The Value of an Intern

1
Connecting Education with Applied Conservation
Practice   an Internship Program      Lara
Jefferson, Bianca Rosenbaum and Kay
Havens  Institute for Plant Conservation,
Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road,
Glencoe IL 60022, USA
The Challenge!
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)   v   The BLM
manages public lands in a manner that will
protect the environment v   The BLM is currently
under-staffed, especially with botanists v   The
BLM manages 264 million acres, it employs 390
biologists and 54 botanists that is one botanist
per 4.8 million acres.
Institute for Plant Conservation, Chicago Botanic
Garden   v   Advances education and research in
the conservation of rare and endangered plants
and ecosystems v   Focus of applying the results
of scientific research to management and
stewardship programs v   Serves as a liaison
between stewardship and academic communities
The Key!
A partnership was formed and the mentoring
program was created in 2001 and implemented in
2002. The program is designed to train the next
generation of conservation biologists
specializing in the recovery of endangered
species and management of public lands.  
STEP 1 Selection The selection of mentors was
determined through an application process.
Through this process the various BLM field
offices outlined v   Workload and type v  
Priority v   Availability of a mentor   The
selection of interns involved an application and
interview process. In 2002, 57 graduates applied.
The selection of applicants was based on v  
Education v   Skills v   Interests in
conservation practices v   Experience v  
Enthusiasm

• STEP 2 Training
• v   Intense 5 day workshop
• v   Subjects
• Animal and plant identification and monitoring
  techniques
• Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• Geographical Positioning Systems (GPS), map and
  compass skills
• Literature Searches
• Endangered Species Act
• BLM rules and procedures
• Land management practices

• STEP 3 The internship
• 17 interns were placed at 15 BLM field offices
  across
• the country
• Length of internships 5 or 10 months

The Outcomes!

• Measuring the success of the program
• The success of the program was evaluated using 2
  types of questionnaires
• Interns evaluating the workshop and their
  respective intern positions
• Mentors evaluating the interns role in their
  respective field offices
• What have interns gained from the workshop?
• v   Networking, bonding, sharing knowledge, and a
  support group
• v   New skills and preparation for the internship
• v   Ready to step up into the role of a
  practical conservation field worker
•  

What have the interns gained from their
internship? v   Valuable experience working for a
government agency v   Planning, organizing and
completing work projects v   Learning about the
roles of the BLM v   Preparation of biological
assessments and reports v   Tremendous
satisfaction that they have played a role in the
conservation of rare and endangered plants and
animals and their habitats What has the BLM
gained from the mentoring program? v   Completion
of projects that would never have been completed
otherwise v   Collection of valuable data
specific to endangered species and their habitats
The Value of an Intern The opinion of the mentors
has highlighted the success of this program. The
mentors were very satisfied and spoke highly of
their respective interns.   It seems as though
as each year goes by, the workload increases and
the workforce stays static or decreases. My
intern has assumed the project responsibilities
for preparing a biological assessment for a
resource management plan encompassing nearly 4
million acres of public land. Without her help
this assignment would not have even
started.   Had my intern not been here this
summer, many wildlife catchments would have
remained dry and/or non-functional. Many
antelope, deer, and bighorn sheep would likely
have perished in search of water. She completed
an update of our water catchments maintenance
database that had been stalled for almost a
decade.