About CLM 

 

Internship Benefits
Internship Details
The Training Workshop
History of the CLM Internship

 

Internship Benefits!

The CLM Internship Program has numerous benefits, which include:

CLM internships are paid internships! Interns earn $13.53/hour (before taxes). Most internships last 5 months (110 workdays or 880 hours). Interns earn approximately $1080 every two weeks for 80 hours of work, before taxes. This typically works out to about $11,900 (before taxes) for the 5 month period as most internships include a month with 3 pay dates in it (there are typically 11 pay periods in each 5 month internship).
Make connections in various governmental and non-profit organizations
Learn what it's like to work at a federal agency
Explore your career goals and expand your resume
Experience new landscapes, habitats, and species diversity in the beautiful western United States
Apply your education to important conservation questions

 

Internship Details

Each year, 75-100 college graduates take part the Conservation and Land Management Internship Program (CLM). Internships generally last for five months and are paid (see above, Benefits).

Our interns have degrees and/or experience in, but not limited to, the following areas:
Biology
Botany
Ecology & Evolution
Entomology
Environmental Studies
Environmental Science
Forestry
Natural Resources Management
Recreation Management
Wildlife Biology
Zoology

Internships are primarily located in one of the 12 western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

As an intern, you will assist in a wide variety of projects determined by the needs of your mentor and assigned Field Office. Most internships include work in botany or wildlife-related fields that may include monitoring assessing threatened/endangered species and habitats. Interns have worked in biology-related fields i.e., fire ecology, fisheries, livestock utilization, and native plant materials. A few have completed internships in archaeology, planning and recreation. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data have been an important component of numerous projects. Approximately 40-50% of all interns participate in the Seeds of Success (SOS) Program. To learn more about SOS please visit http://www.nps.gov/plants/sos/.

Most interns will attend the CLM Training Workshop, where they will take a series of refresher courses on topics related to their internship. Since the workshop is typically held at the end of June, some interns will have spent a few weeks in their internship prior to attending while others will attend the workshop before their internship starts. To learn more, please visit http://www.clminternship.org/about/index.php#workshop

For more information, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

 

CLM Training Workshop

Most interns attend the CLM Training Workshop, typically held at the end of June/beginning of July each year. The 2011 Workshop was held at the Chicago Botanic Garden June 27 – July 2nd. The location of the 2012 Workshop is yet to be determined.

The intensive all-expenses paid, one-week Training Workshop prepares interns for their respective internships by providing an overview of the agencies, policies and expectations, as well as serving as refresher courses in their field of expertise. Each intern will participate in workshop sessions that provide background information on topics related to those they are likely to encounter during their internship experience.

Benefits of the Training Workshop are numerous and provide a great opportunity to connect with other interns! These Workshops are led by experts in their field and cover topics including the following:
Introduction to the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and US Forest Service
Endangered Species Act Legislation
Plant Monitoring & Inventorying
Botany of the West
Seeds of Success, seed collecting demo & data entry
Wildlife Biology
Field Navigation Skills
Survey of Field Hazards
Conservation Genetics
Ethnobotany of the West
The Mentor Experience - What to expect from your mentor, what your mentor expects from you
The Intern Experience - What to expect from your internship

The Chicago Botanic Garden is proud to partner with the federal agencies involved to offer this unique internship opportunity.  With its world-renowned plant collections and displays, it is one of the country's most visited public gardens and a preeminent center for learning and scientific research.

 

History of the CLM Internship

In 2001, in partnership with The Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) the Chicago Botanic Garden's Division of Plant Science and Conservation launched a mentoring program to train and employ science graduates from a wide variety of fields to assist land managers with their huge task of preserving and protecting biodiversity on our public lands. Since then, the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have also become valued partners.

To date, the program has successfully placed over 600 interns, providing them with a rich experience from which to launch their professional careers.