Field Ecology Internship

Position Dates: Monday, May 24 – Friday, August 6, 2021

Stipend: $6,500.00, housing not provided

Timing: The review of applicants will begin in February and continue until the position is filled by March.

Highstead is accepting applications for a field ecology intern to participate in Highstead’s long-term research and monitoring program in the summer of 2021 Applicants must live within commuting distance of Redding, CT during the internship period.

The intern will be responsible for resampling ~60 permanent forest vegetation plots on Highstead’s 100+ acre preserve.  The intern will gain extensive experience with forest vegetation sampling techniques and woody and herbaceous plant identification. Position will be predominantly field-based but will also include data entry, limited data analysis, and preparing a 15-minute final presentation for Highstead staff.

Applicants should be undergraduates or recent college graduates majoring in botany, plant ecology, or related field. Applicants should have completed previous experience with field work.  Successful applicants must:

(1) have a keen interest in the study and identification of woody and herbaceous plants including grasses and sedges

(2) be enthusiastic about conducting intensive fieldwork in hot, humid, and sometimes rainy weather; in a landscape with deer ticks; and in forest understories with downed trees and thick, often spiny (i.e. Japanese barberry, multiflora rose) shrub layers

(3) be very detail-oriented to collect careful and accurate data in challenging field conditions, collect and press unknown plant specimens, and enter data into a database.

Candidates must have their own car and live within commuting distance to Highstead and be able to work from home when weather is inclement and on other days when they are not in the field.

Interns will be supervised primarily by Highstead’s ecologist with some supervision by Highstead’s operations director.

Please send a cover letter and resume (with relevant experience and contact information for three references) to jcologgi@highstead.net; reference Ecology Intern Application as the email subject. Accepting applications immediately.