#NationalInternDay: Celebrating the next generation of BLMers
Happy National Intern Day! Today we’re sharing some of the awesome internship opportunities that are available with the BLM with our partners, so take a look at the exciting work that our interns are doing for your public lands. The BLM offers internships that provide jobs and job training opportunities in local communities. Internships bringing diverse viewpoints into the bureau through a new generation of conservation leaders. Working individually or as part of a team or crew, BLM interns participate in the shared stewardship of public lands: building trails and enhancing recreational facilities, restoring habitat damaged by wildland fire and much more- all the while supporting BLM's multiple-use mission.
Interested in an internship? Our partner organizations recruit interns for BLM internships across the nation: American Conservation Experience (ACE), Environment for the Americas (EFTA), Greening Youth Foundation (GYF), Geological Society of America (GEOCORPS), Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), INROADS, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) and Southern Utah University (SUU).
Emma Lane, Southern Utah University BLM California
As an outdoor recreation intern at BLM California’s Bakersfield Field Office, Emma Lane’s duties are varied and exciting. Emma regularly visits the different recreation areas on public lands to check on facilities, interact with the public and educate visitors about fire restrictions, safety and Leave No Trace outdoor ethics.
Outreach with the public is another part of her internship that Emma is particularly excited about. Emma has been planning a family event in August at the Keysville Special Recreation Management Area. Participants in the event will have the opportunity to learn about mining history, local Native American history and language, native plants, plus gold panning demonstrations and a walking tour of the historic cabins in the area. Planning such an involved event has been a challenge, Emma says, but has been a great opportunity to coordinate and project manage. Stay tuned for more event details!
Emma comes from the Kern River Valley, a small town in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains full of outdoor recreation (her personal favorite: whitewater rafting). Growing up she spent many summers playing on the Kern River, learning about the outdoors and gaining an appreciation for recreation opportunities in her community.
Emma studies at Utah State University, studying agricultural communication and journalism, and minoring in environmental studies she is combining both her love for the outdoors and her passion for the agriculture industry.
Tyesha Butler, Greening Youth Foundation BLM Eastern States
Tyesha Butler interns for the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C. as a management assistant intern for BLM Eastern States. Through her internship, she has visited several sites, attended a BLM Wild Horse and Burro adoption event, assisted with updates to budgetary documents and shadowed the BLM Eastern States Deputy State Director on site visits to Jackson, Mississippi and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tyesha has learned many aspects about land management, and looks forward to continuing to learn and making more memories here at the BLM. Tyesha is from North Carolina and goes to North Carolina A&T State University.
Ismael Ramirez, BLM California
Ismael Ramirez is a botany intern for the BLM California Bakersfield Office, and assists the Office’s Natural Resource Department with conducting research on the Saltcedar leaf beetle as a biological control for the invasive tamarisk tree.
“When I'm not doing research I am going out in the field with our biologists, rangeland technicians, outdoor recreation planners, archaeologists or maintenance staff to help them with their projects and gaining valuable perspectives on how the federal government manages public lands,” Ismael says.
A native of El Centro, California, Ismael grew up in the Imperial Valley- a desert environment turned into an agricultural community. “Being surrounded by miles of agriculture, desert and the Salton Sea has given me a great perspective on the balance between human development and environmental responsibility.”
Amanda Eavenson, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences BLM New Mexico
Amanda Eavenson is a recent graduate from Eastern New Mexico University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science with a minor in Geology. She is currently interning as a natural resource specialist in New Mexico at the BLM’s Carlsbad Field office. Throughout college she has had a few internships, but so far her time with the BLM-CFO has been her favorite.
During the first half of the internship, her and her fellow interns had the opportunity to experience what each department is responsible for in the Carlsbad area. Out of all of their time in the field and in the office with each department, Amanda’s favorite was when the interns were taken on a mine tour of Mosaic Mines. While she was not out with other departments, she worked closely with fellow Natural Resource Specialists to write environmental assessments for sundries as well as an application for a permit to drill; she also would go out into the field to help complete onsite visits for applications for a permit to drill. Amanda has really enjoyed her internship so far and hopes to find a position working for the Bureau of Land Management in the future.
Samuel Wilhelm, American Conservation Experience BLM Wyoming
As a geologist intern with the BLM’s National Minerals Testing Laboratory in Wyoming, Sam’s duties revolve around the bureau’s mining interests. He frequently tests mineral and rock samples from around the country, using advanced testing methods: such as Scanning Electron Microscope analysis, X-Ray Diffraction, and magnetic separation. Testing these rock samples is done to get more in-depth, geologic information about each sample. This can be useful to the BLM mining or petroleum divisions in helping to answer possible questions: perhaps about the permeability or porosity of an oil well formation, or just give useful information about a rock formation with potential for mining. Working for the BLM Wyoming Worland Field Office, Sam has helped identify mineral beds - namely bentonite - and survey multiple mining claim corners within the region.
Understanding mining laws and statutes, as well as the reporting process, is a vital skill in a lab that utilizes certified mineral examiners. The internship’s focus has primarily been on preparing, testing and reporting on samples from BLM California’s State Office. In the coming weeks, Sam will be attending a fire assay course in Montana to further develop his mineral and metallurgy skills in order to help the lab perform future tests.
Sanara Brock, Great Basin Institute BLM Wyoming
Sanara has worked as a Rangeland Technician with the BLM Wyoming Casper Field Office, through the Great Basin Institute every summer since 2015. She is a huge outdoor enthusiast, and really loves all aspects of her job. In the summer, Sanara leads teams of other interns to spray hundreds of acres of noxious and invasive weed species, repair miles of broken and downed fence lines, aid in class 3 archaeological studies and inspect troughs and place bird ramps as needed.
