Keene State College Conservation Internships
We’re proud to partner with Keene State College (KSC) on an innovative, eight-week summer conservation internship experience for undergraduates. Under the guidance of Harris Center staff and KSC faculty, four interns gain specialized training and firsthand experience with many facets of the Harris Center’s diverse work each summer, with a special focus on ecological inventory. Together, the interns document vernal pools, inventory forest communities and invasive plants, monitor chestnut plantings, and more.
This internship program is a win-win: the Harris Center acquires scientific data that we can use to better steward the lands in our care, and the students get an unparalleled, hands-on learning experience.
“Working in the field alongside conservation professionals helps the students see how their classroom education applies to the conservation challenges we face every day, and how even the things that we take for granted, like roads, can have significant environmental impacts,” reflects program co-founder Dr. William Fleeger. “It exposes them to the demands and possibilities of the profession that it is impossible to replicate in any other way.”
Click to watch this one-minute video about the KSC internship experience. (video © Ben Conant)
Conservation Easement Monitoring Internships
Conservation easement monitoring intern Precious Ozoh prepares for a day in the field. (photo © Eric Masterson)
Once a landowner has placed a conservation easement on their property, the Harris Center is responsible for ensuring that the easement terms are upheld, even if the property changes hands. In order to do this, the we must conduct monitoring visits to all of our 100+ conservation easements each year — an enormous and critical task in our role as a land trust.
Every summer, we hire two interns to assist with these easement monitoring visits. Each position involves 250 hours of field and office work, the majority of which is conducted between May and August.
Hiring for summer easement monitoring internships typically takes place in February and March each year. For more information or to apply, contact Eric Masterson or check our Employment page.
Former Conservation Easement Monitoring Intern Daniel Medeiros said, “For me the most rewarding part of the internship has been seeing how significant a portion of the land in this part of New Hampshire is conserved, and how many people are involved and invested in that conservation.”
Bird Conservation Internships
Bird conservation interns Will Stollsteimer (left) and Mike Valentino carefully transfer a kestrel chick during a nest check. (photo © Ben Conant)
The Harris Center is working to better understand and conserve a variety of bird species, with a special focus on birds of prey. Under the direction of Bird Conservation Director Phil Brown, interns have the opportunity to monitor breeding kestrels, search for raptor nests, assist in saw-whet owl banding, and count migrating hawks at the Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory in Peterborough.
Activities are dependent on the time of year, with internships available in spring, summer, and fall.
These seasonal internships are not available in every season every year. For more information or to apply, contact Phil Brown.
For Mike Valentino, our Bird Conservation Intern in spring 2023, one of the most memorable moments of the internship was the banding of American Kestrel chicks that had hatched in the boxes that he had helped to install: “It was great to see our efforts come to fruition.”
Contact Us
For more information on internships with the Harris Center, please contact us at (603) 525-3394.
