shrub recovery is well underway on thousands of acres in the Soda burn.
The project is part of an effort to reverse the detrimental impacts of the Soda Fire, and it is only one of the ways in which the post-fire rehabilitation continues. Aerial broadcast seeding of sagebrush and forb species, drill seeding of perennial grasses, herbicide application on annual invasive grasses, repair of fire-damaged fences, and establishment of fuel breaks to protect these investments from future fires are all part of this effort.
"Rehab on this fire has been an evolving process and will continue to be," said Cindy Fritz, the Boise District's Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Program Lead. "We did the majority of treatments in the first Fall (2015) after the fire, with follow-up treatments in spring 2016 and into this year. As time progresses, we are more specific in our treatments: we watch how the vegetation recovers and adjust our actions based on that."
Those initial efforts included aerial seeding of shrubs and forbs on approximately 80 percent of the area burned in the fire. While effective in the first year after a fire, aerial seeding success diminishes after more vegetative cover appears in the ensuing years. Larger, hand-planted one-year-old sagebrush seedlings have a better competitive advantage over small, aerially-seeded seedlings sprouting within the other recovering vegetation.
Restoring a resistant and resilient landscape is the overriding goal of fire rehabilitation, Fritz added. Healthy, resilient landscapes experience wildfires at more natural frequencies and intensities. They create good habitat for wildlife, and they are able to sustain multiple-use activities. Planting sagebrush seedlings by hand is hard work, but it's a necessary step towards reaching that goal.
Celebrating improvements to the Bruneau Canyon Overlook
Story by Heather Tiel-Nelson, Twin Falls District Public Affairs Specialist
In June 2017, 100 people drove 24 miles southeast of the small town of Bruneau to celebrate recent improvements to the Canyon Overlook site. The overlook provides spectacular views of the Bruneau- Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness and the Bruneau Wild and Scenic River Area, and now boasts an ADA accessible pathway, restroom facilities, interpretation and an improved overlook site. This Wilderness area represents a significant collaborative process that brought the Tribes, ranchers, BLM and environmental organizations together to protect its open spaces in what is known as the Owyhee Initiative.
A notably remote and beautiful area with breathtaking vistas, it is an important area for the Shoshone- Paiute people, who honored those gathered with a drumming ceremony. According to Idaho State Director Tim Murphy, “We are proud of these improvements and the opportunity they provide to tell the story of the Owyhee Initiative, a truly collaborative effort without which we would not be standing here taking in the views of the Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness.”
The improvements mark the completion of Phase One; Phase two will include additional ADA accessible trails and a second overlook site.
Click here to watch BLM Idaho’s video of the ribbon cutting.
