Fish and Feathers Internship - ONSITE - Castillo de San Marcos National Monument & Fort Matanzas National Monument

Start/End Dates: May 12, 2024 - August 2, 2024
Compensation: $600 per week + housing
Application Due: February 6, 2024

Fish and Feathers Internship Program seeks to engage ethnically and racially diverse young professionals in natural resource careers.
You must be (additional requirement):

• a U.S. citizen or legal resident

* A personal vehicle is recommended for this position. 

Position Description: 

Fish and Feathers is a program funded by the National Park Service (NPS) and administered by Environment for the Americas. Our goal is to provide our national park partners with talented interns who are eager to learn and to engage with local communities. The intern will focus on supporting, implementing, and leading community outreach programs that focus on fishing and birding activities. The overall goal is to increase diverse community engagement with NPS partners during the program and in years to come.

Responsibilities:

• Reach out to local communities through outreach and educational activities to increase engagement in fishing and birdwatching
• Create new materials (i.e., social media, educational games/activities, signage, etc.) to provide visitors with information about fish and birds at the NPS site
• Understand regulations regarding fishing and ethical birding and communicate this information to participants
• Establish or build upon fishing and birding programs at the NPS site
• Manage and maintain program equipment
• Meet deadlines for Environment for the Americas program requirements 

Qualifications:

• Ability to hike and conduct field operations as part of a team and/or independently in an outdoor setting.
• Experience giving presentations and ability to learn new skills and transfer the knowledge to participants.
• Interest in learning fishing regulations and bird identification for program development and implementation.
• Ability to learn methods employed in fish and wildlife management.
• Strong interpersonal, oral, listening, and written communication skills.
• Interest in learning new skills such as rafting, canoeing, and kayaking.

Major studies relevant to this position: 

Successful candidates will have a background and/or coursework in the following areas or a strong interest in the outdoors with experience fishing and/or birdwatching.

• Biology
• Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences
• Ecology
• Aquaculture
• Communications/Marketing
• Environmental Science
• Recreation
• Interpretation/Education

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About this Site:

Here Castillo de San Marcos (CASA) and Fort Matanzas (FOMA) National Monuments, we seek to use the past to inspire the future by focusing on our core service values of safety, preservation, teamwork, agility, and professionalism. As a Fish & Feathers Intern, you’ll learn the role of interpretation in preserving America’s special places, understand the interpretive process more fully, and gain the skills needed to be a successful science communicator. Interns can expect to learn how the National Park Service uses tangible, place-based resources to help visitors understand and connect with the significance of what they are seeing through meaningful experiences. During this internship, you’ll also work on digital and print media projects to bring conservation efforts to the public through programs, publications, the park website, and social media. 

Furthermore, this internship will help the park work towards several of its newly identified strategic goals, including: 1. Identify and communicate untold and undertold stories; 2. Enhance relationships with and service to Hispanic communities, 3. Create more inclusive experiences for a wide swath of the American public; and 4. Expand community outreach programs to serve more local residents through enhanced partnerships.  This internship focuses on connecting locals and visitors from around the world with our northeastern Florida ecosystem. During this internship, you’ll connect and engage with local communities to support community outreach efforts and educational and interpretive programs around ecosystem health, responsible recreational fishing, applying traditional ecological knowledge to fishing techniques, and coastal birding.  You will work closely with the Interpretation Operations Supervisor and other park rangers to assist with and conduct conservation education and interpretive programs on fishing and birding.

Week 1: FFIP Training Workshop

Weeks 2 – 3:  Introduction to the Park 

• Receive an overview of NPS history, policies, and procedures. 

• Meet your mentor and set goals for your internship. Begin working through the CASA-FOMA Internship Workbook to learn more about the park’s vision, operational leadership, safety, conduct and expectations.

• Explore FOMA, CASA and other nearby public lands, such as Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve. 

• Begin deckhand training for the park ferry. 

• Attend interpretive training and shadow ranger programs. 

Weeks 4 – 5: Research and Develop Interpretive Programs

• Research cultural history of fishing on the northern Florida coastline, including traditional ecological knowledge from tribal partners and Gullah Geechee traditions. 

• Meet with local Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC) officers and NPS law enforcement to understand the intricacies, complexities, and challenges of conservation on a local, regional, and national scale.

• Collaborate with the International Game Fish Association to participate in community outreach events to discourse with locals and investigate how the parks can connect with anglers and birders to create better stewards of their public lands. 

• Develop a new program or project that highlights untold or underrepresented narratives around fishing, birding, and riparian and coastal zones in St. Johns County.

Weeks 6 – 12: Present Programs and Reflect on Experience

• Implement your interpretive program or project. Write a formal critique describing your process of creating a program, delivering your presentation, and evaluating your interpretive skills. 

• Write a reflective summary of your overall experience at the park which describes 1) the knowledge you gained of the resources 2) the experience working as science communicator and learning interpretive skills 3) the positive and negative aspects of the overall internship.

• Work with your mentor to write an updated resume and practice applying for NPS, and other public lands management agency jobs. 

Interns in this program will receive 480 hours towards Public Land Corps (PLC) Hiring Authority. See below on information about:

Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority (PLC)
The Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority is a special hiring authority available to qualifying interns. The intern must be between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, inclusive, or a veteran up to age 35 and complete 640 hours of work on an appropriate conservation project to be eligible for this hiring authority. Upon successful completion of the PLC project(s), the intern is eligible for two years to be hired non-competitively into a federal seasonal, term, or permanent position. The applicant must apply to a PLC-eligible position advertised on USAJobs.gov and selected off a non-competitive certificate of eligibility. For more information, see DOI Personnel Bulletins 11-02 , 12-13, and 17-03.

EEO Statement

Environment for the Americas provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employmentand prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.