She also helps with rangeland monitoring, project inspections and supervision reports in the summer. Sanara enjoys planning and preparing for the day-to-day duties of the crew and making sure we meet or exceed the goals of the rangeland management ppecialists. She gets to go to really remote places and help with projects. Within the last year, she has helped relocate a golden eagle nest from an oil and gas tank battery to a natural substrate, helped the BLM forester cut down Christmas trees for the Trails Center, and has conducted surveys for Ute Ladies’- Tresses with the wildlife biologists. In the winter, she spent the cold days meeting with grazing lessees (mostly ranchers) helping them with transfers and renewals of leases. She has case files in order to meet specific land law regulations, updated online databases, as well as splitting, editing and creating new allotments on the statewide Enterprise SDE geodatabase. Never a dull moment!
Sanara graduated from the University of Wyoming with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Her father was in the military so she grew up around the world, but now calls Wyoming home.
Daniel Beyer BLM Wyoming
Daniel says his experience as a forestry intern has been incredible. Its foundation in field-based learning and on-the-ground experiences have quickly brought him up to speed with all things related to forest management. Now I am applying what I have learned and have started to work directly with my mentor to ensure healthy forest development and manage forest product sales. There is a healthy balance between working directly with her and working independently so that they can tackle the ever-growing workload. Working out of both Casper and Buffalo Field Offices, there is a lot of ground for us to cover and an even greater number of tasks to complete each day.
Daniel works to set up and monitor public firewood sales, as well as establish areas for contracted timber harvests. He helps establish new access routes and walk timber stands with contractors who will ultimately perform the job in the area according to the statement of work. Due to the multiple uses of public lands under the Bureau of Land Management, he has collaborated with wildlife biologists, hydrologists, range specialists, archaeologists, recreation specialists and geologists to ensure forestry actions do not adversely affect the ecosystem as a whole. This opportunity has allowed him to see all aspects of forestry, instead of merely focusing on one. He says his time as an intern has and will continue to be an invaluable step in the development of his professional career.
Daniel is originally from Eagle, Wisconsin and earned a liberal arts degree in biology from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.
Joseph Iglesias, American Conservation Experience BLM Eastern States
Joseph Iglesias is a geographic information specialist intern for BLM Eastern States. A recent graduate from George Mason University in December 2017, Joseph studied geography and GIS and minored in intelligence analysis. Through his internship at the BLM, he has been working on researching and creating ESRI story maps, an interactive tool that uses geography to tell a story. Joseph’s main project is to work on a story map that uses General Land Office survey plats to reconstruct an era in United States history: the Johnson County War.
The original survey plat is located on the Powder River in southeastern Johnson County, Wyoming near the T.A. Ranch. Located between the Bighorn Mountains to the west and the Black Hills to the east, this area was prime rangeland for grazing cattle. Wyoming’s economy was driven almost entirely by the cattle industry during the latter half of the 19th Century, and the northern edge of open range stretched all the way to Texas. That began to change in the late 1870s when homesteading became more prevalent. These settlers, under the conditions set in the Homestead Act of 1862, were primarily farmers and cattle rustlers. As more and more farms appeared, the open range began to disappear. Tension over grazing and water rights between the cattle barons and settlers began to escalate until finally a range war broke out in 1892.
This conflict came to be known as the Johnson County War. Hostilities began when a group of around 50 gunmen, all of whom were hired by the cattle barons, traveled north from Cheyenne and “invaded” Johnson County. As directed by their employers, the hit men were to murder 70 individuals whom the cattle barons considered to be a threat.
After roughly six months into the conflict, the group was finally surrounded at T.A. Ranch by up to 400 local farmers and rustlers. Fortunately for the hit men, a U.S. cavalry regiment (which President Benjamin Harrison had ordered be deployed to restore order) intervened and convinced the locals to disband.
Chad Ennis, American Conservation Experience BLM Eastern States
As a GIS specialist intern in the BLM's Eastern States office in Washington, D.C., Chad Ennis has been introduced to several different projects that are currently underway at the BLM Eastern States. Working on different projects has proved to be the best way to learn how the BLM's mission is carried out. Through this position, Chad is able to learn about the future of where the BLM is heading as well as the important role it has historically played in managing public lands.
Chad is a recent graduate of Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. As a geography major, he has found this internship position to be the perfect opportunity to apply his skills and interest in mapping sciences.
One interesting project Chad has worked on which combines new technology and the BLM's historical records has been to use a ArcGIS Online story maps using historical plats dating back to the 19th century. In order to increase public awareness of the BLM and its mission, it is important to showcase its work and historical significance. This research-intensive project is an example of how significant the BLM is in preserving America's history, because many of its survey plats allow us to look at the location of some of the country's earliest settlements.
Mackensie Swift, American Conservation Experience BLM California
Mackensie Swift is a summer intern at BLM California’s Central Coast Field Office in Marina, California. During her internship with the BLM, she is working on a characterization project of the San Benito River in central California’s Diablo Range. Due to the area’s unique geology and riverbed, the focus of the project is to gain insight on how geology is affecting the geochemistry of the groundwater that is flowing through the San Benito River drainage system.
Mackensie will begin her senior year at the University of Wyoming this fall and will graduate next spring with a dual degree in environmental geology and geohydrology.
“My interest in water has inspired me to pursue a career in hydrology because fresh, clean water will be one of the most sought after resources in the near future,” says Mackensie when reflecting on her career goals.