Pacific Northwest Research Station

Summer Employment and Education Opportunities for Youth

Caption: A technician hired by the PNW Research Station's Olympia Lab using economic recovery funding collects environmental data for a study of the timing of life cycle events of important forest plant species.

This project, led by Jamie Barbour of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station, is using $540,000 of economic recovery funds to create leadership and learning opportunities in natural resources for students in middle school to graduate school. Between 40 and 50 summer jobs will have been created by the time the project is finished, with an additional undetermined number of opportunities for undergraduate students and graduate mentors both during the summer and later during the school year. This project is founded on the premise that by systematically identifying and encouraging ambitious and talented youth, we can improve both the quality and diversity of the applicants to the workforces of natural resource agencies and businesses.

Through our partners (University of Washington, Portland State University, Oregon State University, the World Forestry Center’s Forests Inside Out! program, and the PNW Olympia Forestry Sciences Laboratory Internship Program), young adults are being hired as interns to coordinate and supervise a variety of projects using students to collect field data for researchers. For example, seven individuals worked as interns in the Olympia area during summer 2010. The interns spent most of their time collecting detailed data for an ongoing long-term study of the seasonal timing of life-cycle events (such as bud burst, bud set, and growth period) of important forest plant species. The study will help scientists advise land managers on tree breeding and planting zone decisions, especially in light of a changing climate. The interns also helped process samples from a study on soil carbon, and provided Web support.

See the “Related Links” section of this Web page for more information on the individual components of this project.