Environmental Projects – Field Sciences Internships

The North and South Rivers Watershed Association (NSRWA) is looking for summer college interns to work on several exciting and important environmental projects on the South Shore. The internships will benefit students by giving them valuable, marketable skills, and the interns will provide important contributions to our work by collecting data on some of our top-priority projects. The internships are currently unpaid positions although travel will be reimbursed.

Interns will be able to work on projects as diverse as researching the feasibility of increasing the mussel population in the North and South Rivers; monitoring horseshoe crabs in Duxbury Bay; assessing and managing invasive species; and analyzing salt marsh vegetation change using data collected in 2000-01.

Qualified candidates will be entering or in college and have an interest in learning about the environmental sciences, interns must have access to own transportation, and be willing to work independently once trained. Students studying in the environmental science or policy fields are preferred. The commitment of time is approximately 20 hours per week, June through August. Specific start and stop dates are flexible. Work is weather and tide dependent so applicants must have flexibility to schedule work around nature!

More information about the intern projects is on the following pages and at www.nsrwa.org

Application Deadline: May 9, 2014.

Submit a resume and cover letter to: sara@nsrwa.org

Contact Samantha Woods if you have questions.

Samantha Woods
Executive Director
North and South Rivers Watershed Association
PO Box 43, Norwell MA 02061
781-659-8168
samantha@nsrwa.org

Field Science Intern Projects

Several of these projects can be combined into single projects or expanded, depending on availability and skills. Some can also have multiple people working together. At the moment these are all unpaid internships, but may turn into paid internships if money becomes available. All interns will be asked to provide a report summarizing their work to the NSRWA.

Mussel Restoration in North and South Rivers

The NSRWA is looking to conduct research to investigate the feasibility of increasing the mussel population in the North and South Rivers. Would include setting out tiles to collect mussel spat, moving the spat to culture bags, and evaluating mussel growth and survival from docks. The intern will provide support to smaller field projects such as Horseshoe Crab Monitoring in Duxbury Bay and invasive species management. The intern will provide support to smaller field projects such as Horseshoe Crab Monitoring in Duxbury Bay and invasive species management.

Time Requirement: Summer time commitment ~20 hours/week average,

Required: Must have own vehicle and be willing to work independently. Must be willing to work in wet and potentially slippery locations.

Helpful: Experience with GIS mapping, basic knowledge of intertidal ecology and shellfish life history, and ability to use a kayak.

Skills Gained: Primary literature review, experimental design, identification of marine invertebrates, public interaction.

Third Herring Brook Impoundment Survey

The intern would assist NSRWA staff in assessing vegetation in the former Mill Pond impoundment on the Third Herring Brook in Hanover/Norwell. This effort would include conducting field surveys of vegetation within and abutting the ponds and assisting with surveys of purple loosestrife. The project would include setting up initial survey transects and quadrats and identifying species present in the impoundment. Our goal is to document current conditions within these impoundments. The intern will provide support to smaller field projects such as Horseshoe Crab Monitoring in Duxbury Bay and invasive species management.

Time Requirement: 20 hours/month for surveys, preferably May-September but June-August ok; additional time for data entry and analysis (10-20 hours total).

Required: Transportation to field site; ability to collect data; willingness to spend time in potentially uncomfortable environment (wet, muddy, harsh vegetation)

Helpful: Freshwater wetland botany; experimental design.

Skills gained: Freshwater wetland botany; field data collection.

River Fragmentation Project/Culvert Assessments

This work includes adding to our already substantial culvert database through field surveying of additional culverts and data collection using a datasheet from University of Massachusetts. Work also includes data entry into state and our own databases. The intern will provide support to smaller field projects such as Horseshoe Crab Monitoring in Duxbury Bay and invasive species management.

Time Requirement: Flexible, up to 20 hrs/week, anytime throughout the year

Required: Must have own vehicle; ability to collect data; willingness to spend time in potentially uncomfortable environments (breaking trail through forest/shrubs, wet or damp riverine areas).

Helpful: Experience with GIS, ability to use Excel.

Skills Gained: Understanding of river continuity issues, field study, data organization.

Salt Marsh Vegetation Change

This work entails repeating salt marsh vegetation transects first conducted in 2000 and 2001 to assess change over the past 10+ years. The intern will provide support to smaller field projects such as Horseshoe Crab Monitoring in Duxbury Bay and invasive species management.

Time requirement: Flexible, up to 20 hrs/week throughout the summer.

Required: Must have own vehicle; ability to collect data; willingness to spend time in potentially uncomfortable environments.

Helpful: Previous salt marsh vegetation identification experience, ability to use Excel, basic statistics.

Skills gained: Salt marsh ecology, field data collection.