Preserve is so good right now

All in a days work (w/collection permits)

Saw my first fasciated larkspur (D. parishii) today. (Left fasciated right normal)

A short visit to the western Mojave to collect wildflowers

Found where they’re hiding all the grape soda lupine

Absolutely love talking to federal turned contractor people who immediately tell me my job is on the chopping block when I tell them what I do 🥰❤️🥳

The entire research arm of the Forest Service being killed, “Because a scientist who says you can’t log that watershed without destroying it is inconvenient. A lab that documents the damage from mining runoff or road-building or clear-cutting is an enemy. And enemies get eliminated.”

Got the chance to visit one of my favorite plants around Las Vegas today 🥰

Made the mistake of bringing a ten dollar Albertsons sub into the field and now my crew is doing aesthetic Wes Anderson edits of me 😔😭

In the Trump administration’s reorganization of the struggling agency, painful echoes of BLM’s past moves.

A glimpse of spring before the roar of summer

Happy to be alive at the same as the most majestic creature within the Mojave Desert

I know I spent like every waking moment I had running around all the blooms across the Mojave this spring, but god they went so quickly this year I feel like I barely got to see them

Apart from being simply right on a moral and ethical level, Ms. Rachel is a content creator par excellence in the digital era/Trump era—for both children and adults—when we seem obsessed with ~ influencing ~ but rarely talk about the people who are really the fuck doing it right.

The California-Nevada border has so many surprises to share if you know where to go

Bruised, bleeding, stinky, cliff mogged, cortisol spiked ✅ and the camp tarot reading was not positive but at least the sunset was good

Chasing spring into the mountains now

Oh garsh 😵‍💫

Happy first day of summer to those who are getting dragged into it with me 🥰

Found out today government officials get paid to sexualize Smokey the Bear 😵‍💫

Nothing warms my heart more than seeing the department of interior releasing AI slop propaganda videos and they have under 100 views internally in the parks 🥰

Some of my favorite blooms as the temperatures have climbed and winds have picked up

Was supposed to hike to a down military plane this weekend but now I gotta say my goodbyes to the wildflowers in Death Valley before this heat wave sets them all to seed 😔

Lawyer: You don't regret that people might have lost income? Cavanaugh (DOGE): No, I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from two trillion dollars to close to zero. Lawyer: Did you reduce the federal deficit? Cavanaugh: No, we didn't.

No hand lens, just vibes

Desert mountains/hills have been on my mind

Saw an opuntia I didn’t recognize yesterday in the Panamints, turned out to be Opuntia phaeacantha in one of the most extremely isolated populations that only occur on the Panamint Mtn Range (the three blue dots on a green patch with no other blue dots near it)

Panamint City

You could say I was surprised

Girl the OSHA violations

God I love it here

I would like to frolic by the water again

Drawing circles in the sand at work yesterday (for conservation)

If your network isn’t discussing cone maxxing, intentionally moving up the mountain, or rapidly growing after wild fires, then you need to find a new circle. Your network is your net worth

Lake mead has a chaotic energy surrounding it

Can’t seem to stay away from these fields

First week back with the parks and I’m about to head out to rescue some stranded scientists in Death Valley 🥰

If they want me back they have to go fully Woke 2, sorry. Whole hog. I gotta be able to get an abortion there

I am teaching 2-3 Mojave desert plant trainings and I am stressed

This is why it's not enough for Congress to just appropriate funds to scientific agencies. How the funds are or are not spent and when they are spent needs to be enforced. The administration is playing games with our taxpayer dollars, when they should be going towards scientific innovation.

Within the last day or two things have really exploded around the desert

I’m going to carry so many puzzle items in here

I’m caught between the wind and parts of the unknown

Ash meadow pilled

Waiting for a change in the breeze

Trying to get some flower time in before the heat wave hits

Getting some time in with one of my favorite places in the Mojave

Yearly reminder, if you want to teach yourself botany I highly recommend using this free resource! This is one of the few sciences you can teach yourself and be proficient in the field with enough practice (but a mentor/other scientific papers go a long way as well) www.blm.gov/colorado/blm...

Yearly reminder, if you want to teach yourself botany I highly recommend using this free resource! This is one of the few sciences you can teach yourself and be proficient in the field with enough practice (but a mentor/other scientific papers go a long way as well) www.blm.gov/colorado/blm...

Sometimes my head hurts when I think about the possibility of making between 40-100 dollars an hour if I switched to consulting, but it’s fine I’ll stick to academia/federal for now 😵‍💫🫠