Outdoor summer jobs available for high school students

The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest are encouraging incoming 9th - 12th grade students who love the outdoors—or are curious about the outdoor-based jobs—to apply to the 2019 Youth Forest Monitoring Program student crew! YFMP runs from June 17 – Aug.1, 2019, Mondays-Thursdays, only.

Students will receive one week of training alongside Forest Service scientists, learning forest ecology concepts and field protocol for monitoring streams, soils, vegetation, recreation areas, and black-backed woodpecker populations at the Montana Learning Center near Canyon Ferry Lake.

Following this initial training, students and their field instructors begin their field work by monitoring between 45-50 sites on the national forest, which will include areas that were burned in last year’s fire season. Along with these sites, students spend several days in the Scapegoat Wilderness applying all of their monitoring and data collection techniques in the backcountry. After their fieldwork is completed, students close-out their internshipe by giving a final report and oral presentation to Forest Service professionals and the public.

Upon successful completion of the intership, students will receive a $1,000 stipend from the Montana Discovery Foundation. This is given to the students after their final presentation.

Students will need to provide their own transporation to/from the Helena Forest Service office each day, but all transporation into the forest is provided by Forest Service through the experienced YFMP field instructors.

Application packets are due by Friday, April 12th, and should be sent to:

Helena-Lewis & Clark National Forest

ATTN: Liz Burke, YFMP

2880 Skyway Drive

Helena, MT 59602

Application packet should include, students need to include the following:

a cover letter that includes: contact information, a description of what you hope to gain by this experience, and special contributions you can make to this program;

a letter of recommendation from a teacher; and

a school transcript.

Interviews will be scheduled with students after the application deadline.