Deschutes Land Trust, Skyline Forest Conservation Internship, Summer 2022
Description of agency and internship overview:
The Deschutes Land Trust's mission is to conserve and care for the lands and waters that sustain Central Oregon, so local communities and the natural world can flourish together for generations to come. Skyline Forest is a 33,000 acre block of private timber land frames the western boundary of Bend. Surrounded by state and federal lands, Skyline Forest contains important wildlife corridors and habitat, provides tremendous recreation opportunities including hiking, trail running, camping, cycling, mushroom foraging and wildlife viewing, is a critical wildfire safety buffer for local communities, and protects the scenic green foothills that set off the Central Oregon Cascades. Local conservation and community groups have been working for decades to conserve this iconic area from residential development. This area is currently on the market for $127 million and being advertised as a prime location for a destination resort or cluster development.
The intern would work to support our Conservation Director and Executive Director on a multifaceted campaign to protect this place. This campaign includes stakeholder engagement, public awareness efforts, research related to funding and acquisition strategies, digital asset organization and management and working with partners to execute our existing campaign strategy. The intern will be working in a team that includes staff from Deschutes Land Trust as well as staff from our partners Central Oregon LandWatch.
Read more about past interns' experiences here.
- Support the development of a vision document for the conservation of Skyline Forest (design support, draft review and distribution planning.)
- Communicate with stakeholders (send updates, thank yous, interviews, invites)
- Creating public awareness for Skyline Forest and areas relevant to the Trust (writing blogs/articles/press releases for publishing on our website)
- Research and documentation related to funding and acquisition strategies
- Digital asset organization and management (reviewing and sorting archival materials, documentation of meetings and communications with stakeholders)
Eligibility:
Bill Lane Center internships are part of Cardinal Quarter opportunities and we encourage students from all disciplines to apply to our opportunities. The opportunities are full-time (35-40 hours a week) for 10-weeks during the summer. Specific start and end dates can be coordinated directly with the supervisor.
We will give preference to juniors and seniors. Potential majors of interest include communications, law, environmental policy and studies including earth systems.
Note: Students are only eligible for one Stanford-funded full-time experiential learning opportunity during the 2021-22 academic year (inclusive of summer).
For more helpful application advice, please visit the BLC’s FAQs page.
Required Skills:
-
Highly motivated individual who can work both independently and in a team
-
Ability to establish and maintain positive collaborative working relationships with others both internally and externally
-
Ability to set priorities, develop a work schedule, monitor progress towards goals, and track details, data, information and activities
-
Speak, listen, and write in a clear, thorough and timely manner using appropriate and effective communication tools and techniques
Desired Skills:
-
Familiarity with Salesforce for non-profit
- Knowledge of land use and conservation
Selection of applicants:
Complete applications are screened and finalists are contacted for an interview with staff from the Bill Lane Center for the American West. The top candidates for each position are forwarded to the agency for direct interviews with their potential supervisors and other agency staff. Host agencies will then notify the Lane Center of their preferred candidate and that applicant will receive an internship offer by email. The applicant is expected to respond promptly (within 48 hours) via email to the offer, or the offer will be rescinded. Once an applicant accepts an offer, the student should promptly notify all other Stanford and non-Stanford programs to which they have applied that they have accepted another offer and to withdraw their candidacy.
