Wildlife Intern/Mentee

About the role

This position will provide a 10 week student intern employment opportunity for youth 18-25 years old. Youth will obtain skills and guidance through a mentor and gain on the job experience. The internship will be open to students that recently graduated from high school or are current college students interested in a career in natural resources.

Students will have the opportunity to work with wildlife staff on their different projects. These positions include range management, spotted owl/aviary, invasive species management, public hunting (hunting permits), big game, upland gamebird, eagle aviary, realty, and habitat restoration. Students will be assigned a mentor to engage in weekly discussions.

Responsibilities

• Deploy autonomous recording units (ARUs) to record bird and bat calls.
• Survey for northern spotted owls using accepted protocol during the day and/or night.
• Assist in conducting habitat assessments in the managed forest.
• Assist with gamebird surveys along established routes.
• Assist with wild duck banding and biological data collection.
• Assist with building and installing waterfowl nesting boxes and hen houses in wetlands.
• Assist in identifying biocontrol agent activity in certain invasive plants.
• Survey areas for invasive species and document the degree of infestation.
• Accurately identify invasive plants from rosettes up to flowering stage.
• Assist in treating invasive plants depending on the timing of the year, plant treatment varies.
• Assist in biocontrol agent release as biological treatment for invasive plants.
• Assist in mapping and evaluating fences and water sources.
• Assist in caring for and working with saddle horses.
• Assist in monitoring rangeland vegetation and rangeland health.
• Accurately identify plants within the rangeland area.
• Assist in care and management of aviary birds including prepping food, and cleaning enclosures.
• Assist in management of Satus Ranch.
• Respond to salvage animal calls.
• Assist in aviary outreach.
• Monitor cottonwood seed release timing and collect data from installed temperature sensors.
• Collect aquatic macro-invertebrate samples and re-set collection traps in wetlands and streams; ID collected specimens to family.
• Assist with botanical surveys of Wildlife properties.
• Assist with whitebark pine surveys, monitoring, and seed collection efforts.
• Assist with revegetation of riparian habitat with native species.
• Assist with creating a native plant ID guide for education and outreach.
• Help with fence construction and other basic property maintenance tasks.
• Assist with trapping of nuisance animals.
• Assist with management of bison herd.
• Assist with the trapping and baiting of feral horses.
• Conduct mountain goat counts.

Requirements

• Students interested in or pursuing a degree in Natural Resources.
• Age 18-25.
• Required to pass a pre-employment drug test.
• Enrolled Yakama Preference, but all qualified applicants are encouraged to apply.

Skills

• Ability to work in extreme field conditions (heat, cold, rain, wind).
• Ability to carry 10-pound pack.
• Ability to take accurate and complete field notes.
• Ability to work in a team environment with people of different backgrounds.
• Knowledge of wildlife ecology.
• Knowledge of wildlife survey techniques.

Pay

Hourly Wage: $15.74-$17.72