Job Title: Summer Intern 

Reports to: Stewardship Coordinator 

Location: Trout Creek Ranch, Fields, Oregon 

Classification: 40 hours/week for 11 weeks 

Compensation: $17.50/hour and furnished housing/utilities are provided. 

Position Summary: Oregon Desert Land Trust (ODLT) is seeking two summer interns to assist with ranch and preserve management at our Trout Creek Ranch property in Fields, Oregon - a small, very rural community in southeast Oregon. Interns will support land health monitoring, conservation/restoration projects, and day-to-day caretaking of the property. Responsibilities include facilities maintenance, fence repair and removal, invasive weed surveys and control, bird surveys in wet meadow habitats, and other duties related to natural resource conservation. Interns will also help host guests, partners, volunteers, and serve as representatives of ODLT to visitors, neighbors, and community members. 

Successful candidates will be eager to learn basic plant and bird identification skills, comfortable conducting remote fieldwork, and able to use phone-based monitoring and navigation applications. A strong interest in land conservation and a commitment to working in rural communities are essential.

About Oregon Desert Land Trust and Trout Creek Ranch: ODLT works with landowners, Tribes, agency land managers, and other partners to conserve and restore ecologically significant wild and working lands in southeastern Oregon. ODLT has embarked on one of Oregon’s most significant conservation projects by purchasing the 16,645-acre Trout Creek Ranch. Trout Creek Ranch helps connect more than a million acres of designated wildlife habitat and includes livestock grazing permits on nearly 500,000 acres of public  land. The property spans from the Pueblo Mountains to the Trout Creek Mountains, with elevations ranging from 4,100’ in the Pueblo Valley headquarters meadows to over  8,600’ in the high aspen woodlands of the surrounding mountains. The area includes abundant natural resources, including thousands of acres of core sage grouse habitat, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and California bighorn sheep. The ranch’s flood-irrigated  wet meadows support numerous waterbird species, including priority species like the greater sandhill crane and white-faced ibis. Our stewardship programs at Trout Creek Ranch support regional conservation objectives, test innovative management techniques, and build collaboration with neighboring ranchers, Tribes, public land managers and  conservation partners such as The Nature Conservancy. 

Qualifications: 

• Minimum of one year of college, with preference to students working towards degrees in rangeland ecology, environmental studies, biology, natural resource management, geography, or related subjects (or equivalent experience). Other majors will be considered. 
• Strong backcountry and navigational skills
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Organizational and time management skills 
• Ability to perform moderately strenuous manual labor 
• Comfortable working outside in unforgiving conditions
• Ability or willingness to learn to drive UTVs/ATVs
• Must have a valid driver's license and a clean driving record