Youth Intern Program Natural Resource and Climate Change Saguaro national Park

Swann, Don

Saguaro National Park hosted a Youth Intern Program (YIP) crew from late May through October, 2010. We sought a diverse group of student talent through advertising our positions to a wide variety of audiences. To maximize training and mentoring opportunities, we created a mixed-age student (STEP) crew that included two recent high-school graduates, four undergraduates ranging from freshmen to seniors, and two graduate students. The YIP program focused on field work related to natural resource monitoring and climate change, with a strong training and mentoring component. Field work included monitoring of saguaros and buffelgrass, an exotic plant that threatens the saguaro and appears to be increasing with warming winter temperatures. We also measured sediment levels in stream pools that are important wildlife habitat, and worked on many other projects such as wildlife and plant monitoring, relocating historic photo points, and weed removal. Training and mentorship were major aspects of this program. The interns received intensive training and education in the mission and organization of the NPS, in resource management skills such as GIS and GPS, and in interpretive techniques, leadership skills, climate change, hiking and camping, and cultural resources. We focused on safety training including CPR/First Aid, Wilderness First Aid, emergency communications, and specific hazards. Each intern worked on a project under a mentor that was customized to meet their career interests, skills, and the park’s needs. The intern’s individual projects included focused work in environmental compliance, GIS, data management, mule packing, wildlife monitoring, and other areas. All of the crew gained a huge amount of experience in leadership and working as part of a team.