Fish and Feather Internship Program - ONSITE - Valles Caldera National Preserve

Start/End Dates: May 11, 2024 - September 5, 2025
Compensation: $640 per week + housing
Application Due: February 9, 2025

Fish and Feathers Internship Program seeks to engage ethnically and racially diverse young professionals in natural resource careers.
You must be (additional requirement):

• A U.S. citizen or legal resident.

• Have a valid driver’s license and a good driving record.

*Personal vehicle is recommended for this position.

Position Description: 

Fish and Feathers is a program funded by the National Park Service (NPS) and administered by Environment for the Americas. Our goal is to provide our national park partners with talented interns who are eager to learn and to engage with local communities. The intern will focus on supporting, implementing, and leading community outreach programs that focus on fishing and birding activities. The overall goal is to increase diverse community engagement with NPS partners during the program and in years to come.

Responsibilities:

• Reach out to local communities through outreach and educational activities to increase engagement in fishing and birdwatching
• Create new materials (i.e., social media, educational games/activities, signage, etc.) to provide visitors with information about fish and birds at the NPS site
• Understand regulations regarding fishing and ethical birding and communicate this information to participants
• Establish or build upon fishing and birding programs at the NPS site
• Manage and maintain program equipment
• Meet deadlines for Environment for the Americas program requirements 

Qualifications:

• Ability to hike and conduct field operations as part of a team and/or independently in an outdoor setting.
• Experience giving presentations and ability to learn new skills and transfer the knowledge to participants.
• Interest in learning fishing regulations and bird identification for program development and implementation.
• Ability to learn methods employed in fish and wildlife management.
• Strong interpersonal, oral, listening, and written communication skills.
• Interest in learning new skills such as rafting, canoeing, and kayaking.

Major studies relevant to this position: 

Successful candidates will have a background and/or coursework in the following areas or a strong interest in the outdoors with experience fishing and/or birdwatching.

• Biology
• Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences
• Ecology
• Aquaculture
• Communications/Marketing
• Environmental Science
• Recreation
• Interpretation/Education

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About this Site: 

Valles Caldera is at 8,500 feet in elevation, so the air is thinner and the sun is stronger. We have summer monsoon lightning storms that typically roll across the park in the summer afternoons. Fishing takes place along narrow streams in the middle of wide-open grassland valleys, while birding programs tend to follow more forested trails on the edge of the grasslands.

 Summers in Valles Caldera typically have highs in the 70s, with peaks in the 80s. Nighttime lows can be down in the 40s. The park is an International Dark Sky Park, so there are amazing night sky views. Los Alamos, about 20 miles from the lodging in the park, is the closest town, where there are grocery stores, libraries, a hospital and urgent care, dentists, eye doctors, an aquatic center, concerts, restaurants, and stores. 

This internship program aims to have the intern in the field up to 50% of the time. Field time would include running the fishing clinics, conducting fly-tying workshops, leading birding programs, roving the park and talking with anglers, and supporting fish and bird inventory work by the resource management team.

Office work consists of working with coworkers to develop and refine programs, prepare for fishing clinics, check clinic registrations, perform administrative tasks, and support visitor service operations. The main physical requirement for this position would be the ability to fly fish. Moving up to 30 pounds of fishing clinic equipment and being able to hike at least 2 miles would also be typical activity of this position. 

This internship position would be supported by fishing clinic volunteers, as well as our team of park rangers for both fishing clinics and birding programs.

Interns in this program will receive 680 hours towards Public Land Corps (PLC) Hiring Authority. See below on information about:

Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority (PLC)
The Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority is a special hiring authority available to qualifying interns. The intern must be between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, inclusive, or a veteran up to age 35 and complete 640 hours of work on an appropriate conservation project to be eligible for this hiring authority. Upon successful completion of the PLC project(s), the intern is eligible for two years to be hired non-competitively into a federal seasonal, term, or permanent position. The applicant must apply to a PLC-eligible position advertised on USAJobs.gov and selected off a non-competitive certificate of eligibility. For more information, see DOI Personnel Bulletins 11-02 , 12-13, and 17-03.

EEO Statement

Environment for the Americas provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employmentand prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.