Job Title: Summer Intern

Reports to: Restoration Coordinator

Location: Trout Creek Ranch, Fields, Oregon

Classification: 40 hours/week for 11 weeks

Compensation: $17/hour and furnished housing/utilities are provided.

Position Summary: Oregon Desert Land Trust (ODLT) is seeking two summer interns to support ranch and preserve management, land health monitoring, hosting guests and partners, represent ODLT to visitors, neighbors, and community members, and support land conservation and restoration projects such as general caretaking, facilities maintenance, fence /repair removal, invasive weed survey/control and stream restoration.  Internships will take place at our Trout Creek Ranch property in Fields, Oregon - a small, rural community in southeast Oregon. 

Interested applicants should be willing to learn basic plant and bird identification skills, be able to perform remote field work, be comfortable using phone-based monitoring and navigation applications, and have an interest in and commitment to land conservation in rural communities.

About Oregon Desert Land Trust and Trout Creek Ranch: ODLT works with landowners, Tribes, agency land managers, and other partners to conserve and restore ecologically-significant wild and working lands in southeastern Oregon.  ODLT has embarked on one of Oregon’s most significant conservation projects by purchasing the 16,645-acre Trout Creek Ranch. Trout Creek Ranch helps connect more than a million acres of designated wildlife habitat and includes livestock grazing permits on nearly 500,000 acres of public land. The property spans from the Pueblo Mountains to the Trout Creek Mountains, with elevations ranging from 4,100’ in the Pueblo Valley headquarters meadows to over 8,600’ in the high aspen woodlands of the surrounding mountains. The area includes abundant natural resources, including thousands of acres of core sage grouse habitat, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and California bighorn sheep. The ranch’s flood-irrigated wet meadows support numerous waterbird species, including priority species like the greater sandhill crane and white-faced ibis.  Our stewardship programs at Trout Creek Ranch support regional conservation objectives, test innovative management techniques, and build collaboration with neighboring ranchers, Tribes, public land managers and conservation partners such as The Nature Conservancy.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of one year of college, with preference to students working towards degrees in rangeland ecology, environmental studies, biology, natural resource management, geography, or related subjects (or equivalent experience). Other majors will be considered.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Ability to perform moderately strenuous manual labor
• Comfortable working outside and ability or willingness to learn to drive UTVs and/or ride horses
• Must have a valid driver's license and a clean driving record