The award-winning Conservation and Land Management Internship Program is a partnership between the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. This paid internship opportunity for recent science graduates is available to start immediately for the qualified candidate. Position lasts five to ten months and posting will remain open until filled. For more information on our program and how to apply, please visit our website: www.chicagobotanic.org/research/training/clm_internship
Project Summary The successful candidate would support Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (WRST) located in Copper Center, Alaska in the realm of invasive plant management. Its status as the largest National Park nationwide makes surveying, monitoring, and information management critical and challenging for WRST when it comes to preventing the widespread establishment of invasive plants. Each summer, the park employs a Biological Science Technician to perform survey, control, monitoring, restoration, and educational work, but it has become apparent in recent years that there exists a backlog of data management tasks in addition to fieldwork, each of which would be too much for one employee to accomplish. Therefore, the intern is necessary to support the technician with invasive plant management efforts in the field and the park Botanist with data management efforts in the office. Fieldwork would consist of surveying and monitoring infestations using an established data collection protocol for a Trimble GPS unit, controlling small populations of plants and directing volunteer crews for control of larger populations, and collecting seeds for revegetation of disturbed lands. Skills to be taught and utilized include GPS-based data collection, plant identification and specimen vouchering, and data processing and quality control.
