National Park Service Summer Soils Internship

We are looking to hire two students for an exciting summer internship with the National Park Service.  Get paid to be out in the woods!

Here's the scoop:

The National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program is seeking student interns to implement soil monitoring protocols in national parks in the Washington DC area. We anticipate that 2-3 days of training will be done between May 22 and May 31 and that 12 weeks of soil monitoring will begin in June 1st and continue through August 2017. This is a full-time internship (40 hours/week), and we anticipate a Monday – Friday work schedule. The pay rate for these positions is $13/hour (plus travel expenses).

Applicants should have taken ENST 200 (Fundamentals of Soil Science). Preference will be given to applicants who also have taken ENST 308 or (ENST 301, 302, 303), Field Soil Morphology and are familiar with identifying soil types and horizons and collecting basic soil monitoring data such as:

 Physical Parameters                                       

            Infiltration                                                      

            Profile description                                          

            Soil type                                                         

            Bulk density                                       

            Aggregate stability

            Litter and O horizon depth

Chemical Parameters

             pH

             available nutrients cations

             trace minerals

Pedological Description of auger profile

 

The National Capital Region Network (NCRN) is based at the Center for Urban Ecology (CUE) in Washington, DC and coordinates biological inventories and long-term monitoring of natural resources found within the 11 parks of the National Capital Region. Monitoring activities include forest vegetation and soils, birds, amphibians, water quality and landscape change. Long-term ecological monitoring programs are designed to identify trends in ecosystem conditions and to provide park managers with the information necessary to evaluate their management strategies and to confront and mitigate threats to park resources. Other science programs at CUE, such as botany, wildlife, geology, air, and water resources, work with the I&M Program on interdisciplinary studies.

Students must be enrolled at least half-time in spring of 2017, be enrolled in a degree program and anticipate being enrolled in the fall semester.

Students will undergo a multi-day training in the lab and the field in late May. Then you become part of a team monitoring the trees, birds and soils ....

If interested, please send a current resume, transcripts and a 1 page letter of interest to Dr. Weil @ rweil@umd.edu

Application Deadline March 20, 2017