Start Date: February 2024

End Date: 6 weeks to 6 month positions available

Compensation: $600/week health insurance (if needed). $1,000.00/monthly housing stipend. Travel costs to the site and back home are covered by the program.

Application Due: January 22th, 2023

Environment for the Americas engages ethnically and racially diverse young professionals in natural resource careers with an emphasis on veterans, spouses and immediate family members of veterans. 

You must be:

• a U.S. citizen or legal resident.
• Have a personal vehicle required
• Able to attend an in person training the first week of March

Various Locations: California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota 

Position Description:

Interns will participate in monitoring and habitat assessment for monarch butterflies, as well as design and facilitate outreach and education programs that foster cultural connections and awareness of monarchs, pollinators, and migratory species on military bases. A special emphasis will be placed on connectivity of habitat, promoting conservation actions, and boosting awareness of monarchs on or near military installations and Department of Defense lands based on conservation priorities. Interns will be required to attend a training in monarch monitoring and sample strategies. As monitoring sites are established, interns will navigate to the pre-selected sites to perform monarch and vegetation surveys using a standardized protocol. Environment for the Americas (EFTA) will provide guidance on community outreach and engagement practices, training on co-designing engagement programs with community groups, and developing culturally resonant activities for multigenerational audiences that lead to conservation action.

Preferred Skills (not required):

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Attention to detail and the ability to enter data accurately onto a computer.
• Experience collecting plant and insect data or implementing other field monitoring protocols.
• Critical thinking and problem solving skills.
• Google Drive, Sheets, Docs) or Microsoft Office (Excel, Word).
• Able to effectively engage with landowners (primarily farmers/agricultural landowners) and other stakeholders of various backgrounds.
• Experience with GIS preferred but not required
• Spanish language skill

Work Products: 

• Conduct monarch and vegetation surveys California, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa Nebraska, Missouri, and Minnesota.
• Develop community community partnerships and facilitate education programs
• Create weekly blog posts shared on social media informing on internship experience and work projects.

Training: The intern will have the opportunity to train in:

 Protocols for collecting data including:

• Describing features of each site, 
• Performing counts of monarch host plants (milkweeds), 
• Identifying plant species and record their frequency, 
• Examining milkweed plants for monarch eggs and caterpillars, and 
• Performing counts of adult monarchs. 

Field data collection will include:

• Techniques in conducting field surveys. 
• Data collection involves walking a series of transects at each site and recording the information within 1-m2 quadrats, 
• Examining milkweed for monarch eggs and larvae within a 1-ha area, and 
• Recording adult monarchs observed along a transect or incidentally.

Protocols for data and field logistics management will includes:

• Maintaining, organizing, and entering field data on tablets/computers
• Organizing details for travel and other logistics to/from field sites. 
• Conducting data proofing and correction to ensure data accuracy. 
• Maintaining regular contact with EFTA staff along with partners such as the MJV, other monarch partners, and field site contacts.

Outreach and education programs will include:

• Identifying and developing community partnerships
• Co-developing culturally resonant educational activities with and for community groups
• Lead culturally relevant interpretive talks and walks
• Manage volunteer monarch surveyor
• Communicate with their cohort, EFTA staff, government agency staff, and the public.

Intern Qualifications:

• Ability to conduct monarch and vegetation surveys in multiple states.
• Ability to take directions and work independently
• Ability to develop and facilitate education activities for multigenerational audiences
• Ability to work well with coworkers and function effectively as a member of a team and during independent work

Other Requirements:

• Attend bi-weekly check in with EFTA staff and meet as a group on a monthly basis
• Strong communication skills to work with the cohort, EFTA staff, government agency staff, and the public

Motivated, independent worker willing to:

• Spend time driving (sometimes long distances) to various monitoring sites
• Spend time outdoors collecting plant and insect data
• Support workshops for the community
• Support administrative office tasks including emailing landowners, collecting information for site conservation plans, and organizing digital files/papers.
• Willing to learn and excited to work with us
• Strong communication skills to work with the cohort, EFTA staff, government agency staff, and the public

EEO Statement

Environment for the Americas provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and 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.